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
- United Arab Emirates — u.ae — income tax, UAE Federal Tax Authority
- Australia — ATO — resident tax rates, ATO — Medicare levy
- 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. An approximate answer to "can I afford to move" is worse than no answer, 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 deliberately exclude
Tax and compulsory contributions only. Not rent, not childcare, not health insurance, not schooling, not the cost of the move itself — and those differences are frequently larger than the tax ones. A salary that looks better in Dubai can still leave you worse off once housing is paid for.
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, not a company, and it is published anonymously. It is free, carries no advertising at the time of writing, sells nothing and takes no commission from anyone. Nobody pays for placement here because there is no placement to buy.
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.