The net take-home gain from a raise, after tax.
Net annual gain
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Gross raise
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Share you keep
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A raise is taxed at the top, not the average
The single idea this tool exists to make visible is marginal taxation. Your overall tax bill is the blend of every slab your income passes through, so your average rate is gentle. But a raise does not get averaged. It stacks on top of your current salary and is taxed entirely at the highest band you reach. In Pakistan, where the salaried slabs climb from a tax free first PKR 600,000 up to the top rate the calculator applies above PKR 4.1 million, that distinction is the difference between the raise you were promised and the raise you can actually spend.
Enter your current and new annual salary and the calculator runs both through the salaried income tax slabs, then reports three numbers that matter: the gross raise, the net annual gain after tax, and the share of the raise that survives the journey to your account. The slab structure is set by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and revised through the annual Finance Act, so the percentages move year to year. Treat the rates here as the ones the tool currently applies and confirm the live position before you rely on a figure.
A raise that straddles two slabs
Suppose you move from PKR 3.8 million to PKR 4.4 million a year, a gross raise of PKR 600,000. Your old salary already sits inside the band the calculator taxes at 30 percent, which runs to PKR 4.1 million. The first PKR 300,000 of the raise stays in that band and is taxed at 30 percent, costing PKR 90,000. The next PKR 300,000 crosses into the top band above PKR 4.1 million, taxed at 35 percent, costing PKR 105,000. So tax on the raise alone is PKR 195,000, leaving a net gain of PKR 405,000 a year, about PKR 33,750 a month. You keep 67.5 percent of the raise, noticeably less than the share someone lower down the slabs would keep.
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The chart splits the gross raise into the part you keep and the part the slabs take.
When the share you keep collapses
The lower your current salary, the kinder this looks. A raise that stays inside the 11 percent band leaves most of itself intact. The same rupee raise that pushes you into the 30 or 35 percent band hands a third of itself straight to the FBR. The most painful case is a raise that, combined with bonuses, tips your annual income past PKR 10 million, because at that point a surcharge the calculator applies sits on top of the tax itself. That is worth watching if your package includes a large variable component that lands in the same tax year.
A practical way to use the number
Before you accept a counter-offer, run it here and look at the net monthly gain rather than the percentage. A useful tactic is to ask for part of a raise as a non-taxable or differently taxed benefit where your employer allows it, such as a recognised provident fund contribution, since that can change the slab arithmetic in your favour. Just confirm the treatment, because the exemption caps the FBR sets on provident fund contributions are limited and they change.
The common trap is comparing two offers on headline percentage alone. The offer with the bigger percentage is not always the one that grows your take-home more, because the slab you land in decides how much survives. This tool is for the salaried professional deciding whether a raise is worth a job move, and it pairs naturally with the salary hike calculator for the percentage view and the marginal tax rate calculator for the exact top band your next rupee falls into.
Can I keep more of a raise by splitting it into allowances?
Sometimes. Certain employer contributions, such as to a recognised provident fund, receive favourable tax treatment up to limits the FBR sets, so structuring part of a package that way can lift the share you keep. The caps are modest and revised periodically, so confirm the current limits and get the structure checked before assuming a saving.
Does this calculator account for the surcharge on high incomes?
Yes. The underlying tax function adds the surcharge the FBR levies once taxable income passes PKR 10 million, so if your new salary crosses that line the net gain shown already reflects it. Below that threshold no surcharge applies and the figure is the slab tax alone.