PAYE, USC & PRSI: your Ireland take-home pay
Three charges come off an Irish payslip, and they are not one thing. This calculator itemises PAYE income tax after your credits, USC and PRSI — so you see not just what you take home, but why, on the rates in force for 2026.
- Income tax, USC and PRSI broken out separately — not lumped together
- Your tax credits shown coming off the tax charge, line by line
- Employer PRSI shown on top of your pay, never taken out of it
Take-home pay calculator
Quick estimate
Enter your gross pay in whatever frequency you are paid, and say how you are assessed. The calculator charges income tax at the standard and higher rates, subtracts your tax credits from that charge, then applies USC and PRSI on their own bases and shows each as its own line. The result is an estimate for a ballpark, not an official assessment.
Take-home pay per year
Take-home pay per year: €37,010.21- Take-home€37,010.2182%
- Income tax€5,200.0012%
- USC€882.822%
- PRSI€1,906.974%
Every amount in this panel is per year. The credit ledger below covers the same period.
- Income tax (after credits), per year
- −€5,200.00
- USC, per year
- −€882.82
- PRSI (employee), per year
- −€1,906.97
- Employer PRSI (on top of your pay), per year
- €5,079.49
- Total cost to employer, per year
- €50,079.49
- Combined marginal rate
- 47.35%
- Effective rate on gross
- 17.76%
Income is above the USC exemption limit of €13,000, so USC applies to the FULL income from the first euro — the exemption is a cliff, not a tax-free slice.
Notes on this result (4)
PRSI is worked out on WEEKLY earnings, per pay period — never annualised. This annual figure walks the contribution year week by week at level pay.
2026 is a SPLIT YEAR for PRSI: the rates step up part-way through the contribution year, so the year is not one rate. The Department’s own published full-year employee rate for the split is 4.2375%. Note: the step is published in departmental documents, but no enacting Act section or statutory instrument was located for it.
Weekly pay is above €552.00, so the higher employer PRSI rate applies to the WHOLE week’s pay, not just the excess — a cliff, not a marginal band. Employer PRSI is the employer’s cost and is never deducted from your pay. (The absence of an employer earnings ceiling is inferred from the open-ended top band, not from a departmental statement.)
Computed on the cumulative basis for a full tax year at level pay. Week-1/month-1 and emergency-basis payroll are not modelled, and irregular pay shifts PRSI at the margins because PRSI is charged per pay period.
How the income tax is worked out — for the full tax year
These four lines are annual amounts. Credits and the cut-off point are set for the full tax year, so an Irish income-tax charge can only be worked out annually.
Your pay before any deductions, in the frequency you selected — the figure on your contract, offer or payslip.
Assumes an Irish-resident PAYE employee on level pay for the full tax year, cumulative basis (see the notes).
More options
Age, medical card, pension contribution and auto-enrolment. Leave them as they are for a standard PAYE estimate.
Optional. Age only changes the result where a rule turns on it — the reduced USC schedule from a certain age, and the age band for automatic enrolment.
Your own tax-relieved contribution, as a percentage of gross pay (0 turns it off).
In Ireland your employer operates PAYE, withholding income tax, USC and PRSI from every payslip. Income tax is charged at the standard rate up to your standard rate cut-off point and at the higher rate on the balance — with no tax-free slice at the bottom.
The tax-free effect arrives one step later. Your annual tax credits are subtracted from the tax that has just been calculated — from the tax, never from your income. That single idea is what this site exists to make legible, and the credit ledger under every result shows it happening, line by line.
Most Irish calculators end at one net number. That number is usually about right, and it explains nothing: it cannot tell you why an extra shift cost you more USC than you expected, why your PRSI moved when your salary did not, or how much of your pay rise you will actually see. So this one itemises. Three charges, three different bases, one subtraction — shown rather than summarised.
- 20% / 40%
- Income tax rates
- €44,000
- Standard rate cut-off (single)
- €14.15
- Minimum wage, per hour
How it works
Three steps to a first, honest number — no sign-up.
- 1
Tax at two rates
Income up to your standard rate cut-off point is charged at the standard rate; the balance is charged at the higher rate. There is no tax-free slice at the bottom.
- 2
Credits come off the tax
Your annual tax credits are then subtracted from that charge — not from your income. That is what makes an Irish payslip different.
- 3
USC and PRSI are separate
USC is charged on gross income on its own bands, and PRSI is charged on your weekly earnings. Both sit alongside income tax, not inside it.
