Can NSSF Tier II be paid to our own scheme?

Permitted under section 21 of the NSSF Act 2013, with the Retirement Benefits Authority's approval. The money is still deducted; it goes to the scheme instead of NSSF, so net pay does not move. Tier I never leaves NSSF.

Which reliefs and deductions can an employee claim?

Since 1 July 2025 an employer has to grant these where the employee produces the paperwork: mortgage interest, contributions to a post-retirement medical fund, and insurance premiums. All three are monthly amounts. Mortgage interest and the medical fund come off pay before the bands; the insurance premium is a relief, not a deduction, so it comes off the tax after the bands have been charged. Leave a box empty and nothing is claimed; type more than the cap and the cap is what applies.

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Kenyan PAYE calculator

Put in one monthly gross and this works out NSSF, SHIF, the Housing Levy and PAYE, on the table in force for the month you pick. It is not a copy of our payroll app’s arithmetic. It is the same code, running in your browser.

Monthly gross pay

In Kenya shillings, before any deduction. Basic plus any cash allowance.

A monthly gross in shillings, zero or more and under ten million.

Payroll month

NSSF limits move every February, so the month decides which table applies. January and February of the same year are not the same calculation.

A payroll month we hold a statutory table for.

This employee is a non-resident

Same PAYE bands, but no personal relief and no insurance relief. The Act grants both to a resident individual.

Tier II is paid to our own registered scheme

Permitted under section 21 of the NSSF Act 2013, with the Retirement Benefits Authority’s approval: sixty days’ written notice, and the RBA has thirty days to decide. It is not automatic — in practice an employer is expected to be current on NSSF, with no arrears, before a contracting-out certificate is granted. The money is still deducted; it goes to the scheme instead of NSSF, so net pay does not move. Tier I never leaves NSSF.

Reliefs and deductions to claim

Since 1 July 2025 an employer has to grant these where the employee produces the paperwork. Leave a box empty and nothing is claimed; type more than the cap and the cap is what applies, which the working below shows. All three are monthly amounts.

Pension contribution

Your own contribution to a registered scheme, not the employer’s. NSSF counts towards the same ceiling, and the deduction stops at 30% of your pay in any case. It comes off before the bands.

Mortgage interest paid

Interest only, on a loan from a financial institution named in the Fourth Schedule, for one residence you occupy. Purchase, improvement or construction. It comes off before the bands.

Post-retirement medical fund

What you put into the fund. It comes off before the bands.

Insurance premiums paid

Life, education (ten years or longer) or health policies, for you, your spouse or your child. This one is a relief, not a deduction: it comes off the tax after the bands have been charged, not off pay before them.

One month’s pay, in the order the deductions are actually taken
Line	Amount	Left

Show the working

What this is

One person, one month, one gross figure — an estimate to check a number against. It is not a payslip and it is not advice, and it assumes the whole gross is cash pay and that the employee worked the full month.

What it does not work out

Car and telephone benefits, overtime, salary advances, staff who join or leave mid-month, and anyone drawing pay from more than one company on the same KRA PIN. Each of those moves the figures, some of them a long way. The app handles all of them; this page does not pretend to.

If your case has any of that in it, the number above is not yours. That is a half-hour call, not a form field.