The Salary Calculator

2016 Tax rates available!

by Admin

The Salary Calculator has been updated with the latest tax rates, which take effect from 6th April 2016 – so you can now see how the changes will affect you. Just head over to The Salary Calculator – 2016 take home pay calculator, enter your details and remember to choose the “2016/17” tax year in the drop-down box.

The tax-free personal allowance has been increased by £400, which will reduce the amount of tax most people pay. However, from April 2016 those who have been paying into a pension scheme which is “contracted out” of the additional state pension will find that their National Insurance contributions go up. This is because from April it will no longer be possible to contract out of the pension, so the National Insurance reduction that this gave you no longer applies.

You can try out the 2015 and 2016 take home comparison calculator and see side-by-side how your payslip is likely to change in the new tax year.

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

Salary Sacrifice and charitable giving

by Admin

A new update to The Salary Calculator allows you to enter deductions which were previously not available. Among the usual options is one for Salary Sacrifice, if you have contractually agreed to reduce your salary by a certain amount in exchange for receiving some other benefit. There are also new options for pre-tax deductions such as Gift Aid and Give As You Earn and after-tax deductions which are just taken out of your payslip each month.

Salary Sacrifice is often used for pension contributions, but The Salary Calculator already has an option for Salary Sacrifice pensions under the “Pension” tab where you can enter a percentage of your salary to be deducted. If you prefer to enter the monthly (or annual) £ amount that you are sacrificing, you can leave the pension field blank and enter the £ amount in the “Salary Sacrifice” tab. Alternatively, you might be making a salary sacrifice for benefits other than a pension (or in addition to a pension) – in which case just enter the amount you’ve sacrificed into the new field.

The “Other Deductions” tab has two new fields on it. One is for pre-tax deductions, like Gift Aid or other charitable contributions like Give As You Earn. The second is for after-tax deductions – i.e. an amount deducted from your take-home pay each month with no impact on your tax or National Insurance.

Head over the The Salary Calculator to check out these new options. I hope you find these new options useful – if you have any feedback or thoughts (or suggestions for other things to be added), please let me know!

Tags: charity, deductions, GAYE, give as you earn, income tax, national insurance, pension, salary sacrifice, The Salary Calculator

Salary sacrifice and personal pensions

by Admin

For many years, The Salary Calculator has allowed you to enter a percentage of your salary to be deducted as contributions to a pension. However, only employer (or occupational) pensions have been supported. Now, the calculator has been updated to allow you to specify whether your contributions are to an employer pension (as before), a salary sacrifice scheme, or a personal pension.

These three different types of pensions have different regulations applied to them, which means they affect your take-home pay in different ways. Your income tax, National Insurance contributions and even student loan deductions might be different depending on the type of pension scheme you are paying into. More information about the different pension types is on The Salary Calculator “About” page.

Choose the “Pension” tab on The Salary Calculator to see the new options and see how it affects your take-home pay!

Tags: employer, income tax, national insurance, pension, pension scheme, Pensions, personal pension, salary sacrifice

Childcare Vouchers added!

by Admin

The Salary Calculator has been updated with a new option for Childcare Vouchers. Some employers offer employees the opportunity to have some of their pay in the form of vouchers which can be exchanged with accredited childcare providers instead of cash. These vouchers can be taken tax-free, saving the employee money.

Childcare vouchers are subtracted from your salary before tax and National Insurance, like pension contributions. However, there is a limit to the amount that can be taken tax-free each year – for the current tax year, this amount is £2,915. You can receive childcare vouchers above this amount, but you will not get the tax benefits. If you signed up for the voucher scheme before 6th April 2011, this limit applies no matter how much you earn. However, if you joined the scheme after this date and pay tax above the 20% Basic Rate, the amount you can receive tax-free is reduced. For those paying 40% tax (typically earning £42,475 or more), the tax-free allowance for childcare vouchers is £1,484 – and for those paying 50% tax (earning over £150,000) it is just £1,166.

To see how childcare vouchers can affect your take-home pay, head over to The Salary Calculator and enter your salary, along with the value of vouchers you receive each month. If you joined the scheme before 6th April 2011, tick the box to this effect. Enter the rest of your details and click Go! to see the results.

Tags: April 2011, childcare vouchers, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, Pensions, The Salary Calculator

Bonus payments added!

by Admin

As requested by a large number of visitors to the site, The Salary Calculator has been updated to allow you to enter bonus payments. If you might earn a bonus from your employer one month, you can now use the calculator to see what kind of a difference it will make to your payslip that month.

Bonuses are typically paid as a one-off extra on top of your usual salary. Your employer will work out what extra deductions (tax, National Insurance and Student Loan) will be required that tax year because of this extra payment, and will add these on top of your usual deductions for that month. Yes, this unfortunately means that you’ll pay a lot of tax, NI and Student Loan that month (boo!) – but some of your bonus will be left for you to enjoy!

For the purposes of displaying the information The Salary Calculator assumes that your salary is normally paid monthly, and shows you what a bonus month would look like compared to a normal month. Similar calculations will be done by your employer if you are paid weekly. To get started, click here to check out The Salary Calculator with bonus payments.

Tags: bonus, bonuses, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, tax rates, The Salary Calculator