See exactly how much of your gross salary you actually take home after PAYE tax, pension, NHF and CRA deductions — monthly or annual.
Your gross salary goes through four layers of deduction before you receive your net pay. First, the Consolidated Relief Allowance (CRA) — ₦200,000 plus 20% of gross — is subtracted to determine your taxable base. Then your pension contribution (minimum 8% of basic + housing + transport emoluments) and NHF (2.5% of basic salary) are deducted, further reducing your chargeable income. PAYE tax is then calculated on this lower chargeable income using the six progressive bands. The tax, pension and NHF are all deducted from your gross pay, leaving your net take-home.
The order matters: pension and NHF are deducted from your chargeable income calculation, meaning they reduce your tax bill as well as your gross. This is why two employees on the same gross but different salary structures can have meaningfully different net pay figures.
Because pension contributions are calculated on emoluments (basic + housing + transport) only, not total gross, the proportion of your package allocated to these three components directly controls how large your pension deduction is. A higher pension deduction means a lower chargeable income and therefore less PAYE. For example, on a ₦5,000,000 gross salary, increasing the emolument proportion from 60% to 85% of gross increases the pension base from ₦3,000,000 to ₦4,250,000 — adding ₦100,000 to the annual pension deduction, which reduces PAYE by roughly ₦21,000–24,000 per year.
Similarly, NHF is calculated only on basic salary, so a higher basic percentage generates a larger NHF deduction, which is also tax-deductible. Both effects compound to meaningfully shift net pay for the same gross figure.
The monthly view is most useful for budgeting — rent, food, transport and utility costs are typically monthly expenses. The annual view is better for financial planning — comparing job offers, assessing whether a salary increase meaningfully changes your position, or understanding your total tax liability for self-assessment purposes. Nigerian payroll systems almost always express PAYE in monthly terms since it is remitted to the relevant SIRS by the 10th of each month, so the monthly figure is also what your employer's payslip will show.
This calculator covers the four main statutory deductions: PAYE, pension (PFA), NHF and NHIS. It does not account for employer-specific deductions such as staff loans, cooperative society contributions, union dues, or salary advances. Some employers also deduct group life insurance premiums or additional voluntary pension contributions. If you have any of these, your actual take-home will be lower than what this calculator shows. The figure here should be treated as your gross-to-net baseline, to which you apply any additional employer-specific deductions.