US Federal Income Tax and Take-Home Pay Calculator

About this calculator

This calculator converts an annual salary into federal income tax, employee FICA and net pay for tax year 2026. It returns the tax computed band by band against the section 1(j)(2) rate schedule, Social Security and Medicare, the marginal and effective rates, and take-home pay at five pay frequencies.

Every rate, threshold and deduction comes from a US federal primary source. The rate schedules and the standard deduction are from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, applying to taxable years beginning in 2026. The payroll rates and the wage base are from IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) for use in 2026. The contribution limits are from IRS Notice 2025-67. They are stored with their effective date in one data file and rendered into this page, so the figures you read and the figures the tool uses cannot diverge.

Order of operations

The order matters because the same dollar is not in every tax base. Applying a rate to the wrong base is the most common defect in salary calculators.

The calculation starts at gross annual compensation. Traditional 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) elective deferrals come out first, capped at 24,500 dollars for 2026 under Notice 2025-67. The result is Form W-2 Box 1. Subtracting the standard deduction for the filing status gives taxable income, and the rate schedule is then applied one band at a time. FICA is computed separately, on gross wages.

The formula

Federal income tax is the sum, across every band the taxable income reaches, of the income falling inside that band multiplied by that band’s rate.

Box 1 wages         = gross − elective deferrals
Taxable income      = Box 1 wages − standard deduction
Income tax          = Σ (min(taxable, ceiling) − floor) × rate
Social Security     = 0.062 × min(gross, wage base)
Medicare            = 0.0145 × gross
Additional Medicare = 0.009 × max(0, gross − threshold)
Take-home pay       = gross − deferrals − income tax − FICA

The 2026 federal tax brackets

All four schedules are below, because filing status changes the thresholds and the standard deduction together. They are rendered from the same data the calculator uses.

Worked example

Take 95,000 dollars as a single filer deferring 6% to a 401(k), for tax year 2026.

The deferral is 5,700.00 dollars, so Box 1 wages are 89,300.00 dollars. Subtracting the 16,100 dollar standard deduction gives taxable income of 73,200.00 dollars. Applying the schedule band by band:

Social Security is 6.2% of 95,000.00, which is 5,890.00, because the salary is below the wage base. Medicare is 1.45% of 95,000.00, which is 1,377.50. The Additional Medicare Tax does not apply. Employee FICA is therefore 7,267.50.

Total federal tax is 18,083.50. Take-home pay is 95,000.00 less the 5,700.00 deferral less the 18,083.50 of tax, which is 71,216.50 a year, or 2,739.10 every two weeks. The marginal rate is 22% and the effective rate is 19.0%.

A shortcut confirms the income tax: 5,800.00 plus 22% of 22,800.00 is 10,816.00, matching the band by band total exactly.

Social Security and Medicare

Social Security is charged at 6.2% on wages up to the annual wage base, which is 184,500 dollars for 2026 under IRS Publication 15, giving a maximum employee Social Security tax of 11,439.00 dollars. Medicare is charged at 1.45% on all wages with no ceiling.

The Additional Medicare Tax adds 0.9% on wages above 200,000 dollars for a single filer, 250,000 dollars filing jointly and 125,000 dollars filing separately. There is no employer match on it.

Marginal rate and effective rate

The marginal rate is the rate applied to the next dollar earned. The effective rate is total tax divided by total income. They are different numbers and the gap between them is large: in the worked example above the marginal income tax rate is 22% while the effective federal income tax rate is 11.4%, and the effective total rate including FICA is 19.0%.

Filing status and its effects

Filing status changes three inputs together: the rate schedule, the standard deduction, and the Additional Medicare Tax threshold.

Married filing separately carries a threshold penalty at both ends. Its schedule matches the single schedule up to the 35% band, then the top rate arrives at 384,350 dollars rather than 640,600, and its Additional Medicare threshold of 125,000 dollars is half the joint figure rather than equal to the single figure.

Exemptions, exclusions, deductions and credits

The personal exemption is zero, and that is now permanent. A reader looking for a 2026 exemption amount is looking for something the Internal Revenue Code no longer has. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 section 2.01 records that section 70101 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the seven rate structure and the zero personal exemption permanent, so the reversion to the pre-2018 schedule that older material still describes does not happen.

Four mechanisms are commonly called an exemption, and they act at different points:

• An exclusion keeps income out of the tax base entirely, so it never reaches Box 1. Employer paid health premiums and section 125 salary reductions are exclusions, which is why they also reduce FICA wages.
• A deduction reduces taxable income after the income is counted. The standard deduction is the closest thing to the old personal exemption, and it is what most exemption searches actually want.
• A ceiling stops a tax rather than income. Social Security tax stops at the wage base, so salary above it is free of further 6.2% withholding, though Medicare continues uncapped.
• A credit reduces the tax itself, dollar for dollar, after the schedule has been applied.

Changes for tax year 2026

The rate structure itself became permanent, removing the sunset that would have returned the schedule to its pre-2018 form after 2025. Material still describing a 2026 reversion is out of date.

Thresholds moved with inflation. For a single filer the 22% band opens at 50,400 dollars of taxable income for 2026, against 48,475 dollars for 2025. The standard deduction rose to 16,100 dollars for single filers and 32,200 dollars for joint filers.

Payroll rates held and the base rose: Publication 15 for 2026 keeps Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45% but raises the wage base to 184,500 dollars from 176,100 dollars, lifting the maximum employee Social Security tax to 11,439.00 dollars. The elective deferral limit rose to 24,500 dollars from 23,500 dollars, and the age 50 catch-up to 8,000 dollars, both under Notice 2025-67.

