Managing payroll and calculating personal income tax (PIT) using Excel remains a popular choice for many businesses due to its flexibility and ease of implementation. In this article, 1Office will provide the latest standard 2026 Excel payroll template for PIT calculation, along with important notes, to help accounting & HR teams manage PIT data accurately and efficiently.

What is an Excel Payroll Sheet?

An Excel payroll sheet is a tool used by many businesses to manage and calculate employee salaries on the Microsoft Excel platform. It is a file that consolidates all salary-related data for each pay period, helping HR and accounting departments easily track, reconcile, and calculate employee income.

Typically, an Excel payroll template will include the following contents:

  • Employee information: full name, employee ID, position, department
  • Basic salary, allowances, bonuses, commissions, or other income
  • Deductions such as compulsory insurance, PIT, advances, or violation penalties
  • Net salary received after all additions and deductions are completed
What is an Excel Payroll Sheet?
What is an Excel Payroll Sheet?

What is PIT? Why should it be calculated in the payroll sheet?

PIT (Personal Income Tax) is a mandatory collection that individuals with income from wages and salaries must pay to the State Budget, according to the provisions of the Law on Personal Income Tax. The purpose of this tax is to:

  • Ensure citizens’ financial obligations to the State
  • Contribute to income regulation, narrowing the gap between rich and poor
  • Create resources for the budget to develop public services

Why should PIT be calculated directly in the payroll sheet?

  • To determine the employee’s net salary after tax deductions.
  • To help accountants fulfill their obligations to declare and pay taxes to the tax authorities.
  • To ensure transparency and clarity between the business and the employee.
  • To avoid errors during year-end tax finalization.

What is PIT? Why should it be calculated in the payroll sheet?
What is PIT? Why should it be calculated in the payroll sheet?

See more: What Salary Level Requires PIT Payment? (Update 2026)

Download the Latest Standard Excel Payroll Template for PIT Calculation [Free]

Excel Payroll Template for PIT Calculation [Download Now]

What information is included in an Excel payroll template for calculating personal income tax?

Typically, an Excel payroll template for calculating personal income tax will include the following groups of information:

Employee Information

This data group helps businesses manage and classify employees by department or job position:

  • Full name: Enter the employee’s full name
  • Employee ID: Facilitates easy data management and lookup
  • Department/Division: Helps aggregate salary costs by each unit

Income Group

Includes all income that the employee receives during the pay period:

  • Basic salary: The salary specified in the labor contract
  • Allowances: May include lunch, phone, travel, responsibility, or position allowances
  • Bonus/Commission: Applicable to sales positions or KPI-based evaluations
  • Total income: Calculated as the sum of all salary and allowance components
Formula: Total Income = Base Salary + Allowances + Bonuses

Mandatory deductions

These are the legally required deductions that businesses must make before calculating take-home pay:

  • Social Insurance
  • Health Insurance
  • Unemployment Insurance
  • Trade union fees (if applicable)

Total insurance deductions are calculated as follows:

Total insurance deductions = Social Insurance + Health Insurance + Unemployment Insurance + Trade Union fee

Businesses should also consult regulations on employee salary deductions to ensure calculations are accurate and compliant with current laws.

Personal Income Tax (PIT)

The tax payable is determined based on the taxable income after subtracting deductions and compulsory insurance. Tax is typically calculated using a progressive tax schedule.

Net Salary

This is the final amount an employee receives after all deductions have been made.

Formula: Net Salary = Gross Income – Total Insurance Deductions – Personal Income Tax

In practice, businesses should set up automatic formulas in Excel and lock the cells containing these formulas to minimize errors when updating monthly salary data.

What are the benefits of an Excel payroll template for calculating Personal Income Tax?

