Disclaimer

Nothing on this site is tax, legal, accounting or financial advice, and using it does not make PaycheckNew or its author your adviser. The figures are general information computed from public rate tables. For a decision that depends on your own circumstances, such as filing status, credits, multiple jobs, self-employment income or a move between states mid-year, talk to a tax professional or use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator.

Every figure is annual tax liability divided evenly across the pay periods you chose. Your employer does something different: it withholds according to your Form W-4 using IRS Publication 15-T, and the two are reconciled when you file. A pay stub that differs from the estimate is normal. The usual reasons are a pre-tax benefit you did not enter, a local tax, extra withholding requested on the W-4, a bonus taxed at the supplemental flat rate, or Social Security stopping once wages pass the annual base.

Federal brackets, the standard deduction and the Social Security wage base are for tax year 2026, from the IRS inflation adjustment release. State brackets, deductions and exemptions are each state's latest published schedule, which on the review date was 2025, because states publish their tables with that year's return rather than a year ahead as the IRS does. Every calculator says which year each side uses, and the tax brackets page tabulates federal years back to 2022. Choosing a past federal year does not change the state side.

• State tax credits of any kind. The federal child tax credit and credit for other dependents are modelled, from the figures in that year's IRS revenue procedure; no other federal credit is, and the earned income credit is the significant omission for lower incomes.
• Itemised deductions. Every state figure assumes the standard deduction and personal exemption for the filing status chosen.
• Local income tax unless you enter a rate. Where local tax is common the state page says so, and the form defaults to a typical rate.
• Phase-outs of deductions or exemptions at higher incomes, alternative minimum taxes, and taxes on income other than wages.
• State-specific treatment of retirement contributions where it differs from federal treatment.

The full method, the sources for every table and the states marked as estimates are on the methodology page. Known errors and their corrections are on the corrections page.

PaycheckNew is an independent site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration or any state department of revenue, and it does not file anything on your behalf. Federal figures come from IRS revenue procedures and the SSA contribution and benefit base; each state page cites that state's own revenue department. Sources are linked where the figures appear.

Tables are checked against primary sources and every build runs a test suite that recomputes hand-worked anchor figures before the site is published. Even so, tax law changes, tables are transcribed by hand and mistakes are possible. The site is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, and neither PaycheckNew nor its author accepts liability for decisions made on the strength of an estimate. If you find a figure that looks wrong, please say so; corrections are published with the date and what changed.

The calculation runs in your browser. What you type is never sent to a server, logged or stored, and there are no cookies, analytics or advertising trackers. The privacy policy describes the one thing that is recorded, ordinary web server logs, and the terms cover use of the site.