The Salary Calculator

New! Enhanced pension options

by Admin

I have been asked a number of times to add some options to the Pension calculations, and today I have done just that.

Auto-enrolment pensions have specific rules about how to calculate the amount which should be contributed – overtime and bonuses are included, for example, but the contribution is only on a percentage of the “Qualifying Earnings”. Qualifying Earnings are your employment income between a lower and upper threshold, which from 6th April 2019 will be £6,136 and £50,000 respectively.

Other pension types have more flexibility, which is why the Salary Calculator has been updated, and if you select an Employer, Salary Sacrifice or Personal pension, you can now choose whether to have contributions based on your whole salary or on your qualifying earnings, and whether or not to include overtime and bonuses in the calculations.

Why not head over to The Salary Calculator, click on the Pension tab and see whether these options might affect your take-home pay?

Tags: April 2019, auto-enrolment, Pay As You Earn, pension, Pensions, qualifying earnings, salary sacrifce, The Salary Calculator

April 2019 tax rates

by Admin

The Salary Calculator has been updated with the tax rates which will take effect from 6th April 2019. There is a significant increase in the tax-free Personal Allowance from £11,850 to £12,500 per year, and outside of Scotland the threshold from 20% basic rate to 40% higher rate income tax has been increased to £50,000. Scottish tax thresholds are different from the rest of the UK, current information suggests that they will not increase as much as the UK rates will.

There have also been increases in the thresholds for Plan 1 and Plan 2 Student Loan repayments, so those paying off their loans will find their repayments lowered in the new year.

You can try out the April 2019 tax rates for yourself by choosing “2019 / 20” in the Tax Year drop-down on The Salary Calculator. You can also see a side-by-side comparison of 2018 and 2019 with the 2018 and 2019 income tax comparison page.

The calculator has been updated with the best information currently available – if any of the details change before the start of the tax year the calculator will be updated to reflect those changes.

Tags: 2019, April 2019, budget, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, personal allowance, student loan, student loans, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

Auto-enrolment pensions

by Admin

I’ve been dragging my feet on this one (sorry), but I have finally added an option to the Salary Calculator for auto-enrolment pensions, which employers are obliged to offer to eligible employees if there is not already an employer pension scheme. These pensions involve a percentage being deducted from your pay, but only on what you earn over a certain threshold (£6,032 for the tax year from April 2018). There is also an upper threshold, above which deductions are not taken – £46,350 for the April 2018 tax year.

To use the new option, enter your details in to The Salary Calculator. On the Pension tab, select the “Auto-enrolment” option and enter the percentage of your salary that you will be contributing. Click “Go!” to see the results.

Auto-enrolment pensions also require your employer to contribute to your pension, but I have not yet added this to The Salary Calculator – so enter only the percentage that you will be contributing (your employer’s contribution does not affect your take-home pay).

From 6th April 2018 the minimum amount employees are required to pay into their auto-enrolment pension increases from 1% of their pay to 3% (and from April 2019 it increases further to 5%). This can make quite a difference to your take-home pay – try it out on the Salary Calculator and see what a difference it makes!

Tags: income tax, Pay As You Earn, pension, pension scheme, Pensions, The Salary Calculator

Savings and investment help from Hargreaves Lansdown

by Admin

If you are trying to save for your retirement, or just for a rainy day, it can be difficult to understand what your options are and what is best for you. Should you get an ISA (Individual Savings Account), or a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension)? What are the pros and cons of each, and why might you open a savings account instead?

Fortunately, Hargreaves Lansdown have created a series of guides intended to help you make the most of your savings – the guides are free to download, all they ask is that you provide some registration details. If you would like to know more about investing for the future and the tax benefits of doing so, try their introduction to SIPPs, or the beginner’s guide to ISAs.

Also of interest to readers of The Salary Calculator might be the calculators on Hargreaves Lansdown’s site which can help you plan for your retirement.

Tags: calculators, Hargreaves Lansdown, investments, ISAs, pension, personal pension, savings, SIPPs

Budget 2016

by Admin

Tomorrow, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will deliver his annual budget to the Houses of Parliament. We have already heard about some possible announcements (such as the introduction of a scheme to help people increase their savings), and we have been told that there will be no changes to pension tax relief (which looked likely, for a while).

From 6th April, the new tax year means changes to tax-free personal allowances, tax thresholds and the like. The Salary Calculator has been updated with the latest values so you can see what your payslip will look like from April onwards. The personal allowance has been increased to £11,000 per year, which will reduce the tax due for most people. There are changes to National Insurance this year, too – since it is no longer possible for a pension to be “contracted-out” (earning a reduction in NI contributions), those of you who had one of these pensions will be paying the full NI contributions from 6th April.

If you would like to see how these changes will affect you, head over to The Salary Calculator to see what difference it will make to your payslip!

Tags: April 2016, budget, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, Pensions, personal allowance, tax rates, The Salary Calculator