--- title: "Paycheck Calculator" description: "Estimate your US take-home pay from a gross salary: federal income tax from the published bracket tables, plus the employee half of Social Security and Medicare. Federal and FICA only — state and local tax are not included." url: https://findutils.com/finance/paycheck-calculator/ category: finance --- # Paycheck Calculator Estimate your US take-home pay from a gross salary: federal income tax from the published bracket tables, plus the employee half of Social Security and Medicare. Federal and FICA only — state and local tax are not included. **Use this tool:** [Paycheck Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/paycheck-calculator/) ## Programmatic access - REST id `paycheck-calculator`: POST https://api.findutils.com/api/tools/paycheck-calculator/execute (reference: https://findutils.com/api/paycheck-calculator/) - MCP tool `paycheck_calculator` on https://mcp.findutils.com (reference: https://findutils.com/mcp/paycheck-calculator/) ## Why is my paycheck so much smaller than my salary? Between a salary and the money that lands in your account sit four separate deductions, and only one of them is the income tax people think of. Federal income tax is charged in brackets on what is left after the standard deduction, so the rate on your last dollar is not the rate on all of them. Social Security takes 6.2% but stops at an annual wage base. Medicare takes 1.45% with no cap at all, and adds another 0.9% above a threshold that depends on your filing status. Pre-tax contributions reduce some of these and not others. This calculator shows each one separately so you can see where the gap actually goes. ## Tips - Effective rate is everything withheld as a share of gross. Marginal rate is what the next dollar is taxed at. The marginal number is always the higher one, and it is the one that matters when you are deciding whether extra work is worth it. - Social Security stops once your wages for the year reach the wage base, so a high earner's take-home jumps partway through the year. This calculator shows the annual average rather than that month-to-month step. - The additional 0.9% Medicare tax starts at $200,000 for single filers and head of household, $250,000 filing jointly, and $125,000 filing separately. Those thresholds were fixed in 2013 and have never been adjusted for inflation. - A Roth 401(k) contribution is not pre-tax, so it does not go in the 401(k) field here. It reduces take-home by its full amount without reducing any tax. - This estimates annual liability evenly across your pay periods. Real payroll software uses the IRS percentage-method tables per period, so a single payslip can differ by a few dollars even when the annual figure agrees. - If you live in a state that taxes wages, subtract that separately. Nine states have no wage income tax at all, and in those the figure here is close to complete. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does this include state income tax? No, and that is the main thing to know about the result. Federal income tax and FICA are included; state and local income tax are not. In a state that taxes wages your real take-home will be lower than the figure shown. In the nine states with no wage income tax, the figure is close to complete. ### What is the difference between the effective rate and the marginal rate? The effective rate is everything withheld divided by your gross pay — what you actually lose overall. The marginal rate is the bracket your last dollar of taxable income fell into, which is what a raise or an extra shift is taxed at. The marginal rate is always the higher of the two, which is why a raise feels smaller than the headline number. ### Why does a 401(k) contribution not reduce my Social Security tax? Because traditional 401(k) contributions are exempt from federal income tax but not from FICA. Your Social Security and Medicare are figured on the pay before the contribution comes out. A Section 125 cafeteria-plan contribution, such as an HSA or health premiums, is exempt from both, which is why this calculator asks for the two separately. ### What is the Social Security wage base? A cap on the earnings Social Security tax applies to, reset each year. Once your wages for the year pass it, the 6.2% stops for the rest of the year. Medicare has no equivalent cap and keeps applying to every dollar. ### What is the additional Medicare tax? An extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for single filers and head of household, $250,000 for married filing jointly, and $125,000 for married filing separately. It applies only to the amount above the threshold, and unlike most tax figures those thresholds are not adjusted for inflation. ### Which tax years does it cover? The years in the published tables the tool uses, shown in the Tax year dropdown. The brackets, standard deduction and Social Security wage base are all specific to a year, so pick the one you are estimating for rather than assuming the current year's figures apply. ### Will this match my payslip exactly? Usually to within a few dollars. This estimates your annual liability and divides it evenly across pay periods; real payroll uses the IRS percentage-method tables for each period and tracks year-to-date totals, so individual payslips vary, especially around the point where Social Security caps out. ### Where do I put a Roth 401(k) contribution? Nowhere, because it is not pre-tax. A Roth contribution reduces your take-home by its full amount without reducing any tax, so simply subtract it from the result yourself. ### Is my salary information sent anywhere? No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent to a server or stored. You can confirm it in your browser's network tab. ### I am self-employed. Can I use this? Not directly. Self-employed people pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare rather than the employee half, and they deduct business expenses first. Use the Self-Employment Tax Calculator instead. ## Related Tools - [Salary Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/salary-calculator/) - [Self-Employment Tax Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/self-employment-tax-calculator/) - [Debt Payoff Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/debt-payoff-calculator/) - [Compound Interest Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/compound-interest-calculator/) - [FIRE Calculator](https://findutils.com/finance/fire-calculator/)