Take Home Pay Calculator — Net Pay After Federal Tax, FICA & State Tax

This free take home pay calculator estimates your US paycheck after all major deductions — federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and state income tax — and shows the result both annually and per paycheck. Enter your gross salary, filing status, pay frequency, state tax rate, and any pre-tax deductions, and this paycheck take home pay calculator instantly shows your true net pay. Whether you are evaluating a job offer, planning a budget, or simply trying to figure out take home pay from your current salary, this tool gives you the real number in seconds.

Your gross salary and your take-home pay are two very different numbers. This net pay estimator bridges that gap so you can plan your finances around the money that actually reaches your bank account, not the headline figure printed on your offer letter. For anyone comparing a raise, weighing a relocation, or setting a household budget, knowing your real net pay is the difference between a plan that works and one that quietly overspends every month.

What Is Take-Home Pay?

Take-home pay — also called net pay or post-tax income — is the amount of your paycheck left after every mandatory tax and voluntary pre-tax deduction has been subtracted from your gross earnings. It is the dollar figure that actually deposits on payday. For most American workers the gap between gross salary and take-home pay runs 20–35%, which is exactly why budgeting against gross income almost always leads to overspending. This take home pay calculator closes that gap by showing each deduction separately, so you can see precisely where your money goes before it reaches you.

Three forces drive the wedge between gross and net: federal income tax withholding, FICA payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), and state income tax. Layer in pre-tax benefits like a 401(k) or health premium and you have the full picture this net pay estimator reconstructs from just five inputs.

How to Use This Payroll Take-Home Calculator

1. Gross annual salary — enter your full salary before any deductions.
2. Filing status — Single or Married (filing jointly). This sets your federal bracket thresholds and standard deduction.
3. Pay frequency — weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, so the per-paycheck figure matches your real deposit.
4. State tax rate (%) — enter your state's income tax rate, or 0 for the nine states with no wage income tax.
5. Pre-tax deductions — the annual total of 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, HSA/FSA and other pre-tax benefits.
6. Click Calculate Take-Home Pay — your annual net pay, monthly figure, per-paycheck amount, and each deduction category appear instantly.

Run it as many times as you like — nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere. Change one input at a time to compare salary levels, contribution amounts, or state rates side by side. It is the fastest way to estimate take-home pay before you accept a job offer or lock in a financial decision.

Calculate Salary After Tax — What Gets Deducted

To calculate salary after tax and arrive at net pay, four deduction categories apply to most US workers:

• Federal income tax — charged on a progressive bracket system after the standard deduction reduces your taxable income.
• Social Security tax — 6.2% of wages up to the annual wage base limit, which is indexed upward each year. It funds retirement and disability benefits.
• Medicare tax — 1.45% of all wages with no ceiling, plus an extra 0.9% on earnings above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married).
• State income tax — varies enormously by state. This tool uses the flat rate you enter; your state may apply a progressive schedule instead.

Social Security and Medicare together are known as FICA taxes. According to the Social Security Administration, the combined employee FICA rate is 7.65% for most workers — a large slice of the difference between your gross pay and the net figure this calculator returns.

How Federal Tax Brackets Really Work

The single most common misunderstanding about post-tax income is the belief that moving into a higher bracket raises the tax rate on all of your income. It does not. The US federal system is marginal: only the dollars that fall inside each bracket are taxed at that bracket's rate, and lower income keeps being taxed at lower rates no matter how much you earn overall.

That is why your effective tax rate — total federal tax divided by gross income — is always well below your top marginal bracket. For the 2026 tax year the standard deduction rose to roughly $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, and the top federal rate remains 37% at the highest incomes. This calculator applies the standard deduction for your filing status before computing tax, then shows the federal figure in the results so you can divide it by your gross salary to find your own effective rate. To confirm your exact withholding, cross-check the output against the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator.

State Tax Impact on Your Net Pay

State income tax can swing your take-home pay by thousands of dollars a year. According to the Tax Foundation's state income tax data, rates range from 0% in states like Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and New Hampshire (on wages) up to more than 13% in the top California bracket. For an identical gross salary, a worker in a no-tax state can keep several thousand dollars more each year than someone in a high-tax state.

Enter different state rates to see what the same salary would net in different states — invaluable when you are weighing a remote-work move or a relocation. Set the field to 0 for no-income-tax states, or look up your state's marginal rate for the most precise estimate.

Pre-Tax Deductions — Bring Home More by Saving More

Counterintuitively, raising your pre-tax contributions often improves your overall financial position. When you fund a traditional 401(k), health insurance, HSA or FSA before taxes are calculated, you shrink your taxable income — which lowers your federal and state withholding. Part of every contribution effectively "pays for itself" through the tax you no longer owe.

For a worker at a moderate combined rate, a $1 increase in 401(k) contributions might cut take-home pay by only about $0.75; the other $0.25 would have gone to taxes anyway. The US Department of Labor's guide to retirement plans explains how these tax-advantaged accounts work. Use the pre-tax deductions field to model several contribution levels and watch the net impact on your paycheck in real time.

Budgeting From Your Monthly Net Income

The "per month" figure beneath your annual result is the number every personal budget should be built on. A practical starting framework is the 50/30/20 rule applied to net monthly income: roughly 50% for essential needs (housing, food, utilities, transport), 30% for discretionary spending, and 20% for savings and debt repayment.

People who budget against gross salary consistently overspend, because a fifth to a third of that number is claimed by taxes before they ever see it. Reconcile the per-paycheck figure here against your actual bank deposits to sanity-check the estimate. If you are paid by the hour rather than salaried, convert your rate first with our hourly to salary calculator, and use the percentage calculator to work out raises, tax rates, or savings targets against your net pay.

Frequently Asked Questions