Payroll Tax Calculator

Payroll tax withholding follows the same basic formula on every paycheck: an employer multiplies gross pay by each applicable tax rate, then subtracts the total from gross pay to arrive at net pay, also called take-home pay.

Net Pay = Gross Pay minus (Gross Pay times the combined Federal, State, and FICA rate)

• Federal income tax withholding, based on W-4 filing status and the IRS's tax brackets
• State income tax withholding, which varies by state and is 0% in nine states with no income tax
• FICA (Social Security and Medicare), a flat 7.65% for nearly every employee regardless of income, until wages cross the Social Security wage base

Because federal and state withholding depend on specific filing status, deductions, and location, this calculator asks for the rate directly rather than trying to guess it. FICA, by contrast, is the same fixed rate for virtually every worker, which is why it is broken out as its own field below. For the federal bracket math worked out automatically instead of entered by hand, the Take-Home Pay Calculator uses real 2026 IRS brackets.

The Social Security wage base rises most years with inflation, so the exact dollar figure above applies to 2026 only. The Additional Medicare Tax is withheld only from the employee's paycheck once wages cross the listed threshold; the employer's own matching contribution stays at 1.45% regardless of how high an employee's wages climb.

Adding federal, state, and FICA together gives the effective tax rate on a paycheck, exactly what this calculator's Total Withholding Rate output shows. It is a real, useful summary number even though the underlying federal and state pieces are themselves calculated at different rates internally (FICA is flat, federal and state brackets are not).

Selecting a state above pre-fills the State Tax Rate field with that state's real rate, shown in full below. Nine states, Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, and Washington, charge no state tax on wages at all. Fifteen states use one flat rate for every income level. The remaining states use progressive brackets, so the figure below reflects the marginal rate at $75,000 in taxable income, a representative moderate income, not the state's absolute top bracket, which can run considerably higher for high earners.

This is a real starting point, not a guarantee of exact accuracy. Actual state withholding still depends on filing status, deductions, and, in a progressive-bracket state, exactly how much of a paycheck falls into each bracket. The State Tax Rate field stays fully editable after picking a state, so a real number from a pay stub always takes precedence.

Employers pay their own matching FICA, 6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare, 7.65% total, on top of whatever is withheld from an employee's paycheck. On top of that, employers alone pay the Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA), which never touches an employee's paycheck at all.

FUTA is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages per year, though nearly every employer qualifies for a credit of up to 5.4% for paying state unemployment tax on time, which brings the real, effective FUTA rate down to 0.6% in practice. Most states also charge their own state unemployment tax (SUTA), paid entirely by the employer, at a rate that varies by state and by the employer's own claims history.

This calculator is part of a small family of payroll and income tax tools, each suited to a different situation.

• Self-Employment Tax Calculator (US): for the self-employed, who pay both the employee and employer share of FICA
• Employee Fully-Loaded Cost Calculator: the employer's total cost per employee, not just take-home pay