# CalSavers penalty calculator | California employers

> Five questions, no email. See what California can charge you for not offering a retirement plan, and what your own plan is worth back in tax credits.

Canonical page: https://ourwealthpath.org/calsavers

# California business owners find are shocked at how much this new rule costs them!

Just a few quick questions about your business. No email, no card, and completely free advice to save your business money.

Question 1 of 5

20%

You've built a business. Build clarity around what's next.

## Know your numbers. Then choose your path.

A focused starting point for California employers, without handing over your email just to see a result.

- Five straightforward questions

- Your calculation stays in your browser

- Explore your next step after the result

Checking your headcount against the penalty schedule…

Your exposure · 12 employees

$0

Here is the part nobody tells you

##

Doing nothing

$0

Assessed per employee, and the state can charge it again for every year it goes unfixed.

Nothing about it comes back to you or to them.

- At 90 days past the notice$0

- At 180 days, on top$0

Running your own plan

$0

Federal tax credits you become eligible for, over the first five years. The penalty

goes away either way — this part only exists on this side.

- Start-up credit, three years$0

- Automatic enrolment, three years$0

- Contribution credit, five years$0

The distance between the two decisions

$0

## What you get for joining, free

- Your numbers in writing. This calculation, with the statute

sections behind each figure, in a form your CPA can check.

- CalSavers against your own plan, side by side. Sometimes the

state programme genuinely is the right answer for a small payroll, and we say so.

- Eight courses for your staff, at no cost to them or to you.

Credit, budgeting, investing, buying a first home.

- Thirty minutes with a licensed professional. No product

presented, no fee, and a written summary afterwards.

[Join free and get this in writing](/join)

No card. You keep the tools whether or not you ever talk to us.

← Change an answer

## Why the two paths are not the same thing

Since 1 January 2026 every California employer with at least one W-2 employee has to offer a

retirement plan or register with CalSavers. Both satisfy the mandate. That is where the

similarity ends.

CalSavers is a payroll-deduction Roth IRA. Your employees fund it out of their own pay, you

put in nothing, and because you put in nothing there is no federal tax credit attached to it.

It stops the penalty and returns you exactly zero.

## A different path for your business

A plan of your own stops the same penalty, and because it is yours the SECURE 2.0 credits

apply: up to $5,000 a year of start-up costs for three years, $500 a year for automatic

enrolment, and up to $1,000 per employee a year of what you contribute, tapering across five

years. For most businesses under fifty people the credits cover the cost of the plan in full

for the first few years, which is the part that surprises owners.

None of that makes your own plan automatically right. It costs more to run, it carries duties

CalSavers does not, and for a payroll of three people it is often not worth it. What it does

mean is that the choice deserves ten minutes of arithmetic rather than whichever form lands

on your desk first.

## Understand the estimates before you decide

Estimates only, for discussion. Penalty amounts are set by California Government Code section

100033(b). Credit figures follow the SECURE 2.0 Act: the start-up credit covers 100% of

qualified costs to $5,000 a year for employers with 50 or fewer employees and 50% above that,

the automatic enrolment credit is $500 a year for three years, and the employer contribution

credit is up to $1,000 per employee at 100% in the first two years before tapering to 75%,

50% and 25%, with a further reduction above 50 employees.

Your own position depends on your

plan design, your payroll and your tax situation. We are not a tax firm or a law firm and

this is not tax or legal advice. Take the numbers to your CPA, and we will happily join that

conversation.

---

Powered by [Launch Automation](https://launchautomation.ai/experience)