Paycheck calculator 2026 — salary to take-home pay

Federal income tax, FICA and state tax for one pay period and the year, in all 50 states and DC — every combination computed by the engine itself.

State of employment

State income tax, SDI-type programs and local modules depend on where the work is performed.

Pay entered as

Annual salary, or an hourly rate with the hours of one pay period — switch to match your pay stub.

Annual salary ($)

Gross annual wages for this job, before any deduction.

Pay frequency

How often a paycheck is issued. Social Security is capped cumulatively over the year.

Filing status

Federal and state brackets and standard deductions depend on it.

Dependents

Any number. Dependents change exemptions and credits in several states.

Tips per pay period ($)

Tips received in one pay period. Tips are wages — taxed for federal tax, FICA and state tax.

Tips deduction (IRC §224)

The §224 “no tax on tips” deduction applies only to tips you declare eligible: a traditionally tipped occupation, voluntary reported tips, not a specified service trade or business. The calculator never decides eligibility for you.

401(k) contribution ($/year)

Traditional 401(k) deferrals for the year, from this job. They reduce the wages income tax is figured on, but not your Social Security and Medicare wages. 2026 limit: $24,500 — an amount above the limit is capped and flagged in the result.

401(k) contribution (% of pay)

Alternative to the yearly amount: a percentage of your gross pay. Give one or the other, not both. Leave empty when you use the amount above.

HSA contribution through your employer ($/year)

Your health savings account contributions for the year, made through your employer's cafeteria plan. They reduce income-tax wages AND Social Security/Medicare wages. You need an HSA-qualifying high-deductible health plan to contribute — the calculator does not check that.

HSA coverage

Sets the 2026 HSA limit applied to the contribution above.

Health FSA contribution ($/year)

Flexible spending account salary reductions for the year under a section 125 plan. They reduce income-tax wages AND Social Security/Medicare wages. 2026 limit: $3,400 — an amount above the limit is capped and flagged.

Form W-4 Step 2 — multiple jobs

Check the box's equivalent if you hold more than one job at a time, or file jointly with a working spouse and the Multiple Jobs Worksheet applies: Pub. 15-T then uses the Step 2 Checkbox schedules.

Form W-4 Step 3 — dependents amount ($/year)

The Step 3 total from your Form W-4 (credits for dependents and other credits, per year). It reduces the withholding of each period.

Form W-4 Step 4(a) — other income ($/year)

Other income not from jobs, per year, as entered at Step 4(a).

Form W-4 Step 4(b) — deductions ($/year)

Expected deductions above the standard deduction, per year, as entered at Step 4(b).

Form W-4 Step 4(c) — extra withholding ($/period)

Extra amount to withhold from each paycheck, as entered at Step 4(c).

Free entry: any salary or hourly rate, all four pay frequencies, all four filing statuses, any number of dependents, tips (§224), full Form W-4 entries and pre-tax contributions (401(k), HSA, health FSA), for all 50 states + DC — computed live in your browser by the same engine. Without JavaScript this page shows the precomputed reference case (California, $75,000, biweekly, single, 0 dependents) and the per-state precomputed files remain available. Year-to-date wages are not an input: Social Security is computed as if this were your only job this year. Worked state examples with local modules live on the state pages linked below.

JavaScript is off: you are reading the default scenario, computed by the calculation engine when this page was built. Switching to the other precomputed scenarios needs JavaScript — every figure shown here is complete and readable as it stands.

Result — California — $75,000.00/year — biweekly — single

Net pay per period$2,228.94

Total deductions$655.68

Effective tax rate22.73%

Federal income tax: $295.00
FICA (Social Security + Medicare): $220.68
State taxes & programs: $140.00
Net pay: $2,228.94

