Take-Home Pay Sheet
Rates come from YOUR payslip. What the sheet contributes is the order they apply in.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/paycheck-take-home-calculator
The order
- 1. START
- gross pay
- 2. SUBTRACT
- pre-tax deductions (pension, sacrifice)
- 3. That gives
- TAXABLE PAY — what tax is worked on
- 4. SUBTRACT
- tax on taxable pay
- 5. SUBTRACT
- social contributions — check the base
- 6. SUBTRACT
- post-tax deductions
- PRE-TAX REAL COST
- amount x (1 − your tax rate)
- ⚠ $500 pre-tax costs
- $390 of take-home at a 22% rate
- ⚠ Get rates from YOUR payslip
- not from a headline band
Periods tracked
| Period | Gross | Pre-tax | Tax | Social | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
This period
- Name
- Period
- Gross
- Pre-tax deductions
- TAXABLE PAY
- Tax rate from payslip
- Tax
- Social rate
- Charged on gross or post-pension?
- Social contributions
- Post-tax deductions
- TAKE-HOME
- Real cost of the pre-tax amount
- Cost of $100 more
- Actual payslip figure
- Gap — and why
Getting it right
- Rates taken from your OWN payslip, not a published band
- Each rate divided by the figure it was actually taken from
- Social contribution base confirmed — gross or post-pension
- Pre-tax and post-tax deductions put in the right boxes
- Result compared against a real payslip
- Any gap investigated, not smoothed away by tweaking a rate
- Pension contribution recognised as saving, not loss
- Employer contribution noted separately — it appears in neither figure
- Cost of $100 more checked before concluding you cannot afford it
The discount on saving
A pre-tax contribution reduces the figure tax is calculated on, so part of it would never have reached you anyway. At a 22% rate, $500 into a pension costs $390 of take-home. People routinely decide against increasing a contribution by comparing it against their take-home rather than against its real cost — and the two are not the same number.
No calculator knows your tax code
Bands, thresholds, allowances and social contribution rules differ by country and change every year. Anything claiming to produce exact net pay from gross is either country-specific or guessing. Take the rates off your own payslip — divide each deduction by the figure it came from — and this sheet will model your position properly.