2026 W-4 calculator
See what to write on each step of your W-4 so you neither owe at tax time nor overpay, and what that does to your paycheck.
Updated for 2026Checked Oct 31, 2026 against IRS Form W-4 and Publication 505How we check
Change in your take-home
$84.62 more
each paycheck, compared with a W-4 showing only your filing status
- Step 2: two jobs
- Skip it
- Step 3: credits
- $2,200.00
- Step 4(a): other income
- Leave blank
- Step 4(b): deductions
- Leave blank
- Step 4(c): extra per paycheck
- Leave blank
- Federal tax per paycheck
- $107.69
- Take-home before state tax
- $2,662.81
Your 2026 federal income tax: about $2,800.00. This W-4 withholds $2,799.94 across the year, so you should come out about even.
An estimate, not tax advice. It runs in your browser, so we never see what you type.
Take-home per paycheck changes by $84.62 more. Step 4(c): Leave blank.
What each line of the W-4 changes
A W-4 does not set your tax. It tells payroll how much to hold back toward that tax, and each step moves the amount in its own way. Step 3 takes credits off the year's withholding: $2,200 for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent, when total income is $200,000 or less, or $400,000 or less on a joint return. Step 4(a) adds income that has no withholding of its own, so your job covers the tax on it. Step 4(b) subtracts deductions beyond the standard deduction. Step 4(c) is a flat extra amount on every check.
Those steps do not pull with equal force. A dollar in Step 3 lowers the year's withholding by a whole dollar, while a dollar in Step 4(b) lowers it only by your tax rate. In the starting example above, a joint filer paid $3,000 every two weeks with one child has $192.31 withheld on a W-4 that shows only the filing status. Entering the child in Step 3 spreads $2,200 over 26 checks, which brings the line down to $107.69 and adds $84.62 to each one.
Two jobs or a working spouse
Each payroll treats its check as your only income, so each one hands you a standard deduction and starts you at the bottom of the brackets. Added together, that holds back too little. Step 2 of the form gives three ways to fix it: the IRS online estimator, a Multiple Jobs Worksheet that adds a table amount to Step 4(c), and a box you check on both W-4s. The box cuts the standard deduction and the brackets in half for each job, and the form calls it generally more accurate when the lower pay is more than half of the higher pay.
Since you give us both incomes, we work out the actual difference and put it in Step 4(c), where the worksheet would put its own figure. The worksheet uses bands of pay, so its answer can sit several hundred dollars a year from ours. When two jobs fit the box, the result also shows what the box would withhold. The form says Steps 3 through 4(b) work best on the W-4 for the highest paying job, and they stay empty on the other one.
Changing your W-4 partway through the year
A new W-4 in the fall has few checks left to work with. Publication 505 handles that by working out what is still needed and dividing it by the paydays remaining. A shortfall goes in Step 4(c). To lower withholding instead, it takes the amount per check, multiplies it by every payday in the year, and adds that to Step 3, because payroll spreads Step 3 across the full year. So a Step 3 figure here can run well past your real credits, and the result says when it does.
Your employer has until the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th day after you turn in the form to start using it, so count only the checks after that. The amounts are sized for those last checks and would be wrong for a full year. Publication 505 tells you to give your employer another W-4 in January, and you can come back here and leave the Partway section at 0 when you do.
What this estimate leaves out
Credits here stop at zero, so the refundable part of any credit is not counted. We also leave out self-employment income and its tax, the lower rates on capital gains and qualified dividends, Additional Medicare Tax, and Net Investment Income Tax. If any of those apply to you, the form points to the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator at IRS.gov/W4App, and that is the better tool. Above the Step 3 income line, the child and dependent credits shrink by a rule the form does not print, so we leave them out and say so. A bonus you have already received belongs in wages and tax withheld so far. A bonus still to come is not counted at all. Married couples filing separately share the single column here, which holds up until the top of the income range. If you file separately and your income is above $384,350, the form's limit on itemized deductions and the rate schedule both change, so use the IRS estimator instead.
All of this is an estimate, not tax advice, and it covers federal income tax only. To see a whole check with your state's tax on it, use the paycheck calculator. The bonus calculator shows what comes out of a bonus, and the 2026 tax brackets list the rates behind these numbers.
Sources and checks
Checked on Oct 31, 2026. Source: IRS Form W-4 (2026), Cat. No. 10220Q, created 12/8/25 (irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf, read Oct 31, 2026): Step 3 applies 'If your total income will be $200,000 or less ($400,000 or less if married filing jointly)'; the Step 4(b) Deductions Worksheet, lines 8 to 10, multiplies itemized deductions by 94% (0.94) unless line 9 ($768,700 married filing jointly, $640,600 single or head of household, $384,350 married filing separately) is greater than total income, and line 11 repeats the standard deductions.
Projecting the year and changing a W-4 midyear: IRS Publication 505 (2026), Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax (irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p505.pdf, read Oct 31, 2026): Worksheet 1-3 projects the year's tax, Worksheet 1-4 gives the rate schedules, and Worksheet 1-5 compares the tax with withholding and divides the gap by the paydays remaining. The line 6 instructions for a 2026 Form W-4 add an increase to Step 4(c) and add a decrease, multiplied by the total number of paydays in 2026, to Step 3.
When a new W-4 takes effect: IRS Publication 505 (2026), chapter 1 (read Oct 31, 2026): a change for the current year takes effect 'no later than the start of the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th day after the day on which you give your employer your revised Form W-4', and after a mid-year change 'you should complete and give to your employer a new Form W-4 in January'.
Step 3 credit amounts: IRS Form W-4 (2026), Cat. No. 10220Q, created 12/8/25 (irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf, fetched and read Oct 29, 2026), Step 3 (Claim Dependent and Other Credits): '(a) Multiply the number of qualifying children under age 17 by $2,200' and '(b) Multiply the number of other dependents by $500', for total income of $200,000 or less ($400,000 or less if married filing jointly). Saved in data/sources/federal/.
Withholding tables: 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 Oct 28, 2026.
Every figure above comes from the sources listed here. How we check our numbers.
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