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Sales commission calculator
Put in your base salary, OTE and quota, then build your plan the way it is actually written: flat rate, tiers, accelerators, per-deal payments, gates, caps and more. See what you would earn at any attainment, and what lands in your account after tax.
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Earnings at any attainment, with a payout curve and scenario table
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UK take-home pay after income tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension (2026/27 rates)
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A check that your plan actually pays your OTE at 100% of quota
How to use it
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Enter your base salary, OTE, annual quota and average deal size.
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Pick a common plan to start from, or choose your own structure and tick any add-ons in your offer letter.
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Move the attainment slider to see earnings, commission and take-home change together.
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Check the take-home section, including the warning if your pay falls in the £100,000 to £125,140 band.
How the numbers work
Attainment is the value of deals signed divided by your quota. Your base commission rate is your on-target commission divided by your quota, so a plan that pays exactly your OTE at 100% is balanced.
Marginal tiers pay each band of attainment at its own rate, like tax bands. Retroactive tiers pay everything at the rate of the tier you finish in, so crossing a threshold re-rates the whole year.
Take-home uses 2026/27 rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland: a £12,570 personal allowance that tapers above £100,000, income tax at 20%, 40% and 45%, employee NI at 8% and 2%, and student loan plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and postgraduate. Pension is treated as salary sacrifice on base salary.
Questions
What is OTE in sales?
OTE stands for on-target earnings: your base salary plus the commission you would earn at exactly 100% of quota. A £60,000 base with a £120,000 OTE means £60,000 of commission at target, often called a 50/50 split.
What is the difference between marginal and retroactive commission tiers?
With marginal tiers, each slice of attainment is paid at its own rate, so a higher rate above 100% only applies to the deals above 100%. With retroactive tiers, the rate of the tier you finish in applies to everything you signed, back to the first pound.
What is a commission accelerator?
An accelerator is a higher commission rate for deals signed after you pass quota, for example 1.5 times your base rate from 100% to 150% of quota. It rewards over-performance and is usually paid on a marginal basis.
How is commission taxed in the UK?
Commission is taxed through PAYE in the same way as salary. There is no separate bonus tax. A large commission month can look over-taxed on the payslip, but PAYE works cumulatively across the tax year, so it usually evens out.
Why do I keep less of my commission between £100,000 and £125,140?
In that band your personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 of income, which creates an effective income tax rate of 60%. With 2% National Insurance on top, you keep about 38p of each extra pound. Salary sacrifice into a pension can bring your taxable pay back below £100,000.
More free sales tools
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Know Your Pipeline: Work back from your target to the meetings, calls and demos you and your SDR need.
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Cost of a Sales Hire: The fully loaded cost of an AE, when they pay back, and what a mis-hire costs.
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Sales Hiring Plan: How many AEs and SDRs you need to hit your ARR target, and when to hire them.
Designing a comp plan for your team?
We help sales leaders build commission plans that are simple to explain, pay for the behaviour you want, and hold up at every level of attainment.