Same Salary, Three Tax Systems
How much of gross pay actually reaches an employee in the UK, Poland and Latvia — computed with each country's real 2026 rules, side by side. Enter pay the way each country quotes it (UK annually, Poland and Latvia monthly).
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇵🇱 Poland
🇱🇻 Latvia
Deliberately no currency conversion: exchange rates change daily and would turn a correct tax comparison into a wrong money comparison. The comparable number across countries is the percentage of gross pay that never reaches the employee. Standard employee cases only (UK: England/Wales/NI unless Scottish bands ticked; PL: umowa o pracę, standard costs; LV: fixed non-taxable minimum, no dependants). Estimates, not advice.
What this page compares — and what it doesn't
Each column applies its country's real 2026 employee-side rules: UK Income Tax bands and National Insurance, Polish ZUS contributions, health contribution and PIT, Latvian VSAOI and IIN with the fixed non-taxable minimum. The maths is the same code that powers our per-country salary calculators — this page cannot drift out of sync with them, because there is only one implementation.
It deliberately does not compare living costs, employer-side contributions, benefits in kind, or what the taxes buy in each country. It answers exactly one question: of the gross pay agreed in the contract, what share reaches the employee's account?
For the full per-country breakdown, use the dedicated calculators: UK take-home pay, wynagrodzenie netto (PL), algas kalkulators (LV). Rates behind all three are listed in our UK tax reference table and Latvian rates table.