Paycheck and take-home pay calculator

Checked on 2026-10-28. Source: IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Worksheet 1A and its "2026 Percentage Method Tables for Automated Payroll Systems and Withholding on Periodic Payments of Pensions and Annuities," pages 10 to 12. Fetched directly from irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15t.pdf and transcribed 2026-10-28.

This calculator estimates your federal income tax withholding, Social Security, and Medicare for one pay period, using the Internal Revenue Service's own percentage-method formula from Publication 15-T, Worksheet 1A. Enter your gross wages for one pay period, how often you are paid, and the filing status and checkbox from your Form W-4; the math runs in your browser, and we never see or store what you type.

How to read the result

The federal withholding figure is what your employer is required to hold back for your eventual income tax bill; it is not your final tax liability, which is settled when you file your return. Social Security and Medicare are separate payroll taxes that fund those programs directly and do not change based on your W-4. If your year-to-date wages are near or above the Social Security wage base of $184,500, this calculator correctly stops withholding Social Security on the portion above that line, the same way your employer's payroll system does.

What this does not include

This tool estimates federal withholding and FICA only. It does not include state income tax, local payroll taxes, pre-tax deductions such as a 401(k) or health insurance premium, or a state disability or paid-leave payroll deduction. Visit a state's own paycheck page on this site, once it is built, for those figures; see our Methodology and sources page for which states we have sourced so far.