2026 tax year · all figures update live
Know what actually
lands in your account.
Your salary and your paycheck are two different numbers. Pick your state to see the gap — federal tax, state tax, Social Security, and Medicare, broken down line by line.
Choose your state
- TX Texas No state income tax
- FL Florida No state income tax
- PA Pennsylvania State income tax
- CA California State income tax
- NY New York State income tax
More states are being added. Each one uses that state's own 2026 brackets.
What comes out of a US paycheck
Four deductions stand between your gross salary and your bank account. Two depend on where you live and how much you earn; two are flat percentages that start from your first dollar. Together they explain almost the whole gap.
1
Federal income tax
The biggest deduction for most people. You subtract the standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 jointly) first, then what remains is taxed in slices, each at its own bracket rate — not all at your top rate.
2
State income tax
The part that makes your location matter. Some states charge nothing at all, some a single flat rate, and some run their own progressive brackets on top of the federal ones.
3
Social Security
6.2% of earnings — but only up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026. Past that, it stops for the rest of the year, which is why some paychecks grow towards December.
4
Medicare
1.45% on everything you earn, with no cap. An extra 0.9% surtax applies above $200,000 for a single filer.
A worked example
$80,000 a year, single filer, in Texas — a state with no income tax:
That is an effective tax rate of 18.6%, or about $2,504 landing every two weeks. Move the same job to California and take-home drops to $61,762 — $3,348 less a year, purely because of state tax.
Read the full walkthrough, step by step →
The number most calculators hide
Your effective rate (18.6% in the example) is what you pay overall. Your marginal rate (29.6%) is what your next dollar is taxed at — and it is the one that matters when you are weighing a raise. At $80,000 in Texas, a $5,000 raise adds roughly $3,518 to your take-home, not $5,000. Every state page here shows both.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate my take-home pay?
- Start with your gross salary and subtract four things: federal income tax (after the $16,100 standard deduction for a single filer), state income tax if your state levies one, Social Security at 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base, and Medicare at 1.45%. What remains is your take-home pay. This site does that arithmetic for your state as you type.
- Why is my paycheck smaller than my salary divided by 12?
- Because that division ignores tax. On a $80,000 salary in a no-income-tax state, roughly $14,890 a year goes to federal tax, Social Security and Medicare — about 18.6% of gross. In a state with income tax the gap is larger.
- Does where I live really change my take-home pay?
- Substantially. The same $80,000 salary leaves $65,110 in Texas, which has no state income tax, but $61,762 in California — a difference of $3,348 a year for identical work. Federal tax and FICA are the same everywhere; state tax is not.
- Are these figures exact?
- No — they are estimates, and deliberately so. They cover the four deductions that dominate almost every paycheck, but exclude tax credits, local or city taxes, pre-tax deductions like 401(k) and health premiums, and your specific Form W-4 elections. Use them to compare offers and sanity-check a payslip, not to file taxes.
- Is this calculator free?
- Yes, and there is no sign-up. The calculation runs entirely in your browser — the salary you type is never sent to us or stored anywhere.