Take-Home Pay Calculator 2026
Enter a salary and pick your state to see each paycheck as payroll would withhold it: federal tax from your Form W-4, Social Security and Medicare, your state's 2026 income tax and any mandatory state payroll deductions, itemized line by line.
Paid by the hour? Use the hourly paycheck calculator instead.
California: progressive 2026 bracket schedule.
Form W-4 adjustments · optional
Copy these from the W-4 you gave your employer. Leave them blank if you only filled in Step 1.
$2,200 for each child under 17 plus $500 for each other dependent, as entered on the form.
Capped at the 2026 standard employee limit of $24,500.
Health premiums, HSA and similar. Lowers income tax and take-home cash, but not Social Security, Medicare or state program deductions.
- Gross pay
- $2,884.62
- Federal income tax withheld
- −$263.27
- California income tax (est.)
- −$101.06
- Social Security and Medicare
- −$220.68
- CA SDI
- −$37.50
- 401(k) contribution
- −$144.23
- Take-home pay
- $2,117.88
An estimated $2,628 a year goes to California income tax. California's payroll program (CA SDI) takes $975 a year on this pay.
Federal withholding follows IRS Publication 15-T (2026) and your Form W-4 entries. California income tax is the year's estimated tax spread evenly across your paychecks; your employer's state withholding formula can differ a little. Social Security, Medicare and state program deductions are averaged over the year. Credits, bonuses and mid-year changes are not modeled.
Sources & assumptions
Tax year 2026
Tax data 2026.10.29-interim
Page updated 2026-10-29
- The per-paycheck view withholds federal income tax from your Form W-4 entries using the IRS 2026 percentage method (Publication 15-T). State income tax is the year's estimate spread evenly across paychecks, not the state's own withholding formula.
- Mandatory state payroll programs (such as CA SDI, NY Paid Family Leave, NJ and RI disability insurance, WA Paid Leave and WA Cares) are included at their 2026 employee rates and caps. The Annual tax view shows the year's liability instead of withholding.
- Pay date, year-to-date pay, bonuses, tax credits and residence/work-state interaction are not modeled.
- Local income tax is included only when you select a listed or custom rate in a salaried state calculator. Hourly estimates and comparison tables exclude local income tax; listed rates are representative, so confirm yours with your locality.
- State schedules are an interim planning model. Filing combinations without a sourced schedule are unavailable rather than silently approximated.
- Internal Revenue Service: 2026 inflation adjustments and income-tax brackets — Federal annual-liability brackets and standard deductions.
- Internal Revenue Service: Publication 15-T (2026) — Worksheet 1A and the 2026 annual percentage-method tables used for per-paycheck federal withholding from a Form W-4.
- Social Security Administration: 2026 contribution and benefit base — Social Security wage base and employee rate.
- Internal Revenue Service: Additional Medicare Tax — Liability thresholds and the additional 0.9% rate.
- Tax Foundation: 2026 state individual income-tax rates and brackets — Secondary compilation used as a starting reference; local taxes are excluded.
- Arizona State Legislature: Arizona Laws 2026, Chapter 140 — Signed June 13, 2026; supersedes the earlier Arizona deduction snapshot.
- Plante Moran state and local tax advisor (April 2026): Supplemental budget with OBBBA conformity — Maine's 2026 IRC-conformity update; supersedes the earlier Maine deduction snapshot.
- California Franchise Tax Board: 2025 Form 540 tax rate schedules and standard deduction — California's latest published Schedule X and Y brackets; the $5,706 / $11,412 standard deduction is from the 2025 Form 540 booklet, line 18.
- Connecticut Department of Revenue Services: IP 2026(7), Is My Connecticut Withholding Correct? — Connecticut's 2026 rate table, 2% phase-out add-back and tax recapture tables.
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: Instructions for Form IT-2105 (2026) — New York's 2026 rate schedules and the tax computation worksheets that apply the supplemental tax above $107,650.
The email includes this route only; calculator inputs are not attached.
From gross salary to take-home, in order
Every salary loses money to the same four stops, and this calculator itemizes each one. First, pre-tax deductions such as a traditional 401(k) come off the top and shrink the income the tax math sees. Second, federal income tax applies 2026 brackets to what is left after the standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly). Third, employee payroll taxes take 6.2% Social Security on wages up to $184,500 plus 1.45% Medicare on everything. Fourth, your state applies its own 2026 schedule — a flat rate, progressive brackets, or nothing at all in the nine no-income-tax states — and about a third of states add small mandatory payroll deductions such as California SDI or New York Paid Family Leave. The paycheck view then withholds federal tax the way payroll does, from your Form W-4.
The state step is where identical salaries diverge. The same $75,000 (single filer, no 401(k)) keeps a different amount depending on where it is earned:
| State | State income tax | Annual take-home |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | None | $61,593 |
| North Carolina | −$2,484 | $59,109 |
| California | −$2,928 | $57,690 |
Single filer, no 401(k) or other pre-tax deductions; federal tax and FICA are identical in all three rows, so the gap is state income tax plus California’s 1.3% SDI. Compare all 51 jurisdictions on the state paycheck hub.
Salary take-home by pay frequency
Taxes are annual, but pay arrives in periods — so the calculator estimates the year first, then apportions it. Weekly pay divides the annual estimate by 52, bi-weekly by 26, semi-monthly by 24 and monthly by 12. Bi-weekly and semi-monthly look similar but differ twice a year: a bi-weekly schedule delivers 26 paychecks, so two months contain a third check.
Because this is an annual estimate split evenly, it will not reproduce paycheck quirks like mid-year raises, bonuses (see the bonus tax calculator) or the moment high earners cross the Social Security wage base and their checks grow late in the year.
Frequently asked questions
- How is take-home pay calculated in 2026?
- Start with gross salary, subtract pre-tax deductions such as a traditional 401(k), then subtract federal income tax (2026 brackets after the $16,100 single / $32,200 married standard deduction), employee payroll taxes (6.2% Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base plus 1.45% Medicare, with a 0.9% surtax for high earners) and your state's 2026 income tax. What remains is the estimated annual take-home.
- Is this the amount my employer will withhold each paycheck?
- No. This tool estimates annual federal and state income-tax liability and divides it across the pay periods you select. Employer withholding uses pay-period wages, Form W-4 entries, year-to-date figures and payroll rounding, so individual paychecks can differ.
- What percentage of salary is take-home pay?
- Roughly 70–82% for most salaried workers, depending on income, filing status, state and pre-tax deductions. A $75,000 single filer keeps about 82% in a no-income-tax state like Texas and about 78% in California under this model.
- Which states have no income tax on wages?
- Nine states levy no state income tax on wages in 2026: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Federal income tax and payroll taxes still apply everywhere.
- Does contributing to a 401(k) raise my take-home pay?
- No — it lowers it, but by less than the contribution. Traditional 401(k) money comes out before income tax, so a $6,000 contribution on a $75,000 salary reduces take-home cash by roughly $4,200–$4,700 while the full $6,000 goes to your retirement account. Payroll taxes still apply to the contributed wages.
- How is this different from the state paycheck pages?
- Same 2026 tax engine, different lens. This page lets you switch between all 50 states and DC in one calculator; each state page adds that state's bracket table, take-home figures across common salaries and a neighboring-state comparison.
Take-home pay by state (2026)
Each state page pairs this calculator with the state's 2026 bracket table, take-home estimates across common salaries and a neighboring-state comparison.