StepShown answer

How do I compare salary and contract offers without guessing taxes?

Compare the money and benefits you can verify first. Keep any tax estimate separate, visible, and easy to replace.

Direct answer

Start with a before tax comparison because both offers can be checked on the same basis. Add salary, bonus, retirement money, health benefits, paid time off, and other employer paid value. For contract work, subtract business costs, unpaid invoices, and money that must stay in the business. Do not hide a guessed tax rate inside either offer. Add a qualified tax estimate later and label it clearly.

What matters most

Compare both offers over the same length of time.
Keep employer paid benefits separate so their value is visible.
Count unpaid time and business costs on the contract side.
Use a tax estimate only when its source, location, and assumptions are known.

Build the comparison before taxes

A salary is not only the cash on the pay stub. Add a bonus you reasonably expect, employer retirement money, health benefits, and other benefits you would otherwise buy. Paid time off matters because an employee can be paid while not working.

Contract money is not all personal pay. Subtract software, insurance, equipment, help, professional fees, and other business costs. Also allow for time that is not billed and invoices that may not be collected.

Keep taxes in a separate box

Tax depends on facts the offer alone cannot know. Location, filing status, other income, deductions, business structure, and worker classification can all change the answer. A single hidden percentage makes the result look more certain than it is.

First compare the offers before taxes. If you have a reliable estimate for your situation, apply it as a separate scenario. Write down who supplied it, the year it covers, and which income and deductions it assumes.

Check the parts money cannot measure

A larger total does not decide the whole choice. Compare control over schedule, income stability, payment timing, insurance access, legal status, time spent finding clients, and how much uncertainty you can carry.

The label on an offer does not decide whether someone is legally an employee or an independent contractor. The facts of the working relationship matter.

What this answer does not decide

It does not calculate federal, state, local, payroll, or business taxes.
It does not establish whether a worker is legally an employee or an independent contractor.
It does not value job security, schedule control, career growth, or personal risk tolerance.

Sources and limits

These sources support the method and limits above. They do not turn a general answer into advice made for you.

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Treating wages and employer paid benefit costs as distinct parts of employee compensation. StepShown does not use the published national averages as offer defaults.
Independent contractor, self employed, or employee
Internal Revenue Service. The boundary that worker status depends on the facts of the relationship, including control, and cannot be established by the label used in an offer or calculator.
Manage your finances
U.S. Small Business Administration. Tracking available cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and the timing difference between accrual and cash accounting.