2026 tax year · IRS figures
What your salary actually pays you
One number matters when you negotiate a raise or move states: what lands in your account. Enter a salary, get the after-tax figure in your browser — no signup, no email gate, no sponsored lender waiting at the end.
- Runs entirely in your browser
- No account, no email
- Sources linked on every page
Calculators
- After-Tax Salary Live Net pay from gross salary, by filing status and state — annual, monthly, biweekly or weekly.
- Texas Paycheck Live No state wage tax — federal income tax and FICA only. Compare against CA and NY.
- California Paycheck Live Nine FTB brackets plus 1.3% SDI with no wage ceiling, computed from the schedule.
- New York Paycheck Live Nine state brackets, SDI and paid-leave premiums, plus the NYC tax gap.
- Hourly to Salary Live Convert an hourly wage to annual pay, or a salary back to the hourly rate it implies.
- Compare All 51 States Guide Which states tax wages, which charge nothing, and where local tax sits on top.
How to use the calculator
Three inputs decide the answer. Everything else is optional.
- Enter your gross salary. The yearly figure before tax and before any 401(k). Shortcuts work — type 75k or 1.2m — or drag the slider to sweep a range.
- Pick a filing status and a state. These two move the answer by thousands. All 51 jurisdictions are listed, including the nine that tax no wages at all; California and New York use their full published schedules.
- Set the pay frequency you are actually paid on. The big number is one check. Biweekly means 26 a year and semimonthly 24, so the same salary produces different per-check amounts.
Optional: add a pre-tax 401(k) percentage to see the trade-off. It reduces income tax but never reduces FICA — here is why.
What the number includes, and what it leaves out
The calculator reproduces the tax lines on a pay stub. It cannot reproduce everything else that lands there, so read the result as the tax side of your paycheck rather than the final deposit.
Counted
- Federal income tax on taxable income, after the standard deduction for your filing status.
- Social Security at 6.2%, stopping at the $184,500 wage base.
- Medicare at 1.45%, plus the 0.9% surtax above $200,000 single or $250,000 joint.
- State income tax — full schedules for California, New York and Texas, an adjustable estimate for everywhere else.
- State payroll programs: California SDI at 1.3%, New York SDI and paid family leave.
- A traditional 401(k) contribution, if you enter one.
Not counted
- Health, dental and vision premiums, HSA or FSA contributions.
- Local wage tax, apart from New York City, which the New York page shows separately.
- Credits: earned income, child tax credit, education credits.
- Bonuses, commissions, RSUs, a second job or a raise partway through the year.
- Self-employment tax, if you are paid on a 1099.
- Multi-state or part-year residency rules.
What the numbers mean
Three separate taxes come out of a US paycheck, and they behave differently. Federal income tax is progressive: marginal rates apply to taxable income after deductions, so your effective rate is always lower than your top bracket. Social Security is a flat 6.2% that stops at the annual wage base. Medicare is 1.45% on all wages, with an extra 0.9% above a filing-status threshold. State tax ranges from zero to roughly 13% depending on where you live.
Because of that structure, two people with identical salaries in different states take home materially different amounts — and a raise never reduces net pay, despite what the bracket tables appear to suggest.
Same salary, different state
Geography is worth more than most raises. On a $100,000 salary, single filer, no 401(k) contribution, here is what 2026 leaves in three states:
| State | State income tax | State payroll | Annual take-home | Vs Texas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | $0 | $0 | $79,180 | — |
| New York | $4,860 | $443 | $73,877 | −$5,303 |
| California | $5,086 | $1,300 | $72,794 | −$6,386 |
Federal income tax and FICA are identical in all three; only the state layer moves. New York City residents would lose a further 3.078%–3.876% of taxable income.
If your pay stub shows a different number
Often it should — four things sit between this estimate and the amount that reaches your account.
- Pre-tax benefits. Health, dental, vision, HSA and FSA contributions are taken out before withholding. None of them are modelled here, so your stub will be lower by exactly those amounts.
- Your W-4 elections. Dependents, the child tax credit and any extra withholding change what your employer withholds during the year. They change the timing of your tax, not the tax itself — that reconciles on your return.
- Local tax. New York City adds 3.078% to 3.876%, and Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan levy local wage taxes that a state-level calculator cannot see.
- Income this model never sees. Bonuses withheld at a flat 22%, RSUs, a second job, or a raise in July all move your effective rate away from a single fixed salary.
The figures come from IRS Publication 15, the Social Security Administration's wage base and published state schedules; every change is dated in the change log. If the gap is larger than the four reasons above, tell us — corrections ship with a date attached.
Common questions
Is this the same as my actual paycheck?
It is an annual estimate for one job held all year. Employers withhold per pay period based on your Form W-4, so a single check can differ even when the yearly tax is right: bonuses are withheld at a flat 22%, a raise partway through the year changes the per-check rate, and Social Security stops once you cross the wage base. The annual take-home figure is the reliable one; the per-check figure assumes an even salary all year.
Do I enter gross salary or take-home salary?
Gross — the figure in your offer letter, before tax and before any retirement contribution. If you contribute to a traditional 401(k), leave that out of the salary field and enter the percentage on the 401(k) slider instead, so the deduction shows up as its own line rather than disappearing into a smaller salary.
Which filing status should I pick?
The one you will actually file for the year, not the one printed on your W-4. Single, married filing jointly, head of household and married filing separately each carry their own brackets and standard deduction; on a $75,000 salary, filing jointly is worth about $3,000 more take-home pay than filing single.
Why does Social Security stop coming out late in the year?
Because you crossed the wage base, $184,500 for 2026. Social Security is 6.2% only up to that amount, so the final paychecks of the year carry Medicare alone. The calculator applies the same rule in both directions: below the base you pay 6.2%, above it every extra dollar pays Medicare rates only.
Can a raise ever reduce my take-home pay?
No. The brackets are marginal, meaning only the dollars above each threshold are taxed at the higher rate. Moving into the 24% bracket raises the tax on the new income, never the tax on the income below it. Net pay can only rise — just more slowly near a threshold than in the middle of a bracket.
Does this work for 1099 or freelance income?
Not directly. Self-employed workers pay both halves of FICA — 15.3% rather than 7.65% — file quarterly estimates and can deduct business expenses. The result here is the employee side of the same salary, so treat it as a floor rather than a forecast. The FICA guide walks through the difference.