Three charges, three different bases
The three charges on an Irish payslip do not share one taxable figure. That is the detail a single “taxable income” box gets wrong, and it is why the same euro of pay can be relieved for one charge and fully chargeable for another. Each is worked out its own way — income tax after relieved pension contributions, USC on gross income, PRSI on reckonable weekly pay, and auto-enrolment on top of all three.
And separately, on top of all of this, your employer pays employer PRSI. It is their cost, never a deduction from your pay — the calculator shows it as its own figure, along with the total cost of employing you. Above a weekly threshold that rate steps up on the whole week’s pay rather than on the excess, which is worth knowing before a salary conversation even though it never lands on your own payslip.
- Income tax — 20% up to your standard rate cut-off point, 40% on the balance, then your annual credits come off the resulting charge. Tax-relieved pension contributions reduce this base.
- USC — a separate charge on gross income, with no relief for pension contributions. Its exemption is a cliff at €13,000, and the top band is charged at 8%.
- PRSI — charged on weekly earnings, per pay period. Nothing at or below €352.00 a week, then 4.2% with a tapered credit just above that point.
- Auto-enrolment — the employee contribution of 1.5% (up to a gross-pay cap of €80,000) gets no tax relief; a State top-up replaces it.
Explore the tools
One page for each layer of the Irish deduction stack.
Income tax and credits
The standard rate cut-off points for each assessment status, and the credits that come off the tax charge.
USC
The separate charge on gross income, its own bands, and the exemption that works as a cliff rather than a threshold.
PRSI
The weekly-assessed charge, its tapered employee credit, the employer cliff, and the mid-year rate step.
Minimum wage
The statutory hourly rate, converted to weekly, monthly and annual figures for the hours you choose.
FAQ
Answers on credits versus allowances, the USC cliff, weekly PRSI, pension relief and auto-enrolment.
About
What this site is, how the figures are sourced, and the review status of each value.
Credits, not an allowance
A calculator built for an allowance country subtracts a tax-free amount from your income and taxes what is left. Ireland does the opposite. Same two ingredients, opposite order — and the order is what changes the answer:
An allowance country
Subtract, then tax
- Take your income for the year.
- Subtract a tax-free allowance from it.
- Charge tax on whatever is left.
The relief is applied before the rate, so it is worth more to someone whose next euro is taxed at a higher rate than to someone whose is not.
Ireland
Tax, then subtract
- Charge 20% up to your standard rate cut-off point.
- Charge 40% on the balance above it.
- Subtract your annual credits from the tax that produced.
The relief is applied after the rate, so a credit is worth exactly the same whichever rate you pay — that is the whole difference, and it is why there is no tax-free slice at the bottom.
Because credits are non-refundable, they can reduce your tax to nil but never below it — and the unused part is neither paid out nor carried into another tax year.
It also changes what a “tax-free” figure means. There is no income level below which nothing is charged; there is an income level at which your credits happen to cover the charge. Which level that is depends on the credits you hold, so it is personal rather than statutory — and it moves the moment your circumstances do. The credit ledger under every result is there so you can watch that happen instead of taking it on trust.
- €2,000
- Personal tax credit — single
- €2,000
- Employee (PAYE) tax credit, per earner
- €4,000
- The two a single PAYE employee typically holds, combined
Annual amounts, taken off the tax charge rather than off your income, for the tax year the calculator models — the set you actually hold depends on your own circumstances.
What a fair comparison looks like
For context, the CSO publishes two different earnings series that must not be blended. Mean weekly earnings are €1,075.58 — a preliminary quarterly figure that will be revised (annualised, about €55,930). Median annual earnings are €44,816 — a final figure for an earlier reference year, built from different data and a different population.
They are not two views of the same thing: one is a quarterly enterprise survey, the other is annual administrative data with a different population, and their reference periods are about two years apart. Averaging them, or calling either one “the average Irish salary this year”, would produce a number neither series supports.
Neither figure enters the calculator. Compare take-home against take-home instead: the number on a contract only means something once you can see what lands in your account.
- €1,075.58
- Mean weekly earnings — CSO, preliminary
- €55,930
- That preliminary figure annualised
- €44,816
- Median annual earnings — CSO, final, earlier reference year
Two different CSO series in their own units, side by side rather than blended — a quarterly enterprise survey and annual administrative data, with reference periods about two years apart. Neither figure enters the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
The figures behind these answers follow Revenue, the Irish Statute Book and the Department of Social Protection, cited page by page. If a rule changed recently it may not be reflected here yet — for an official amount, check the cited source or ask Revenue.
Ready?
See your take-home pay in seconds
Enter your gross salary and see your take-home, the income tax after credits, USC and PRSI, and what your employer pays on top — no sign-up.