Methodology

This page explains exactly how PaycheckGrid calculates a take-home figure. The calculator and every rendered page run the same engine, so what you read here is what the tool does.

The annual tax-liability method

For a given salary, filing status, and state, we estimate your tax for the whole year, then divide it across your pay periods. Federal taxable income is your salary minus the federal standard deduction for your filing status. We apply the 2026 federal income tax brackets from the IRS (Revenue Procedure 2025-32) to that taxable income, and each rate applies only to the income inside its band.

FICA: Social Security and Medicare

FICA is added on your gross wages, separately from income tax. Social Security is charged up to the annual wage base of $184,500; wages above the base are not subject to it. Medicare applies to all wages, with no cap. An additional Medicare surtax applies to wages above a set threshold. Employers withhold that surtax once wages pass the single-filer withholding threshold, regardless of filing status. The liability threshold for married couples filing jointly is different, so what is withheld may not match the final liability. We show the withholding convention, and it reconciles when you file.

The state layer

On top of federal tax and FICA, each state applies its own income tax. That may be graduated brackets, a single flat rate, or no tax on wage income at all. We use the state's own standard deduction or personal exemptions where it has them. Deductions come off your income before tax; credits come off the tax itself. Every state figure is transcribed from that state's revenue department, and the source is named on every page.

State payroll taxes

Some states levy employee-paid payroll taxes beyond income tax, such as state disability insurance, paid family and medical leave, or an employee unemployment contribution. Where they apply, we itemize each one as its own line rather than folding it into state income tax. Employer-only levies are never charged to your take-home.

The marginal rate we show

The marginal rate on each page is the tax on your next dollar of income, and it includes your employee FICA, not income tax alone. Take-home is the whole point of the site, and a marginal rate that ignored FICA would mislead on exactly that. The composition is footnoted on the page, so you can see the federal, FICA, and state parts that make it up.

Per-paycheck figures

The weekly, biweekly, and monthly columns are the annual figure divided by the number of pay periods. They are an estimate, not IRS Publication 15-T payroll withholding, which uses its own tables and rounds differently. Your real paycheck can differ by a small amount, and it reconciles at tax time.

Rounding

Figures are computed in exact dollars and displayed rounded to whole dollars, the convention people expect on a paycheck. A small rounding difference between the displayed lines can occur for that reason.

A worked example

Take a $75,000 salary in Texas in 2026, a single filer taking the standard deduction. Texas has no state income tax, so the only deductions are federal income tax and FICA. Take-home is about $61,593 a year, or $5,133 a month. The same $75,000 salary in California, which does tax income, takes home about $57,843 a year, roughly $3,750 less, because of the state income tax layer.

Known simplifications

We state our limits plainly. Local and city income taxes are flagged where they apply but are not computed in this release. Some state exemption phase-outs are applied at their maximum value. States that let you deduct federal tax are modeled where the dataset records it. Where a page carries one of these caveats, it says so.

How often this is refreshed

Datasets are re-verified each November to January, when the IRS, the SSA, and state revenue departments publish new-year figures, and again whenever a mid-year change is enacted. Every page carries the date its dataset was last verified. This page's data was verified July 17, 2026.