Take-home pay guides
The calculator tells you what your net pay is. These guides explain why — how income tax, National Insurance and payroll deductions work, in plain English, country by country. Each one links straight back to the calculator so you can put the numbers to work.
United Kingdom
- How UK Income Tax & National Insurance work (2025/26)
A plain-English walkthrough of the Personal Allowance, the 20/40/45% bands, the £100k trap and employee National Insurance — and exactly how each one shrinks your gross pay. - UK tax codes explained: 1257L, BR, K codes and emergency tax
What your tax code actually means, how 1257L maps to your Personal Allowance, what BR / D0 / 0T / K and W1/M1 codes do to your pay, and how to spot a wrong one. - UK student loan repayments and your take-home pay
How UK student loans are collected through payroll, the Plan 1/2/4/5 and postgraduate thresholds for 2025/26, and why a graduate keeps less than a generic calculator shows. - UK pension contributions & salary sacrifice explained
How pension tax relief works, the difference between relief-at-source, net pay and salary sacrifice, and how contributions can pull you below the 40% and £100k thresholds.
United States
- US payroll taxes explained: federal income tax + FICA
How federal income tax brackets, the standard deduction and FICA (Social Security + Medicare) combine to shrink a US paycheck — before your state takes its share. - Why US take-home pay differs by state
No-income-tax states, flat vs progressive state taxes, and city taxes like NYC — why the same gross salary nets very differently across California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois. - US pre-tax deductions: 401(k), HSA and your paycheck
How the traditional 401(k), the HSA triple tax advantage and FSAs lower your taxable income — and which of them also avoid FICA — on a US paycheck.
Germany
- German tax classes (Steuerklassen) explained
Germany's six Steuerklassen, how they change your monthly Lohnsteuer withholding, and the III/V vs IV/IV choice that married couples face. - German social-security contributions explained
The four pillars of German Sozialversicherung — pension, health, care and unemployment — the employee share, and the contribution ceilings that cap high earners.
France
- French payroll: brut, net & prélèvement à la source
How a French salary goes from brut to net through cotisations sociales, then how income tax is withheld at source (PAS) — and the three different "net" figures on your payslip. - French social charges (cotisations sociales) explained
What French cotisations sociales fund, the CSG/CRDS deductible-vs-not quirk, the cadre vs non-cadre difference, and why the brut-to-net gap looks so large.
Spain
- Spanish IRPF & Seguridad Social explained
How IRPF income tax and Seguridad Social contributions shrink a Spanish nómina, the mínimo personal, and why your comunidad autónoma changes the result.
Cross-country
- Gross vs net salary: what is actually deducted
The difference between the gross salary on a job advert and the net pay you live on — the deduction stack, the tax wedge, and why the gap differs so much by country. - How to read your payslip
Gross, deductions, net: the universal logic of a payslip, what each line of tax and contributions means across countries, and how to sanity-check yours in a minute. - Marginal vs effective tax rate explained
Why being "in the 40% bracket" does not mean losing 40% of your salary — the difference between your marginal and effective rate, with a worked example. - Negotiate your salary in net, not gross
Why take-home pay is the number that matters when you compare offers, raises or a move abroad — and how to convert any gross figure to net in two minutes.