Online tax calculators - why do they all give different results?

Da_Crojanz

There's one on this very site, others like The Salary Calculator and Listen to Taxman. I've found that with my circumstances I can get quite wildly different results from all 3, none of which match what gov.uk tells me (which is the amount I get in my pocket, about £60 less than most other calculators tell me I'll get).

Are these tools useless? They used to work in my old job but since I've moved and gotten taxable benefits everywhere I look I get a different answer.

sheramber

It is best to stick to the ine thread or you will just get the same answers repeated.

Da_Crojanz

Different question now though. No point in asking any more on the last one as it will go round and round in circles (was on phone for 2 hours to HMRC, told by one representative all was ok, then by another I was paying too much but they couldn’t work out why before being hung up on).

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Assuming you mean payslip ones then experience has shown most calculators do produce the exact same results but the people using them don't understand how they work.

For example the HMRC PAYE calculator is simple to use and accurate.  But a lot of others are more complicated and involve pension contributions (which aren't necessary when looking at payslip calculations) but as there are multiple methods of contributing you need to know how they are devised to know how to complete them.

Da_Crojanz

Been back on a few there and the pension part seems to be the problem. When I put no pension then the amount it says I should pay to tax, NI and nat insurance is almost exact to the pound.

When I put in my pension percentage then some of them change the amount of tax owed (in my case it goes from 697 to about 630), plus my pension contribution.

This is leaving a £60 deficit on these calculators between what it says I'll get take home and what I actually get.

I don't understand this at all. My payslip says I should pay £155 in pension. Do some pension methods result in paying tax on top of that for the pension and others don't?

chrisbur

Da_Crojanz said:

I don't understand this at all. My payslip says I should pay £155 in pension. Do some pension methods result in paying tax on top of that for the pension and others don't?

There are several different types of pension 
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/tax-and-pensions/tax-relief-and-your-pension
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/salary-sacrifice-and-your-pension

You need to know which you are in.