2026 tax year
Know what actually
lands in your account.
Your salary and your paycheck are two different numbers. Pick your state to see the gap: federal tax, state tax, Social Security, and Medicare, broken down line by line.
Choose your state
- TX Texas No state income tax
- FL Florida No state income tax
- PA Pennsylvania State income tax
- CA California State income tax
- NY New York State income tax
- IL Illinois State income tax
- OH Ohio State income tax
- NC North Carolina State income tax
- WA Washington No state income tax
- NJ New Jersey State income tax
- MI Michigan State income tax
- VA Virginia State income tax
- AZ Arizona State income tax
- MA Massachusetts State income tax
- CO Colorado State income tax
- IN Indiana State income tax
- MN Minnesota State income tax
- KY Kentucky State income tax
- MO Missouri State income tax
- WI Wisconsin State income tax
- MD Maryland State income tax
- IA Iowa State income tax
- LA Louisiana State income tax
- SC South Carolina State income tax
- OK Oklahoma State income tax
- UT Utah State income tax
- AL Alabama State income tax
- OR Oregon State income tax
- CT Connecticut State income tax
- NYC New York City State and city income tax
More states are being added. Each one uses that state's own 2026 brackets.
What comes out of a US paycheck
Four deductions stand between your gross salary and your bank account. Two depend on where you live and how much you earn; two are flat percentages that start from your first dollar. Together they explain almost the whole gap.
1
Federal income tax
The biggest deduction for most people. You subtract the standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 jointly) first, then what remains is taxed in slices, each at its own bracket rate, not all at your top rate.
2
State income tax
The part that makes your location matter. Some states charge nothing at all, some a single flat rate, and some run their own progressive brackets on top of the federal ones.
3
Social Security
6.2% of earnings, but only up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026. Past that, it stops for the rest of the year, which is why some paychecks grow towards December.
4
Medicare
1.45% on everything you earn, with no cap. An extra 0.9% surtax applies above $200,000 for a single filer.
A worked example
$80,000 a year, single filer, in Texas, a state with no income tax:
That is an effective tax rate of 18.6%, or about $2,504 landing every two weeks. Move the same job to California and take-home drops to $61,887, which is $3,223 less a year, purely because of state tax.
Read the full walkthrough, step by step →
The number most calculators hide
Your effective rate (18.6% in the example) is what you pay overall. Your marginal rate (29.6%) is what your next dollar is taxed at, and it is the one that matters when you are weighing a raise. At $80,000 in Texas, a $5,000 raise adds roughly $3,518 to your take-home, not $5,000. Every state page here shows both.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate my take-home pay?
- Start with your gross salary and subtract four things: federal income tax (after the $16,100 standard deduction for a single filer), state income tax if your state levies one, Social Security at 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base, and Medicare at 1.45%. What remains is your take-home pay. This site does that arithmetic for your state as you type.
- Why is my paycheck smaller than my salary divided by 12?
- Because that division ignores tax. On a $80,000 salary in a no-income-tax state, roughly $14,890 a year goes to federal tax, Social Security and Medicare, about 18.6% of gross. In a state with income tax the gap is larger.
- Does where I live really change my take-home pay?
- Substantially. The same $80,000 salary leaves $65,110 in Texas, which has no state income tax, but $61,887 in California, a difference of $3,223 a year for identical work. Federal tax and FICA are the same everywhere; state tax is not.
- Are these figures exact?
- No. They are estimates, and deliberately so. They cover the four deductions that dominate almost every paycheck, but exclude tax credits, local or city taxes, pre-tax deductions like 401(k) and health premiums, and your specific Form W-4 elections. Use them to compare offers and sanity-check a payslip, not to file taxes.
- Is this calculator free?
- Yes, and there is no sign-up. The calculation runs entirely in your browser, so the salary you type is never sent to us or stored anywhere.
More from Takehome
- New York City paycheck calculator Live in the five boroughs? The city adds its own income tax on top of the state's.
- Same salary, 29 states: what you take home at $50k, $75k, $100k and $150k in 2026 We ran four salaries through all 29 states we cover, with one method. Where the ranking flips as pay rises, and what the headline numbers leave out.
- South Carolina cut its income tax for 2026, but your paycheck didn't get the memo Act 110 lowered South Carolina's 2026 income tax, but employers still withhold on the old formula. How much extra leaves each paycheck, and what to do.
- All paycheck guides Plain-English explainers on what comes out of a 2026 paycheck.
- Sources and verification log Every tax figure on the site, the official source it comes from, and when it was last checked.
- How take-home pay is calculated The four deductions, step by step, with a worked example.