Ghana's payroll rules, exactly as Payro applies them.
Every figure below is the data the engine reads, published as it is stored. Nothing here is invented: where legislation has passed but no gazetted figures exist, it is listed as pending rather than applied.
Pay As You Earn
Graduated monthly rates under the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act 1178), effective 1 September 2026, charged on income after SSNIT and reliefs. Non-residents are charged a flat 25%; casual workers 5% as a final withholding tax.
Employee takes home
2,459.27
18.0% of basic goes to PAYE and SSNIT, at a top rate of 17.5%.
- Basic
- 3,000.00
- SSNIT 5.5%
- −165.00
- Chargeable
- 2,835.00
| Chargeable income | Rate | Charged on | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 588.00 | 0% | 588.00 | 0.00 |
| Next 80.00 | 5% | 80.00 | 4.00 |
| Next 100.00 | 10% | 100.00 | 10.00 |
| Next 2,900.00Your band | 17.5% | 2,067.00 | 361.73 |
| Next 16,000.00 | 25% | — | — |
| Next 30,332.00 | 30% | — | — |
| Exceeding 50,000.00 | 35% | — | — |
| PAYE due this month | 375.73 | ||
Costs the employer
Basic plus employer SSNIT at 13%: Tier 1 GH₵ 405.00, Tier 2 GH₵ 150.00.
GH₵ 3,390.00
SSNIT contributions
5.5% from the employee and 13% from the employer, 18.5% of insurable earnings in total, split between the two mandatory tiers.
- Employee contributionDeducted from pay
- 5.5%
- Employer contributionOn top of pay, part of employer cost
- 13%
- Tier 1 — SSNIT basic schemeRemitted to SSNIT
- 13.5%
- Tier 2 — occupational schemeRemitted to your approved trustee
- 5%
- Maximum insurable earningsContributions stop above this monthly figure
- GH₵ 69,000.00
- Minimum insurable earningsContributions are computed on at least this figure
- GH₵ 587.80
Tier 3 — voluntary provident fund
Optional, and tax-relieved up to a limit. Payro caps the relief automatically so a generous Tier 3 arrangement never quietly becomes a tax exposure.
- Relief cap, employee sideOf basic salary
- 16.5%
- Combined cap, employee + employerOf basic salary
- 35%
National daily minimum wage
- Per dayNational Tripartite Committee, 2026
- GH₵ 21.77
- Monthly equivalentUsed for below-minimum warnings
- GH₵ 653.10
Personal reliefs
Reliefs reduce chargeable income before PAYE is charged. Payro holds each employee's claimed reliefs and applies the unit caps for you.
| Relief | Who it applies to | Annual amount | Max units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marriage / Responsibility relief | Resident individual with a dependant spouse or at least two dependant children. | GH₵ 1,200.00 | 1 |
| Child education relief | Per child or ward in a recognised registered educational institution in Ghana; maximum three. | GH₵ 600.00 | 3 |
| Aged dependant relative relief | Per dependant relative aged 60 or more; maximum two. | GH₵ 1,000.00 | 2 |
| Old age relief | Individual aged 60 or more with employment or business income. | GH₵ 1,500.00 | 1 |
| Disability relief | 25% of assessable income from employment or business. | 25% of income | 1 |
| Professional / technical training relief | Actual cost of training up to the annual cap. | GH₵ 2,000.00 | 1 |
Overtime and bonus concessions
Both are taxed at concessionary rates within limits, and at graduated rates beyond them. Getting the boundary wrong is one of the most common manual payroll errors; the engine handles it per employee, per month.
Overtime — qualifying junior employees
- Qualifying annual income capAbove this the concession does not apply
- GH₵ 18,000.00
- Rate up to the tier-1 limitOvertime up to 50% of monthly basic
- 5%
- Rate on the excessAbove the tier-1 limit
- 10%
- Non-resident rateFlat
- 20%
Bonus
- Concessionary rateFinal tax on the concessionary portion
- 5%
- Concession capOf annual basic; the excess joins graduated income
- 15%
- Non-resident rateFlat
- 20%
The cap is tracked year to date, so a second bonus in November knows what the March one already used.
Rule versions
Each version carries the date it took effect. A payroll run pins the version it was calculated on, so reopening an old period never silently re-prices it under today's law.
| Version | Effective | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| GH-2026.2In force | 1 September 2026 — present | Act 1178 bands: tax-free threshold raised from GH₵490 to GH₵588 a month (GH₵7,056 a year); every band below the top widened to match. SSNIT and minimum wage unchanged. |
| GH-2026.1Closed | 1 January 2026 — 31 August 2026 | Act 1094 bands; SSNIT ceiling raised to GH₵69,000, floor GH₵587.80; national daily minimum wage GH₵21.77. |
| GH-2024.1Closed | 1 January 2024 — 31 December 2025 | Act 1094 bands; SSNIT ceiling GH₵61,000; national daily minimum wage GH₵19.97. |
New versions are published from the admin area, tested against a sample employee with the real engine before they go live, and made immutable once published. Back-dating one requires an explicit confirmation and a written justification.
Where these figures come from
Verified against the publishing authority on 1 October 2026. If you find a figure that has moved, tell us and we will publish a new version.
- Ghana Revenue AuthorityPay As You Earn (PAYE) — graduated rates: Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act 1178), effective 1 September 2026 — revises the Act 1094 bands that applied from 1 January 2024
- Ghana Revenue AuthorityPersonal tax relief: Marriage, child education, aged dependant, old age, disability and training reliefs
- SSNITMaximum and minimum insurable earnings for 2026: Public notice, 14 January 2026
- National Tripartite CommitteeNational daily minimum wage 2026: GH₵21.77 per day
Nothing else pending
No further change to these figures is before Parliament as published rules go. When one is gazetted, it is published here as a new rule version with its own effective date before it reaches any payroll run.
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