Spain salary calculator 2026

The thing to know about Spain is that there is no single national income tax scale. Personal income tax (IRPF) is split in two halves, one set by the state and one by the autonomous community where you live, and the regional half differs from Madrid to Catalonia to Andalusia. Employee social security, by contrast, is low and uniform. The result is a payslip where the tax line is the variable and the social line is the constant, the opposite of France next door.

Six brackets and a personal minimum

The model uses a combined state plus representative regional scale with six bands: 19% on the first 12,450 euros of annual taxable income, 24% up to 20,200 euros, 30% up to 35,200 euros, 37% up to 60,000 euros, 45% up to 300,000 euros and 47% above that. Before the scale is applied, a personal minimum of 5,550 euros a year is taken out of the base, which is the Spanish version of a tax-free allowance. Your real regional scale may sit a point or two above or below the one used here, and that difference shows up directly in the tax column.

One more structural point matters for anyone reading a Spanish contract for the first time. Salaries are usually quoted as an annual gross and frequently paid in more than twelve instalments, with extra payments in summer and at Christmas (the pagas extraordinarias). The calculator works in twelve equal months; if your offer is paid in more instalments than that, divide the annual figure by twelve yourself before comparing.

Seguridad Social on the employee side

The employee contribution to Seguridad Social is 6.35% of gross in the model. This one line covers the general contingency contribution (pensions and sickness), unemployment insurance and vocational training. It is deducted before income tax is calculated, so it slightly lowers the IRPF bill as well.

Worked examples

Read the table from the tax column rather than the total. Income tax is already the larger deduction at the minimum wage and grows to more than three times the social contribution at 4,000 euros, because the 6.35% line is flat while the bands stack up. The real minimum-wage payslip will show less IRPF than the 158 euros here: Spanish law adds an extra reduction for low employment income that the model does not apply, and in practice the minimum wage (the SMI) is close to tax free. From the average salary upward the table is a fair guide.

The employer side is where the cost is

Employer contributions to Seguridad Social are about 30.57% of gross, almost five times the employee share. On the 2,342 euro average wage the employer adds 716 euros a month, so the total cost of the position is 3,058 euros. That gap is the reason a Spanish autónomo (self- employed contractor) will quote a higher day rate than an employee's gross would suggest: the contractor pays both halves. The social contributions guide goes into why European systems put so much of the burden on the employer.

IVA

Value added tax is called IVA in Spain and the standard rate is 21%. A reduced rate of 10% covers hospitality, passenger transport and a broad range of food, and a super-reduced rate of 4% applies to basics such as bread, milk, books and medicines. 100 euros before tax becomes 121 euros at the standard rate. The IVA calculator handles all three rates in either direction.

Working hours and the 2026 holidays

The standard week is 40 hours, spread over five 8-hour days, with the EU maximum of 48 hours including overtime. Spain has a national list of public holidays plus additional days set by each autonomous community and each municipality; the model counts only the national list. That list has 10 dates in 2026, of which 7 fall on a working day, giving 254 working days. Epiphany on 6 January (Día de Reyes, when children receive their presents) and Good Friday on 3 April are the first two. The autumn brings the two most Spanish dates: the Fiesta Nacional on 12 October, which marks the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, and Constitution Day on 6 December, which falls on a Sunday in 2026 and is lost. The Immaculate Conception on 8 December follows two days later. Regional days such as Sant Jordi or Andalusia Day are not included, so add them yourself when using the working days calculator.

Accuracy: what is estimated here

This is an estimate, not a reproduction of a specific region's payslip. The scale is a combined state and representative regional scale, so a Madrid resident will see somewhat less tax and a Catalan resident somewhat more. The low-income employment reduction is not modelled, which overstates tax at and just above the minimum wage. Family circumstances (children, dependants, disability) raise the personal minimum and are not included either. For a single person on an ordinary salary the net figure will land within a few percent of the real one, which is enough to compare an offer in Spain with one in Portugal or Italy.