Gross vs net — and what your offer letter actually says
Gross is the amount your employer accrues for you before any withholding. Russian personal income tax (НДФЛ) comes out of it, and the remainder is transferred to your account. That remainder is the net salary, which Russians call “на руки” — literally “into the hands”.
Russian job postings quote gross by default. Unless the ad explicitly says “на руки”, assume the number you see is pre-tax and at least 13% above what you will receive. On a ₽200,000 salary that gap is ₽26,000 every month.
There is a third number: what you cost the company. On top of your gross, the employer pays social contributions, which push the true cost of employment roughly 30% above your salary. The calculator shows that figure too — it is useful leverage when a recruiter tells you the budget is closed.
How to use the calculator
- Enter the amount from the job posting or offer — say, 250,000.
- Choose what that number is: gross (pre-tax, the default) or net (the calculator then solves for the gross salary that delivers it).
- Pick the period — per month or per year. Annual figures are common in offers from international companies.
- Open the advanced settings if you need them: children, tax status, regional coefficient, northern bonus and the employer’s contribution tariff.
Results update as you type — there is no “calculate” button, and nothing is sent anywhere: the whole computation runs in your browser.
Reading the results
- Take-home per month — your pay after tax early in the year, before your cumulative income crosses the first threshold.
- Gross per month — the accrual, including the regional coefficient and northern bonus if you set them.
- Effective rate for the year — total tax divided by total gross. This is the rate you actually pay, and it is always lower than your top bracket, because the higher percentage only ever touches the excess.
- The step-up warning — the month your income crosses a threshold and the amount you receive afterwards. That crossing month is usually a partial one: the threshold falls in the middle of it, so the higher rate only reaches part of that salary, and the full drop shows up the month after.
- Total cost to the employer — gross plus social contributions.
Formulas and method
We compute exactly the way your employer’s payroll department does.
Step 1. A cumulative tax base
Each month, all income since January 1 is summed, deductions are subtracted, and the result is your cumulative tax base. Tax is computed on that whole base under the scale, and the tax already withheld in previous months is subtracted from it. The difference is this month’s withholding.
That is why a constant salary produces different withholdings: while the base is under ₽2.4M you pay 13%, and above it 15% on the excess.
Step 2. The progressive scale
The scale is marginal — each rate applies only to its own slice of income. The Tax Code spells it out as “a fixed amount plus a percentage of the excess”, e.g. ₽312,000 + 15% of anything above ₽2.4M.
Step 3. Regional coefficients are a separate base
The regional coefficient and northern bonus are not pooled with the main salary. They have their own scale — 13% up to ₽5M and 15% above. So that part of your pay can still be taxed at 13% while your base salary is already in the 18% bracket.
That rule, though, is written for residents. For a non-resident on a special status (HQS, patent, remote work) the uplift falls into the main base and rides the full progressive scale — a materially higher bill. EAEU citizens are taxed at resident rates from day one, so the calculator keeps the separate base for them, but not the deductions: those only start once they actually become tax residents.
Step 4. The inverse: net to gross
“Gross = net ÷ 0.87” falls apart the moment child deductions or a regional coefficient enter the picture, so we solve for the salary numerically. One important caveat: with a progressive scale an identical net every month is mathematically impossible — it must fall once a bracket is crossed. So we solve for the salary that pays your target while the 13% rate still applies, and separately tell you from which month, and to what, the payout drops.
To take home ₽300,000, for instance, you need a gross of ₽344,828. That is what you receive from January through June. In July your year-to-date income passes ₽2.4M — but it passes it mid-month, so only part of July’s salary is taxed at 15% and ₽299,725 reaches your card. From August the threshold is fully behind you, and the payout settles at ₽293,104 for the rest of the year.
Step 5. Employer contributions
Contributions are charged on the full gross: 30% up to the annual cap (₽2,979,000 in 2026) and 15.1% above it, plus injury insurance from 0.2% depending on risk class. Accredited IT companies pay 15% within the cap and 7.6% above it in 2026.
Income tax rates in 2026: the progressive scale
Since January 1, 2025 Russia has had a five-step scale, unchanged for 2026. Your rate depends on cumulative income from the start of the year — and applies only to the amount above each threshold.
| Year-to-date income | Rate | Tax due |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₽2.4M | 13% | 13% of income |
| ₽2.4M – ₽5M | 15% | ₽312,000 + 15% of the excess over ₽2.4M |
| ₽5M – ₽20M | 18% | ₽702,000 + 18% of the excess over ₽5M |
| ₽20M – ₽50M | 20% | ₽3,402,000 + 20% of the excess over ₽20M |
| Above ₽50M | 22% | ₽9,402,000 + 22% of the excess over ₽50M |
The ₽2.4M annual threshold is ₽200,000 a month. Everything you earn above it is taxed at 15%. Non-residents pay a flat 30% with no deductions. Highly qualified specialists, EAEU citizens, foreigners on a patent and remote employees of Russian companies, however, fall under the same progressive scale as residents.