An Excel payroll sheet with built-in formulas for calculating personal income tax (PIT) offers many practical benefits for businesses and their accounting-HR departments, including:

  • Convenient for tax finalization: Salary and tax data are stored centrally, helping accountants quickly consolidate and declare for the year-end finalization period.
  • Saves time on payroll processing: Simply enter data on income, insurance, and the number of dependents, and Excel will automatically calculate the PIT and the amount of PIT refund.
  • Increases calculation accuracy: Applying pre-set formulas and the latest tax schedules helps reduce errors in calculating salaries, insurance, and taxes.
  • Transparent and easy to check: All income, allowances, deductions, and taxes are clearly displayed, making it convenient for data reconciliation.
  • Supports HR cost management: Businesses can easily track the salary fund, tax costs, and insurance by department or pay period.
  • Easy to customize to business needs: Excel allows for the flexible addition or removal of data columns, formulas, or salary policies according to the actual operating model.

See more: 7+ effective salary payment methods for businesses

Some notes when using the Excel payroll template for calculating Personal Income Tax

When using an Excel payroll sheet to calculate PIT, businesses should note:

  • Check formulas: Ensure that the formulas for calculating salary, insurance, and tax are correct to avoid data errors.
  • Update new regulations: Adjust deduction levels, insurance, and tax schedules according to current regulations.
  • Classify income correctly: Clearly separate taxable and tax-exempt income for accurate PIT calculation.
  • Secure the payroll file: Restrict sharing and set access permissions to protect personnel data.
  • Back up regularly: Save the file monthly/quarterly for easy lookup and to prevent data loss.
  • Update when changes occur: Adjust immediately when there are changes in salary, allowances, or dependents.
  • Lock formula cells: Helps prevent accidental edits and ensures the stability of the payroll sheet.

1HRM – The smart payroll and PIT calculation platform to replace complex Excel processes

When calculating personal income tax using Excel, businesses often face many difficulties such as incorrect formulas, mistaken family circumstance deduction data, difficulty updating new tax schedules, or spending a lot of time reconciling between salary, insurance, and tax. As the number of employees increases, manual management is more prone to errors and affects the PIT declaration and finalization process.

This is also why many businesses are now switching to payroll and tax software like 1HRM to automate the PIT calculation process, synchronize personnel data, and improve accuracy in payroll management.

The outstanding features of 1HRM payroll software include:

  • Automatically calculates PIT according to the latest progressive tax schedule
  • Synchronizes data on salary, insurance, dependents, and family circumstance deductions on the same system
  • Automatically updates tax calculation formulas and deductions according to current regulations
  • Minimizes errors from manual data entry or calculations in Excel
  • Manages payroll and tax data centrally, easy to look up and secure with access permissions
  • Automatically generates payslips and PIT statistics for each employee
  • Supports quick export of salary, tax, and finalization data reports

1HRM payroll software
1HRM payroll software

Frequently asked questions about the Excel payroll template for calculating Personal Income Tax

Can Personal Income Tax be calculated automatically in Excel?

Yes. Businesses can absolutely automate the calculation of personal income tax (PIT) in Excel by using functions like IF, SUM, SUMPRODUCT, or VLOOKUP combined with tax calculation formulas. By setting up a payroll sheet and a progressive tax schedule in advance, Excel will automatically calculate the tax payable based on the income, family circumstance deductions, insurance, and number of dependents for each employee.

Does the Excel file for PIT calculation need to be updated with new regulations?

Yes. The Excel file for calculating personal income tax (PIT) needs to be updated regularly according to new legal regulations, especially when there are changes in the tax schedule, family circumstance deduction levels, or insurance rates. From 2026, updating the 5-tier progressive tax schedule and new tax calculation formulas is necessary to ensure that salary and tax data are always accurate and compliant with regulations.

What are the limitations of an Excel payroll sheet?

The limitations of an Excel payroll sheet include a high risk of data errors, lack of security and control, limited automation and integration, and difficulty in handling large-scale operations.

Is there an alternative to Excel for calculating payroll and Personal Income Tax?

Businesses can consider 1HRM software to automate the PIT calculation process, synchronize personnel data, and enhance accuracy in payroll management.

Conclusion

This article has provided the latest standard 2026 Excel payroll template for calculating Personal Income Tax (PIT), along with detailed instructions on the payroll structure and important notes for calculating personal income tax using Excel. Using a payroll template with pre-built formulas not only helps businesses save time processing data but also minimizes errors in calculating salaries, insurance, and tax finalization.

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