Income Tax & Take-Home Pay Calculator

Marginal vs average rate

Your average rate is (total tax + CPP + EI + QPIP) ÷ total income, the overall bite. Your marginal rate is the tax on your next dollar. This tool computes it directly as [deductions(income + $100) − deductions(income)] ÷ $100, so it captures bracket jumps, the Ontario surtax, and CPP/EI ceilings, not just the headline bracket rate. The extra $100 is added to the income stream you earn most of: employment income, or self-employment income when that is larger. The two are not taxed alike at the margin: self-employment pays both halves of CPP, no EI unless you opt in, and gets no Canada employment amount. When you have both, the card also shows the rate on the other stream.

Marginal and average rate chart

The solid line repeats the marginal-rate calculation at 1,200 evenly spaced incomes (every $250 from $0 to $300,000, or a wider range if your income is higher), varying only your main income stream and holding everything else as entered. It is drawn as steps, so bracket edges stay vertical. In Ontario the Health Premium shows up too: it adds 6 points to the rate on taxable income of $20,000–$25,000 and $36,000–$38,500 (the raised plateaus), and 25 points on the $600 above $48,000, $72,000 and $200,000 (the tall, narrow spikes). The line marked "You" is computed at your exact income, so it matches the Marginal rate card. The dashed line is the average rate, (tax + payroll) ÷ total income, at each income. The rate drops where a yearly CPP, EI or QPIP maximum is reached. If you have both salary and self-employment income, the two share one CPP maximum (and one EI maximum if you opted in), so the stream on the chart reaches it sooner; the line above the chart gives where.

From total income to take-home

The bridge starts from your total cash income (employment, self-employment, capital gains realized and cash dividends, not the grossed-up amounts) and subtracts federal tax, provincial or territorial tax, the Ontario surtax and Health Premium where they apply, then CPP or QPP (CPP2/QPP2 included), EI and QPIP. What is left is the take-home figure at the top of the page, to the dollar. RRSP and FHSA contributions are not subtracted: that money moves to your own account. In Quebec, federal tax is shown after the 16.5% abatement.

Taxable income

employment + self-employment + capital gains × 50% + eligible dividends × 1.38 + non-eligible dividends × 1.15 − RRSP − FHSA − enhanced CPP. The enhanced part of your CPP (the portion above the 4.95% base, or 5.30% for QPP, plus all of CPP2) is deducted here; the self-employed also deduct half of their self-employed CPP (the employer-equivalent share).

Federal tax

Progressive over the 2026 brackets (14% up to $58,523, then 20.5% / 26% / 29% / 33%). We subtract the basic personal amount credit (BPA × 14%, with the enhancement phased out above $181,440), the federal dividend tax credit (15.02% of grossed-up eligible, 9.03% of grossed-up non-eligible), a credit for CPP/EI premiums at 14%, and the Canada employment amount (the lesser of your employment income and $1,501) at 14%. In Quebec, federal tax is reduced by the 16.5% Quebec abatement.

Provincial tax

Progressive over each province's 2026 brackets, minus the provincial BPA and a credit for CPP/EI premiums, both at the lowest rate, and the provincial dividend tax credit. Quebec gives no credit for QPP, EI or QPIP (its $18,952 basic personal amount already takes them into account); instead its return subtracts the deduction for workers, 6% of employment and self-employment income up to $1,450, from Quebec taxable income only. Ontario adds a surtax (20% of basic Ontario tax over $5,818, +36% over $7,446), worked out before the dividend tax credit comes off, as on form ON428, and then the Ontario Health Premium. Manitoba claws back its BPA between $200k and $400k of income. Yukon mirrors the federal BPA.

