Bonus Tax Calculator How much of your bonus you keep
Enter your salary and bonus to see the PAYE, USC and PRSI taken at your marginal rate, and the net bonus you actually take home.
Enter Your Salary & Bonus
How a Bonus Is Actually Taxed
A bonus runs through PAYE, USC and PRSI exactly like ordinary salary: there is no separate bonus tax rate in Ireland. Because it lands on top of income you have already earned, every euro of it is taxed at your marginal rate rather than your lower average rate, which is why the deduction on a bonus looks so much heavier than the deduction on your salary as a whole. For the full explanation, including the marginal-rate worked example, the Week 1/Month 1 basis, and the two legitimate ways to reduce what is taken, read how much of your bonus you keep.
What to Enter, and How to Read Your Result
Enter your salary and bonus as two separate figures, not one combined total. "Annual Gross Salary" should be what you earn without the bonus: your normal salary for the year. "Bonus Amount" is the gross value of the bonus itself, the figure on your bonus letter or the bonus line of a payslip, before any tax is taken from it. Entering a single combined number in the salary field, or adding the bonus into your salary and leaving the bonus field blank, produces a result that no longer isolates what the bonus itself costs you in tax, because the calculator has nothing left to compare it against.
The result is not a standalone tax calculation on the bonus figure. It is a difference: the calculator works out your take-home with your salary alone, then again with the bonus added on top, and reports the gap between the two as the net bonus and the tax on it. That is deliberate, and it is the only way to get the marginal-rate answer right, because a bonus is taxed at whatever rate applies to income sitting on top of your existing salary, not at the rate that would apply if the bonus were your only income for the year. The "Annual take-home without bonus" and "Annual take-home with bonus" figures further down the results panel show both sides of that comparison directly.
What this page gives you is the effect on your whole year, assuming the bonus is the only change to your pay. It is not a prediction of what a single payslip will show: PAYE and USC are cumulative taxes, so the deduction on the actual payslip carrying the bonus depends on how much of the year's credits and rate band are already used up by the point it is paid, which this annual figure cannot see. If you have a real payslip with a bonus on it and want to check whether the deduction on that specific payslip is correct, use the payslip checker instead.
Why the certificate matters more for a bonus than for salary
A bonus lands at the very top of your income for the year, so an error in the assumed cut-off or credits does more damage here than the same error would do spread across ordinary salary. If your real Tax Credit Certificate gives you a higher cut-off or more credits than the standard figures for your filing status, using the defaults can wrongly tax part of a bonus at 40% when your certificate would have kept it at 20%. That gap is exactly what the "Use my own tax credits and cut-off" option above is for: on a real reconciled payslip, a certificate that differed from the standard assumption changed the tax on a bonus by hundreds of euro. If you have a recent payslip or certificate to hand, enter the figures from it rather than relying on the standard assumption, especially when the bonus is large relative to your salary.
Reading the stat tiles, and the pension field
"Net Bonus" and "Tax on Bonus" are euro amounts that always add up to the gross bonus you entered. "You Keep" restates the net bonus as a percentage, useful for comparing bonuses of different sizes on a like-for-like basis. "Marginal Rate" is the rate on the last euro of the bonus specifically, which can read higher than the "You Keep" percentage implies once part of the bonus sits below a band boundary and part sits above it. The Pension Contribution field applies to your whole year, salary and bonus combined, not to the bonus in isolation, so entering an amount here reduces the tax on both together in the same calculation. If you are weighing up routing some of the bonus itself into a pension rather than taking it as cash, model that by adding the extra amount you are considering to your normal annual contribution and comparing the result against your normal contribution alone; the pension tax relief calculator breaks down what a given contribution level is actually worth.
Figures are 2026 rates, calculated with the engine behind this page. Sources: Revenue, Small Benefit Exemption and Revenue, USC rates and thresholds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much tax do I pay on a bonus in Ireland?
A bonus is taxed exactly like your normal salary. There is no special bonus tax rate. Because it sits on top of your existing income, it is taxed at your marginal rate: PAYE at 20% or 40%, USC at your top band, and PRSI at about 4.2%. If your salary already uses up the 20% band, the whole bonus is taxed at roughly 47%, rising to about 52% once your income passes €70,044.
Why does my bonus feel so heavily taxed?
Your payslip applies tax at your marginal rate, not your average rate. A higher-rate taxpayer keeps only about half of a cash bonus, even though their overall effective tax rate on salary is lower.
Can I reduce the tax on my bonus?
Yes, paying some of the bonus into a pension (within your age-related relief limit) reduces the income tax due, and up to €1,500 a year can be given tax-free as vouchers under the Small Benefit Exemption instead of cash.
See how much of a salary increase you actually keep after tax.
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