How can I calculate what my tax bill will come to?

Is there a clear guide as to how to calculate your income tax liability – I believe the government provides something but what if your language skills are not good?

The tax offices provide a simulator for income tax that is usually available from the early part of the year, and before the final forms are ready and declarations open. 

You can find it at tinyurl.com/simu-tax. 

It comes in two formats: a ‘simplified’ one sufficient for people whose tax affairs are fairly straightforward (including fields for some common forms of overseas income), and a ‘complete’ one for those who need to declare, for example, self-employment income, certain less common kinds of tax credit/reduction amounts such as for investments in overseas territories.

What is presented to you is a simplified and quick-to-fill-in combined version of the tax forms, and if you complete it all it will estimate your tax to pay. It does not offer an English-language version but, depending on the internet browser you use, you may be able to click to translate the page(s). It also is not set up to account for foreign ‘tax credit’ income such as US pensions or UK rents.

It is up to you as to whether you find this a useful exercise. One benefit is that whatever you insert is only for your own information and there is no risk of it being submitted to the tax office.

Otherwise, when you come to complete your actual declaration, if you do it online, you will obtain your expected tax bill figure at the end of the process before you sign it off. You can take as long as you like to finish all sections (until your declaration deadline) and can even resubmit the form again if you forget something.

See also chapter 5: 10 steps for the basic process for calculating tax for a resident for an explanation of the main steps for how your tax bill is worked out.