What is a marginal tax rate?

The share of your next euro that you lose to tax and social security. It is not the same as the effective rate, which is the share of your whole salary that you lose. On a €40,000 salary you might keep 72% overall while a raise is taxed at 48% — and at certain thresholds the next euro can cost far more than 100%.

How can a marginal rate be above 100%?

When a threshold applies a charge to your whole income rather than only to the part above it. Ireland's Universal Social Charge is not due at all below €13,000; a euro over and it is charged on everything. Crossing such a line can leave you with less money than before you got the raise.

Where do these figures come from?

They are measured, not looked up. We run several hundred salaries per country through the same engine that powers our calculator and the API, then compute what each additional step actually costs. Nothing on this page is a rate typed in by hand.

Why do you only list some of the steps you find?

Because a very high marginal rate is either a remarkable piece of tax law or a bug in our own calculator, and we do not publish one until we know which. Every step listed here has been traced to a specific rule in that country's legislation. Anything we cannot yet account for is flagged internally and left off the page.

Do these apply to me?

The curves assume a single employee with no children, on 2026 rules, with no special regime. Family circumstances, age and regimes such as Spain's Beckham Law or the Dutch 30% ruling move the thresholds. Use the calculator for your own situation.

Marginal Tax Rates Across Europe

Every salary calculator tells you the effective rate — the share of your pay you lose in total. It is the wrong number for the question people actually have, which is what the next euro is worth. The two are far apart, and at certain thresholds the next euro costs more than it is: a charge that applies to the whole income rather than to the part above the line does not raise the rate, it puts a step in it.

We measured all 15 countries on 2026 rules by running several hundred salaries each through the same engine behind our calculator, and computed what each step really costs. These are the ones we found.

The steepest step in Europe is in Italy

At €9,300 a year, earning €100 more leaves you €278 worse off — a marginal rate of 378%. Italy's cuneo-fiscale support is a percentage of employment income — 7.1% up to €8,500 of income, then 5.3%. The lower rate applies to the whole amount rather than only to the part above the line, so crossing it removes more than the extra pay is worth.

The thresholds worth knowing about

Ranked by what the next step costs. A rate above 100% means take-home actually falls. Every one has been traced to a specific rule — we do not publish a step we cannot account for.

Country	Around	Marginal rate	What happens
Italy	€9,300	378%−€278 net	The somma integrativa steps downItaly's cuneo-fiscale support is a percentage of employment income — 7.1% up to €8,500 of income, then 5.3%. The lower rate applies to the whole amount rather than only to the part above the line, so crossing it removes more than the extra pay is worth.L. 207/2024, somma integrativa rates; Agenzia delle Entrate circ. 4/2025
Switzerland	CHF 22,600	187%−CHF 87 net	The BVG pension entry thresholdOccupational pension contributions do not apply below an annual salary of CHF 22,680. Once your salary passes it you are insured, and BVG contributions begin — a step, not a slope. The money is not lost the way tax is; it goes into your own pension. It still leaves less in your pay packet that month.BVG Eintrittsschwelle CHF 22,680 (BSV, in force since 01/01/2025)
Ireland	€18,300	174%−€74 net	PRSI starts at €352 a weekThere is no employee PRSI at all on weekly earnings of €352 or less — €18,304 over a year. Above that, PRSI applies to the whole wage. A tapering credit of up to €12 a week softens the landing, but crossing the line still costs about €172 at once.Class A PRSI weekly exemption €352 and the tapered PRSI credit
Italy	€16,500	165%−€65 net	The second somma integrativa stepThe same support drops again from 5.3% to 4.8% once income passes €15,000, and again on the whole amount. It is the second of two steps built into the same measure.L. 207/2024, somma integrativa rates; Agenzia delle Entrate circ. 4/2025
Ireland	€13,000	82%	The USC exemption is all-or-nothingThe Universal Social Charge is not charged at all if your total income is €13,000 or less. Go a euro over and USC becomes due on the whole income, not just on the part above the threshold — so the first €100 past the line costs far more than any tax rate.Universal Social Charge exemption limit, €13,000 for 2026
Italy	€35,000–€44,000	74%	The ulteriore detrazione is withdrawnBetween €20,000 and €40,000 of income an additional deduction is progressively taken away. Losing it as you earn adds to the ordinary rate, so the real marginal rate across this band is far above the 33% or 43% headline.L. 207/2024, ulteriore detrazione €20,000–€40,000 (structural from 2026)
Spain	€18,100–€22,500	68%	The employment-income reduction phases outA reduction of up to €7,302 makes salaries below about €14,852 effectively tax-free, then withdraws at €1.75 for every euro earned until it is gone at €19,747.50. Losing it while also paying tax on the new income is what produces the spike — on a modest salary, not a large one.Reducción por rendimientos del trabajo, 2026 amounts
United Kingdom	£100,000–£126,000	62%	The personal allowance is withdrawnAbove £100,000 the tax-free personal allowance is cut by £1 for every £2 earned, disappearing entirely at £125,140. Losing allowance while paying 40% on the income produces an effective 60% band — 62% once National Insurance is added — that is higher than the 45% additional rate above it.Personal allowance taper from £100,000, £1 for every £2
Netherlands	€80,000–€132,000	56%	The labour credit keeps being withdrawnThe arbeidskorting is worth up to €5,685 and then tapers away at 6.51% of income above €45,592, running until it hits zero at €132,920. Where that withdrawal overlaps the 49.5% top rate, the real marginal rate sits around 56% — above the headline rate for the band.Arbeidskorting taper 6.51%, ending at €132,920 (2026)
Portugal	€98,000–€150,000	56%	Social security never stopsMost countries cap contributions somewhere — Germany at €5,812.50 a month, Spain at €5,101.20, Greece at €7,761.94 — so a high earner's marginal rate falls once they pass it. Portugal has no employee ceiling at all. The 11% keeps applying to every euro, and on top of the 48% band that makes the real marginal rate about 56% however much you earn.Segurança Social employee contribution 11%, uncapped; IRS top band 48%

