Withholding tax is not charged on your gross salary. First subtract your mandatory contributions — the employee shares of SSS + PhilHealth + Pag-IBIG — to get your taxable income. If that is ₱20,833 or below per month, your tax is ₱0. Above that, apply the BIR TRAIN bracket: a fixed amount plus a percentage of the excess. A ₱30,000 salary works out to about ₱1,007.55 a month.
Almost everyone who gets a payslip in the Philippines has withholding tax deducted from it, and the 2026 figures come from the BIR withholding tax table under the TRAIN law (Republic Act 10963). The monthly table has been unchanged since January 2023 and continues to apply for 2026. The single most common mistake is applying the tax rate to your gross pay — so before anything else, remember one rule: tax lands on what's left after your contributions come out.
Want to see the whole payslip at once? The Take-Home Pay Calculator runs contributions and tax together and shows your true net salary in one pass.
The one rule that trips everyone up
The BIR does not tax your gross salary. It taxes your taxable income, which is:
This ordering matters more than it looks. Those contributions shrink the base the tax table is applied to, so a worker who ignores them will always over-estimate the tax. Get the taxable income right and the rest is just a lookup.
The 2026 monthly TRAIN tax table
Once you have your monthly taxable income, find the row it falls into. Each bracket is a fixed peso amount plus a percentage of the amount over the bracket floor.
| Monthly taxable income | Withholding tax |
|---|---|
| ₱0 – ₱20,833 | 0.00 (exempt) |
| Over ₱20,833 – ₱33,332 | 15% of excess over 20,833 |
| Over ₱33,333 – ₱66,666 | 1,875 + 20% of excess over 33,333 |
| Over ₱66,667 – ₱166,666 | 8,541.80 + 25% of excess over 66,667 |
| Over ₱166,667 – ₱666,666 | 33,541.80 + 30% of excess over 166,667 |
| Over ₱666,667 | 183,541.80 + 35% of excess over 666,667 |
The floors and fixed amounts refer to taxable income, not gross salary. Contributions come out before you reach this table.
Step by step
Step 1 — Add up your mandatory contributions
Total the employee shares of your SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG for the month. These are the same deductions already on your payslip.
Step 2 — Subtract them to get taxable income
Gross salary minus those contributions is your taxable income — the number the tax table actually cares about.
Step 3 — Find your bracket and apply it
Locate the row your taxable income falls in, take the fixed amount, and add the stated percentage of the amount over that bracket's floor. If you're at or below ₱20,833, you're done — the tax is ₱0.
Worked example — ₱30,000 salary
Take an employed worker earning ₱30,000 gross per month.
- Contributions: SSS ₱1,500 + PhilHealth ₱750 + Pag-IBIG ₱200 = ₱2,450
- Taxable income: 30,000 − 2,450 = ₱27,550
- That falls in the 15% bracket (over ₱20,833): tax = (27,550 − 20,833) × 15% = 6,717 × 15% = ₱1,007.55
So on a ₱30,000 salary, only ₱1,007.55 is withheld for tax each month — not the far larger figure you'd get by taxing the full ₱30,000.
Worked example — ₱50,000 salary
Now a worker earning ₱50,000 gross.
- Contributions: SSS ₱1,750 + PhilHealth ₱1,250 + Pag-IBIG ₱200 = ₱3,200
- Taxable income: 50,000 − 3,200 = ₱46,800
- That falls in the 20% bracket (over ₱33,333): tax = 1,875 + 20% × (46,800 − 33,333) = 1,875 + 20% × 13,467 = 1,875 + 2,693.40 = ₱4,568.40
Withholding tax at a glance (2026)
Here's the full path — gross to tax — at five common salary levels for an employed member.
| Gross salary | Contributions | Taxable income | Monthly tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₱20,000 | 1,700 | 18,300 | 0.00 |
| ₱25,000 | 2,075 | 22,925 | 313.80 |
| ₱30,000 | 2,450 | 27,550 | 1,007.55 |
| ₱40,000 | 2,950 | 37,050 | 2,618.40 |
| ₱50,000 | 3,200 | 46,800 | 4,568.40 |
Contributions use the employee shares: SSS at 5% of the Monthly Salary Credit, PhilHealth at 2.5%, and Pag-IBIG capped at ₱200. Your exact figures may vary slightly by bracket.
Don't want to do this by hand?
Enter your salary and let the calculator subtract your contributions, find your TRAIN bracket, and return your exact monthly withholding tax instantly.
Open the Withholding Tax Calculator →Why your number can differ slightly
- Contribution amounts vary by bracket. SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG each snap your salary to their own tables, so the total deducted before tax shifts as your pay changes.
- Pay frequency changes the table. Semi-monthly and weekly earners use the matching BIR table for that period; the monthly table above is the most common reference point.
- Annualization at year-end. Employers reconcile the year's total withholding against your actual annual tax, which can produce a small refund or an added deduction on your final payslip.