US Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026 Tax Year)

How take-home pay is calculated

Your paycheck is what's left after three layers of tax — and they work very differently.

1. Federal income tax is marginal. For 2026, a single filer's first $12,400 of taxable income is taxed at 10%, the next chunk up to $50,400 at 12%, then 22%, and so on up to 37%. Only the dollars inside each bracket get that bracket's rate. Before brackets even apply, the standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly for 2026) is subtracted from your gross pay. About 90% of filers take the standard deduction rather than itemizing.

2. FICA (payroll tax) is mostly flat. You pay 6.2% Social Security tax on wages up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026 (it stops above that), plus 1.45% Medicare tax on all wages with no cap. Earn over $200,000 single ($250,000 joint) and an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax kicks in. Your employer matches the 6.2% + 1.45% — that's part of what you cost, even though you never see it.

3. State income tax ranges from zero to 13.3%. Nine states tax no wage income at all. Others, like California (up to 13.3%) and New York (up to 10.9%), are meaningfully progressive; a dozen-plus states use a single flat rate. A few cities (New York City, for example) add their own income tax on top — we exclude local taxes and say so wherever relevant.

Worked example: $85,000 salary, single, Texas, 2026

Texas has no state income tax, which keeps the example clean:

Step	Math	Result
Gross pay	—	$85,000
Standard deduction	−$16,100	—
Federal taxable income	$85,000 − $16,100	$68,900
Federal tax: 10% bracket	$12,400 × 10%	$1,240
Federal tax: 12% bracket	($50,400 − $12,400) × 12%	$4,560
Federal tax: 22% bracket	($68,900 − $50,400) × 22%	$4,070
Total federal tax		$9,870
Social Security	$85,000 × 6.2%	$5,270
Medicare	$85,000 × 1.45%	$1,232.50
State tax (TX)	—	$0
Take-home pay	$85,000 − $9,870 − $6,502.50	$68,627.50

That's $5,718.96/month, or $2,639.14 per biweekly paycheck. Effective total tax rate: about 19.3% — even though the filer's marginal federal rate is 22%.

Pre-tax deductions change everything

Money you put into a traditional 401(k), an HSA, or employer health premiums comes out before federal (and usually state) tax is calculated — though Social Security and Medicare taxes generally still apply. Contributing $10,000 to a 401(k) doesn't just save for retirement; at a 22% marginal rate it also cuts this year's federal tax by about $2,200. That's why two people with the same salary can have noticeably different paychecks.

Why your withholding never matches exactly

Your employer withholds based on Form W-4 and IRS tables that approximate your annual liability from each paycheck in isolation. Bonuses and commissions are typically withheld at a flat 22% supplemental rate. The result: most people get a refund or owe a balance in April. A calculator like this estimates your actual liability; your W-4 controls your withholding. If they differ a lot, adjusting your W-4 — not your calculator — is the fix.

Data sources for this calculator

• Federal: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (tax year 2026), as amended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), which made the TCJA rate structure permanent and added an enhanced standard deduction through 2028.
• FICA: Social Security Administration 2026 announcements — $184,500 wage base, 6.2% / 1.45% rates, $200k/$250k Additional Medicare Tax thresholds.
• State: Tax Foundation, "2026 State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets" (as of January 2026). State figures are simplified estimates: standard deduction and personal exemption applied where the state offers them; local/city taxes excluded. A few states' 2026 inflation adjustments were not yet published when the table was compiled — we re-verify every January.