Where can I find a salary sacrifice calculator?

Once the calculator has been fully opened (remember to enable content if you are prompted to do this), you will be presented with a welcome message. This explains the two options available for the quote, namely:

1. Keep pension contributions constant (which allows the employee to maintain their current pension contribution and increase their take-home pay by sacrificing some or their salary).
2. Keep net income constant (which allows the employee to maintain the same take-home pay and increase their pension contribution by sacrificing some of their salary).

Click on continue once this message has been read. You will now be prompted to input information to personalise the quote, with each piece of information summarised below:

1. The scheme name, client name, client specific reference and address fields are all optional. These details will pull through to the quote if entered, but will not prevent the quote from being produced if they are left blank.
2. The date of birth, commencement date and sex fields are all compulsory.  These details will pull through to the quote. The calculator will only produce a quote for the current tax year so the commencement date should be left as the current date as it appears or you can use a future date in the current tax year.
3. The is the employee an apprentice under age 25 field should only be ticked if the quote is for an apprentice under age 25 so that the employer NI is calculated correctly. Otherwise, do not tick this field.
4. The Scottish taxpayer field should be ticked if the employee is a Scottish taxpayer.
5. The tax free allowance field is also compulsory. This should be the employee’s personal allowance, and is used to calculate an accurate income tax figure in the quote. If left as standard, this will assume the standard personal allowance for the current tax year. If the employee has a personal allowance different to this, other should be selected and the amount entered (for example, where an employee has a tax code of 630L, this should be entered as £6,300). A negative personal allowance can be entered if a K tax code applies.
6. Finally, the sacrifice option must also be selected. Both options have been explained above. 

Click on continue once all the above information has been entered. The next screen will prompt you to enter details of the employee’s current contributions and salary, with each piece of required information summarised below: 

1. Their current contribution can be entered either as a monetary amount or as a percentage of salary (but not both).
2. The frequency of these contributions will default to monthly but can be changed to yearly or weekly if appropriate.
3. The employee’s gross annual salary must be entered, and should be the amount before salary sacrifice is considered.

Click continue once these details have all been entered. Finally, you will be prompted to enter details of any employer contributions, with each piece of required information summarised below:

1. As the employer won’t pay employer’s National Insurance (NI) on the salary being sacrificed, some or all of this saving can be passed on to the employee. The proportion of the NI saving that is to be contributed must be entered (for example, if all the saving is to be contributed then 1 should be input, if half of the saving is to be contributed then 0.5 should be input or 0 (zero) can be input if none of the employer NI saving is to be included).
2. If  an existing employer contribution is  to be included in the quote, choose ‘Yes’. Otherwise,  choose ‘No’.
3. If employer contributions are to be included, these can be entered either as a monetary amount or as a percentage of salary (but not both).
4. The frequency of these contributions will default to monthly but can be changed to yearly or weekly if appropriate.

Click continue once these details have all been entered. You will now be presented with the following options for how you want the quote to be displayed:

• View illustration will open the quote in your spreadsheet software, along with a cover letter that can be issued to the employee. The remaining options can still be accessed once the quote has been viewed in this way.
• Print illustration will print the quote only to your default printer.
• Print illustration with letter will print the quote to your default printer, along with the employee covering letter.
• Save illustration will prompt you to save the file to a location of your choosing, with the file saved in the format of your spreadsheet software.
• Save illustration with letter will prompt you to save the file to a location of your choosing, along with the employee cover letter.
• Re-enter details will let you change any of the information you’ve entered.
• Quit will close the application.

Once you have produced the quote you need, make sure the figures look accurate and relevant to the quote type you have requested. 

Once the calculator has been fully opened, you will be presented with a spreadsheet where you can enter information in rows for each quote you need to do. Descriptions for each column are detailed below:

1. The scheme name, client name, client reference, sex, DOB and address columns are all optional. These details will pull through to the quote if entered, but will not prevent a quote from being produced if they are left blank.
2. The N/A column can be left blank as this is no longer used.
3. The only option in the contract column is PP (personal pension) so this should be chosen.
4. The salary column should be completed with the employee’s gross annual salary before salary sacrifice.
5. The tax allowance column should be completed with either ‘standard’ or ‘other’. If left as ‘standard’, this will assume the standard personal allowance for the current tax year. If the employee has a personal allowance different to this, ‘other’ should be selected and the amount entered in the other amount column (for example, where an employee has a tax code of 630L, this should be entered as £6,300). A negative personal allowance can be entered if a K tax code applies.
6. The SALTYPE column should be completed with ‘1’ if the quote is to be based on the pension contribution being kept constant (which allows the employee to maintain their current pension contribution and increase their take-home pay by sacrificing some or their salary) or ‘2’ if the quote is to be based on the net income being kept constant (which allows the employee to maintain the same take-home pay and increase their pension contribution by sacrificing some of their salary).
7. As the employer won’t pay employer’s National Insurance (NI) on the salary being sacrificed, some or all of this saving can be passed on to the employee. The for 100% employer NI saving… column should be completed with the proportion of the NI saving that is to be contributed (for example, if all the saving is to be contributed then 1 should be input, if half of the saving is to be contributed then 0.5 should be input or 0 (zero) can be input if none of the employer NI saving is to be included).
8. The employer contribution column should be completed with either ‘Y’ if employer contributions are being paid, or ‘N’ if they are not. If they are being paid, the employer contribution frequency column should be completed with either ‘Y’ ( yearly), or ‘M’ (monthly) and the amount should be completed in the employer contribution amount column.
9. The amount of current employee contribution should be completed in the employee contribution amount column, and the employee contribution frequency column should be completed with either ‘Y’ (yearly) or ‘M’ (monthly).
10. The commencement date column should be completed with the assumed start date to be used in the quote. The calculator will only produce a quote for the current tax year so the commencement date should be left as the current date as it appears or you can use a future date in the current tax year.
11. The is the employee an apprentice under age 25 field should only be ticked if the quote is for an apprentice under age 25 so that the employer NI is calculated correctly. Otherwise, do not tick this field.
12. The Scottish taxpayer field should be set to Y if the employee is a Scottish taxpayer. Otherwise, it should be set to N.

Once the data for each employee has been entered, you can proceed by clicking one of the following buttons located at the top of the spreadsheet:

1. Save entered data will prompt you to save the data you have entered on this screen. This allows you to easily use it again for future quotes.
2. Import data will allow you to retrieve data previously saved to use in further quotes without having to input details individually.
3. Generate quotes will give you the following options:     

• Print illustration will print the quote only to your default printer.
• Print illustration along with letter will print the quote to your default printer, along with the employee covering letter.
• Save illustration will prompt you to save the file to a location of your choosing, with the file saved in the format of your spreadsheet software.
• Save illustration along with letter will prompt you to save the file to a location of your choosing, along with the employee cover letter.
• Re-enter the bulk data will let you change any of the information you’ve entered.

Finally, choosing exit will close the application.

Once you have produced the quotes you need, make sure the figures for each quote look accurate and relevant to the quote type you have requested.