US Salary After Tax Calculator

What decides take-home pay

Four deductions come out of a salary — federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state and local tax — and only the last of them depends on where you live.

The federal part is the same in every state

On $100,000 filing single, federal income tax is $13,170 and Social Security and Medicare take $7,650, whichever state you are in, under the standard deduction these calculators assume. Together that is $20,820 , which is the whole bill in Florida, where wages carry no state income tax.

The state part is where the spread comes from

9 jurisdictions levy no income tax on wages, 15 charge one flat rate and 27 use brackets. City and county income taxes are modelled in 9 states, and employee payroll levies such as disability or family-leave insurance are deducted in 15. On $100,000, state and local deductions come to $7,899 a year in Oregon, the bottom of the table, and that is the whole take-home gap against Florida.

Filing status and pre-tax contributions

Filing jointly on the same $100,000 in Florida leaves $84,710 instead of $79,180. A $10,000 401(k) contribution lowers take-home there by $7,800, not $10,000, because it is taken before income tax; in California, where it reduces state income tax as well, it costs $6,870. Section 125 deductions such as health premiums also skip Social Security and Medicare, so $3,000 of them costs $2,111 of take-home in Florida.

Reading a salary page

• Effective and marginal rate. On $100,000 in Florida the effective rate — the share of the whole salary paid in tax — is 20.8%. The marginal rate, 29.7%, applies only to the next dollar, which is what a raise is taxed at.
• Pay periods divide the same annual take-home; the hourly figure assumes a 40-hour week and the daily figure a 260-day year.
• Every specific-salary page repeats its figure for each filing status and against other states, so "what if we filed jointly" and "what if I moved" are answered without re-entering anything.
• The tax bands behind each state's figures are published on that state's page.

Common mistakes

• Reading the marginal rate as the tax bill. 29.7% is the rate on the next dollar; the share of the whole $100,000 is 20.8%.
• Assuming no state income tax means no tax. $100,000 in Florida still pays $20,820 in federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.
• Comparing offers across states on gross pay. The same salary keeps $7,899 a year less in Oregon than in Florida — before living costs, which these pages do not model.
• Treating a 401(k) contribution as a pay cut of the same size. $10,000 saved costs $7,800 of take-home in Florida.
• Forgetting the Social Security ceiling. Above $184,500 of wages the 6.2% deduction stops; Medicare continues, with an extra 0.9% above $200,000 for a single filer.

Where to go next

• Pick a state above for every salary from $30,000 to $500,000.
• Best states for take-home pay — all 51 jurisdictions ranked on $100,000.
• 1099 self-employed tax — the same income as a contractor, and the rate that matches a salary.
• Methodology — the brackets, FICA rules and state systems, with their sources.
• Disclaimer — what the salary engine does not model, such as credits and itemized deductions.