What This Calculator Does
The US Income Tax Calculator estimates your federal and state income tax, FICA payroll taxes, and take-home salary from your gross income, filing status, and state. It works as a United States income tax calculator, an income tax USA calculator, or a personal salary estimator, depending on how you came in. The default profile is a single W-2 employee filing with the standard deduction — no business income, self-employment tax, or capital gains are modeled.
Because state rules change the answer more than most people expect, the calculator loads the applicable state model from the tax year definition rather than applying one national average. A salary entered for Texas (no state income tax) produces a different net than the same salary in California (progressive state brackets) or Illinois (flat 4.95%). For a salary tax calculator USA result, the calculator does not assume the salary sits in a single state at a single rate.
How US Income Tax Is Calculated
Every step on the results panel comes from the same sequence the IRS uses on Form 1040, compressed into one pass:
- Sum every income component — salary, bonus, overtime, tips, other income — into gross income.
- Subtract above-the-line adjustments (retirement contributions, HSA, capped student loan interest) to get adjusted gross income (AGI).
- Subtract the standard deduction, or your itemized deduction, or the larger of the two, to get taxable income.
- Apply the progressive federal brackets for your filing status.
- Subtract nonrefundable credits (Child Tax Credit, Credit for Other Dependents) and add refundable credits (refundable CTC portion, Earned Income Tax Credit).
- Add FICA payroll taxes — Social Security, Medicare, and the Additional Medicare Tax above your filing-status threshold.
- Add state income tax from the selected state's model, and any optional local tax (NYC, Philadelphia, Detroit).
- Net salary = gross income − total tax + refundable credits.
Every step is written out on the results panel, so you can trace the arithmetic against the Form 1040 it mirrors.
Federal Income Tax and US Tax Brackets
The federal income tax calculator USA portion uses the progressive brackets published by the IRS for the selected tax year. Progressive means the marginal rate applies only to the income inside each bracket — not to the whole taxable amount. A single filer in 2026 with $68,900 of taxable income pays 10% on the first $12,400, 12% on the next $38,000, and 22% on the remaining $18,500. The top rate they touch is 22%, but that does not mean 22% of $68,900.
That top rate is the marginal rate. The US tax rate calculator view on this page also lists the full federal bracket breakdown table, so you can see how much tax each bracket contributes to the total. The effective rate — total tax divided by gross income — is always lower than the marginal rate because some of the income is taxed in lower brackets.
Taxable Income vs. Gross Income
A US taxable income calculator has to keep three numbers separate. Gross income is what you earned before any deduction. Adjusted gross income (AGI) is gross minus above-the-line adjustments like retirement contributions, HSA contributions, and capped student loan interest. Taxable income is AGI minus the standard or itemized deduction. Federal income tax applies to taxable income, not to gross. The results panel reports each of the three so the reduction is visible and auditable.
Standard vs. Itemized Deductions
Most filers take the standard deduction. For tax year 2026 the amounts are $16,100 for single and married filing separately, $24,150 for head of household, and $32,200 for married filing jointly and qualifying surviving spouse. If you are 65 or older, or blind, the standard increases by an additional amount — $2,050 for single and HOH, $1,650 per qualifying person for MFJ. The calculator applies these additions when you enter your age and check the blindness boxes in the advanced panel.
If you itemize, enter your total itemized deduction. The Deduction mode lets you choose Standard, Itemized, or Better; the Better option takes the larger of the two automatically.
US Tax Credits
Two nonrefundable and two refundable credits are modeled. Nonrefundable: the Child Tax Credit (up to $2,200 per qualifying child, phased out above $200,000 or $400,000 AGI depending on filing status) and the Credit for Other Dependents ($500 per other dependent, same phase-out thresholds). These reduce tax owed but cannot take it below zero.
Refundable: the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit (up to $1,700 per child, subject to a $2,500 earned-income floor and a 15% phase-in), and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which depends on the number of qualifying children, earned income, and AGI. The EITC also requires investment income below a limit; the calculator checks that condition and disables the EITC when the entered investment income exceeds it.
State Income Tax
State income tax is different for every state. The calculator uses one of three models, loaded from the year definition:
- Flat rate — a single rate applied to federal taxable income. Illinois is the standard example at 4.95%.
- Progressive brackets — tiered rates. California and New York both use this model.
