Work out PAYE on a normal month's pay, a bonus, or arrears covering multiple months. Enter your taxable pay and the period it covers, and this calculator applies KRA's tax bands and personal relief, scaled to that period, automatically.
Every payslip in Kenya runs the same core PAYE calculation — and so does a bonus, an arrears payment, or backdated pay — but a lump sum covering multiple months isn't taxed the same way as a single month of salary. This PAYE Calculator handles both: enter your taxable pay and the period it covers, from a single month up to a full year, and it applies KRA's tax bands correctly for that period.
How Is PAYE Calculated From Taxable Pay?
PAYE is not a flat percentage. KRA applies progressive tax bands to taxable income, and each band is taxed only on the portion of income that falls inside it.
The first KES 24,000 of taxable income (per month) is taxed at 10%.
The next KES 8,333 is taxed at 25%.
The next KES 467,667 is taxed at 30%.
The next KES 300,000 is taxed at 32.5%.
Anything beyond that is taxed at 35%, the top marginal rate.
Once tax across all bands is added up, KRA's personal relief of KES 2,400 per month is subtracted directly from the tax bill — not from your income — which is what makes the first roughly KES 24,000 of a normal month's pay effectively tax-free for most employees.
Why Does a Bonus or Arrears Payment Get Taxed Differently?
If a payment covers more than one month — a bonus, arrears, or a backdated salary adjustment — KRA scales both the tax bands and the personal relief by the number of months the payment relates to, before calculating tax on the total. This prevents a lump sum from being pushed entirely into the top 35% band, which would happen if ordinary single-month bands were applied to a full year's pay at once.
How Do I Use the Period Selector?
Select a start month and end month for the period your payment covers. For a normal month's salary, leave the start and end month the same (n = 1) — this produces a standard single-month PAYE calculation, identical to a plain monthly PAYE lookup. For a bonus or arrears payment covering, say, a full year, set the range from January to December (n = 12). The end month cannot be earlier than the start month. Enter the total taxable pay for the entire period as one figure, plus any insurance relief that applies (15% of premiums paid, capped at KES 5,000/month, scaled to the period).
How Is the Tax Calculated?
The calculator multiplies each of KRA's five tax band widths and the KES 2,400 personal relief by the number of months in your selected range, then applies the resulting scaled bands to your total taxable pay. Gross tax is the sum of tax across all scaled bands; PAYE due is gross tax minus scaled personal relief minus your insurance relief, floored at zero.
What Does "Show Working" Reveal?
Enable "Show Working" to see a band-by-band table: each band's scaled range, the portion of your taxable pay that falls inside it, its rate, and the tax charged for that band — followed by gross tax, personal relief, insurance relief, and the final PAYE figure. This is the same breakdown KRA examiners use to verify a payslip, bonus, or arrears payment, so it doubles as a way to sanity-check a figure your employer has already processed.
What If I Only Know My Gross Salary?
This calculator works from taxable pay, not gross salary. If you're starting from a gross salary and want the full payslip breakdown — NSSF, SHIF, the Affordable Housing Levy, and net pay — use the Net Pay Calculator instead; it derives taxable pay for you and runs it through these same PAYE bands. Always confirm the final figure against your actual payslip or KRA's guidance for anything binding.
Verify with KRA: This calculator applies the Finance Act 2023 PAYE bands and personal relief as published by KRA. Rates and reliefs change from one Finance Act to the next, so confirm your final figure against KRA's official tax calculator or kra.go.ke before relying on it for filing or payroll.
What is the PAYE tax-free threshold in Kenya?
The first KES 24,000 of monthly income is taxed at 10%, not zero. However, the personal relief of KES 2,400 per month effectively makes income up to KES 24,000 tax-free for most employees.
How is PAYE calculated in Kenya?
PAYE is calculated by applying progressive tax bands to your taxable income, then subtracting personal relief of KES 2,400 per month covered.
What is the highest PAYE rate in Kenya?
The highest marginal PAYE rate is 35%, applicable to income exceeding KES 800,000 per month covered.
How is PAYE calculated on a bonus in Kenya?
KRA scales the tax band widths and the KES 2,400 personal relief by the number of months the bonus relates to, then applies those scaled bands to the total taxable amount — rather than taxing the whole lump sum as a single month's income.
Is a one-off bonus taxed the same as a 12-month bonus?
No. A bonus covering 12 months uses tax bands 12 times as wide and 12 times the personal relief, which usually results in a much lower effective tax rate than applying single-month bands to the same lump sum.