Net salary calculation in Senegal: income tax, TRIMF and contributions

Between the salary agreed at hiring and the amount that reaches the employee's account, four deductions apply: two pension contributions, a health contribution, income tax and the TRIMF. Each has its own base, its own ceiling and its own rounding rule. That is what makes manual calculation so easy to get wrong.

This guide follows every step in the order a Senegalese payslip applies them, with the scales in force and a complete worked example at the end. Every figure quoted has been checked against the Izi Paie payroll engine, itself verified line by line against the scale published by the Direction générale des impôts et des domaines, Senegal's tax authority.

The four deductions on a Senegalese payslip

Net pay is built by subtracting from gross salary, in this order:

1. the employee social contributions: IPRES general scheme, IPRES executive scheme for executives, and the employee share of the IPM where the company is affiliated to one;
2. income tax, withheld at source by the employer;
3. the TRIMF, the flat-rate tax representing the minimum fiscal levy.

One point often surprises newcomers: in Senegal, social contributions are not deducted from taxable income. Tax is calculated on gross taxable pay, not on gross minus contributions. This differs from many other systems and is a frequent source of error when a spreadsheet designed elsewhere is reused.

Step 1: from base salary to gross salary

Gross salary is the base salary plus everything paid on top: seniority bonus, above-scale supplement, overtime, bonuses and allowances.

The seniority bonus is owed under the national interprofessional collective agreement. It starts after two years of service and then rises by one point per year.

Seniority	Rate applied to base salary
Under 2 years	0%
2 years	2%
3 years	3%
5 years	5%
10 years	10%
25 years and over	25% (cap)

Some allowances escape tax up to a limit set by regulation. The two most common:

• the transport allowance, exempt up to 26,000 FCFA per month;
• the mileage allowance, exempt up to 50,000 FCFA per month, raised to 100,000 FCFA for a sales representative.

Above these ceilings, the excess becomes taxable again. The two allowances do not combine: an employee receives one or the other.

Step 2: contributions payable by the employee

Three possible lines, each with a capped base.

Contribution	Employee rate	Base capped at	Who is concerned
IPRES general scheme	5.6%	432,000 FCFA per month	All employees
IPRES executive scheme	2.4%	1,296,000 FCFA per month	Executives and equivalent
IPM	employee share, usually 2%	ceiling set by the institution	Companies affiliated to an IPM

The ceiling applies to the base, not to the result. For a gross of 600,000 FCFA, the IPRES general scheme contribution is calculated on 432,000 FCFA and not on 600,000 FCFA, giving 24,192 FCFA rather than 33,600 FCFA.

The IPM deserves a note: the overall rate and the ceiling vary from one institution to another. The usual split is two thirds employer and one third employee, on an overall rate of 6%. Each company should check the figures of its own institution rather than copy its neighbour's.

Step 3: income tax

Tax is calculated on an annual basis, then divided by twelve for the monthly withholding.

Taxable income. Start from annual gross taxable pay, that is monthly gross multiplied by twelve, less exempt allowances. Then apply an allowance of 30%, capped at 900,000 FCFA per year. This cap is reached from 250,000 FCFA of monthly gross: beyond that, the allowance stays fixed at 900,000 FCFA whatever the salary. The result is rounded down to the nearest thousand.

The progressive scale. The General Tax Code sets six brackets. Each bracket applies with a constant to subtract, which avoids splitting income bracket by bracket.

Annual taxable income	Rate	Constant to subtract
0 to 630,000	0%	0
630,001 to 1,500,000	20%	126,000
1,500,001 to 4,000,000	30%	276,000
4,000,001 to 8,000,000	35%	476,000
8,000,001 to 13,500,000	37%	636,000
Above 13,500,000	40%	1,041,000

Gross annual tax is therefore: taxable income × bracket rate − constant.

Tax parts. The number of parts depends on family situation, up to five.

Situation	Parts
Single, divorced, or widowed without children	1
Married, or widowed with a dependent child	1.5
Additional part if the spouse has no income (married people)	+ 0.5
Per dependent child	+ 0.5
Cap	5

Family tax relief. This is the step most often applied incorrectly. The relief is not a simple percentage: it is a rate applied to gross tax, bounded by an annual minimum and maximum, all three of which differ according to the number of parts.

