About USPaycheckHQ

What this calculator does

USPaycheckHQ estimates take-home pay for W-2 employees in any US state. Enter a gross pay amount, pay frequency, filing status, and state, and the calculator returns an itemized breakdown: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state income tax (where applicable), and state-mandated payroll programs such as disability or paid-family-leave insurance.

Every calculation runs entirely in your browser. No paycheck data you enter is transmitted to our servers, logged, or stored — see our Privacy Policy for details.

Data sources

• Federal income tax brackets, standard deductions, and AMT parameters — IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (the 2026 inflation-adjusted figures released under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act).
• Social Security and Medicare (FICA) — the Social Security Administration's 2026 contribution and benefit base announcement ($184,500 wage base) and IRS Topic 751 for the Additional Medicare Tax.
• State income tax brackets, standard deductions, and exemptions — Tax Foundation, "State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2026" (published February 2026), cross-checked against individual state Department of Revenue guidance where noted.
• State payroll programs (SDI, PFL, FAMLI, WA Cares) — each program's administering state agency (EDD, NJ DOL, NY WCB, CO FAMLI Division, MA DFML, WA ESD).
• Minimum wage rates — U.S. Department of Labor Consolidated Minimum Wage Table.

Methodology & assumptions

Federal and state withholding are estimated by annualizing your entered gross pay, applying the relevant standard deduction, then applying that jurisdiction's progressive or flat tax brackets to the result, and dividing back down to a per-period figure. This mirrors how annual tax liability is actually computed, and is the standard approach used by consumer-facing paycheck estimators.

It is not identical to the IRS Publication 15-T percentage-method tables that employers' payroll systems use for per-paycheck withholding, which apply a separate annualized wage-bracket schedule and account for Form W-4 elections in more detail. For most taxpayers claiming the standard deduction with no unusual credits, the two approaches produce very similar results — but this tool is an estimate, not a substitute for your employer's payroll calculation or a filed tax return.

The Effective Tax Rate shown is total mandatory withholding (federal income tax + Social Security + Medicare + state income tax + any state payroll programs) divided by gross pay. It intentionally excludes voluntary pre-tax and post-tax deductions (401(k) contributions, HSA contributions, wage garnishments, etc.), since those are not taxes.

Known limitations

• Local and city income taxes are not included — for example, New York City and Yonkers surtaxes, Ohio and Pennsylvania municipal income taxes, and Maryland county "piggyback" taxes. If you live or work in one of these jurisdictions, your actual take-home pay will be lower than this estimate.
• Head-of-household state tax brackets are not separately published by most states; where a state doesn't define its own schedule, we apply the single-filer brackets as a standard approximation.
• A small number of state payroll program rates for the 2026 calendar year (notably Rhode Island TDI and Washington PFML) were not yet officially published at the time of our last data review and are therefore omitted rather than estimated.
• This tool assumes standard W-2 employment. It does not model self-employment tax, itemized deductions, the Alternative Minimum Tax, tax credits beyond a simple dependent-credit input, or multi-state work situations.

How often is this updated?

Federal brackets, FICA limits, and most state brackets adjust annually every January. We review and update every figure on this site at the start of each tax year, and again whenever a state enacts a rate change with a within-year effective date (as several states did for 2026 — see the Georgia, Ohio, and South Carolina pages for examples of mid-year and phased-in rate changes).

Explore paycheck calculators by state

Every state has its own tax brackets, standard deductions, and payroll programs. Jump straight to one of the most-visited state pages below, or browse the full 50-state directory from the homepage.