Payroll Calculator: Free Paycheck Tax Estimator

Calculate 2026 take-home pay or the full employer cost of a hire - free, no sign-up, no email required.

Updated for the 2026 tax year · IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 brackets · No data stored · Free to use

A payroll calculator estimates what's left of a paycheck after tax. In 2026, a US employee's gross pay is reduced by federal income tax (10%–37%), Social Security at 6.2% on the first $184,500, Medicare at 1.45% with no cap, state income tax of 0%–13.3% depending on the state, and any pre-tax benefits such as a 401(k), HSA or health premium.

The calculator above runs that arithmetic for you. Two of its fields need a number you may not have to hand — Federal Allowances and State Tax Rate — so the guide below tells you exactly what to enter, including a 2026 rate for every state.

How to fill in each field

Gross Salary

Your pay before anything comes out — tax, insurance, retirement, everything. It's the number on your offer letter or the top line of your pay stub, not what lands in your bank account.

Match this to the Pay Period you select below. If you enter a monthly figure, choose Monthly. Entering an annual salary against a Monthly period is the single most common mistake and will inflate your result twelvefold.

Paid hourly? The tool takes a salary figure, so convert first:

Annual gross = hourly rate × hours per week × 52

Include overtime by adding overtime hours × rate × 1.5 × 52. Then select Annual as the pay period.

Pay Period

Pick how often you're paid: Weekly (52 cheques a year), Bi-Weekly (26), Monthly (12) or Annual.

Paid semi-monthly — on the 15th and the last day, 24 cheques a year? That option isn't in the list, and bi-weekly is not the same thing. Select Annual, enter your annual salary, then divide the net pay result by 24 to get your actual cheque. The annual figures in the results panel will be correct either way.

Filing Status

Use the status on your Form W-4, which is usually the status on your tax return:

Filing status changes your bracket thresholds, and the difference is large: the 22% federal bracket starts at $50,401 of taxable income for a single filer but at $100,801 for a couple filing jointly.

Federal Allowances (0–3)

This field uses the pre-2020 withholding allowance system. Allowances were removed from Form W-4 in 2020, so there's no number on your current W-4 to copy across. Here's how to translate.

The IRS still publishes a conversion for employers holding old W-4s: in Publication 15-T for 2026, one withholding allowance is worth $4,300 of income shielded from federal withholding. More allowances means less federal tax withheld and a higher net pay figure.

What to enter:

Two honest limitations, worth stating on the page:

1. The field stops at 3. Under the old system, a household with several dependants could claim five, six, or more allowances. If that's you, this tool will show more federal tax and less net pay than your real pay stub. Treat the result as a floor.
2. It can't represent the modern W-4 exactly. If you've entered dependent credits in Step 3 or extra deductions in Step 4(b) of your current W-4, your employer's calculation uses those dollar amounts directly. Allowances are an approximation of them, not a translation.

If your result comes out lower than your actual take-home pay, this field is almost always the reason.

State Tax Rate (%)

Enter the percentage your state takes from your income. Nine states take nothing — enter 0. Everywhere else, use the table in the next section.

Two things to know before you type a number:

• Enter an effective rate, not a top marginal rate. This field applies one flat percentage. If you live in a graduated-bracket state and enter the top rate, you'll dramatically overstate your state tax. A Californian earning $75,000 should enter roughly 3.7%, not 13.3% — the top rate doesn't start until $1 million.
• Add local tax if you pay it. New York City, Philadelphia, most Ohio and Pennsylvania municipalities, Maryland counties and Indiana counties all levy their own income tax on top of the state rate. The tool has one state field, so combine them into a single number.

Additional Withholding ($)

Extra federal tax you've asked your employer to take out each pay period — line 4(c) of your W-4. Leave it at 0 unless you deliberately set it.

This is the field to use if you have a side income, a working spouse, or you owed money last April and want to avoid a repeat. Note it only works in one direction: you can add withholding here, never subtract it.

Pre-tax deductions — 401(k), Health Insurance, HSA, FSA

These come out of your pay before tax is calculated, so every dollar here reduces the income you're taxed on.

A detail that trips up almost everyone: a traditional 401(k) reduces the income your federal tax is calculated on, but not the income your Social Security and Medicare are calculated on. Health premiums and HSA contributions through a Section 125 plan reduce both. This is the most common reason a hand calculation disagrees with a real pay stub.

Post-tax deductions — Roth IRA, Dental & Vision, Other

These come out after tax. They reduce what reaches your bank account without reducing your tax bill.

