Take-home pay calculator, 2026
Thirteen jurisdictions, one federal schedule, two pension ceilings. Pick a province and a salary and the calculator returns the same lines a Canadian payroll would produce — federal tax, provincial tax, CPP (QPP in Quebec), CPP2 where it applies, and EI. Quebec also carries a QPIP parental insurance premium and a 16.5% federal abatement, both of which the calculator applies when you pick it.
Before deductions. Use the yearly figure — Canadian payroll is usually monthly, but every assumption here is annual.
Provincial tax is based on where you work, not where you live. Quebec is not listed: it files under its own rules and is not modelled here.
| Line | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $60,000 | $5,000 |
| CPP contribution | −$3,362 | −$280 |
| EI premium | −$978 | −$81 |
| Federal income tax | −$4,751 | −$396 |
| Provincial tax (Ontario) | −$2,036 | −$170 |
| Take-home pay | $48,873 | $4,073 |
Marginal rate on the next dollar: 27.7%. Your employer separately pays $4,731 in CPP, CPP2 and its share of EI; that money never appears in your pay.
How the number is built
In this order, because each step changes the next one:
- CPP and CPP2, or QPP and QPP2. CPP takes 5.95% of pay between $3,500 and $74,600. CPP2 takes 4% of pay between $74,600 and $85,000. Both are capped. In Quebec the same two ceilings come from the Quebec Pension Plan at 6.3% and 4%, and QPIP is added on top at 0.43% of insurable pay.
- EI. 1.63% of insurable pay up to $68,900, capped at $1,123.
- Taxable pay. Gross minus CPP, CPP2 and EI. Income tax is charged on this figure, never on the headline salary.
- Federal and provincial tax. Rate × taxable pay − the published constant, then minus the credit: the lowest rate of that table multiplied by the basic personal amount plus the creditable parts of CPP and EI. For Quebec the federal result is then cut by the 16.5% abatement, which is what the province gets back for running QPP and QPIP itself.
The constant in step four only offsets the bracket change. It does not contain the personal credit — applying it as if it did overstates tax by thousands of dollars per person, which is the most common mistake in calculators built from these tables.
The same three salaries, three provinces
| Gross | Ontario | Alberta | British Columbia |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $41,339 | $41,227 | $41,347 |
| $60,000 | $48,873 | $48,580 | $48,784 |
| $90,000 | $69,324 | $68,924 | $69,648 |
What the calculator leaves out
Deliberately: Ontario tax reduction ($300 basic amount, phased out at low income) — affects only the bottom of the income range; British Columbia tax reduction (up to $575, nil from $41,722) — small effect at $40,000; Ontario Health Premium (up to $900) — taken through the return, not modelled; Canada Pension Plan working-income benefit, union dues, charitable and medical credits; Quebec solidarity tax credit and the deduction for workers (up to $1,450) — both are return-level items, not source deductions; QPIP benefit amounts — the calculator models the premium, not what a parental leave would pay out. It also assumes a single basic personal credit with no dependants, no disability or tuition claims, and no workplace pension plan. Each of those changes the answer, and the direction of the change is usually downward for tax.