A job offer quotes a gross salary. The number that matters is the one that arrives in your account, and between the two sits a stack of deductions that is different in every country — different in size, and more importantly different in shape. Two offers with the same gross figure in two countries are not the same offer, and the gap is routinely 15 percentage points or more.
This guide explains what each layer of that stack is, in what order it applies, and how the 18 countries in the calculator differ.
The deduction stack, in order
Almost every European payroll system applies the same four operations. The order matters, because each one changes the base the next is calculated on.
1. Gross salary
The contractual figure. Be careful comparing it across borders: in some countries an annual gross is quoted over 12 months, in others over 14 — Spain, Portugal and Austria commonly pay extra monthly instalments, so an annual figure divided by 12 overstates the monthly pay. Our country pages normalise this, which is why a monthly figure and an annual one can look inconsistent if you divide by hand.
2. Employee social security contributions
Usually taken before income tax, and in many systems deductible from the income tax base. They fund pensions, healthcare, unemployment and sickness insurance. Rates vary from zero to over 20%, and several countries cap them above a ceiling — so a high earner pays a smaller share of income in contributions than a median earner. The heaviest employee rate among the 18 here is Netherlands at 27.65%.
3. Personal allowance or tax credit
A slice of income taxed at zero, or a fixed amount knocked off the tax bill. 14 of the 18 countries here use an allowance; the rest, notably Ireland and the Netherlands, use credits instead — the relief comes off the tax owed rather than the income assessed. This is why a comparison table showing “no personal allowance” for Ireland is correct but misleading if read as “no relief”.
Several allowances taper: they shrink as income rises and vanish entirely above a threshold. A taper creates a band where each extra euro is taxed far above the headline rate, which is the usual explanation for a raise that barely shows up in net pay.
4. Income tax
Applied to what is left, through progressive bands or a flat rate. One of these countries uses a single flat rate. In a progressive system each band only taxes the slice of income inside it — moving into a higher band never reduces your net pay, a misconception that survives remarkably well.
On top can come surcharges: a solidarity levy on high incomes, municipal or regional income tax in the Nordics and Switzerland, and church tax in Germany and Austria for registered members.
The half you never see
Your employer also pays contributions on top of your gross, and these never appear on a payslip. They are real money spent on employing you, and their size varies enormously — from nothing at all to 35.8% in Brazil.
This matters in two practical situations. When you negotiate, the employer is thinking in total cost, not gross — in a high-contribution country a €5,000 gross rise can cost them well over €6,000. And when you compare a contracting rate to an employed salary, the employer contribution is part of what the contract rate has to cover. Every result on this site shows the employer cost for exactly this reason.
The deduction stack across 18 countries
Income tax rates, employee and employer social contributions, and the personal allowance where one exists. All figures are for the 2026 tax year in each country’s own currency, and each links through to a calculator that applies them.
| Country | Income tax | Employee SS | Employer SS | Personal allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇱🇻 Latvia | 25.5 / 33 / 36% | 10.5% | 23.59% | €6,600 / yr |
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 20 / 25 / 32% | 19.5% | 1.77% | €8,964 / yr |
| 🇪🇪 Estonia | 22% flat | 3.6% | 33.8% | €8,400 / yr |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 12 / 32% | 21.48% | 20.48% | PLN 30,000 / yr |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 14 / 24 / 42 / 45% | 21.15% | 21.15% | €12,348 / yr |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 19 / 24 / 30 / 37 / 45 / 47% | 6.5% | 30.65% | €5,550 / yr |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 12.64 / 19 / 30.25 / 33.25 / 37.5% | 8.19% | 19.32% | — |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 32.38 / 52.38% | 7% | 31.42% | SEK 45,600 / yr |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 22 / 23.7 / 26 / 35.7 / 38.8 / 39.8% | 7.6% | 14.1% | NOK 114,540 / yr |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 35.75 / 37.56 / 49.5% | 27.65% | 17.13% | — |
| 🇦🇪 UAE (Dubai) | No income tax | 0% | 0% | — |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 0 / 7.5 / 15 / 22.5 / 27.5% | 11% | 35.8% | R$29,146 / yr |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 13 / 16.5 / 22 / 25 / 32 / 35.5 / 43.5 / 45 / 48% | 11% | 23.75% | €4,462 / yr |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 0.77 / 0.88 / 2.64 / 2.97 / 5.94 / 6.6 / 8.8 / 11 / 13.2 / 11.5% | 7.4% | 6.9% | CHF 15,200 / yr |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 20 / 40% | 4.2% | 11.25% | — |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 20 / 40 / 45% | 8% | 15% | £12,570 / yr |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 0 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 48 / 50 / 55% | 18.07% | 29.56% | €13,539 / yr |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 25 / 40 / 45 / 50% | 13.07% | 25.4% | €11,550 / yr |
Rates are headline figures. Where a country applies municipal or cantonal income tax on top — the Nordics and Switzerland especially — the calculator uses a representative rate, and the real figure depends on where you live.
Comparing two offers properly
If you are weighing an offer abroad against one at home, the gross figures tell you very little on their own. What to do instead:
- Compare net, in each local currency, then convert once. Converting gross first and taxing the converted figure gets the brackets wrong, because thresholds are set in local currency.
- Check how many payments a year. Fourteen monthly instalments against twelve changes the monthly figure by about 17%.
- Ask what the contributions buy. A high deduction rate that includes healthcare, a funded pension and real unemployment insurance is not comparable to a low one where you buy those privately.
- Adjust for costs, not just tax. Rent and childcare routinely swamp a difference of a few points in effective rate.
- Check for an inbound regime. Several countries tax new arrivals at a sharply reduced rate for a fixed period — see the guide to special tax regimes.
The calculator runs all 18 countries through one engine, so a side-by-side comparison uses the same assumptions on both sides.