About Salary by Country
Salary by Country offers free salary, VAT and working-day calculators for 105 countries, in 20 languages. We help anyone understand take-home pay, tax rates and the working calendar in any country, without sign-up and without sharing personal data.
How we calculate
Each calculator applies the official income-tax brackets, social-security contributions and VAT rates published by national authorities for the 2026 tax year. We model the most common case, a single employee with no dependants, so figures stay comparable between countries. All results are estimates and do not replace advice from a qualified accountant.
Where the data comes from
Tax and social-security rates come from national tax authorities and finance ministries. Average and minimum wage figures come from national statistics offices and Eurostat. Public-holiday calendars follow official government sources. We review every figure each tax year.
Who is behind it
Salary by Country is an independent project built and maintained in Estonia by Enternet OÜ. It is not affiliated with any government or tax authority. Found something wrong? Tell us on the contact page and we will fix it.
What this site is
Salary by Country is a set of calculators and reference pages for comparing pay, tax and working time across countries: gross-to-net salary, VAT and working-days calculators per country, plus pages on average wages, minimum wages, employer cost and working hours. The compare section ranks all countries on one metric, and the guides explain the concepts.
How a salary figure is computed
Every country is one data record: an income tax model, employee social contribution rates, VAT rates and public holiday rules. The salary calculator takes a monthly gross amount, multiplies it by twelve, and applies that record.
- Employee social contributions come first, as flat percentages of gross.
- The taxable base is gross minus the basic tax-free allowance. In most countries social contributions are also subtracted from the base; where income tax is levied on gross (the United States, the United Kingdom, Hungary) they are not.
- Income tax is applied marginally across the country's annual brackets, each slice at its own rate. Flat-tax countries such as Estonia have one rate and a monthly allowance.
- Germany is the one special case: it uses the official 2026 zone formula from section 32a of the income tax act, applied to gross minus social contributions and the standard employee allowance.
Net pay is gross minus contributions minus income tax.
Verified versus estimate
Each country carries an accuracy flag. "Verified" means the model faithfully represents the system for a typical single employee and the rates were checked against the official source for the tax year. "Estimate" means the rates are sourced but the structure is approximated: an income-dependent allowance or tax credit has been converted into an equivalent fixed allowance, regional rates have been averaged, or contribution ceilings have been ignored. Estimate countries show a stronger disclaimer, and the result is an orientation figure rather than a payslip.
What is deliberately not modelled
The calculators assume one employee with no dependants and no other income. They do not model family allowances, joint filing, regional or state income taxes beyond the rate built into a country, contribution ceilings, church tax, deductible expenses or benefits in kind. Employer-side costs are a flat percentage without caps. Wage figures are not adjusted for purchasing power.
Updates
Tax rates and allowances are updated once a year for the new tax year and corrected in between when a reader reports an error with a source. Wage, employer and working-hours figures are refreshed when national statistics publish new data.
Who runs it
The site is an independent project by Enternet OÜ, Estonia. It is not affiliated with any tax authority, ministry or payroll provider, and nothing here is tax or legal advice. Corrections go to enternet.ee@gmail.com.