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Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026)

By the SalaryInStates Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

A salary is a gross number; a paycheck is what is left after three layers of tax take their share. This calculator works through those layers in the order a payroll department does — federal income tax under the IRS brackets for 2026, FICA payroll tax at the published Social Security and Medicare rates, and state income tax — and shows your estimated take-home pay for the year, the month, and each paycheck. Every salary figure elsewhere on this site, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey, is a gross figure, so this is the tool that turns a BLS median wage into money you can actually budget with. Enter your salary, pick your filing status and state, and the results update as you type.

How this calculator works

The calculation follows the same order as a real payroll run. First, any pre-tax deductions you enter — a traditional 401(k) contribution or an HSA, for example — come off the top, because that money is not counted as taxable wages for income tax (it is still counted for FICA, which is why the calculator keeps the two bases separate). Second, the federal standard deduction for 2026 — $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly, $24,150 for a head of household — is subtracted to get federal taxable income. Third, the 2026 IRS brackets are applied marginally: each rate taxes only the slice of income that falls inside its bracket, never the whole salary. Fourth, FICA is calculated on gross wages: 6.2% for Social Security, but only on the first $184,500 of wages in 2026, and 1.45% for Medicare on every dollar, plus an extra 0.9% Medicare tax on wages above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly). Finally, state income tax is added for the states where we can model it responsibly, as explained below.

2026 brackets and standard deductions: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Social Security wage base of $184,500 for 2026: Social Security Administration.

Worked example 1: $75,000, single, in Texas

Texas has no state income tax, which makes it the cleanest illustration. A single filer earning $75,000 subtracts the $16,100 standard deduction, leaving $58,900 of taxable income. The federal tax is $1,240 on the first $12,400, $4,560 on the next $38,000 (taxed at 12%), and $1,870 on the remaining $8,500 (taxed at 22%) — $7,670 in total, an effective federal rate of about 10.2% even though the top bracket is 22%. FICA takes $4,650 for Social Security and $1,087.50 for Medicare, $5,737.50 altogether. Take-home pay is $75,000 − $7,670 − $5,737.50 = $61,592.50 a year, or $5,132.71 a month and $2,368.94 on a biweekly paycheck. Run exactly those inputs in the calculator above and you will get exactly those figures — the examples on this page were produced by the calculator's own formulas.

Worked example 2: $120,000, married filing jointly, in Colorado

A couple filing jointly starts with a $32,200 standard deduction, so $120,000 of salary becomes $87,800 of taxable income. Federal tax is $2,480 at 10% plus $7,560 at 12% — $10,040 total, and none of their income reaches the 22% bracket. Colorado's flat rate of 4.40%, applied in this calculator to income after the federal standard deduction, adds an estimated $3,863.20. FICA is a full 7.65% of $120,000, or $9,180, because the salary is below the Social Security wage base. Take-home pay is $120,000 − $10,040 − $3,863.20 − $9,180 = $96,916.80 a year, $8,076.40 a month. Filing jointly rather than as two single filers is worth real money at this income, because the joint brackets and standard deduction are exactly double the single ones while a one-earner couple's income is not.

Worked example 3: $200,000 and the Social Security cap

At $200,000, single and living in a no-tax state, two things change. Federal taxable income is $183,900, and the tax rises to $36,734 because a large slice now sits in the 24% bracket. But Social Security tax stops growing: 6.2% applies only to the first $184,500 of wages, so the charge is capped at $11,439 rather than the $12,400 an uncapped 6.2% would take. Medicare continues on the full salary at $2,900. Take-home pay is $148,927. The lesson generalizes: above the wage base, each extra dollar of raise loses federal and Medicare tax but no Social Security tax, so high earners keep slightly more of a raise than the headline FICA rate suggests — until the additional 0.9% Medicare tax begins above the threshold.

What moves take-home pay the most

Three levers dominate. The first is where you live: the same $93,600 — the BLS median wage for a registered nurse — nets $74,677.60 a year for a single filer in Texas after $11,762 of federal tax and $7,160.40 of FICA, before any state tax is considered at all; in a state with a 5% effective income tax the same nurse would keep roughly $4,000–$4,700 less. Compare state pay levels on our Texas salary page and California salary page, then run both through this calculator. The second lever is pre-tax saving: $6,000 into a traditional 401(k) cuts federal taxable income by $6,000, which at a 22% marginal rate saves $1,320 of federal tax — the contribution still reduces take-home, but by $4,680 rather than the full $6,000. The third lever is filing status: at equal household income, married filing jointly usually beats two single returns in the middle brackets, which is why the calculator asks for it explicitly rather than assuming single.

How we handle state tax — and where we stop

State income tax is where paycheck calculators most often invent precision they do not have. This one takes three honest routes. Nine states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — levy no broad tax on wages, so the calculator applies exactly 0%. Ten states tax at a single published flat rate (Arizona 2.50%, Colorado 4.40%, Illinois 4.95%, Indiana 3.00%, Iowa 3.80%, Kentucky 4.00%, Massachusetts 5.00%, Michigan 4.25%, Pennsylvania 3.07% and Utah 4.55%); for those, the calculator applies the flat rate to income after the federal standard deduction and labels the result an estimate, because each state has its own deductions and exemptions on top. For the remaining graduated-bracket states we do not guess a bracket schedule: the calculator asks you to enter the effective state rate you expect — the share of your pay your state actually took last year is the best guide — and applies that rate transparently. City and county income taxes (New York City is the famous example) are not included anywhere in this tool.

Limitations to know before you budget on the result

This is an estimator built on the standard deduction. It does not model itemized deductions, tax credits such as the child tax credit or earned income credit, the alternative minimum tax, or income from bonuses taxed under supplemental withholding, investments, or self-employment — self-employed workers pay both halves of FICA under SECA and should not use these figures. It also cannot see your W-4, and withholding during the year can differ from your final tax bill in either direction; a refund means the paychecks were smaller than the annual estimate here, not that the estimate was wrong. Benefit premiums you pay with after-tax dollars, wage garnishments, and union dues are likewise outside the calculation. Use the result to compare job offers, states and raise scenarios on equal terms — for filing, use your pay records and, if your situation is complicated, a tax professional.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 federal brackets and standard deductions), irs.gov; Social Security Administration, 2026 Social Security wage base ($184,500), ssa.gov; state flat rates as published by state revenue departments and summarized by the Tax Foundation for 2025–2026; wage context from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2024. Figures checked October 2026.