• Roth IRA Contribution (%) — use this for a Roth 401(k) or a Roth IRA funded from your paycheck. It shares the $24,500 elective deferral limit with a traditional 401(k) if it's a Roth 401(k).
• Dental & Vision Insurance ($) — per pay period. Note that many employers run dental and vision pre-tax under the same Section 125 plan as medical. Check your pay stub; if they appear above the tax lines, enter them in the Health Insurance field instead for a more accurate result.
• Other Deductions ($) — union dues, garnishments, life insurance, parking, charitable giving through payroll.

2026 state income tax rate — what to enter for every state

(The page's flagship asset. It solves the tool's usability problem, it targets the state keyword cluster through content alone, and it is exactly the kind of table answer engines cite. Keep it as real HTML — <table> with <th> headers — never an image.)

The calculator takes a single percentage, so what you want is your effective state rate — the share of your income that actually goes to state tax, not the top bracket. The table below gives that figure for every state, benchmarked to a $75,000 single-filer salary in 2026.

Earning much less? Your effective rate in a graduated state will be lower than shown. Earning much more? Higher. Flat-rate and no-tax states are exact at any income.

States with no income tax — enter 0

Flat-rate states — enter the exact rate

Graduated-bracket states — enter the effective rate

Benchmarked to $75,000, single filer, standard deduction applied.

Don't forget local income tax

Several states let cities and counties levy their own income tax. The calculator has one state field, so add it to the state rate before you type.

Check your pay stub — local tax usually appears as its own line.

Four states where 2026 rates changed mid-year

• South Carolina replaced its old 0%/3%/6% structure with a 1.99%–5.21% schedule and a new state income adjustment deduction in April 2026.
• West Virginia cut every rate by roughly 5% retroactive to 1 January 2026, taking the top rate from 4.82% to 4.58%. Withholding tables were reissued mid-year, so 2026 pay stubs may show a blend of the old and new rates.
• New York cut its five lowest brackets by 0.1 percentage points in the FY2026 budget.
• New Hampshire completed the repeal of its interest and dividends tax, making it a genuine no-income-tax state.

How to read your results

The results panel breaks your pay into six parts. Here's what each one is telling you.

Estimated Net Pay — your take-home for the period you selected. This is the number that should match your pay stub.

Federal & State Taxes — income tax only. Federal is calculated on your gross minus pre-tax deductions, using the 2026 brackets for your filing status. State is your entered rate applied to income.

FICA Taxes — Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%, a combined 7.65%. Almost nobody escapes this. Social Security stops once your year-to-date wages pass $184,500; Medicare has no ceiling and adds another 0.9% above $200,000.

Pre-Tax Deductions — 401(k), health premium, HSA and FSA combined. Every dollar here saved you tax.

Post-Tax Deductions — Roth, dental and vision, and anything in Other. These reduce your cheque but not your tax.

Annual Summary — your per-period figures multiplied out across the year. Useful for checking whether you're on track to hit the $24,500 401(k) limit or the $184,500 Social Security wage base.

A quick sanity check: divide net pay by gross pay. Most US employees land between 65% and 80%. Below 60% usually means a large 401(k) contribution or a high-tax state; above 85% usually means a state rate of 0 and minimal deductions.

How much of your paycheck goes to taxes in 2026?

Answer-first paragraph — the featured-snippet play:

Most US employees lose roughly 20% to 35% of gross pay to taxes. FICA is fixed at 7.65% for almost everyone. Federal income tax withholding typically lands between 8% and 22% of gross for middle incomes once the standard deduction is applied. State income tax adds anywhere from 0% to 13.3%. Pre-tax benefits reduce all of these.

Four things drive your number, in order of impact:

1. Gross pay. The federal system is progressive, so higher earners lose a larger share.
2. Your state. The same $75,000 salary nets meaningfully more in Texas than in Oregon.
3. Filing status and W-4 choices. A married-filing-jointly filer keeps more of the same salary than a single filer, because the brackets are twice as wide.
4. Pre-tax benefits. Every dollar into a 401(k), HSA or Section 125 health plan is a dollar the IRS doesn't see this year.

2026 payroll tax rates at a glance

(Built to be cited. Exact figures, named primary sources, real tables, no hedging.)

FICA — Social Security and Medicare

The Social Security wage base rose from $176,100 in 2025 to $184,500 in 2026. An employee earning at or above the cap pays a maximum of $11,439 in Social Security tax for the year — about $521 more than in 2025 — and their employer pays the same again. Once you cross $184,500, Social Security stops coming out of your pay, which is why high earners often see their take-home jump late in the year.

The Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% is employee-only. Employers begin withholding it once year-to-date wages pass $200,000, regardless of filing status.

Self-employed? You pay both halves — 15.3% — as self-employment tax, with a deduction for the employer half.

