Paycheck Calculator

Because withholding and liability are two different systems. This calculator estimates your true annual tax liability spread evenly across paychecks; your employer withholds according to your W-4 using IRS Publication 15-T tables, which can run higher or lower than true liability — that gap is exactly what your refund or April bill reconciles. Other common differences: local income taxes (NYC, Philadelphia, Ohio cities, Maryland and Indiana counties), state disability/family-leave insurance in some states, Roth vs. traditional 401(k), and after-tax deductions.

Traditional 401(k) money comes out before federal and (in almost every state) state income tax, but not before FICA — you still pay Social Security and Medicare on it. The practical effect: contributing 6% of pay shrinks your check by less than 6%, because part of the contribution is money that would have gone to income tax anyway. At a 22% marginal rate, a $100 contribution costs about $78 of take-home. The notable exception is Pennsylvania, which taxes 401(k) contributions going in (and correspondingly doesn't tax qualified withdrawals).

Marginal is the rate on your next dollar — the bracket you're 'in.' Effective is total tax divided by total income, and it's always lower, because the brackets are marginal: everyone pays 10% on the first $12,400 of taxable income (single), 12% on the next slice, and so on. A single filer at $100,000 is 'in the 22% bracket' but pays roughly 13% of gross in federal income tax. This also settles the perennial myth: a raise can never reduce your take-home pay, because only the dollars above a threshold get the higher rate.

You likely crossed the Social Security wage base — $184,500 in 2026. The 6.2% Social Security tax applies only up to that ceiling, so once cumulative wages pass it, that withholding stops and each remaining check grows by 6.2% of gross. Medicare has no ceiling and actually adds 0.9% above $200,000 ($250,000 married filing jointly), so very high earners trade one for the other. If your income is under the wage base, this never applies — your checks should be level all year.

Yes, and verifiably: every calculation runs in your browser — you can load the page, disconnect from the internet, and it still works. Nothing you enter is stored, logged, or transmitted. Most paycheck calculators are run by payroll and lead-generation companies where your salary, ZIP code, and filing status become marketing data. Your compensation is nobody's business, which is a core reason this tool exists.