Child deductions that lower your tax
A standard deduction reduces the tax base: no income tax is charged on that slice of your pay at all. Since 2025 employers apply these automatically from tax-service data — no application needed.
| Basis | Deduction per month | Tax saved |
|---|---|---|
| First child | ₽1,400 | ₽182 |
| Second child | ₽2,800 | ₽364 |
| Third and each additional | ₽6,000 | ₽780 |
| Child with a disability (parents) | +₽12,000 | +₽1,560 |
| Sole parent | Deduction doubles | ×2 |
The catch is the ₽450,000 cap: from the month your year-to-date income exceeds it, the deduction stops. On a ₽100,000 salary that is four months; on ₽250,000 it is one. So at senior-level pay the saving is symbolic. An employee earning ₽250,000 with two children shelters only January’s ₽4,200 from tax, which puts ₽546 extra in that month’s pay. Across the year the saving comes to slightly more — ₽630 — because those same ₽4,200 come off the top of the annual base, and by December that slice is taxed at 15%.
Two more rules shape the picture. First, the cap is measured on the main tax base, and the regional coefficient and northern bonus are not part of it — so northern workers keep the deduction longer than their gross pay would suggest. Second, birth order and eligibility are different things: a grown-up child earns no deduction but still holds their place in the order, so if your eldest has grown up, the next child counts as the second and the deduction on them is ₽2,800. Hence the two separate fields in the calculator.
Worked examples
Russian tax resident, no deductions, no regional coefficient. Watch the last two columns: below ₽200,000 a month the take-home is flat all year — above it, it starts to fall.
| Gross / month | Net in January | Net in December | Tax for the year | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₽100,000 | ₽87,000 | ₽87,000 | ₽156,000 | 13.0% |
| ₽150,000 | ₽130,500 | ₽130,500 | ₽234,000 | 13.0% |
| ₽200,000 | ₽174,000 | ₽174,000 | ₽312,000 | 13.0% |
| ₽250,000 | ₽217,500 | ₽212,500 | ₽402,000 | 13.4% |
| ₽300,000 | ₽261,000 | ₽255,000 | ₽492,000 | 13.7% |
| ₽400,000 | ₽348,000 | ₽340,000 | ₽672,000 | 14.0% |
| ₽500,000 | ₽435,000 | ₽410,000 | ₽882,000 | 14.7% |
One offer, in full
Irina is offered ₽250,000 gross and has two children. In January she receives ₽218,046 — salary minus tax, reduced by a ₽4,200 deduction. By February her year-to-date income passes ₽450,000, the deduction switches off, and she gets ₽217,500. In October her cumulative income crosses ₽2.4M. October is the transition month: only part of that salary meets the 15% rate, so ₽215,584 reaches her card. From November to the end of the year she receives ₽212,500. Over twelve months she earns ₽3M gross, pays ₽401,370 of tax and keeps ₽2,598,630 — on average, tax takes 13.38% of her salary. Her employer spends ₽3,902,871 on her: her gross pay plus ₽902,871 of social contributions.
When this calculator does not apply
The calculator models salaried employment and does not replace your payslip.
- Self-employed and sole traders. They pay a professional income tax (4–6%) or their own regime plus fixed contributions.
- Civil-law contracts (ГПХ). Income tax works the same way, but contributions and payment terms differ.
- Partial months. Vacation, sick leave, joining or leaving mid-month change the accrual — we model full months.
- Bonuses. An annual bonus is income of the month it is paid, so it can pull your rate step-up earlier in the year.
- Property and social deductions. Buying a home, medical treatment or tuition reduce your tax, but are claimed separately.
- Dividends, deposits, asset sales. Separate tax bases with their own 13% / 15% scale.
- Guardians and foster parents get ₽6,000 for a disabled child. We apply the parents’ ₽12,000 rate, which overstates their deduction.
- Foreigners on a patent offset their income tax against the fixed advance patent payments. Not modelled.
- Contributions for HQS. Temporarily-staying highly qualified specialists from outside the EAEU only attract injury insurance, so the “cost to the employer” figure overstates their case.
What to do with this number when negotiating
Compare offers on annual net. The monthly figure misleads: because of the progression, two offers with the same gross but different structures (flat salary versus salary plus a large bonus) leave different amounts in your pocket over a year.
Talk to recruiters in gross. Companies budget pre-tax. If you say “I want ₽200,000 in hand” and the offer arrives at ₽200,000 gross, you have just lost ₽26,000 a month. Convert your target to gross first, then quote that.
Know your true cost. When a recruiter says they cannot add ₽30,000 to the range, that is about ₽39,000 for the company once contributions are counted. Not an argument against asking — just an understanding of what you are asking for.
