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Palau Salary Calculator 2026

Free Palau salary calculator (2026): estimate take-home pay for employees and the self-employed. Educational, not tax advice.

Simon Bodych

by Simon Bodych

Methodology & sources

Methodology - Palau (2026)

Educational model - not tax advice. Currency USD. Palau levies a Wages and Salary Tax on gross wages, with separate Social Security and Healthcare Fund contributions.

Employee (Wages and Salary Tax)

  • The Wages and Salary Tax (40 PNCA 1101) is levied on gross annual wages and salaries, with no personal allowance and no standard deduction. Social Security and Healthcare Fund contributions are not deductible from the wage-tax base.
  • Income tax 2026 (progressive on gross): 6% on the first USD 8,000, 10% on the amount from USD 8,000 to USD 32,000, and 12% on the amount over USD 32,000. The brackets follow the Bureau of Revenue and Taxation withholding table revised 2023-09-01; the upper boundary is USD 32,000, not the USD 40,000 shown on the reform explainer page.
  • Social Security (Retirement Fund) employee share is 7% of remuneration, and the Healthcare Fund (Medical Savings Fund) employee share is 2.5%, for a total of 9.5% of gross. Both are uncapped since the maximum remuneration ceiling was abolished on 1 October 2017.
  • The employer matches Social Security 7% and the Healthcare Fund 2.5% (total Social Security 14%, total Healthcare Fund 5%).
  • This model assumes a standard single resident (more than 60 days in Palau in the tax year). Out of scope: the post-year tuition or charitable contribution refund of up to 10% of tax paid (40 PNCA 1104), the traditional-chief and retired-state-legislator exemptions (40 PNCA 1105), and non-resident or foreign-paid self-filing cases.

Sources: Bureau of Revenue and Taxation - Wages and Salaries Tax Withholding Table, ROPSSA - SS & HCF Contributions.

Self-employed (sole proprietor)

  • Income tax is the Business Profits Tax (BPT) at 12% on net income (gross revenue less allowable deductions) for persons registered for the Palau Goods and Services Tax (PGST), effective 1 January 2023. This is the headline self-employment regime modelled here.
  • Out of scope: the Gross Revenue Tax (GRT) alternative at 4% of gross revenue for non-PGST persons with gross income over USD 50,000.
  • A self-employed person pays both Social Security shares (7% + 7% = 14%) and both Healthcare Fund shares (2.5% + 2.5% = 5%), for a total of 19% on net profit, using the actual income basis. The presumed bases and the elective minimum coverage for small traders are not modelled.

Sources: PalauGov Tax Reform - Business Profits Tax, ROPSSA - SS & HCF Contributions.