Pretax (or pre-tax with a hyphen) is the standard adjective for describing financial figures before tax is subtracted. Gross is a broader term that includes all deductions (tax, insurance, pension), not just tax; for example, gross salary is the total earned before ANY deduction, while pretax salary technically only excludes tax. Before-tax is a less common, more descriptive alternative used mainly in spoken or informal contexts. In practice, pretax and pre-tax are interchangeable, with the hyphenated form more common in British publications. Use pretax when you specifically want to contrast with after-tax or net — for example: 'The pretax profit was $2M, but after tax the company kept only $1.4M.'
Formed in modern English by combining the Latin-derived prefix pre- (meaning 'before') with the noun tax (from Latin taxare 'to assess, value'). The compound emerged in the early 20th century alongside modern income tax systems.