US take-home pay calculator

Start with the supported household

This model assumes a US resident employee under 65, not blind or claimed as a dependent, with fully Social Security/Medicare-covered cash wages from one employer all year. Supported statuses are single, head of household and married filing jointly with no other spouse income. It assumes you qualify for the selected status and basic standard deduction. It does not determine eligibility.

Married filing separately, qualifying surviving spouse, community-property allocation, other household income, multiple employers, self-employment, stock compensation, exempt wages and cross-state work/residence situations are excluded. The state selector labels a same-state work/residence plan. An optional calculated mode applies reviewed CA/NY schedules within their model limits.

Reconcile the ordinary federal income-tax estimate

Salary and cash bonus are rounded to cents, then combined. Subtract the supported traditional employee 401(k) deferral and the selected standard deduction, with taxable income floored at zero. Apply each ordinary rate only to income within its 2026 band. The bracket table shows amounts and cent-rounded tax contributions. This uses rate schedules throughout, not the IRS tax-table lookup or a completed tax return.

A single filer on $100,000, with no deferral or entered deductions, has $83,900 of federal taxable income after the $16,100 standard deduction. The ordinary estimate is $1,240 + $4,560 + $7,370 = $13,170. Employee Social Security is $6,200 and Medicare is $1,450. With no included regional costs, the model leaves $79,180 annually, or a rounded $6,598.33 monthly average. A $10,000 traditional 401(k) deferral lowers the ordinary federal estimate to $10,970 while those federal payroll taxes stay the same; estimated spendable pay becomes $71,380, with $10,000 contributed separately.

Social Security and Medicare use wages before the deferral

Employee Social Security is 6.2% of covered wages up to the reviewed $184,500 annual wage base; Medicare is 1.45% of all covered wages. Traditional 401(k) deferrals do not reduce these wages in this model. Additional Medicare annual liability is 0.9% above $200,000 for single/head of household or $250,000 for joint filing under the one-earner assumption.

An employer instead withholds Additional Medicare above $200,000 of its wages regardless of filing status. The result distinguishes that example withholding from the annual filing-status estimate. At $225,000 on a one-earner joint return, the latter is zero while the employer example is $225. The difference is not an overall refund prediction and is not deducted twice.

Keep regional costs and contributions explicit

Enter a combined annual amount for state/local income taxes and employee programs, including any applicable disability or paid-leave charges. Zero omits these costs. Changing state or tax mode clears that amount for review. Quote mode includes the whole regional amount; calculated mode includes only additional local taxes and programs, excluding calculated state tax and any selected SDI. Changing wages, bonus or contributions holds the amount constant for scenario comparison, so obtain an updated regional estimate where needed. No state reciprocity, local rules or exemptions are inferred. Supported traditional deferrals reduce adjusted wages in the optional state schedules.

The traditional employee 401(k) field supports the $24,500 base deferral limit and cannot exceed gross pay with other entered deductions. Plan-specific restrictions, catch-ups, Roth contributions, employer matches and other plan types are excluded. The other-deduction field reduces cash without altering taxable wages. Do not use it for pre-tax health insurance, HSA or FSA deductions, which require different wage bases.

An annual planning average, with clear exclusions

The model subtracts the listed federal estimates, any selected state schedule and SDI, entered regional amount, employee deferral and after-tax deductions. Standard deductions are not cash payments. Credits, AMT, itemization, tips/overtime/car-loan deductions and other special provisions are excluded. It is an ordinary-tax planning illustration, not complete federal tax liability, W-4 withholding or a refund calculation.

Average views divide the annual result by 1, 12, 24, 26 or 52 and round to cents. They do not assign dates or stop payroll deductions when a cap is reached during the year. Bonus comparisons keep other entered deductions fixed and describe the annual effect, not supplemental withholding. Saved plans and exports include the state label, regional quote, filing status, average view and all advanced inputs.

Optional state schedules, with explicit limits

California uses the FTB’s published October 2026 indexing schedules and a $5,900 single or $11,800 joint/head-of-household standard deduction. The estimate stops at $1,000,000 of adjusted wages, before additional high-income taxes. All state credits, including personal exemption credits, dependent exemptions, state adjustments and AMT are excluded. The December return instructions were not yet published at this review.

New York uses 2026 IT-2105-I standard deductions and the published base-plus-excess schedules only through $107,650 of adjusted wages. Higher income needs a regional quote including tax-benefit recapture. NYC, Yonkers, paid leave, disability premiums, credits and dependent exemptions are not calculated. State standard deductions reduce taxable income, not cash received.

Adjusted wages are gross cash wages less the traditional 401(k) deferral. State schedules preserve the agencies’ published base-tax rounding, including discontinuities at New York boundaries. Optional California SDI is 1.3% of covered gross wages before that deferral, with no wage cap; exemptions and voluntary plans need separate review. Do not enter a selected calculated charge again in additional costs.

At $100,000 of wages for a single filer with no deferral, California taxable income is $94,100 and the schedule estimate is $5,068.86 before credits. Selecting covered-wage SDI adds $1,300. New York taxable income is $92,000 and its schedule estimate is $4,860.65 before credits, with local/program costs separate. These estimates are not complete state tax returns.

State sources checked October 25, 2026, review due November 25, 2026. Download the state parameters. Earlier plans without a tax mode reopen in quote mode with their amounts preserved.

• California FTB: October 2026 indexing, deductions and state rate schedules
• California EDD: 2026 SDI contribution rate and uncapped covered wages
• California EDD: Retirement deferrals and state taxable wage bases
• New York: 2026 IT-2105-I, standard deductions, state schedules and recapture threshold

Primary federal sources

• IRS: 2026 federal rate schedules and standard deductions (Rev. Proc. 2025-32)
• IRS: Social Security and Medicare employee rates and 2026 wage base
• IRS: Additional Medicare Tax thresholds and employer withholding
• IRS: 2026 employee 401(k) deferral limit
• IRS: Traditional 401(k) deferrals and Social Security/Medicare wages