Tax on a bonus added to your base salary.
Tax on the bonus
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Net bonus in hand
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Bonus effective rate
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Your breakdown
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Why your bonus feels taxed harder than your salary
A bonus is not a separate kind of income with its own special rate in Pakistan. It is simply added to your salary for the year and taxed under the same salaried slab card. The reason it stings is arithmetic, not penalty. Your base salary has already filled up the lower, cheaper slabs, so the bonus lands entirely on top, in whatever band you have already reached or are pushed into. That means the bonus is taxed at your marginal rate, the rate on your last rupee, which is usually higher than the average rate you pay across your whole salary. This calculator captures that effect honestly by computing your tax twice, once on salary alone and once on salary plus bonus, and reporting the difference as the true cost of the bonus.
It is built for salaried employees trying to work out what a year-end or performance bonus will actually deposit in their account, and for anyone negotiating an offer who wants to see the net rather than the headline figure. Because the salaried slabs are reset each year by the Finance Act, the rates here are the ones this calculator applies; confirm the current card with the FBR before relying on a specific band.
The two-calculation method, and the band-straddle trap
The tool's approach mirrors how the FBR would actually assess you. Tax on the base salary alone establishes your starting point. Tax on salary plus bonus gives the new total. Subtract the first from the second and you have the tax attributable purely to the bonus. Divide that by the bonus to get its effective rate. The subtlety people miss is that a single bonus can straddle two slabs: part of it might finish off a lower band while the rest spills into a higher one. When that happens, the bonus's effective rate sits between the two band rates, which is why it rarely matches any single number on the slab card. The tool handles the straddle automatically, so you see the blended result rather than guessing.
A PKR 500,000 bonus on a PKR 2.4 million salary
Take an employee on a base salary of PKR 2,400,000 receiving a PKR 500,000 bonus, using the rates this calculator applies. On the salary alone the tax is PKR 162,000. Add the bonus to reach PKR 2,900,000 and the tax rises to PKR 277,000. The bonus has therefore cost PKR 115,000 in tax, leaving PKR 385,000 in hand, an effective bonus rate of 23 percent. Here the band-straddle shows up clearly: the first PKR 200,000 of the bonus completes the 11 percent band that runs to PKR 2,200,000, while the remaining PKR 300,000 falls into the 23 percent band, and 11 percent on 200,000 plus 23 percent on 300,000 is exactly the PKR 115,000 the tool reports.
A practical move: timing and splitting
Once you can see the marginal effect, two levers become obvious. If your employer offers flexibility on when a discretionary bonus is paid, and one tax year would land it entirely in a lower band while another would push it into a higher one, the timing genuinely changes your net. Splitting a large bonus across two tax years can keep more of it out of the top slab, though this only helps if your salary is near a band boundary and your employer agrees. The common mistake runs the other way: people assume the bonus is taxed at their average rate and budget for a bigger deposit than arrives, then feel short-changed. Plan against the marginal figure this tool shows, not the average.
Will tax be deducted from the bonus when it is paid?
Usually yes. Employers operate withholding on salary across the year and typically spread or adjust the deduction so the full annual tax, including the slice caused by the bonus, is collected through payroll. You may notice a larger deduction in the month the bonus is paid as the employer trues up. The end-of-year position should match the figure this calculator estimates, but payroll timing can differ, so check your payslip and your employer's withholding method.
Does this work for a non-salaried person getting a one-off payment?
This tool is built on the salaried slab card, which applies where salary is more than three quarters of your income. A sole proprietor or freelancer receiving a lump sum would be taxed on the steeper non-salaried card instead, so the marginal rates would differ. If your income is mainly business income, use the business income calculator rather than this one, and confirm which card applies to you with the FBR.