Every line: amount, explanation and source. Explanations open line by line.
Line	Per period	Annual
Gross pay (incl. declared tips) Why this line? Your pay before anything is taken out — the starting point of every line below it. Why this rate: Not a tax — it is the amount your employer agreed to pay for the period. What changes it: Hours, salary, overtime and bonuses. Every other line in the result is computed from this amount. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22.	$2,884.62	$75,000.00
Federal income tax Why this line? Federal income tax. On an employee paycheck (P1) this is the amount WITHHELD for the period, computed with the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method for automated payroll (Worksheet 1A): the period wage is annualized, adjusted for the Form W-4 entries — Step 4(a) other income added, Step 4(b) deductions and the Step 2 checkbox adjustment subtracted — taxed on the publication's own annual percentage schedules, then divided back by the pay periods, with the Step 3 amount credited per period and any Step 4(c) extra amount added. On the self-employment side (P3) it is the estimated annual liability: income minus the standard deduction, taxed through the 10%-37% brackets for the filing status. Why this rate: Congress sets the rates in the Internal Revenue Code. The IRS publishes the withholding machinery each year in Publication 15-T (2026 edition for 2026 paychecks) and the annual brackets and standard deductions in its yearly revenue procedure (for 2026: Rev. Proc. 2025-32). What changes it: Pay level and frequency, filing status, and the Form W-4 entries (Step 2 checkbox, Step 3 amount, Steps 4(a)/4(b)/4(c)) — and in P3, the one-half SE tax deduction and the QBI deduction, which reduce taxable income before the brackets apply. Source: IRS — Publication 15-T (2026), Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods — verified 2026-10-26.	$295.00	$7,670.00
Social Security (FICA) Why this line? Your Social Security (FICA) contribution: 6.2% of wages, but only on the first $184,500 earned in 2026. It funds Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Why this rate: Set by Congress (IRC §3101): 6.2% employee + 6.2% employer. The $184,500 wage base for 2026 is announced by the Social Security Administration and rises with national wage growth. What changes it: It stops mid-year once cumulative wages (all employers combined, in this engine's liability view) reach the $184,500 wage base; the base is re-set by the SSA every October. Source: SSA 2026 wage base + IRC §3101/3111 rates; cross-checked in J1 correction (IRS/SSA) — verified 2026-10-22.	$178.85	$4,650.00
Medicare (FICA) Why this line? Your Medicare (FICA) contribution: 1.45% of every dollar of wages, with no cap. It funds Medicare health insurance for people 65 and over. Why this rate: Set by Congress (IRC §3101): 1.45% employee + 1.45% employer. There has never been a Medicare wage cap. What changes it: Nothing caps it — it grows dollar-for-dollar with pay. Only the wage amount changes it. Source: IRC §3101/3111 — no wage cap — verified 2026-10-22.	$41.83	$1,087.50
California income tax Why this line? State income tax on your wages for the state shown — flat in some states (one rate for everyone), progressive in others (brackets like the federal tax), and zero in the nine states that do not tax wages. Why this rate: Each state's legislature sets its own rates, brackets and deductions; the figures here are the state's 2026 parameters as encoded in the data pack. What changes it: The state (each sets its own system), income, the state's standard deduction/exemptions, and state law changes — several states cut rates for 2026. Source: California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) — 2026 indexing announcement (Tax News) and 2026 rate schedules X/Y/Z — verified 2026-10-23.	$102.50	$2,665.12
California SDI (State Disability Insurance) Why this line? California State Disability Insurance (SDI): an employee-paid 1.3% of wages with no cap since 2024, funding short-term disability and Paid Family Leave benefits. Why this rate: Set under the California Unemployment Insurance Code; the EDD publishes the rate each year (1.3% for 2026). What changes it: The rate is set annually by the EDD; it applies to all wages (no ceiling since SB 951 removed the cap). Source: California EDD — 2026 employee SDI rate 1.3%, no wage cap (SB 951 removed the cap) — verified 2026-10-23.	$37.50	$975.00
Total deductions Why this line? The sum of every deduction line for this paycheck — everything taken out between gross pay and net pay. Why this rate: Not a tax — the subtotal of the lines above it. What changes it: Any of the component lines; it drops noticeably mid-year for high earners once the Social Security cap is reached. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22.	$655.68	$17,047.68
Net pay Why this line? What actually lands in your bank account for the period: gross pay minus every deduction line above it. Why this rate: Not a tax — it is the remainder after the taxes above are subtracted. What changes it: Any change in gross pay or in any deduction — including mid-year changes like reaching the Social Security cap, which makes net pay jump up. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22.	$2,228.94	$57,952.32

Compare scenarios

In California (annual net)

$57,952.32
Engine scenario: full year at this pay.

Same pay, no state income tax (annual net)

$60,617.44
Engine scenario: state income tax removed, everything else identical.

Take this result with you

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Methodology, limits and sources

Rates verified on 2026-10-26 (primary sources listed per line).

Federal withholding: IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Worksheet 1A percentage method, applied per pay period from the Form W-4 entries. State income tax: annual method — the engine computes the annual state tax on the annual tables, then divides by the pay frequency (state per-period withholding tables are not reproduced — a documented, deliberate limit). The Social Security cap is applied cumulatively across the year. Free entry: this page also runs the engine in your browser — enter any salary, or an hourly rate with the regular and overtime hours of one pay period (overtime hours are paid at 1.5x the rate; the period gross is derived from those entries, and no weekly 40-hour rule is applied for you). The browser engine and the build-time engine are two executions of the same computation over the same data files, proven equal line by line on a differential bench of 10,558 systematic and seeded-random cases plus all 1,068 precomputed cases shipped on the paycheck pages, with a $0.00 tolerance on every line. Pre-tax entries are part of the free entry (block B3): a traditional 401(k) deferral (a yearly amount or a percentage of pay), HSA contributions made through your employer's cafeteria plan, and health FSA salary reductions. Cafeteria-plan amounts come off first and reduce both income-tax wages and Social Security/Medicare wages; the 401(k) reduces income-tax wages only, and the Social Security wage base applies after the cafeteria-plan amounts. The 2026 IRS limits are applied ($24,500 for the 401(k); $4,400 self-only or $8,750 family for the HSA; $3,400 for the health FSA) and an amount above a limit is capped and flagged in the result; catch-up contributions for older workers are not modeled (no age is asked). Each state applies its own treatment: Pennsylvania taxes 401(k) contributions, New Jersey taxes cafeteria-plan amounts, and California and New Jersey tax HSA contributions — the affected state pages say so, and the result flags it when it applies to you. State data status is stated honestly in the methodology guide: 48 of 51 jurisdictions are primary-verified; Arizona and DC are documented derivations (flagged on their results), Vermont is compilation-checked (flagged on its results).

Paycheck calculator by state

How it computes

Methodology — the paycheck engine: Pub. 15-T federal withholding, the annualized state method, cumulative FICA, what is not modeled, and the data status of every state.