Understanding take-home pay
Gross vs net salary: what is take-home pay?
Understand the difference between your salary, your take-home estimate and the cash left after saving.
Understanding take-home pay
Annual salary tax estimate vs payroll withholding
Understand why an annual salary-after-tax estimate can differ from the amount deposited on payday.
Canada · Ontario fictional example; payroll rules vary · 2026
Two different questions
An annual estimate asks what modeled tax and employee deductions apply to a full year of supported income. Payroll withholding asks what an employer should deduct from a particular payment, using payroll facts and applicable rules. A planning average is not a payroll instruction.
The fictional Ontario example below uses CA$60,000 of ordinary annual salary, basic claims and no voluntary contributions. It illustrates the engine's annual result; it is not an exact deposit forecast.
CA$60,000.00 gross annual income
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Take-home | CA$47,339.75 |
| Federal income tax | CA$5,338.30 |
| Ontario income tax | CA$2,982.20 |
| CPP | CA$3,361.75 |
| CPP2 | CA$0.00 |
| Employment Insurance | CA$978.00 |
Fictional full-year resident employee, basic claims, ordinary CPP/EI treatment. No other income or deductions. RRSP and TFSA are zero except in their named cases. Display amounts rounded to cents; rates to one decimal. Engine verification: 9 October 2026.
References: FCAC · Understanding your pay and deductions · CRA · January 2026 payroll formulas
Compare the inputs on your pay stub
Check gross salary, taxable benefits, employee contributions, pension or benefit deductions, pay frequency, partial-year employment and year-to-date amounts. Two estimates with different inputs do not establish an error in either one.
Use the relevant official payroll calculation and your employer's records when checking actual withholding. TaxCalcy does not replace a complete filed return, employer payroll calculation or individual advice.
References: FCAC · Understanding your pay and deductions · CRA · January 2026 payroll formulas
Sources and verification
Official references checked 2026-10-13. Examples reproduced with the existing TaxCalcy engine; no qualified human tax review is recorded.
- FCAC · Understanding your pay and deductionsGross/net definitions and common pay-stub deductions
- CRA · January 2026 payroll formulasEmployee contributions, basic credits and Ontario adjustments; annualized model reference
Example inputs and model record
Canada · Ontario · 2026 · annual salary · full-year resident employee · basic claims. Other income, household entries, FHSA and other deductions are zero. Hours/week: 40; weeks/year: 52. No professional review is claimed.
baseline
Salary CAD 60,000.00. RRSP CA$0.00; entered RRSP room CA$0.00; TFSA CA$0.00.
Recorded annual output: income tax CAD 8,320.50; employee payroll CAD 4,339.75; take-home CAD 47,339.75.
Model: ca-2026-2105625dff9c · release taxcalcy-candidate-2026-09-27.10 · schema 1 · approval NEEDS_REVIEW
Reproduced 2026-10-09; amounts to cents, rates to one decimal. Recorded inputs and outputs are retained in the repository.
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