2026 federal income tax brackets

Per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32:

2026 standard deduction: $16,100 single · $32,200 married filing jointly · $24,150 head of household · $16,100 married filing separately.

The bracket myth, stated plainly: moving into a higher bracket does not tax your whole income at that rate. Only the dollars inside each band are taxed at that band's rate. A single filer with $60,000 of taxable income pays 10% on the first $12,400, 12% on the next $38,000, and 22% only on the $9,600 above $50,400 — a total of $7,912, an effective federal rate of 13.2%, not 22%.

How to calculate net pay, step by step

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1. Start with gross pay for the period. Salary divided by the number of pay periods, or hourly rate times hours, with overtime at 1.5×.
2. Subtract pre-tax deductions. Traditional 401(k), HSA, FSA and Section 125 health premiums come out first, leaving your taxable wages.
3. Note that you now have two different taxable-wage figures. 401(k) contributions reduce federal taxable wages but not Social Security and Medicare wages. Section 125 premiums reduce both.
4. Calculate federal income tax. Annualise the taxable wage, apply the 2026 brackets for your filing status, then divide back down to the pay period. IRS Publication 15-T sets out the official percentage method.
5. Calculate FICA. 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 year-to-date, plus 1.45% with no cap, plus 0.9% above $200,000 year-to-date.
6. Calculate state and local tax. A flat rate, graduated brackets, or nothing at all depending on where you work.
7. Subtract post-tax deductions. Roth contributions, garnishments, union dues, post-tax insurance.
8. What remains is net pay — the number on the cheque.

Formula: Net pay = Gross pay − Pre-tax deductions − Federal income tax − FICA − State & local tax − Post-tax deductions

What an employee costs an employer

(Serves employer intent with content only — no employer mode needed. The calculator gives the employee side; this section supplies the multiplier and the worked example.)

An employee costs more than their salary. On top of gross wages an employer pays a matching 7.65% in FICA, federal and state unemployment tax, workers' compensation, and their share of benefits. In practice, total employer cost runs 1.2× to 1.4× gross wages — so a $70,000 salary costs roughly $84,000 to $98,000 a year.

How to work it out using this calculator: run the employee's gross salary above to see their side, then add the employer costs below.

At the gross 6.0% rate FUTA would cost $420 per employee, but with the full state credit the standard cost is $42 per employee per year. Employers in a FUTA credit reduction state — one still owing the federal unemployment trust fund — lose part of that credit and pay more. For 2026, California is the state most likely to be affected.

Worked example — $70,000 salary:

What changed for 2026

A higher Social Security wage base. $176,100 to $184,500. Anyone earning above the old cap pays up to $521 more in Social Security tax this year, matched by their employer.

No tax on tips and no tax on overtime. For tax years 2025 through 2028, workers can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips and up to $12,500 of qualified overtime ($25,000 filing jointly), both phasing out above $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($300,000 joint). Two things people consistently get wrong:

• These are income tax deductions claimed on your return, not exemptions from payroll tax. Social Security and Medicare still apply to every dollar of tips and overtime.
• The overtime deduction covers only the premium half of time-and-a-half — the extra 0.5×, not the whole overtime payment.

A redesigned Form W-4. The 2026 form's Deductions Worksheet now has lines for estimated qualified tips and qualified overtime, so tipped and overtime-heavy workers can stop over-withholding during the year instead of waiting for a refund.

New employer reporting duties. Employers must now track and separately report qualified tips and qualified overtime on Form W-2, with occupation codes. 2025 was a penalty grace period; from the 2026 forms onward, incomplete W-2s carry penalties of $60 to $680 each.

Higher contribution limits. 401(k) elective deferrals rose to $24,500, HSA to $4,400 and $8,750, and health FSA to $3,400.

Where this estimate may differ from your pay stub

This calculator gives a close estimate, not a payroll-grade calculation. Expect a gap in these situations:

• You have dependants. The Federal Allowances field stops at 3. Larger households will see more tax and less net pay here than on a real pay stub.
• You pay local income tax. There's one state field, so city and county tax has to be folded into the same number.
• You're in a graduated-bracket state. A single percentage can't reproduce a bracket schedule exactly. Use the effective rate from the table above.
• You're near the Social Security wage base. The calculator doesn't know your year-to-date earnings. If you'll pass $184,500 this year, your later paychecks will be larger than shown.
• You received a bonus or commission. Supplemental wages are usually withheld at a flat 22% federally, not at your bracket rate.
• Your dental and vision are pre-tax. Many employers run them under the same Section 125 plan as medical. If yours does, enter them in the Health Insurance field instead.
• You're paid semi-monthly. Use Annual and divide by 24.

For a legally binding figure, check your pay stub or ask your payroll provider.