Take-Home Paycheck Calculator

Enter the gross annual salary ($75,000) and pick a pay frequency: weekly (52), biweekly (26), semimonthly (24) or monthly (12). Choose single or married filing jointly; those are the two filing statuses the calculator supports.

Enter annual pre-tax deductions: traditional 401(k) deferrals, HSA or FSA payroll contributions and pre-tax health premiums. Here that is $4,500. Then enter a state rate; 4.5% in this example.

Federal taxable income is $75,000 − $4,500 − $16,100 = $54,400. The first $12,400 is taxed at 10% ($1,240), the next $38,000 up to $50,400 at 12% ($4,560), and the last $4,000 at 22% ($880), for $6,680. Your marginal rate is 22%, but the effective federal rate on salary is far lower.

FICA is 6.2% of $75,000 for Social Security ($4,650) plus 1.45% for Medicare ($1,087.50). State tax is 4.5% of $70,500. The results panel shows $2,111.92 per paycheck, $54,910 net annual income and a 20.8% effective tax rate.

Federal Taxable Income = max(0, Gross − Pre-Tax Deductions − Standard Deduction)

Federal Tax = the sum of each slice of taxable income × its bracket rate

Social Security = min(Gross, $184,500) × 6.2%. Medicare = Gross × 1.45%. Additional Medicare = max(0, Gross − threshold) × 0.9%

State Tax = (Gross − Pre-Tax Deductions) × State Rate

Net Annual Income = Gross − Federal Tax − FICA − State Tax − Pre-Tax Deductions; Net per Paycheck = Net Annual Income ÷ pay periods; Effective Rate = total tax ÷ Gross

2026 brackets, single: 10% to $12,400; 12% to $50,400; 22% to $105,700; 24% to $201,775; 32% to $256,225; 35% to $640,600; 37% above. Married filing jointly: 10% to $24,800; 12% to $100,800; 22% to $211,400; 24% to $403,550; 32% to $512,450; 35% to $768,700; 37% above. Standard deduction: $16,100 single, $32,200 joint. Source: IRS news release IR-2025-103 (9 October 2025), implementing Revenue Procedure 2025-32 for tax year 2026.

Social Security wage base: $184,500 for 2026 earnings (IRS Tax Topic 751; Social Security Administration 2026 COLA fact sheet). Additional Medicare Tax: 0.9% on wages above $200,000 single or $250,000 married filing jointly, under Internal Revenue Code section 3101(b)(2). Those thresholds are set in statute and not indexed for inflation.

Keep the same $75,000 single filer, but add $6,000 of 401(k) deferrals and $3,000 of HSA payroll contributions, taking pre-tax deductions from $4,500 to $13,500. The HSA amount is under the 2026 self-only limit of $4,400 given in IRS Publication 969.

Federal tax falls to $5,200, a saving of $1,480, because $4,000 of the extra deduction came out of the 22% bracket and $5,000 out of the 12% bracket. State tax falls to $2,767.50, a further $405. FICA stays at $5,737.50. Net annual income is $47,795, or $1,838.27 per biweekly paycheck, and the effective rate drops to 18.3%.

Saving an extra $9,000 cost $7,115 of take-home pay, or $273.65 per paycheck. The other $1,885 is tax you no longer pay this year.

One caveat on FICA. The IRS 401(k) Resource Guide confirms elective deferrals are still wages for Social Security and Medicare, so leaving FICA unchanged on the 401(k) part is correct. HSA contributions made through an employer's cafeteria plan are generally not subject to employment taxes (Publication 969), but the calculator still charges FICA on them. Here that overstates tax by $229.50 a year, about $8.83 a paycheck.

Pay frequency changes the size of each paycheck, not the annual total. On the first example, biweekly pay gives 26 paychecks of $2,111.92 from a gross of $2,884.62 each. Semimonthly pay gives 24 paychecks of $2,287.92 from a gross of $3,125.00 each. Both add up to $54,910.

The trap is budgeting. A biweekly worker who plans on two paychecks a month budgets $4,223.85, while the true monthly average is $4,575.83. The difference arrives as the two months each year that contain a third payday. A semimonthly worker gets the monthly average in every month but a paycheck $175.99 larger, twice a month, on fixed dates rather than fixed weekdays.

The calculator divides by exactly 26 biweekly periods. In a year where your employer's schedule produces 27 paydays, each check is smaller than shown.

At $250,000 single, with no pre-tax deductions and no state tax, Social Security stops at the $184,500 wage base, so it is $11,439 rather than 6.2% of the full salary. Medicare is $3,625, and Additional Medicare adds $450 on the $50,000 above $200,000, for $15,514 of FICA. Federal income tax is $51,304, net annual income $183,182, and the effective rate 26.7%.

The calculator applies the Additional Medicare threshold for your filing status, which is what you owe for the year. Employers withhold the 0.9% on wages above $200,000 regardless of filing status, per the IRS Additional Medicare Tax Q&A. A married worker earning $220,000 therefore owes no Additional Medicare here but will see about $180 withheld, which is settled on the return. Two jobs, or a spouse's wages, also change the picture in ways a single salary field cannot.

State tax is simplified. The calculator applies one flat rate to salary minus pre-tax deductions. It does not model state brackets, state standard deductions or credits, city and county income taxes, state disability or paid-leave payroll taxes, or states whose treatment of 401(k) and HSA contributions differs from the federal rules. Use your state's effective rate, and check your state revenue department for exact figures.

Federally, it supports single and married filing jointly only, uses the standard deduction, and ignores tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit, itemized deductions, other income, Roth contributions and after-tax deductions. It does not reproduce employer withholding under IRS Publication 15-T, which depends on your Form W-4 and treats bonuses as supplemental wages.

It is not tax advice. For filing decisions, or when an exact net figure matters, rely on your pay stub and a tax professional.

If you are comparing job offers, the salary calculator shows the hourly, weekly and monthly equivalents of a salary, and the hourly to salary calculator turns an hourly rate into the annual figure this page needs. The income tax calculator goes deeper into federal liability alone, and the overtime pay calculator sizes time-and-a-half before you add it to salary. To see what an HSA saves beyond the paycheck, including growth and qualified withdrawals, use the HSA tax savings calculator.

For a reference table rather than a single calculation, our open dataset Federal Take-Home Pay by Salary, 2026 lists federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and take-home pay for every salary from $20,000 to $1,000,000 by filing status, before state tax and pre-tax deductions, as a free CSV.

If you have not reached the offer stage yet, our guide on how to write a resume walks through each section in the order you fill it in, from contact details to education.