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 rate curves could not be built for this deployment. The explanation of what marginal rates are still stands below, and the calculator is unaffected.

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Most of the gap comes from things that are withdrawn as you earn: an allowance that tapers, a credit that phases out, a support payment that steps down.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 →