Kenya Payroll Calculator: PAYE, SHIF, NSSF, Housing Levy

Enter a gross monthly salary to estimate PAYE, SHIF, NSSF and the Affordable Housing Levy for an employee in Kenya, the employee’s net pay and the employer’s statutory cost. The calculator uses the rates published by KRA, the Social Health Authority and NSSF, checked on 3–4 November 2026.

Gross monthly pay (KES)

Basic pay plus taxable allowances for one month.

Treat the employee’s NSSF contribution as a registered pension contribution when working out taxable pay (KRA allows registered pension or provident fund contributions up to KES 30,000 a month). Confirm the treatment with your payroll adviser.

Employee
Gross pay
NSSF Tier I (6% up to KES 9,000)
NSSF Tier II (6% of pay between KES 9,000 and KES 108,000)
SHIF (2.75%, minimum KES 300)
Affordable Housing Levy (1.5%)
Taxable pay
Tax before relief
Personal relief
PAYE
Estimated net pay

Employer
NSSF employer contribution (matches employee)
Affordable Housing Levy, employer (1.5%)
Total employer cost (gross + employer contributions)

Estimate for a resident employee paid monthly by one employer. It doesn’t include insurance relief, mortgage interest, post-retirement medical fund contributions, benefits in kind or voluntary deductions.

How the estimate is calculated

NSSF: under the Year 4 rates in force from February 2026, the employee and the employer each contribute 6%: Tier I on pay up to the KES 9,000 Lower Earnings Limit (up to KES 540 each) and Tier II on pay between KES 9,000 and the KES 108,000 Upper Earnings Limit (up to KES 5,940 each).

SHIF: 2.75% of gross monthly salary, with a minimum of KES 300, deducted and remitted by the employer. Affordable Housing Levy: 1.5% of gross monthly salary from the employee, matched by 1.5% from the employer.

PAYE: SHIF contributions and the Housing Levy are deducted before tax, as KRA lists them as allowable deductions. Monthly bands for resident individuals are 10% on the first KES 24,000, 25% on the next KES 8,333, 30% on the next KES 467,667, 32.5% on the next KES 300,000 and 35% above KES 800,000, less personal relief of KES 2,400 (rates effective 1 July 2023).

Common questions

Is this calculator an official KRA tool?

No. It is an estimate built from the rates KRA, the Social Health Authority and NSSF publish. Confirm your obligations on the official sites and with your payroll adviser before running payroll.

Why does the employer cost exceed gross pay?

The employer pays its own NSSF contribution, matching the employee's, and its own 1.5% Affordable Housing Levy on top of the employee's gross pay.

Can VisionONE run these deductions in payroll?

VisionONE payroll supports the Kenyan statutory review around PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy, with effective-dated settings for each period. See payroll software for Kenya or managed payroll services.

Kenyan Statutory Filing Deadlines and Remittance Protocols

Accurate payroll calculations must be paired with strict adherence to Kenyan statutory remittance schedules to prevent substantial penalties, interest, and compliance holds from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Social Health Authority (SHA), and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Under the Tax Procedures Act and respective statutory regulations, all employer withholdings and matching contributions must be declared and settled by the 9th day of each following calendar month.

PAYE (Pay As You Earn): Due by the 9th of every month. Employers generate a payment registration number (PRN) on the KRA iTax portal after uploading the unified monthly payroll return. Failure to file or remit attracts a late payment penalty of 5% on the tax due plus statutory interest of 1% per month.
SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund): Remitted by the 9th of each month via the SHA employer portal. The 2.75% gross salary deduction is mandatory for all resident employees, with a minimum statutory floor of KES 300 per month.
NSSF Contributions (Tier I & Tier II): Due by the 9th of each month via the NSSF e-service portal. Both employee and employer matching portions must be cleared using the generated NSSF e-slip before the statutory cutoff to avoid compound late-filing fines.
Affordable Housing Levy (AHL): Due by the 9th of every month on KRA iTax. Employers must remit the 1.5% employee deduction combined with the mandatory 1.5% employer matching portion (total 3.0% of gross pay).

Automating Kenyan Payroll with VisionONE ERP

Manual payroll calculations using spreadsheets frequently introduce human calculation errors, outdated tax brackets, and delayed statutory returns. VisionONE ERP natively integrates human resources, time-and-attendance, and financial accounting into a unified, secure cloud platform built specifically for Kenyan enterprise compliance.

Automated Statutory Compliance: Configurable, effective-dated tax tables guarantee automatic deduction of PAYE, SHIF, NSSF Tier I/II, and Housing Levy across permanent, contract, and probationary staffing tiers.
Direct M-Pesa & Bank File Integration: Generate pre-formatted bulk payment instruction files compatible with all tier-one commercial banks in Kenya (EFT, RTGS, Pesalink) alongside automated M-Pesa B2C batch disbursements straight to staff mobile numbers.
Digital Payslips & P9 Tax Certificates: Automatically distribute encrypted, password-protected PDF payslips directly to staff via email or the mobile-responsive employee self-service portal, with one-click generation of annual KRA P9 forms for employee end-of-year tax returns.
General Ledger Posting & Cost Accounting: Every payroll cycle automatically posts salary expenses, employer contribution liabilities, and tax payables directly into the general ledger, giving finance directors instant cost-centre visibility without manual journal vouchers.

Sources checked: 3–4 November 2026: KRA: PAYE · SHA: premium rates · NSSF: Year 4 contribution rates.