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Tax-year changes, Ireland

Ireland tax changes for 2026

Budget 2026 left income tax bands and credits where they were, widened the 2% USC band and raised PRSI again from October. Here is each rule side by side, and what it does to your pay.

Reviewed by CentExactRules effective 2 sources

Income tax stood still

Budget 2026 made no change to income tax. The standard rate band for a single person is still €44,000, the personal and employee tax credits are still €2,000 each, and income above the band is still taxed at 40%. After two years of rises in the band and the credits, this is a freeze, and on a salary that rises with prices more of it now reaches the higher rate.

The 2% USC band was widened

The one change in your favour is to the Universal Social Charge. The 2% band now runs to €28,700 instead of €27,382, in line with the rise in the national minimum wage, so a full-time worker on the minimum wage stays out of the 3% band. Anyone earning more than the old limit gains 1% of the difference, 13.18 euro a year. The 0.5% band, the 3% band's upper limit of €70,044 and the 8% rate above it did not change.

PRSI rose again in October

Employee PRSI went up on 1 October for the second year running, from 4.2% to 4.35%, after rising from 4.1% to 4.2% in October 2025. These are steps in the schedule of increases set out in the government's Roadmap for Social Insurance Reform to fund the State Pension. Over the calendar year your PRSI works out at 4.24% of pay, up from 4.13%, and because PRSI has no ceiling the extra cost grows with your salary. That is why the impact table shows a loss at every salary, larger as pay rises: the PRSI increase outweighs the USC gain wherever both apply.

Employers pay more too: 11.4% from October, or 9.15% on weekly pay up to €552, a limit raised from €527 with the minimum wage. The PRSI credit for lower earners is unchanged at up to €12 a week. To see your own figure, try your salary in the take-home pay calculator.

Every rule, 2025 and 2026

7 of the 48 rules below changed. Each value is read from the 2025 and 2026 datasets, so a rule appears as changed only if the published figure changed.

USC

USC: 2025 and 2026
Rule20252026Change

PRSI

PRSI: 2025 and 2026
Rule20252026Change
Employee rate across the year4.13%4.24%+0.113 pp
Employee rate to 30 September4.1%4.2%+0.1 pp
Employee rate from 1 October4.2%4.35%+0.15 pp
Employer rate11.25%11.4%+0.15 pp
Employer reduced rate9%9.15%+0.15 pp
Employer reduced rate on weekly pay up to€527€552+€25
No PRSI on weekly pay up to€352€352No change
PRSI credit a week, at most€12€12No change
PRSI credit ends at weekly pay of€424€424No change
PRSI credit falls by one part in66No change
No PRSI from age6666No change

Income tax

Income tax: 2025 and 2026
Rule20252026Change

Pension relief

Pension relief: 2025 and 2026
Rule20252026Change

Take-home pay under both years' rules

Annual take-home pay at each salary, worked out by the take-home pay calculator's own engine under the 2025 rules and the 2026 rules, with the calculator's opening assumptions for everything else.

Single PAYE employee

Take-home pay, Single PAYE employee, 2025 and 2026
Salary2025 take-home2026 take-homeChange a year
€25,000€22,648.93€22,620.80-€28.13
€35,000€29,960.25€29,934.05-€26.20
€45,000€37,047.75€37,010.30-€37.45
€55,000€42,335.25€42,286.55-€48.70
€70,000€50,266.50€50,200.93-€65.57
€90,000€59,843.70€59,755.63-€88.07
€120,000€74,206.20€74,084.38-€121.82
€150,000€88,568.70€88,413.13-€155.57

Work out your own figure: take-home pay on 2026 rules or on 2025 rules.

Data sources

Both years' rules are read from datasets that record where each figure came from and when it applies. 2026 took effect on 1 January 2026.

  1. Ireland: income tax, USC and PRSI Class A, 2026

    Revenue, Tax rates, bands and reliefs (2026 chart); Revenue, USC standard rates and thresholds; Revenue, Employee (PAYE) Tax Credit; Department of Social Protection, PRSI contribution rates SW14 (January 2026).

    Effective 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. Retrieved 29 August 2026. Within its effective period.

    PAYE employees on Class A PRSI. The employee PRSI rate rises from 4.2% to 4.35% on 1 October 2026, so a full tax year is charged at the composite rate of 4.2375% used by the Budget calculators. Married two-income cases allocate the lower earner's income against the couple's band first, which is Revenue's default. Rent, mortgage-interest, home-carer and other optional credits, benefit in kind, and the self-employed USC surcharge are not modelled.

    How we checked these figures

    Employer PRSI: 9.15% on weekly earnings up to 552 euro and 11.4% above, the rates from 1 October 2026 (Department of Social Protection SW14, January 2026). The 552 euro limit was corrected on 2026-10-19 from 441 euro, the limit that applied before 2024.

  2. Ireland: income tax, USC and PRSI Class A, 2025

    Revenue, Tax rates, bands and reliefs; Revenue, USC standard rates and thresholds; Department of Social Protection, Advance notice of PRSI changes for 2025; Citizens Information, PRSI contributions increase from today (1 October 2025).

    Effective 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026. Past its effective period.

    PAYE employees on Class A PRSI. The employee PRSI rate rose from 4.1% to 4.2% on 1 October 2025, so a full tax year is charged at the composite rate of 4.125%. Employer PRSI was 8.9% on weekly earnings up to 527 euro and 11.15% above until 30 September 2025, then 9% and 11.25%; the later rates are recorded. Married two-income cases allocate the lower earner's income against the couple's band first, which is Revenue's default. Rent, mortgage-interest, home-carer and other optional credits, benefit in kind, and the self-employed USC surcharge are not modelled.

    How we checked these figures

    Credits and bands from Revenue's 2025 column; USC at 0.5% on the first 12,012 euro, 2% on the next 15,370 and 3% on the next 42,662 from Revenue's USC table; PRSI from the Department of Social Protection's 2025 advance notice (4.1%, a credit of up to 12 euro a week between 352 and 424 euro, the reduced employer rate up to 527 euro).