This is a tool that calculates the UK national insurance contributions (NICs) for a person, with possible contributions arising from employment (employee and employer), being self-employed and/or voluntary payments, and displays the calculated contributions in a table.

This tabular display of calculated contributions contains monthly, weekly and annual rows to indicate what the contributions would be for these periods if they were paid over the whole tax year (as long as there is at least some contribution due during the year). In addition, there is a row that provides an estimate of the actual contributions for the tax year, by using the provided date of birth to determine whether certain contributions are only applicable for part of a year, e.g. because the mimimum contribution age or state pension age is reached during the tax year. Note, however, that this estimate of the actual contributions does not consider the exact days when contributions are due, so may differ from the actual figure for the tax year.

The basic information that needs to be provided for the calculation of contributions is as follows:

• The tax year, noting that this runs from 6 April in the first year to 5 April in the next.
• Your date of birth, in the default format (DD/MM/YYYY), unless you change the format in the menu. To reduce the time needed for data entry, a default date of birth is provided that can be used by most people for calculating national insurance contributions. Only if you reach the minimum contribution age (16), or are at state pension age or over, during the tax year, is it essential to provide an accurate birth date.
• Whether you are male or female.
• If you are a married woman, whether you are entitled to pay reduced contributions or not, i.e. you pay a lower rate of Class 1 national insurance when in employment, and, if you are self-employed, do not have to pay Class 2 contributions. This right to reduced contributions had to be applied for before 21 May 1977.

If you are in employment then Class 1 national insurance contributions need to be paid (if conditions are met) by both the employee and employer. In addition, the employer will need to pay Class 1A/1B contributions on taxable benefits that are not covered by the Class 1 payments. To calculate these contributions, the following additional information is required:

• Your gross income in either monthly, weekly or annual terms.
• Whether you belong to a contracted-out occupational pension scheme or not, and, if so, whether it is salary related or money purchase.
• The annual taxable benefits in cash terms.

If you are self-employed then Class 2 and Class 4 national insurance contributions may need to be paid. To calculate these contributions, the following additional information is required:

• Whether or not you have special self employed status, i.e. as a share fisherman or volunteer development worker.
• Whether or not you are in possession of a Certificate of Small Earnings Exception, which is only applicable if earnings are below a certain amount. However, if you have this certificate but still voluntarily pay Class 2 national insurance contributions, treat this as not having the small earnings exception as far as this tool is concerned, i.e. select No from the drop down box.
• Your annual profit.

It is also possible under certain conditions to make voluntary national insurance contributions, which are of type Class 3. If you are making such contributions, choose Yes in the voluntary payments drop down box.

Some extra points to note about the tool are...

• The tool does not allow you to specify that you have more than one job at the same time, with each employment being considered separately as far as national insurance contributions are concerned.
• The tool does not consider the possibility of deferred contributions when you have two jobs, or are both employed and self-employed, and the permitting conditions are met.

The data (e.g. rates and allowances) used by this tool was obtained primarily from...

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

Associated tool link: http://www.coggit.com/tools/uk_national_insurance.html