This calculator estimates employee take-home pay in Kenya using official tax bands, statutory rates, and deduction caps for tax year 2026/2027. Enter your gross salary to see estimated PAYE income tax, employee fund contributions, and net take-home pay.
How to use this estimate
Use this calculation for personal budget planning, offer comparison, or sense-checking your monthly payslip.
Enter regular gross base salary. Discretionary bonuses, overtime, taxable allowances, or age-specific tax rebates may adjust your actual payroll slip.
Required Inputs
- Gross salary in KES (KSh)
- Frequency selector — Monthly or Annual
Example Salary Breakdown
On a gross salary of KES 100,000/month:
- Gross Salary
- KSh100,000/moKSh1,200,000/yr
- PAYE Income Tax
- KSh19,308/moKSh231,700/yr
- NSSF Employee Contribution
- KSh6,000/moKSh72,000/yr
- SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund)
- KSh2,750/moKSh33,000/yr
- Affordable Housing Levy
- KSh1,500/moKSh18,000/yr
- Effective Tax Rate
- 29.6%
Employer pays
Total fund contribution
Employer pays
Total fund contribution
How salary deductions work in Kenya
Kenya uses Pay As You Earn (PAYE), a progressive income tax administered by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Before PAYE is calculated, three mandatory statutory deductions are subtracted from your gross salary: NSSF (retirement savings), SHIF (health insurance), and the Affordable Housing Levy. What remains after these deductions is your "taxable pay," which is then taxed in bands from 10% up to a top marginal rate of 35%. A fixed monthly personal relief of KES 2,400 is then subtracted from the tax calculated, further reducing what you actually owe.
NSSF contributions moved to a tiered structure being phased in since 2023, and now stand at 6% of pensionable pay up to a monthly cap of KES 108,000 — meaning the maximum employee NSSF deduction is KES 6,480 per month. SHIF, which replaced the former NHIF health insurance scheme in 2024, is a flat 2.75% of gross salary. The Affordable Housing Levy, introduced in 2024, adds a further 1.5% of gross salary, matched by an equal employer contribution.
Because these three deductions are subtracted before PAYE is applied, they effectively lower your taxable income as well as your take-home pay directly — a detail this calculator models to match how KRA computes tax in practice. Your effective tax rate (total tax and deductions as a share of gross pay) will always be lower than the top PAYE band, since each band only taxes the portion of income that falls within it.
What is included
- Kenya PAYE income tax bands with personal relief applied
- NSSF tiered employee contribution (effectively 6%, capped at KES 108,000/month of pensionable pay), shown alongside the matching 6% employer contribution
- SHIF employee contribution (2.75% of gross) — SHIF has no employer-matching contribution
- Affordable Housing Levy employee contribution (1.5% of gross), shown alongside the matching 1.5% employer contribution
- Monthly and annual net pay breakdown
What is excluded
- —SHIF's KES 300/month minimum contribution for very low earners is not modelled — the 2.75% rate is applied directly
- —Individual tax reliefs beyond the standard personal relief (e.g. insurance relief, mortgage interest relief, affordable housing relief)
Frequently Asked Questions
Disclaimer: Figures provided are estimates for personal planning and informational guidance. They do not replace certified payroll or tax advisory services. Last updated: 2026-07-18.