Parts	Rate	Annual minimum	Annual maximum
1	0%	0	0
1.5	10%	100,000	300,000
2	15%	200,000	650,000
2.5	20%	300,000	1,100,000
3	25%	400,000	1,650,000
3.5	30%	500,000	2,030,000
4	35%	600,000	2,490,000
4.5	40%	700,000	2,755,000
5	45%	800,000	3,180,000

The minimum applies even when it exceeds gross tax: in that case tax falls to zero. Conversely, the maximum caps the relief on high incomes. A spreadsheet applying a single rate of 20% with a single cap would only be right for 2.5 parts.

Annual tax is gross tax less this relief, never below zero. The monthly withholding is one twelfth of it.

The tax authority publishes a monthly scale giving the tax to withhold directly, per thousand-franc band of gross taxable pay and per number of parts, up to 5,000,000 FCFA. Beyond that, the formula above must be applied. Both methods give exactly the same result, which is a useful check whenever a doubt arises on a high salary.

Step 4: the TRIMF

The TRIMF is a flat amount, determined by the annual income band and multiplied by the number of TRIMF parts.

Annual income	Annual amount per part
Under 600,000	900
600,000 to 1,000,000	3,600
1,000,000 to 2,000,000	4,800
2,000,000 to 7,000,000	12,000
7,000,000 to 12,000,000	18,000
Above 12,000,000	36,000

TRIMF parts do not follow tax parts. The levy is owed per person:

• 2 parts for a married employee whose spouse has no income, since they also settle their spouse's levy;
• 1 part in every other case, including a married employee whose spouse earns an income: each then pays their own.

Dependent children do not count here, unlike tax parts. Confusing the two notions is the most widespread error on Senegalese payslips.

A complete example, from gross to net

Take an executive, married, whose spouse has no income, with two dependent children, three years of seniority, in a company affiliated to an IPM at an overall rate of 6% on a ceiling of 100,000 FCFA. The base salary is 400,000 FCFA.

Gross salary

Line	Amount
Base salary	400,000
Seniority bonus (3%)	12,000
Gross salary	412,000

Income tax

Annual gross taxable pay comes to 4,944,000 FCFA. The 30% allowance would represent 1,483,200 FCFA, so it is brought down to its cap of 900,000 FCFA. Taxable income is 4,044,000 FCFA, in the 35% bracket.

Step	Calculation	Result
Gross annual tax	4,044,000 × 35% − 476,000	939,400
Tax parts	1.5 + 0.5 (spouse without income) + 2 × 0.5 (children)	3
Relief: 25% of 939,400 = 234,850, below the minimum of 400,000	minimum applies	400,000
Annual tax	939,400 − 400,000	539,400
Monthly tax	539,400 ÷ 12	44,950

Deductions and net pay

Deduction	Base	Rate	Amount
IPRES general scheme	412,000	5.6%	23,072
IPRES executive scheme	412,000	2.4%	9,888
IPM	100,000	2%	2,000
Income tax	gross taxable pay	scale	44,950
TRIMF	2 parts, 2 to 7 million band	12,000 × 2 ÷ 12	2,000
Net pay			330,090

The employee therefore receives about 80% of gross salary.

What this employee costs the employer

Employer charges are added to gross pay, and represent here a little over 17% of it.

Charge	Base	Rate	Amount
IPRES general scheme	412,000	8.4%	34,608
IPRES executive scheme	412,000	3.6%	14,832
CSS family benefits	63,000	7%	4,410
CSS work accidents	63,000	1%	630
IPM	100,000	4%	4,000
Flat-rate employer contribution	412,000	3%	12,360
Total employer charges			70,840
Total employer cost			482,840

Two remarks on this table. CSS contributions are capped at a base of 63,000 FCFA, a low ceiling that makes them almost flat from an average salary upwards. The work accident rate, taken here at 1%, depends on the sector of activity and rises to 5% for the most exposed ones.

In total, an employee receiving 330,090 FCFA costs the employer 482,840 FCFA, a ratio of 1.46.

Five errors that come up often

Deducting contributions from taxable income. Tax is calculated on gross taxable pay, contributions included. This is the costliest reflex when adapting a model designed for another country.

Applying the ceiling to the result instead of the base. The IPRES ceiling of 432,000 FCFA limits the base, not the contribution.

Using a single relief rate for every family. The rate, the minimum and the maximum change at each half part. The same gross tax gives very different results depending on the number of parts.

Confusing tax parts with TRIMF parts. Children increase the first, not the second. A married employee with four children may have 3.5 tax parts and only 1 TRIMF part if their spouse works.

Forgetting the allowance cap. From 250,000 FCFA of monthly gross, the 30% allowance is fixed at 900,000 FCFA per year. Continuing to apply 30% beyond that significantly understates the tax.