Net Salary Calculator Spain 2026 — Your Take-Home Pay

The headline figure is your monthly take-home pay; the breakdown shows the two deductions that create the gap between gross and net — your employee Social Security contribution and the IRPF income tax your employer retains. It excludes fees, private benefits and the autonomous-community adjustment that only settles in your annual return.

What changed for 2026

The headline 2026 change is RD-ley 5/2026, in force from 1 January 2026, which zeroes IRPF for workers on the minimum wage (SMI, €17,094 a year) through a low-income deduction in the tax quota (deducción en cuota) that rose to €591. Employee cost also edged up: the MEI levy reached 0.15% and the maximum contribution base climbed to €5,101.20 a month.

The biggest news for low earners is Real Decreto-ley 5/2026, published in the BOE on 19 February 2026 with effect from 1 January 2026, which removes the IRPF burden on workers earning the 2026 minimum wage (SMI), set at €17,094 a year. The mechanism matters: this is not a payroll exemption but a deduction in the annual tax quota (deducción en cuota). The low-income work deduction rose from €340 in 2025 to €591 for 2026, which neutralises the tax on work income up to €17,094. The relief is available to gross work income below €20,048.45, provided other non-exempt income does not exceed €6,500. In concrete terms, a worker on a €17,000 salary pays €0 in IRPF in 2026, against €356 paid in 2025.

Because the relief works as a deduction settled in the annual return rather than as an exemption on the payslip, an employer may still withhold IRPF from an SMI worker's monthly pay during 2026 — around €43 a month (about €523 a year) for a typical single worker — an amount the worker recovers only when the annual IRPF return is filed. The measure has also drawn criticism: the deduction reaches only workers with an active employment relationship, so pensioners and the unemployed are excluded, raising the number of people left out by nearly 370,000. The technicians' union Gestha has called for the IRPF exemption to be extended to pensioners and the unemployed too.

If your salary brackets did not move, why does the calculator show a slightly smaller net than last year for mid-range pay? Two reasons. The Mecanismo de Equidad Intergeneracional (MEI) — a pension top-up levy — rose from 0.13% to 0.15% for workers, and it is legislated to keep rising each year toward a 0.2% worker share by 2029. Separately, the maximum monthly contribution base rose from €4,909.50 to €5,101.20 (€61,214.40 a year), so higher earners now contribute on a larger slice of pay. Toggle the comparison in the calculator to see the difference at your own salary — for most workers it is a few euros a month, the quiet net-pay squeeze unions have flagged.

2026 rates and withholding brackets

A permanent-contract employee pays 6.50% of their capped salary in Social Security (4.70% common contingencies, 1.55% unemployment, 0.10% training, 0.15% MEI). IRPF withholding is progressive across six brackets, from 19% up to €12,450 to 47% above €300,000, applied to income after the earned-income reduction and personal and family minimums.

These are the official 2026 parameters the calculator applies. The Social Security rates and bases come from the annual contribution order (Orden PJC/297/2026); the withholding scale, reductions and minimums from the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT); and the SMI relief from RD-ley 5/2026 (Ministerio de Hacienda).

How we calculate your net salary

The calculator subtracts your 6.50% employee Social Security contribution, then computes IRPF withholding by applying the progressive scale to your income after the earned-income reduction and work expenses, minus the tax on your personal and family minimums. Net salary is gross minus both, spread over 12 or 14 payments.

The withholding algorithm is the one your employer runs every month, defined in the IRPF Regulation (RD 439/2007, Art. 85). Step by step:

1. Work out the contribution base (your salary, capped at €61,214.40 a year) and deduct 6.50% Social Security.
2. Subtract €2,000 of deductible work expenses and the earned-income reduction (up to €7,302 for lower earners) to reach the withholding base.
3. Apply the progressive scale to that base, then subtract the tax on your personal minimum (€5,550) plus any child minimums.
4. The result is your annual IRPF retention; net pay is gross minus Social Security minus retention.

A worked example: a single worker with no children on €30,000 gross (14 payments) contributes about €1,950 to Social Security and €4,926 in IRPF withholding over the year, leaving roughly €23,124 net — about €1,651.71 a month. Earn exactly the 2026 minimum wage (€17,094) and the picture changes: from RD-ley 5/2026 the low-income deduction in the tax quota (deducción en cuota) leaves you free of IRPF for the year, so the calculator shows €0 IRPF as the year-end, post-deduction result. Note the nuance — because this is an annual-return deduction rather than a payroll exemption, your employer may still withhold a small amount of IRPF each month (around €43, or roughly €523 a year, for a typical single worker), which you get back when you file your annual return.

Ever wondered why two colleagues on identical gross salaries can end the year with different net pay — even though their monthly payslips matched?