Salary Paycheck Calculator

Enter an annual salary and this calculator returns what actually lands in your account each payday, with every withholding line shown separately. It runs the same IRS percentage method your employer's payroll system uses, so the figures should sit within a few dollars of your real stub.

Tax year 2026 · Updated 2026-08-29 · Federal, state and local withholding · Free, no sign-up

How a salaried paycheck is calculated

Salary is the easy part: your annual figure is divided by your pay frequency, so $78,000 paid semi-monthly is $3,250 of gross pay twenty-four times a year. Everything interesting happens after that.

Pre-tax benefit deductions come out first — health, dental and vision premiums, a health FSA, an HSA funded through payroll. These are Section 125 deductions and they reduce wages for income tax and for Social Security and Medicare, which is why a dollar into an HSA is worth more than a dollar into a 401(k). Retirement deferrals come next and reduce income tax wages only.

Federal income tax is then computed from your Form W-4 using the Publication 15-T percentage method: annualize the period's taxable wages, add Step 4(a) other income, subtract Step 4(b) deductions and a fixed offset of $8,600 ($12,900 if you file jointly and left the Step 2 box unchecked), look the result up in the schedule for your filing status, subtract your Step 3 dependent credits divided across the year, and add any Step 4(c) extra withholding.

Finally FICA takes 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to $184,500 in 2026 and 1.45% for Medicare on everything, followed by state income tax, local income tax and any state disability or paid-leave premium.

What a salary is worth after tax

The table below is computed for a single filer in a state with no income tax, so it isolates the federal and FICA layers. Add your own state in the calculator above to see the full picture.

Notice how the take-home percentage falls as salary rises — from about 84% at $40,000 to roughly 74% at $175,000. That is the graduated federal schedule doing its work, partly offset above $184,500 where Social Security stops and each additional dollar suddenly costs 6.2 cents less.

Pay frequency changes the paycheck, not the tax

Whether you are paid weekly, every two weeks, twice a month or monthly, your annual tax is the same. The percentage method annualizes each period, so it arrives at the same yearly figure regardless. What changes is the size and rhythm of the deposit — and the fact that a bi-weekly schedule produces twenty-six paychecks in most years but twenty-seven in some, which is a real and frequently misunderstood event covered in our guide to the 27-paycheck year.

If you want the figures for one specific cadence, we have dedicated pages for weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly pay.

Three ways to change the number

Fix Step 2 of your W-4. The withholding tables assume your job is the household's only income. If you have a second job or a working spouse and you left Step 2 blank, you are under-withheld — often by thousands. Checking the 2(c) box on both jobs switches you to a schedule with half-width brackets, which is close to correct when the two jobs pay similarly.

Move money before the tax line. A dollar into a health FSA or a payroll HSA escapes federal income tax, state income tax and 7.65% of FICA. A dollar into a traditional 401(k) escapes income tax but not FICA. The 401(k) calculator shows the exact take-home cost of each contribution percentage.

Use Step 4(b), not Step 3, for the new deductions. The 2026 deductions for tips, overtime and age 65-plus are not in the withholding tables. They only reach your paycheck if you put them on the Deductions Worksheet and carry the total to Step 4(b).

Frequently asked questions

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