Salary Paycheck Calculator - Calculate Your Take-Home Pay Online Free

A Salary Paycheck Calculator estimates how much of your gross earnings actually reach your bank account each pay period. It works backward from your total pay — salary or hourly — and removes federal income tax withholding, Social Security, Medicare, state income tax, and any pre-tax or post-tax deductions you set up.

The result is your estimated net pay (take-home pay), shown per paycheck and per year, alongside a full breakdown of every amount withheld. A calculator like this is useful when you are comparing job offers, planning a budget, estimating a raise, or checking whether the withholding on your current paycheck looks reasonable.

This page implements the 2026 federal withholding rules, FICA, and modeled state income tax rules for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Estimates are informational and are not tax, legal, or payroll advice.

When you are paid, your employer does not hand over your full gross pay. Instead, the payroll system withholds estimated taxes and forwards them to the government on your behalf. Withholding is a prepayment of tax, not the tax itself.

For federal income tax, employers follow the Form W-4 and the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method: annualize the pay period’s wages, apply your W-4 adjustments (Step 2, 3, and 4), subtract the standard withholding amount, look up the annual percentage-method tax, then divide that amount back across the number of pay periods in the year. State income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) are withheld on top, each with its own rules.

The difference between the two is the sum of every withholding and deduction on your paycheck. This calculator shows each of those line items separately so you can see exactly where your money goes.

Federal income tax withholding is driven by the W-4 form you give your employer. Unlike a simple percentage, it is progressive: different slices of your income are taxed at different rates, and your W-4 answers tell the payroll system how much to hold back each pay period.

• Filing status (Step 1c) sets which withholding table applies — single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or head of household.
• Multiple jobs / spouse works (Step 2) withholds more to cover combined household income.
• Dependents (Step 3) reduce withholding for qualifying children and other dependents.
• Other income, deductions, and extra withholding (Step 4) fine-tune the amount taken from each check.

This calculator applies the 2026 percentage-method tables used by employers, then also estimates your annual federal tax liability so you can compare withholding against what you might actually owe when you file.

FICA is the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. Unlike income tax, it is largely a flat rate, though each component has its own limit.

Once your year-to-date wages pass the Social Security wage base, the 6.2% tax stops for the rest of the year. Additional Medicare is a 0.9% surcharge applied once wages from one employer exceed the threshold. Note that your employer also contributes its own matching share, which does not come out of your paycheck.

State income tax varies widely. Some states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming — do not levy a wage-based individual income tax. Others use progressive brackets, flat rates, or a mix, and some states also collect separate payroll taxes such as paid family leave.

The calculator applies modeled 2026 state income tax rules for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., based on the state you select. A few states also have modeled payroll taxes, which are shown separately from state income tax in the results.

Local/city/county income taxes are not included unless specifically modeled for the selected location, so your actual paycheck could differ if you live or work in a locality that levies its own tax.

The Salary & Hourly Paycheck Calculator supports both income bases: switch to hourly and enter your rate plus typical hours per week to see an estimated annual gross and per-check breakdown. The same tax rules then apply to either basis.

How often you are paid affects the size of each check and how withholding is annualized. The calculator supports four common frequencies:

Annual totals (gross, taxes, and net) are the same regardless of frequency. Only the per-check amounts change: fewer, larger checks or more, smaller ones. Federal withholding is annualized and then spread evenly across periods, so each check carries the same estimated withholding amount within a frequency.

The Form W-4 is the four-step form you complete when you start a job (or update it anytime) telling your employer how much federal income tax to withhold. The steps are:

1. Step 1 — Personal information: name, address, Social Security number, and filing status.
2. Step 2 — Multiple jobs or a working spouse: use the checkbox or the worksheet to avoid under-withholding.
3. Step 3 — Dependents: claim qualifying children (under 17) and other dependents to reduce withholding.
4. Step 4 — Other adjustments: other income, deductions, and extra withholding you want taken from each check.

The W-4 section of this calculator mirrors those steps — children under 17, other dependents, other income, deductions, extra per-check withholding, and the Step 2 checkbox — so the estimated federal withholding reflects a realistic W-4 setup.

Withholding is a running estimate made by your payroll system based on the W-4 on file. Your tax return, filed at year-end, settles your actual tax using your real income, credits, and deductions. A mismatch is normal. Common reasons:

• You had multiple jobs during the year or changed jobs mid-year.
• You have income that is not on a W-2, such as freelance work, interest, dividends, or capital gains.
• You qualify for credits the W-4 does not capture, like the Earned Income Tax Credit or education credits.
• You itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction.
• Your W-4 is out of date (for example, after marriage, a child, or a divorce).
• Your employer uses a different (but permitted) withholding method.

This is why the calculator shows both federal withholding and estimated annual federal liability side by side — if they differ, you may receive a refund or owe a balance when you file.