About this calculator
Since 2019, China has taxed residents’ salary together with other labour income as comprehensive income, settled once a year. Three layers come off your gross salary before the rate table applies: the flat ¥60,000 basic deduction, your own social insurance and housing fund contributions (fully deductible), and the special additional deductions for children, housing, elderly parents and the like. What remains is taxed on a seven-band scale from 3% to 45%.
The monthly payslip is only a withholding estimate on cumulative income, which is why the tax withheld per month creeps up through the year as your cumulative income crosses band thresholds. The annual settlement （汇算清缴， March–June) squares the total — this calculator works in that annual view, which is the number that actually counts.
One more thing your payslip will teach you: your contribution base is not your current monthly pay. It is last year’s average monthly pay, fixed for the social year (mostly July–June) and clamped to 60%–300% of the local average wage. This calculator approximates it from your monthly salary using your province’s verified floor and ceiling where one exists — and if you know your actual base, entering it in the base field makes the result match your payslip. The housing fund base runs on a separate city scale (local minimum wage to 3× the city average wage), which is why it gets its own field.
How to use it
- Enter your gross monthly salary (before any withholding) and any other monthly income taxed with it — annual income is (monthly salary + other monthly income) × 12.
- Pick your province (Guangdong splits into Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Shenzhen splits again into medical tiers 1 and 2).
- Set your housing fund rate to the one on your payslip (there is no official default — the 12% shown is only a starting assumption). If your province’s unemployment split is marked unverified, enter that rate from your payslip too.
- Leave the two base fields at 0 to auto-derive them from your monthly salary (social base clamped to your province’s verified floor/ceiling), or enter your actual bases if you know them.
- Add your special additional deductions for the year (the hint lists the current amounts) and any other deductions.
- Read the tax, your band, and the take-home line — the monthly breakdown below them shows every deduction item by month, and the table shows exactly which bands your income passes through.
The formula
The quick deduction （速算扣除数） is the statutory shortcut that makes the single-rate formula equal to taxing each slice of income at its own band rate. The table below the results shows the slice-by-slice view, which always sums to the same total. Pension is 8% and medical 2% everywhere (Shenzhen tier 2 medical is 0.5%); work injury and maternity are employer-only. The unemployment rate and the base limits come from the province table — see the province FAQ for which splits are verified and which are not. Other monthly income counts toward tax only: contribution bases are salary-based, so it never changes your pension, medical, unemployment or fund lines. Monthly tax is the annual tax averaged over 12 months — with a flat monthly salary, actual withholding varies through the year under cumulative bands, so the average is the honest monthly figure.
Worked example
A Beijing employee on ¥25,000 a month (¥300,000 a year) with the housing fund at 12%: the social base is the monthly salary (above Beijing’s ¥7,162 floor, and no ceiling is verified), so monthly social insurance is ¥25,000 × 10.5% + ¥3 = ¥2,628 and the fund adds ¥3,000 — ¥67,536 for the year. Taxable income is 300,000 − 60,000 − 67,536 − 24,000 = ¥148,464, in the 20% band. Tax = 148,464 × 20% − 16,920 = ¥12,772.80 — take-home pay is ¥219,691.20 for the year, about ¥18,307.60 a month.
Sources: Individual Income Tax Law (bands and ¥60,000 deduction); SAT withholding table (quick deductions); State Council Guofa [2018] No. 41 and Guofa [2023] No. 13 (special additional deduction amounts); provincial/municipal human resources, medical insurance and housing fund notices for the 2025 contribution year (unemployment splits verified for 16 province options; 17 options unverified and left to user input; base limits are the latest verified cycle, 2025 cycle for Beijing/Shanghai/Jiangsu/Zhejiang/Shandong/Henan/Hubei/Guangdong and 2024 July–2025 June cycle otherwise). Verified October 2026. Last updated: October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What are the current special additional deductions?
Per child: children’s education ¥2,000/month and infant care (under 3) ¥2,000/month. Housing: loan interest on a first home ¥1,000/month (max 240 months, once in a lifetime), or rent ¥1,500/month in municipalities, provincial capitals and separately-planned cities, ¥1,100 in other cities with over 1 million urban residents, ¥800 elsewhere — interest and rent cannot both be claimed. Supporting parents aged 60+: ¥3,000/month per family (an only child claims it all; siblings split it, at most ¥1,500 each). Continuing education: ¥400/month for degree study (up to 48 months) or ¥3,600 in the year a vocational certificate is earned. Major medical expenses: the part of out-of-pocket catalogue costs above ¥15,000/year, up to ¥80,000, claimable only at annual settlement.
Why does my monthly withholding change during the year?
