Universal Social Charge (USC)
USC is a separate, parallel charge with its own bands and its own base. It is charged on gross income, with no relief for pension contributions, and its exemption is a cliff rather than a threshold: below the limit you pay nothing, and above it the charge applies to your whole income from the first euro. This page walks the schedule and shows where the cliff sits.
A separate charge, on a different base
USC is not part of income tax and it is not a kind of social insurance. It is a third charge, with its own schedule, its own exemption and — the part that catches people out — its own base. USC is charged on gross income. There is no relief for employee pension contributions, so the figure USC is worked out on is deliberately not the figure income tax is worked out on.
That single difference explains a lot of surprised payslip arithmetic. Put an extra percentage point into your pension and your income-tax bill falls; your USC does not move at all. Any calculator that shows one “taxable income” and runs every charge off it is quietly wrong about Ireland.
The second thing to know is that the exemption is a cliff, not a tax-free slice. At or below €13,000 of total income there is no USC at all. One euro above it, USC applies to your whole income from the first euro — not to the excess, and with no taper in between.
Work out your USC
USC is charged on gross income — there is no relief for employee pension contributions, so this is deliberately a different base from income tax.
USC due
€882.82
- €0 – €12,012 @ 0.5%
- €60.06
- €12,012 – €28,700 @ 2%
- €333.76
- €28,700 – €70,044 @ 3%
- €489.00
- Effective USC rate
- 1.96%
The exemption is a cliff
Below the exemption limit you pay no USC at all. One euro above it, USC applies to your whole income from the first euro — not just to the excess. There is no taper between the two.
Above €13,000: USC applies to the full income.
Standard schedule
Four slices, walked from the bottom up on gross income. Nothing is deducted before the walk starts.
| Slice of income | Rate |
|---|---|
| First €12,012 | 0.5% |
| €12,012 – €28,700 | 2% |
| €28,700 – €70,044 | 3% |
| Balance above €70,044 | 8% |
The cliff, one euro at a time
Both rows below are computed by this site’s engine — the same engine the calculator above runs. The only difference between them is a single euro of income.
€13,000
Total income for the year
- USC due
- €0.00
- Effective rate
- 0%
At the exemption limit — exempt.
€13,001
Total income for the year
- USC due
- €79.84
- Effective rate
- 0.61%
One euro above it — charged on the full amount, from the first euro.
One extra euro of income costs €79.84 of USC. That is not a rounding artefact and it is not a mistake in the calculator: it is how the exemption is written. Above the limit the charge is not on the excess, it is on everything.
In practice the cliff bites people whose income is close to the limit and varies — part-time hours that creep up, a small bonus, a few weeks of overtime, a second short-term job. Crossing the line once in a year is enough to bring the whole year’s income into charge. If your income sits anywhere near the limit, this is the number to check before you agree extra hours.
Reduced schedule
A shorter, gentler schedule applies if you are aged 70 or over, or hold a full medical card — a GP-visit card does not qualify — and only while your income stays at or below €60,000. Above that limit the standard schedule applies in full. There is no partial relief and no taper: you are either on the reduced schedule or you are not.
| Slice of income | Rate |
|---|---|
| First €12,012 | 0.5% |
| Balance above €12,012 | 2% |
Notice what the reduced schedule actually does: it removes the upper rates entirely rather than shaving a little off each one. That makes the income limit a second cliff of its own — the euro that carries you past it moves you onto the full standard walk. It is also worth knowing that social welfare payments from the Department of Social Protection are not part of aggregate income for USC purposes, so they do not push you over either limit.
Also true of USC, and easy to miss
The USC band structure changed for this tax year even though income tax rates and bands did not: the widely-quoted “no changes for 2026” line sits under the income-tax heading and does not cover USC. The second band’s ceiling moved, so a 2025 USC figure carried forward will be wrong.
Two charges outside an employee’s path are not modelled here. A surcharge applies to large amounts of non-PAYE income above a statutory threshold — self-employment, rental and investment income, not PAYE wages — and special rates apply to certain bank bonuses and to income sheltered by property reliefs. You will sometimes see the surcharge added to the top USC rate and quoted as a single combined percentage; that figure is somebody’s arithmetic rather than a rate Revenue publishes, so it does not appear here.
Scope and limits
The figures on this page follow Revenue and the Irish Statute Book, cited where they are used. If a rule changed recently it may not be reflected here yet — for an official amount, check the cited source or ask Revenue.