Take-home pay calculator

How the formula works

Your paycheck shrinks in three separate ways, and each one is computed on a different base. Federal income tax is charged on taxable income — what is left of gross pay after the pre-tax deductions and the standard deduction:

The tax on it is progressive: taxable income is sliced into brackets, and each slice is taxed at its own rate. With bracket boundaries \(b_1 < b_2 < \dots\) and rates \(r_1, r_2, \dots\), the federal tax is the sum over the slices your income actually fills:

That is the whole trick behind the phrase marginal rate: the rate of the top slice applies only to the dollars inside that slice. Your effective rate — total tax divided by gross pay — is always lower, because the earlier dollars were taxed in the cheaper brackets below (and some were not taxed at all, thanks to the deduction). FICA and state tax then come out of their own bases, and what remains, divided by the number of paychecks in a year, is the number on your pay stub.

The federal figures here are for tax year 2026 and change annually: standard deduction $16,100 single / $32,200 married filing jointly; seven brackets from 10% to 37%; Social Security 6.2% on wages up to $184,500; Medicare 1.45% on all wages plus 0.9% Additional Medicare on wages above $200,000 single / $250,000 married filing jointly.

What each input means

Gross annual salary

Pay before anything comes out — the number in the offer letter. For an hourly job, multiply the hourly wage by the hours you actually work in a year (a 40-hour week is 2,080 hours).

Filing status

Single or married filing jointly. The married brackets and standard deduction are double the single ones (except the very top bracket), so the same salary is taxed more gently — the questions below put a number on it. Head of household and married-filing-separately sit in between and are not modeled here.

State + local income tax

One flat percentage standing in for your state and any city or county income tax. Real state schedules are often progressive; a flat rate near your state's effective rate is close enough for a paycheck estimate. Nine states charge nothing — enter 0.

401(k) contribution

Percent of gross deferred into a traditional 401(k). It reduces federal and state taxable income, but not FICA — Social Security and Medicare are charged before the deferral. The money is yours; it is savings, not tax, and it appears on its own line.

HSA / FSA contribution

Annual dollars into a health savings or flexible spending account through payroll. These are cafeteria-plan deductions, and they are the stronger kind: they escape federal tax, state tax (in almost every state) and FICA.

Pay frequency

How often you are paid. Biweekly (26 checks) and semi-monthly (24 checks) sound alike but differ: two months a year, a biweekly earner gets a third check.

A worked example

The worksheet's defaults: a $75,000 salary, single, 5% state and local tax, 6% of gross into a traditional 401(k), nothing into an HSA, paid biweekly.

• 401(k) deferral: $75,000 × 6% = $4,500 — set aside before tax, still your money.
• Federal taxable income: $75,000 − $4,500 − $16,100 standard deduction = $54,400.
• Federal tax, slice by slice:
  • 10% on the slice from $0 to $12,400: $12,400 × 10% = $1,240.
  • 12% on the slice from $12,400 to $50,400: $38,000 × 12% = $4,560.
  • 22% on the slice from $50,400 to $54,400: $4,000 × 22% = $880.
  Total federal income tax: $6,680.
• FICA is charged on the full $75,000 — the 401(k) does not reduce it: Social Security $75,000 × 6.2% = $4,650, Medicare $75,000 × 1.45% = $1,088, together $5,738.
• State and local: 5% of $75,000 − $4,500 = $3,525.
• All taxes together: $6,680 + $5,738 + $3,525 = $15,942, an effective rate of 21.3% of gross — even though the top slice was taxed at 22%.
• Take-home: $75,000 − $15,942 tax − $4,500 deferred = $54,558 a year, which over 26 paychecks is $2,098.37 per check.

Assumptions and limits

• The federal numbers are for tax year 2026 — the brackets, standard deduction and Social Security wage cap are adjusted every year, so this page's results drift out of date unless the constants are updated.
• Standard deduction only: no itemized deductions, no credits (child tax credit, EITC), no other income, and no pre-tax insurance premiums — most employer health premiums are also cafeteria-plan deductions, so if you pay them, your actual take-home differs. Adding them to the HSA/FSA field is a reasonable approximation.
• State and local tax is one flat rate. Real state schedules have their own brackets, deductions and credits; this is an estimate, not a state return.
• This computes annual tax liability spread evenly over the year's paychecks. What your employer withholds follows your W-4 and the IRS withholding tables and will not match exactly — the gap is settled at filing time as a refund or a balance due.
• This is arithmetic, not advice. It shows what the inputs imply under one year's rules; it cannot see your whole tax situation.

Questions people ask

Why is my actual paycheck different from this?

Two honest reasons. First, this page computes your annual tax bill and divides it evenly; your employer instead withholds using your W-4 and the IRS tables, which round differently and know nothing about your other income — the difference becomes your refund or balance due in April. Second, real paychecks usually carry deductions this page does not model: health and dental premiums, group life, disability insurance, union dues. Check one pay stub line by line against the worked example and the gap will account for itself.

Will a raise push me into a higher bracket and cost me money?

No — that is not how brackets work. Only the dollars inside the top slice are taxed at the top rate; everything below keeps its old rate. Run it: raising the default salary from $75,000 to $85,000 adds $6,097 of take-home pay plus $600 more deferred into the 401(k). Some of the raise goes to tax, but a raise never shrinks your paycheck. (Losing an income-limited credit or subsidy can create a real cliff, but that is a feature of the credit, not the brackets.)

What reduces FICA, and what only reduces income tax?

They are different bases. A traditional 401(k) deferral reduces federal and state taxable income but not FICA — Social Security and Medicare are charged before it comes out. Cafeteria-plan deductions — HSA and FSA contributions through payroll, and most employer health premiums — escape all three. On the default scenario, $1,000 through payroll into an HSA cuts total tax by $346: the 22% federal slice, 5% state, and 7.65% FICA, all at once.

Why was my bonus taxed so heavily?

It probably wasn't — it was withheld heavily. Most employers withhold a flat 22% federal on supplemental wages like bonuses (plus FICA and state), regardless of your actual bracket. But at filing time a bonus is just wages: it is taxed at your regular marginal rate. If that rate is below 22% — the default scenario's effective rate is only 21.3% — the excess withholding comes back as refund; if you are in a higher bracket, you may owe more.

How much difference does married filing jointly make?

On one income, a lot: the MFJ standard deduction and bracket boundaries are double the single ones (except the very top bracket). The default $75,000 salary pays $6,680 of federal income tax filing single but $4,100 filing jointly — $2,580 less, because twice as much income fits in the deduction and the low brackets. FICA does not care about filing status, and if both spouses earn, the second income stacks on top of the first and the advantage shrinks or disappears.