Employers withhold on a cumulative basis: each month your year-to-date income is run through the annual bands, and the tax already withheld is subtracted. Early in the year you are taxed mostly at 3–10%; as cumulative income crosses ¥36,000 and ¥144,000 of taxable income, the marginal withholding rate steps up to 10%, then 20%. Your annual total is the same either way — the settlement only redistributes it across months.
Is my annual bonus taxed with my salary?
Optionally not. Under the annual one-off bonus policy (extended to 31 December 2027), a qualifying year-end bonus can be taxed separately: divide it by 12, find its rate in the monthly-converted table, and apply that rate to the whole bonus with one monthly quick deduction. For many middle earners separate taxation is cheaper; once your salary alone reaches the 20% band or higher, folding the bonus into comprehensive income can win instead. This calculator covers salary; compare the bonus both ways before choosing at settlement.
What about the ¥3,600 child subsidy I receive?
The national childcare subsidy (¥3,600 per child per year, paid until age 3, from 2025) is exempt from individual income tax under a 2025 Ministry of Finance / SAT announcement, and it is not a deduction — it never enters the calculation at all.
I have two jobs or freelance income — does this still apply?
The bands and deductions are the same, because comprehensive income combines salary, labour remuneration (counted at 80% after its 20% expense allowance), author’s remuneration and royalties. Withholding at each source will not match the final bill, which is exactly what the annual settlement reconciles. This calculator models a single salary, so treat multi-source results as an estimate of the combined position.
Why do I pick a province — isn’t the tax table national?
The tax table is national, but the contributions are not. Pension (8%), medical (2%) and work injury + maternity (employer-only, 0% for you) are the same everywhere; what changes by province is the unemployment split, the housing fund rate your employer chose within 5%–12%, and the contribution bases. Verified unemployment splits in this calculator: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi at 0.5%; Hebei, Henan and Hubei at 0.3%; Guangdong (Guangzhou and both Shenzhen tiers) at 0.2%; Guangxi and Hainan at 0.5%; Sichuan at 0.4%; Yunnan at 0.3%. Seventeen province options are marked unverified — for those, the calculator uses the rate you enter in the unemployment field (0 if left blank, which understates the deduction, so check your payslip). Guangdong must be split: Shenzhen’s pension floor (¥4,775) and medical tiers differ from Guangzhou, and tier 2 medical is 0.5%, not 2%.
Why doesn’t my calculated contribution match my payslip?
Almost always because of the base, not the rate. Your real social base is last year’s average monthly pay, fixed for the social year (mostly July–June) and clamped to 60%–300% of the local average wage — it is not this month’s salary. The calculator clamps your monthly salary to the province’s verified floor/ceiling as an approximation; base limits shown are the latest verified cycle (2025 cycle for Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Guangdong; 2024 July–2025 June cycle for the other provinces that publish one, which may since have risen). The fund base is a separate city scale. Enter your actual bases from your payslip and the result will match. Two small add-ons are included where verified (Beijing medical +¥3/month, Wuhan +¥7/month); Lanzhou’s large-medical 0.25% add-on was not confirmed for 2025 and is excluded, and Kunming’s 0.2% long-term care premium is excluded pending confirmation of its tax-deduction treatment.
My province says the unemployment split is unverified — what should I enter?
The rate printed on your payslip (your personal unemployment deduction divided by your contribution base). The national unemployment total is 1% (extended to 31 December 2025), but how it splits between employer and employee is set province by province, and for Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Hunan, Guizhou, Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang — plus Chongqing and Shaanxi, where sources conflict — no reliable 2025 split was found. Guessing 0.5% for all of them would be wrong for at least some, so the calculator leaves the field to you instead of inventing a number.
What formula does this China Income Tax calculator use?
Annual income = (Monthly salary + other monthly income) × 12; Social insurance & housing fund = 12 × [social base × (8% pension + medical + unemployment) + housing fund base × fund rate] (+ fixed medical add-ons where they exist: Beijing ¥3/month, Wuhan ¥7/month); Taxable income = Annual income − ¥60,000 − social insurance & housing fund − special additional deductions − other deductions; Tax = Taxable income × band rate − quick deduction The quick deduction （速算扣除数） is the statutory shortcut that makes the single-rate formula equal to taxing each slice of income at its own band rate. The table below the results shows the slice-by-slice view, which always sums to the same total. Pension is 8% and medical 2% everywhere (Shenzhen tier 2 medical is 0.5%); work injury and maternity are employer-only. The unemployment rate and the base limits come from the province table — see the province FAQ for which splits are verified and which are not. Other monthly income counts toward tax only: contribution bases are salary-based, so it never changes your pension, medical, unemployment or fund lines. Monthly tax is the annual tax averaged over 12 months — with a flat monthly salary, actual withholding varies through the year under cumulative bands, so the average is the honest monthly figure. The worked example on this page applies the formula step by step with real numbers, so you can verify the result by hand.