Compare Take-Home Salary

How the comparison is calculated

You enter one amount in one currency. That amount is converted into each country's own currency at the exchange rate shown with the results, and only then does each country's tax apply — so you are comparing the same amount of money, not the same number. Each country applies its own progressive income tax bands, then its own mandatory contributions, which differ not just in rate but in shape: some are capped, some start only above a threshold, some are charged on income and others on the tax itself.

One thing worth being clear about, because it changes how you should read the result: these are estimates built on standard deductions only. They do not account for dependants, marital or filing status, tax credits, mortgage interest, pension top-ups beyond the mandatory scheme, or sub-national taxes such as US state or Canadian provincial income tax. If you are self-employed or contracting, the rules differ enough that the figures will not apply to you at all.

Two limits are specific to comparing countries. The ranking rests on one day's exchange rate, and rates move — a different day can reorder the list, so treat a narrow gap as a tie. And equal take-home pay is not an equal standard of living: nothing here accounts for what housing, food, childcare or healthcare cost in each country, which is often a larger difference than the tax.

What differs between the 12 countries

Take-home pay differs between countries less because of headline tax rates than because of how contributions are structured. These are the actual structures in use:

• KRSouth Korea

  8 income tax bands topping out at 45%. A local tax of 10% applies on top, charged on the income tax itself. Pension is a separate 9.5% scheme, of which the employee pays 50%.

• USUnited States

  7 income tax bands topping out at 37%. 1 of its contributions stop at a ceiling, so higher earners pay a smaller share of income toward them.

• UKUnited Kingdom

  4 income tax bands topping out at 45%, with the first portion of income untaxed. 1 of its contributions stop at a ceiling, so higher earners pay a smaller share of income toward them. Some contributions only begin above a lower threshold.

• DEGermany

  5 income tax bands topping out at 45%, with the first portion of income untaxed. 4 of its contributions stop at a ceiling, so higher earners pay a smaller share of income toward them.

• JPJapan

  7 income tax bands topping out at 45%. A local tax of 10% applies on top, charged on gross income. Pension is a separate 18.3% scheme, of which the employee pays 50%.

• CACanada

  5 income tax bands topping out at 33%. 2 of its contributions stop at a ceiling, so higher earners pay a smaller share of income toward them.

• SGSingapore

  13 income tax bands topping out at 24%, with the first portion of income untaxed.

• HKHong Kong

  5 income tax bands topping out at 17%. 1 of its contributions stop at a ceiling, so higher earners pay a smaller share of income toward them.

• AUAustralia

  5 income tax bands topping out at 45%, with the first portion of income untaxed.

• IEIreland

  2 income tax bands topping out at 40%.

• NLNetherlands

  3 income tax bands topping out at 49.5%.

• AEUnited Arab Emirates

  No personal income tax.

Where the rates come from

Across the 12 countries there are 57 separate rates, thresholds and ceilings in use. 47 of them are confirmed against the issuing tax authority's own publication, and every figure — confirmed or not — is listed with its source and the date it was last checked on the per-country rates pages. Figures we have not been able to confirm are labelled as unverified rather than quietly presented as fact, because on a subject like this the number you cannot check is the one you most need flagged.