The whole curve, country by country

The shaded area is the effective rate as income rises. The line above it is the marginal rate — what the next €100 costs at that point. Where the line jumps, a threshold has been crossed.

Effective rate — what you have paid in totalMarginal rate — what the next €100 costsMarks show a threshold. The marginal axis stops at 100%; the real figures are below.

Effective versus marginal

The effective rate answers “how much of my salary goes in tax?” The marginal rate answers “is this raise worth taking, and should I ask for it in salary or in something else?” They can differ by thirty points at the same income.

Most of the gap comes from things that are withdrawn as you earn: an allowance that tapers, a credit that phases out, a support payment that steps down. Each withdrawal adds to the headline rate without appearing in any published bracket table, which is why the highest marginal rates in Europe are usually not at the top of the scale.

How this page is built

Several hundred salaries per country are run through the same engine that answers our API, sampled at €100 intervals at the low end where thresholds cluster. Coarser sampling misses them entirely: Ireland's €13,000 step averages away to nothing if you look every €500.

Steps are detected from the measurements. The explanations are written by hand and checked against the legislation, and a step without one is treated as a suspected bug in our own calculator rather than as a finding.

Frequently asked questions

What is a marginal tax rate?: The share of your next euro that you lose to tax and social security. It is not the same as the effective rate, which is the share of your whole salary that you lose. On a €40,000 salary you might keep 72% overall while a raise is taxed at 48% — and at certain thresholds the next euro can cost far more than 100%.
How can a marginal rate be above 100%?: When a threshold applies a charge to your whole income rather than only to the part above it. Ireland's Universal Social Charge is not due at all below €13,000; a euro over and it is charged on everything. Crossing such a line can leave you with less money than before you got the raise.
Where do these figures come from?: They are measured, not looked up. We run several hundred salaries per country through the same engine that powers our calculator and the API, then compute what each additional step actually costs. Nothing on this page is a rate typed in by hand.
Why do you only list some of the steps you find?: Because a very high marginal rate is either a remarkable piece of tax law or a bug in our own calculator, and we do not publish one until we know which. Every step listed here has been traced to a specific rule in that country's legislation. Anything we cannot yet account for is flagged internally and left off the page.
Do these apply to me?: The curves assume a single employee with no children, on 2026 rules, with no special regime. Family circumstances, age and regimes such as Spain's Beckham Law or the Dutch 30% ruling move the thresholds. Use the calculator for your own situation.

Find your own number

These curves are for a single employee with no children. Your thresholds move with your circumstances — and if you are near one of these lines, it is worth knowing before you negotiate.

Calculate your take-home pay →