Don’t fear the progression. The higher rate only ever touches income above the threshold. A ₽300,000 offer is still clearly better than a ₽250,000 one: the effective rate rises only from 13.4% to 13.7%.
Frequently asked questions
Is gross before or after tax?
Gross is the salary before personal income tax (НДФЛ) is withheld. Net — “на руки” in Russian — is what remains after the tax and reaches your bank card. Russian job postings quote gross by default unless they explicitly say “на руки”.
The posting says ₽200,000. What do I actually get?
₽174,000 per month if you are a Russian tax resident with no deductions. Over a year that is ₽2,400,000 gross and ₽312,000 of tax. This is the borderline case: the income lands exactly on the ₽2.4M threshold, so the rate stays at 13% all year and your take-home never changes.
Why is my December take-home lower than January's?
Because of the progressive scale. Tax is computed on your cumulative income from January 1: once that total passes ₽2.4M, every further ruble is taxed at 15%. On a ₽300,000 salary, eight months add up to exactly ₽2.4M, so from September you receive ₽255,000 instead of ₽261,000. Your salary itself has not changed.
Does the 15% rate apply to my whole salary?
No. The higher rate applies only to the amount above the threshold. On ₽3M of annual income, the first ₽2.4M is taxed at 13% (₽312,000) and only the remaining ₽600,000 at 15%. The idea that earning more re-taxes your entire salary at the top rate is a myth.
How do I convert net back to gross?
Switch the calculator to “Net” mode and enter the take-home you want — it solves for the gross salary. To receive ₽200,000 you need a gross of ₽229,885; for ₽300,000 it is ₽344,828. Note this is what lands on your card while the 13% rate still applies: once your year-to-date income passes ₽2.4M, the same gross pays out less, and the calculator tells you from which month and by how much.
Am I taxed at 30% as a foreigner?
Only if you are a plain non-resident. Highly qualified specialists (ВКС), citizens of EAEU countries, foreigners on a patent, refugees and — since 2024 — remote employees of Russian companies are taxed on the same progressive 13–22% scale as residents. Non-residents of any kind, however, cannot claim deductions. There is one further subtlety: the separate 13/15% base for regional coefficients is a resident-only rule, so for an HQS or patent holder that uplift is taxed inside the main progressive base instead.
Does the calculator handle child deductions?
Yes. The standard deduction is ₽1,400 for the first child, ₽2,800 for the second, ₽6,000 for the third and each additional one; a disabled child adds ₽12,000 for parents, and a sole parent gets double. It stops from the month your year-to-date MAIN tax base exceeds ₽450,000. Grown-up children earn no deduction themselves but still hold their place in the birth order — if your eldest has grown up, the next child counts as the second, not the first — which is why the calculator asks both how many children you have and how many are already grown.
What does my employer pay on top of my salary?
Social contributions: 30% on payroll up to ₽2,979,000 per year and 15.1% above that, plus injury insurance from 0.2%. On a ₽250,000 monthly salary the company spends roughly ₽3,902,871 a year versus ₽3,000,000 of gross pay. Accredited IT companies pay less: 15% within the cap and 7.6% above it.
Does this work for self-employed people or sole traders?
No. It models salaried employment, where the employer withholds income tax. The self-employed pay a professional income tax (4–6%), and sole traders (ИП) pay tax under their own regime plus fixed contributions for themselves.
Sources
Every rate, threshold and deduction on this page comes from a primary source: the text of the Russian Tax Code and the acts that revise the thresholds each year. All of them are in Russian.
- Tax Code, article 224 — tax rates — the five-step 13–22% scale and the thresholds at which the rate steps up. Paragraph 1.2 holds the separate base for regional coefficients and northern bonuses, which stays at 13% up to ₽5M even when the base salary is already taxed at 18%.
- Tax Code, article 226 — withholding by the tax agent — the rule behind the mid-year drop in take-home pay: tax is computed on the cumulative base from January 1, and the employer withholds the difference against what it has already withheld (paragraph 3).
- Tax Code, article 218 — standard deductions — the child deduction amounts, the double deduction for a sole parent and the ₽450,000 cap that switches the deduction off.
- Tax Code, article 425 — social contribution tariffs — the general 30% rate and the 15.1% that applies above the annual cap. Reduced tariffs, including the one for accredited IT companies, are in article 427.
- Government Decree No. 1705 of 31.10.2025 — the ₽2,979,000 contribution cap for 2026. It is revised every year, so it is the first line to change each January.
- Federal Law No. 429-FZ of 28.11.2025 — the ₽27,093 minimum wage for 2026, which sets the threshold above which small companies pay the reduced contribution tariff.
This calculator is for reference and does not replace tax advice. Your employer, as the tax agent, determines the exact withholding.