- No state wage income tax — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire (wages), South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
The state dropdown covers all fifty states plus DC. The state comparison checkboxes in the advanced panel re-run the same profile against a short list (CA, TX, FL, NY, WA) so you can compare total tax and net salary across states side by side.
California, New York, Illinois
California. The US salary calculator California result uses nine progressive state brackets, from 1% at the bottom to 12.3% at the top, plus a 1% mental health surcharge above $1 million. CA does not give the federal standard deduction in the same form — its own standard deduction is smaller — so the calculator applies the state brackets to the federal taxable income by default. For users of a net salary calculator USA California workflow, this puts the CA state tax on top of federal and FICA and shows the resulting take-home pay.
New York. The US salary calculator New York result uses the state's own progressive brackets, running from about 4% to just under 11%. Selecting New York also turns on a local-tax default — New York City's progressive city tax, which runs from 3.078% to 3.876%. If you do not live in NYC, set the Local tax dropdown back to "None."
Illinois. The Illinois state income tax rate is a flat 4.95%, applied to federal taxable income. Illinois has no bracket structure, which makes the flat-rate model easy to verify against the results panel.
FICA: Social Security and Medicare
FICA payroll taxes are separate from income tax and are levied on wages, not on taxable income. Three components are modeled:
- Social Security — 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. Wages above the base are not subject to Social Security tax.
- Medicare — 1.45% of all wages, with no cap.
- Additional Medicare Tax — 0.9% on wages above your filing-status threshold: $200,000 single or HOH, $250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately.
All three appear separately in the results panel and are counted in total tax.
Salary and Take-Home Pay
The take-home pay figure is gross income minus all income and payroll taxes, plus any refundable credits. It is an annual number by default, and the pay-frequency chips divide the same annual net income by the number of pay periods you choose:
- Annual
- Monthly (12)
- Semimonthly (24)
- Biweekly (26)
- Weekly (52)
These chips only change the display. Federal and state income taxes are annual amounts, so switching frequency does not change the underlying math — it just re-expresses the same net salary.
Marginal vs. Effective Tax Rate
The marginal rate is the rate on your last dollar of taxable income, which is the highest bracket your income touches. The effective rate is total tax divided by gross income. The two answer different questions. Effective rate tells you what you paid on average; marginal rate tells you what the next dollar of income would cost. The results panel reports both, and for the vast majority of filers the effective rate is well below the marginal rate.
How Filing Status Affects US Income Tax
Filing status affects three things in this calculator: the federal bracket thresholds, the standard deduction amount, and the Additional Medicare Tax threshold. Married filing jointly doubles most single-filer bracket thresholds, which is why the same income produces lower federal tax for a joint filer. Head of household has its own bracket structure, generally between single and joint. Married filing separately uses single-filer brackets but a lower Additional Medicare threshold and typically reduced credit eligibility.
Why a Paycheck Can Differ From the Annual Tax Estimate
The take-home figure on this page is an annual liability, then divided by pay periods. Real payroll withholding uses W-4 inputs and IRS withholding tables, which approximate the annual liability but do not match it exactly. Bonuses and supplemental wages are withheld at a flat 22% (or 37% above $1 million) regardless of your bracket, and true up only when you file. If your paycheck and your annual tax estimate do not match to the dollar, that is expected — the annual figure is the liability, the paycheck figure is withholding.
Common Mistakes
- Treating a raise as if the entire salary gets taxed at the higher marginal rate. Only the portion of income that crosses into the higher bracket is taxed at that rate.
- Confusing withholding with final liability. The calculator estimates annual liability, not paycheck withholding.
- Assuming every state applies its rate to the same base as the federal taxable income. Some states use federal AGI, some use federal taxable income, and some have their own deductions.
- Using last year's standard deduction or brackets for this year's estimate. The year selector on the calculator loads the applicable rules from the year's definition.
Limitations
This is a US income tax estimator, not tax-preparation software. It does not model the Alternative Minimum Tax, the Net Investment Income Tax, self-employment tax, most state credits, most local taxes beyond New York City, Philadelphia, and Detroit, or any filing scenario outside a standard employee profile with optional dependents, credits, and above-the-line adjustments. Federal figures follow IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 for 2026. Confirm the figures against IRS publications and your state tax agency, or with a qualified tax preparer, before filing.
