A payslip shows what an employee earns each month and the deductions applied before the money reaches their bank account. This calculator starts from the annual gross salary and the type of contract, calculates the employee's Social Security contributions with the 2026 rates and caps, and works out income tax withholding with the Tax Agency's (AEAT) general procedure from the Form 145 details, to show net pay for each ordinary payslip, each extra payment and the year, whether paid in 12 or 14 instalments. In this article we explain how a Spanish payslip is structured, which percentages apply in 2026 and how to read each item.
What a payslip is and how it is structured
The Spanish payslip follows an official format that the employer must give the employee for each pay period. Although the layout varies with the payroll software used, every payslip contains the same blocks: employer and employee details, the pay period, earnings, deductions and contribution bases.
Earnings are all the amounts the employee accrues: basic salary, salary supplements such as seniority, night work or collective agreement bonuses, overtime, the pro rata share of extra payments when these are spread across the year, and non-salary items such as expenses or transport allowances within certain limits. Deductions are the employee's Social Security contributions, income tax withholding and, where applicable, advances or other deductions.
How net pay is calculated
The basic formula is simple: net pay = gross pay - employee contributions - income tax withholding. The difficulty lies in calculating each of the two deductions correctly.
Contributions are calculated on the contribution base, which broadly speaking is monthly pay plus the pro rata share of extra payments, within a minimum and a maximum limit. Income tax withholding is a percentage applied to the gross amount of each payslip, determined from the expected annual salary and the personal and family details the employee provides on Form 145; the calculator follows that same procedure (articles 82 to 86 of the IRPF Regulations), including the threshold below which no tax is withheld, the reduction for pre-2013 home loans and the separate treatment of child maintenance payments.
- Common contingencies: 4.70% paid by the employee.
- Unemployment: 1.55% on permanent contracts and 1.60% on fixed-term contracts.
- Vocational training: 0.10%.
- Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI): 0.15% paid by the employee in 2026, out of a total rate of 0.90% that rises each year until 2029.
- Approximate total paid by the employee on a permanent contract: 6.50% of the contribution base.
Worked example: 30,000 euros gross in 14 payments
A single employee with no children on a permanent contract earns 30,000 euros gross a year in 14 payments. Each ordinary monthly payment and each extra payment comes to 2,142.86 euros gross. The monthly contribution base includes the extra payments spread across the year, that is 30,000 / 12 = 2,500 euros, so each month the employee pays 2,500 x 6.50% = 162.50 euros, or 1,950 euros a year in total.
With these details, the withholding procedure gives a rate of 16.42%, so 351.86 euros are withheld from each payment. Net pay for an ordinary month is 2,142.86 - 162.50 - 351.86 = 1,628.50 euros. In the June and December extra payments, since contributions have already been spread over the twelve months, only income tax is deducted, and net pay is 1,791 euros.
Adding it all up, annual net pay comes to 23,124 euros. If the same salary were paid in 12 instalments with the extra payments spread across the year, annual net pay would be the same, but divided into monthly payments of 1,927 euros (2,500 - 162.50 - 410.50).
Contribution limits and changes in 2026
The contribution base is bounded by a minimum base, linked to the national minimum wage and the contribution group, and a maximum base that is updated every year; in 2026 the latter is 5,101.20 euros a month. Salaries above the maximum base do not pay ordinary contributions on the excess, although since 2025 a solidarity contribution has applied to that excess, at low rates that will rise gradually and of which the employee bears a small share. The calculator applies both the maximum base cap and this solidarity contribution.
Income tax withholding is also subject to minimums: on contracts shorter than one year it cannot be below 2%, and there is a salary threshold, depending on family circumstances, below which no tax is withheld. The autonomous communities do not change the withholding calculation, but they do affect the final tax in the annual return, and the Basque Country and Navarre apply their own foral tables.
Common mistakes when checking a payslip
One of the most frequent misunderstandings is assuming that the salary in the collective agreement or employment contract is the net amount you will receive, when it is almost always expressed in gross terms. Another is overlooking that extra payments may be spread across the year, which makes monthly net pay look higher but means there is no summer or Christmas payment.
Other points worth checking are that the contribution group and job category match the actual role, that collective agreement supplements appear correctly, that income tax withholding has been updated after a change in family circumstances and that overtime is shown as such, since it is subject to specific contributions. If anything looks wrong, it is best to ask the HR department for clarification before the deadline to claim salary differences expires, which as a general rule is one year.