About PaycheckSum

Last updated: October 26, 2026. This page describes the site as currently built.

1. What this site is

PaycheckSum publishes free United States payroll tax calculators for tax year 2026: an employee paycheck calculator (gross to net), an employer cost calculator (what one employee really costs), and self-employment / 1099 calculators — for all 50 states and DC, with the neighbouring tools the same work needs (bonus, gross-up, overtime, hourly-to-salary conversion). There are no accounts and no fees; calculations and PDF downloads happen on your device. Canada and United Kingdom modules exist as clearly labelled reserve samples and are not activated.

2. How every figure is produced

One documented calculation engine per country module produces a single structured result — lines with amounts, explanations and sources — and that same object feeds the screen, the PDF download and the automated test benches, so the three can never drift apart. Rates, wage bases, brackets and deductions are not typed into code: they live in versioned data packs where every parameter cites its primary source and the date it was verified. The methodology and sources page describes the method in full, including what the engine deliberately does not model.

3. The sources policy

Primary sources only: IRS publications and revenue procedures (the Publication 15-T withholding method among them), the Social Security Administration, the US Department of Labor, and the tax agencies of the 50 states and DC — the Canada Revenue Agency and HMRC on the reserve pages. Secondary compilations are never a source of record. Each jurisdiction's parameters carry a status — primary-verified, documented derivation, or compilation-checked, as defined in the disclaimer — and the status is printed on the page, not hidden. A figure that cannot be traced to its source is not published: the gap is labelled instead.

4. Who publishes this site

PaycheckSum is published and maintained by an independent editorial team. No individual's name and no professional credential is attached to these calculators, deliberately: a figure here stands on the official publication it cites and the date it was verified — both shown next to it — not on a byline. That is the basis on which we ask you to trust a number, and it is checkable on every page.

5. Contact

Questions, corrections and error reports go to the editorial team at contact@paychecksum.com. An error report that checks out is corrected in the data pack, locked in with a new golden test case, and recorded — the correction policy on the methodology page.