CPP, EI & QPIP (2026)

CPP: 5.95% on earnings between $3,500 and $74,600 (max $4,230.45) plus CPP2 at 4% from $74,600 to $85,000 (max $416). Self-employment earnings pay 2×; when you have both T4 and self-employment income, one shared exemption and one annual maximum apply (employment income uses the room first, per Schedule 8). Quebec uses QPP, not CPP: 6.30% employee / 12.60% self-employed in 2026 (base rate cut by the Nov 2025 fiscal update) to the same $74,600 ceiling (max $4,479.30), plus QPP2 at 4%. EI: 1.63% on the first $68,900 (max $1,123.07); in Quebec the EI rate is reduced to 1.30% and QPIP applies at 0.430% on employment income (0.764% on self-employment income, one shared $103,000 ceiling). T4 employment always pays EI; self-employment earnings pay EI only if you opt in.

RRSP / FHSA refund

The refund shown above your results is income tax without the deduction − income tax with it, both computed in full. It differs from contribution × marginal rate because CPP, EI and QPIP are not reduced by a deduction, and a large deduction can cross bracket edges, Ontario Health Premium steps and the federal basic personal amount phase-out.

Your RRSP refund, $1,000 at a time

Each bar is income tax(RRSP = c) − income tax(RRSP = c + $1,000) as a percentage of the $1,000, for c from $0 up to the 2026 dollar limit of $33,810, or up to your own RRSP amount if it is larger (unused room carries forward; the chart stops at $100,000), but never past the taxable income left to deduct against. Your FHSA and every other input are held as entered. The bars your RRSP amount covers are green (for a contribution in whole thousands they add up to its exact saving), and the line above the chart says what your next $1,000 would save. The rate jumps where a deduction pulls you back across an Ontario Health Premium step and drops where it pulls you into a lower bracket. You can only deduct what you have room for: 18% of last year's earned income, up to the limit, plus unused room carried forward (your Notice of Assessment shows it). A contribution can also be carried forward and deducted in a later, higher-income year.

Your same income in every province

Your exact inputs run through all 13 provincial and territorial tax systems, including Quebec's switch to QPP, QPIP, the reduced EI rate and the federal abatement. Each bar is that jurisdiction's take-home minus yours. Provinces within 50 cents of each other count as tied: on a low income, or on capital gains alone, several (sometimes all 13) charge no income tax at all. Provincial low-income tax reductions and refundable credits (such as the Ontario Tax Reduction or the BC tax reduction) are not modelled, so below about $30,000 the ranking is approximate.

Each cheque through the year

Each bar is one salary cheque: salary ÷ pay periods, split into net pay, income tax (your annual tax on salary, spread evenly), CPP or QPP, CPP2 or QPP2, EI and, in Quebec, QPIP. Payroll deductions come off each cheque at their rate until the year's maximum is reached, then stop, so later cheques are larger. CPP2 (QPP2) is different: it only starts once your pay for the year passes $74,600 and stops at $85,000, so it comes off a few later cheques. Over the year each part adds up to its annual amount.

How your income fills the brackets

Each row is a slice of taxable income at the statutory federal and provincial rates, before any credit. The second table takes that bracket tax to the income tax you actually pay: less the non-refundable credits that were used (they can bring tax to zero, never below, so on a low income only part of them counts), less Quebec's deduction for workers (the Quebec tax on the income it removes) and the Quebec abatement, plus the Ontario surtax and Health Premium. The last row equals the income tax in the breakdown above.

Approximations & what this does not model

CPP is split the way the CRA does it: the base 4.95% share of your contribution (5.30% for QPP) is a non-refundable credit, federally and in every province but Quebec, while the enhanced portion (the 1% first enhancement plus all of CPP2) is deducted from income. We do assume net income equals taxable income for the BPA and clawback thresholds, which is exact for most wage earners. Not modelled: childcare/medical/donation/tuition credits, LIFT and other low-income supplements, spousal/dependant amounts, OAS clawback, or the alternative minimum tax. Dividend tax credit rates are the 2026 provincial/territorial values (source: TaxTips.ca, verified July 2026). Compare with the dividend income, capital gains, RRSP vs TFSA, and salary-to-hourly tools.