The Salary Calculator

New – choose your tax year!

by Admin

The Salary Calculator has (finally!) been updated so that you can choose to view calculations for different tax years. You will see that there is now a drop-down box in which you can choose the tax year that should be applied. By default, the current 2012/13 tax year will be selected so if you just want to see current values you do not need to do anything.

Details for previous tax years going back as far as the 2005/6 tax years have been made available, so you can see how your take-home pay has changed over the years. You may have forgotten how the personal tax-free allowance has increased over the past few years, which gives you more to take home – or perhaps you’d just like to see how far your salary would have gone a few years ago.

I do plan to add more past years (i.e. before the 2005/6 tax year) to The Salary Calculator, and of course, when the details of 2013/14 and further forward become available, they will be added to the site. Head over to The Salary Calculator to try it out. Please let me know in the comments below if you find this option useful or not!

Tags: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, April 2010, April 2011, April 2012, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, personal allowance, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

Election Comparison Calculator launched!

by Admin

With a general election now called for 6th May, the major parties have started campaigning and promoting their policies. All have policies related to taxation, and The Salary Calculator has tried to show you what their different policies may mean to you.

The Election Comparison Calculator aims to help you see the differences between the major parties’ policies on personal income. Using the information available, the calculator estimates how their policies would affect your take home pay. As described on the Election Comparison Calculator page itself, not all the details are available at the moment, and probably won’t be until the next government holds its first budget. However, the details they have provided allow the calculator to estimate what those changes would mean to you.

All the details used to create the calculator are available underneath the results. As explained in that description, the calculator considers PAYE changes – each party also has other economic policies which may affect you in other ways, such as stamp duty or inheritance tax. Some assumptions have had to be made – if you can help provide more detailed information then please contact us. So why not try the Election Comparison Calculator and see what you learn?

Tags: 50% tax, April 2010, Economy, election, income tax, national insurance, National Insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, Pensions, personal allowance, recovery, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

2010 Budget announced

by Admin

Today, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his Budget for the tax year starting 6th April 2010. There were no real surprises and a summary of the changes is on the BBC website here.

The Salary Calculator has already been updated, as described in a previous post, so the April 2010 values are used for both National Insurance and tax calculation. Details of the values used are on this page about the Salary Calculator, check it out and see whether the new tax rates will affect you!

Tags: 50% tax, April 2010, Economy, HMRC, income tax, National Insurance, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, personal allowance, tax rates

April 2010 rates applied

by Admin

It’s that time of year again – The Salary Calculator has been updated with the latest tax information which takes effect from 6th April 2010.

As reported at the end of last year, for most people there’s actually no difference between the 2009 figures and the 2010 ones. Personal allowances are staying the same (whereas they usually go up), as are National Insurance payment thresholds.

However, there are some changes for those earning over £100,000 – personal allowances are reduced by £1 for every £2 your salary goes over £100,000, and there is a new 50% tax rate for taxable income over £150,000. So while most of the population will find their payslips unchanged come April, the highest earners will find themselves significantly worse off.

To see how you’re affected, try out The Salary Calculator with your salary. The details of the figures used by The Salary Calculator are available on the About page.

Useful links:

• HMRC Income Tax info sheet
• HMRC National Insurance info sheet

Tags: 50% tax, April 2010, HMRC, income tax, Pay As You Earn, pension, Pensions, personal allowance, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

Pre-budget report

by Admin

Earlier this week the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave his pre-budget report, which gives us a preview of what he will announce in next year’s budget. For personal income, there were a couple of things to note. Firstly, the personal allowance (the amount that everyone can earn without paying income tax) is not increasing as it normally does in April 2010, and nor are the thresholds for National Insurance contributions. The Chancellor says that this is because the Retail Price Index (RPI) shows that deflation over the past 12 months means that in real terms we will be better off than a year ago even without the usual increase.

As already announced, there will be a new higher tax rate of 50% for income over £150,000, and personal allowances will be reduced gradually to zero for those earning over £100,000 (by £1 for every £2 earned over this limit).

The Salary Calculator will be updated with these details early in 2010, but as you can see, only those earning over £100,000 will find their take-home pay changing in April 2010. Everyone else will have the same personal allowances and the same tax and NI rates, so take-home will remain as before.

However, there was also news in this pre-budget report that there are plans to increase National Insurance contributions by 0.5% from April 2011, but also to raise the NI threshold so that those on lower salaries are not negatively affected. The details are not yet clear (and of course, there is an election between now and then so it may not come to pass) but whatever the changes for 2011 turn out to be, The Salary Calculator will be updated at that time.

Tags: 50% tax, April 2010, election, income tax, Pay As You Earn, personal allowance, tax rates, The Salary Calculator