Accuracy, assumptions and limitations

This returns annual tax liability, not paycheck withholding. The two rarely match. What an employer deducts is computed from Form W-4 using the percentage method or wage bracket method in IRS Publication 15-T, and it varies with W-4 steps 2 through 4, with pay frequency, and with the 22% supplemental flat rate applied to bonuses. Liability is what Form 1040 settles at filing, and the difference between the two figures is the refund or the balance due.

The inputs assume salaried wage income from a single employer, taxed at ordinary rates, with the standard deduction taken. No credit is applied: the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits and the premium tax credit all reduce real liability and none of them reduces the figure returned here. Itemized deductions, the alternative minimum tax, the 3.8% net investment income tax, state and local income tax, state disability and paid family leave contributions, and self-employment tax are all outside the model.

The four temporary deductions introduced for qualified tips, qualified overtime premium, seniors aged 65 and over, and car loan interest are not modeled. The guidance does not state the rate at which each phases out above its stated threshold, and it does not address whether the tips and overtime deductions reduce FICA wages. Both points are treated here as unresolved rather than assumed.

Definitions

The terms below are the ones this page relies on and the ones a reader most often meets in a different sense elsewhere. Each figure carries the document that sets it.

Adjusted gross income (AGI)

Total income minus above-the-line adjustments such as deductible traditional IRA contributions, student loan interest, and HSA contributions made outside payroll. AGI is the figure most phaseouts are measured against.

Taxable income

AGI minus the greater of the standard deduction or itemized deductions. This is what the section 1(j)(2) rate schedule is applied to, and it is smaller than salary.

Standard deduction

A fixed amount subtracted from AGI without itemizing, set at 16,100 dollars for single filers and 32,200 dollars for joint filers in 2026 by Rev. Proc. 2025-32 section 4.14.

Marginal rate

The rate charged on the next dollar of taxable income, determined by which band that dollar falls in.

Effective rate

Total tax divided by total income. Always lower than the marginal rate for any filer whose income reaches more than one band.

Elective deferral

Salary an employee directs into a 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) plan instead of receiving as cash, limited to 24,500 dollars for 2026 by Notice 2025-67. A traditional deferral reduces income tax wages but not FICA wages.

Section 125 cafeteria plan

An employer arrangement under which salary reductions for health premiums, flexible spending arrangements and payroll HSA contributions are excluded from both income tax wages and FICA wages.

FICA

The Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes: Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45% on the employee side, matched by the employer, under Publication 15 for 2026.

Social Security wage base

The annual wage ceiling above which no further Social Security tax is charged, set at 184,500 dollars for 2026 by Publication 15. Medicare has no equivalent ceiling.

Additional Medicare Tax

A 0.9% employee-only tax on wages above 200,000 dollars for single filers, 250,000 dollars for joint filers and 125,000 dollars for married filing separately, with no employer match (IRS Topic 560).

Withholding

The amount an employer deducts from each paycheck and remits to the IRS, computed under Publication 15-T from the employee's Form W-4. It is an estimate of liability, not liability itself.

Filing status

The category (single, married filing jointly, married filing separately or head of household) that selects the rate schedule, the standard deduction and the Additional Medicare threshold.

Sources and effective dates

Every rate, threshold and cap this calculator applies is listed below with the document that sets it and the date it was checked against that document. The tool and this page read the same file, so a figure shown here cannot differ from the one used in the arithmetic.

• Rate schedules and the standard deduction: Rev. Proc. 2025-32, sections 4.01 and 4.14. Effective for tax years beginning in 2026. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
• Social Security wage base, Medicare and Additional Medicare rates: IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) for 2026. Employee side rates. The employer matches all but the Additional Medicare Tax. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
• Elective deferral and catch-up limits: IRS Notice 2025-67. Section 402(g) limit for 2026. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
• Temporary tips, overtime, senior and car loan interest deductions: IRS Fact Sheet FS-2025-03. Applies to tax years 2025 through 2028. Not modeled by this calculator. Retrieved September 2, 2026.

Related Articles

• FICA Payroll Tax Calculator isolates the 6.2% and 1.45% components and the wage base treated as one line here.
• Additional Medicare Tax Withholding Calculator works the 0.9% surtax and the gap between the withholding trigger and the liability threshold.
• Marginal Versus Effective Tax Rate Calculator compares the two rates directly.
• Standard vs Itemized Deduction Optimization Checker tests whether itemizing beats the standard deduction assumed here.
• US State Income Tax Calculator supplies the state layer this federal tool excludes.
• W4 Employee Withholding Allowance Optimization Tool closes the gap between annual liability and what the employer actually deducts.
• Tax Refund Estimator computes the refund or balance due, which is that same difference.
• Self Employment Tax Calculator applies the SECA rate that replaces employee FICA for a sole proprietor.
• Capital Gains Tax Calculator United States applies the preferential rates this ordinary income schedule does not.
• Child Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit Estimator covers the largest credit excluded from the liability returned here.
• Mortgage Calculator for the other side of a household budget.

External references

• Rev. Proc. 2025-32 , the revenue procedure setting the 2026 rate schedules (section 4.01) and standard deduction (section 4.14).
• IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) for 2026 , the employer tax guide giving the Social Security rate and wage base and the Medicare rate.
• IRS Notice 2025-67 , the retirement plan limits including the section 402(g) elective deferral cap.
• IRS Publication 15-T , the withholding methods that determine what an employer actually deducts.
• IRS Topic 560, Additional Medicare Tax , the thresholds and the employer withholding trigger.
• IRS tax inflation adjustments , the newsroom summary of the 2026 adjustments.

Last updated September 4, 2026.

• Income-Tax
• Tax
• Take-Home-Pay