Calculate your take-home pay after federal tax, FICA, and state tax using 2026 IRS brackets. See your net paycheck for any pay frequency.
FICA is Social Security (6.2%) plus Medicare (1.45%) — payroll taxes deducted from every paycheck. High earners pay an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax above $200,000.
401(k), HSA, and health premiums come out before tax, lowering your taxable income. Increasing them reduces your tax bill.
Your gross salary is almost never what lands in your bank account. Between the number on your offer letter and the deposit you actually see, several layers of tax and deductions come out first: federal income tax, FICA payroll taxes, state income tax, and any pre-tax benefits you elect. This calculator estimates your real take-home pay so you can budget around the number that matters — what you keep.
Understanding each deduction does more than satisfy curiosity. It shows you which levers you actually control. You cannot change the tax brackets, but you can change how much you contribute to a 401(k), an HSA, or other pre-tax accounts — and those choices directly change both your tax bill and your take-home pay.
The calculation runs in a specific order, because some deductions reduce the income that later taxes are applied to:
Whatever remains is your net pay — the amount actually deposited.
Consider someone earning $80,000 a year, paid twice a month (24 paychecks), contributing 6% to a traditional 401(k), living in a state with a 5% flat income tax:
| Line | Annual |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | $80,000 |
| 401(k) contribution (6%, pre-tax) | −$4,800 |
| FICA (7.65%) | −$6,120 |
| Federal income tax (est.) | −$8,100 |
| State income tax (5%) | −$3,760 |
| Estimated take-home | $57,220 |
That works out to roughly $2,384 per paycheck. Notice that the $4,800 going into the 401(k) is not lost — it is invested for retirement and it lowered the income that federal and state tax were charged on.
FICA is two payroll taxes combined: Social Security at 6.2% (up to an annual wage cap that adjusts each year) and Medicare at 1.45% (no cap). Together that is 7.65% deducted from most of your gross pay. High earners pay an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax on wages above $200,000. Your employer quietly matches the Social Security and base Medicare portions, so the true tax funding these programs is roughly double what you see on your stub.
The US uses progressive tax brackets, and this is the single most misunderstood part of a paycheck. Being "in the 22% bracket" does not mean 22% of your income is taxed at 22%. Only the portion of income that falls within that bracket is taxed at that rate; income below it is taxed at the lower bracket rates. As a result, your effective tax rate — total tax divided by total income — is always lower than your top marginal bracket. This is also why earning one more dollar never reduces your total take-home pay.
Pre-tax contributions are one of the few ways to legally reduce your tax bill while building wealth. A dollar you route into a traditional 401(k) or HSA is not taxed this year, so the real cost to your paycheck is less than a full dollar. In the 22% bracket, contributing $100 only reduces take-home by about $78 — the other $22 was tax you would have paid anyway. HSAs are especially powerful because qualified medical withdrawals are never taxed, making them triple tax-advantaged.
Estimates are for educational purposes only and are not tax advice. Actual withholding depends on your W-4, filing status, and local rules. Consult a tax professional for your situation.