Where the numbers come from
Every rate is taken from the tax authority that sets it, not from another calculator. Each jurisdiction's sources are linked at the foot of every comparison page, and here:
- United Kingdom — gov.uk income tax rates, gov.uk National Insurance, gov.uk workplace pension contributions
- United Arab Emirates — u.ae — income tax, UAE Federal Tax Authority, u.ae — expatriate pensions and gratuity
- Australia — ATO — resident tax rates, ATO — Medicare levy, ATO — super guarantee
- New York, USA — IRS 2026 inflation adjustments, IRS Topic 751 — FICA rates, NY State withholding tables (NYS-50-T-NYS), NYC withholding tables (NYS-50-T-NYC)
- California, USA — IRS 2026 inflation adjustments, IRS Topic 751 — FICA rates, California 2026 withholding schedules (EDD), California SDI rate (EDD)
- Texas, USA — IRS 2026 inflation adjustments, IRS Topic 751 — FICA rates
The figures are computed when the site is built, from those published rates. Nothing is copied from a competitor and nothing is estimated by an AI.
Why so few countries
Other sites advertise comparisons for 150 countries. Nobody maintains 150 tax codes accurately. A plausible-looking wrong tax figure is worse than a smaller set of figures you can verify, because you cannot tell it is wrong.
Two examples of what accuracy costs. New York levies a supplemental tax above $107,650 that claws back the benefit of its lower brackets; using the headline bracket table and skipping it understates New York by thousands, so this site uses the State's own annual schedule instead. California's State Disability Insurance lost its wage cap in 2024, which is worth $6,500 a year at a $500,000 salary and is routinely left out. Getting those right takes reading the source documents, and it does not scale to 150 countries.
Where a jurisdiction is not modelled, the code refuses to produce a number rather than guessing. Asking for a US state that has not been encoded raises an error; it does not quietly return a figure that is too low.
What the figures can and cannot tell you
The comparison pages show tax and compulsory contributions. The main calculator can also use monthly housing, healthcare, childcare, transport and other costs when you enter your own estimates. It does not substitute a city average for your household.
No financial model can decide whether a move is worthwhile. People move for family, relationships, career direction, lifestyle and reasons that have no sensible price. Salary Crossing compares the pay component of two offers; it does not score your life or tell you whether to move.
Every figure assumes a single person on ordinary employment income with the standard allowances, paid evenly across the year. Bonuses, mid-year job changes, joint filing, dependants, pension arrangements and non-domiciled status all change the answer.
Exchange rates are European Central Bank daily reference rates and move constantly. The tax arithmetic does not.
Who runs it
Salary Crossing is an independent project and the public calculators remain free, with no advertising or paid placement. A separate private adviser workspace is being tested as a paid service for professional global-mobility work.
You do not have to take the arithmetic on trust: every rate is sourced above, and if a figure looks wrong, say so at [email protected] and the working will be shown.
How calculations are checked and corrected
Tax and payroll rules are encoded from primary government or tax-authority material. Each supported jurisdiction has automated checks against published examples, and the same calculation modules generate the public pages and run in the browser. A rate change is not published without its source and a matching calculation check.
Mortgage figures use standard capital-and-interest repayment arithmetic and state their assumptions on the page. They are planning illustrations rather than lender underwriting. Material pages carry their source links and review date; corrections are applied to the shared calculation or source text so every affected page changes together.
No page is presented as professionally reviewed unless a named reviewer has actually approved it. Errors and source updates can be reported to [email protected].