I know my gross salary each month for 2022 - wanting stable take home pay

MrGorsky

Hello forumites, 
I have my gross pay by month for 2022. It's somewhat variable.
What I want is ... to pay as much into a salary sacrifice pension to take my taxable pay down to £50k (for child benefit and tax reasons), and then receive a steadyish take home pay.
Also, the lumper in July will  pay for our £6k family holiday in August, so I'd like that to remain in there.

My Gross pay is:

Apr	6,933
May	6,933
Jun	6,933
Jul	14,703 (shares received as cash - part of salary)
Aug	5,829
Sep	5,829
Oct	5,829
Nov	5,829
Dec	5,829
Jan	5,829
Feb	5,829
Mar	5,829

My attempt to work this out is shown in the table:

	gross	Taxable desired	pension	my pension contr	Annualised taxable projection	Tax / NI to date due	Tax / NI in month	Take home
Apr	6,933	3,640		3,293	43,680	891	891	2,749
May	6,933	3,640		3,293	43,680	1,782	891	2,749
Jun	6,933	3,640		3,293	43,680	2,673	891	2,749
Jul	14,703	9,999		4,704	62,757	5,884	1,471	8,528
Aug	5,829	3,640		2,189	58,942	5,964	1,193	2,447
Sep	5,829	3,640		2,189	56,398	7,078	1,180	2,460
Oct	5,829	3,640		2,189	54,581	8,136	1,162	2,478
Nov	5,829	3,640		2,189	53,219	9,150	1,144	2,496
Dec	5,829	3,640		2,189	52,159	10,133	1,126	2,514
Jan	5,829	3,640		2,189	51,311	11,088	1,109	2,531
Feb	5,829	3,640		2,189	50,617	12,023	1,093	2,547
Mar	5,829	3,640		2,189	50,039	12,940	1,078	2,562
Total	82,135	50,039	39.08%				13,228	36,811

2 questions:
1) Is salary sacrificing down to £50k, and still receiving 100% CHB (2 children) the way to go to maximise invest for earlyretirement  (alternative is take cash and put in S&S ISA).
2) Is my attempt to calculate it right?
3) Is this what you would do, or would you do something different?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

2 questions:
1) Is salary sacrificing down to £50k, and still receiving 100% CHB (2 children) the way to go to maximise invest for earlyretirement (alternative is take cash and put in S&S ISA).
2) Is my attempt to calculate it right?

1).  Salary sacrificing down to £50k doesn't guarantee you will retain 100% of the Child Benefit.  The High Income Child Benefit Charge is based on your adjusted net income so even if you have taxable pay of £50,000 other income, say £500 interest and £2,000 in dividends, could mean you still have some HICBC to pay (25% in this example).

2).  As you haven't told us what your tax code is for 2022:23 I'm not sure how you expect anyone to know that.  And I think most people would include National Insurance in any take home pay type calculation.

MrGorsky

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

2 questions:
1) Is salary sacrificing down to £50k, and still receiving 100% CHB (2 children) the way to go to maximise invest for earlyretirement (alternative is take cash and put in S&S ISA).
2) Is my attempt to calculate it right?

1).  Salary sacrificing down to £50k doesn't guarantee you will retain 100% of the Child Benefit.  The High Income Child Benefit Charge is based on your adjusted net income so even if you have taxable pay of £50,000 other income, say £500 interest and £2,000 in dividends, could mean you still have some HICBC to pay (25% in this example).

2).  As you haven't told us what your tax code is for 2022:23 I'm not sure how you expect anyone to know that.  And I think most people would include National Insurance in any take home pay type calculation.

Thanks, you're correct, I'm learning and trying.


1)Thanks for this. Dividends will be under £10 from some Etoro stuff, and no savings interest. Good info though, appreciate it.

2) The NI deduction is within the now renamed column "deductions for tax and NI", which is actually what it is. Tax code is 1320L