Federal income tax (tax year 2026)
- Standard deduction: $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household.
- Seven brackets from 10% to 37%, applied to taxable income after the standard deduction. This calculator uses the standard deduction only — it does not itemise.
FICA — Social Security and Medicare
- Social Security (OASDI): 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 taxable maximum of $184,500. Nothing above that.
- Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, with no cap.
- Additional Medicare Tax: an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 (single and head of household) or $250,000 (married filing jointly). This calculator applies it.
- FICA is charged on gross wages. Pre-tax 401(k) and health deductions reduce income tax but not Social Security or Medicare.
State income tax — what is and is not covered
State tax systems differ far more than most calculators admit, so this one only claims what it can source precisely:
- No state income tax (8 states) — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming. Washington also levies no tax on wage income (it taxes certain capital gains instead), so wages are calculated as untaxed there.
- Flat-rate states (15) — the single statewide rate and the state standard deduction or personal exemption are applied.
- States with graduated brackets — not yet supported. Pick "Other / not listed" and the result shows federal and FICA only, clearly labelled, with a reminder that state tax is missing. We would rather show a gap than a made-up number.
States covered: 36 states — the nine with no tax on wages, fifteen single-rate states, and twelve with graduated brackets (California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, Alabama and Oregon). That is about 92% of the US population. California and New York cover all three filing statuses; the other ten cover single and married filing jointly, and leave the state line out for head of household rather than borrowing another state’s table. The fourteen states still missing are about 8% of the population between them, and are shown as “not included”.
Local and city income tax. This is the layer most national calculators skip entirely, so two of the biggest are built in. New York City charges 3.078%–3.876% on the same taxable income the state uses. Philadelphia charges a flat rate on gross pay with no deductions at all — and it catches you for working there even if you live outside, which is why it asks which applies. On a $120,000 salary that is about $4,067 in New York City or $4,482 in Philadelphia, every year, on top of the state figure. Not included: Yonkers, and the municipal taxes in Ohio, Michigan, Missouri and Maryland counties.
What this does not cover. This is an annual estimate for wage income with the standard deduction.
It does not model itemised deductions, tax credits (including the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit), the qualified business income deduction,
other income, W-4 adjustments, local income taxes, state disability or paid-leave payroll taxes, or employer-side taxes.
Your actual withholding follows the W-4 you filed and is reconciled when you file your return.
Sources and date checked.
Federal brackets and standard deduction: IRS,
tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026.
Social Security taxable maximum and rates: SSA,
Contribution and Benefit Base.
Flat-rate states and states with no wage tax: Tax Foundation,
State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2026.
California: brackets from the Franchise Tax Board’s
2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Schedule X, Y and Z) and the standard deduction from Form 540 ($5,706 single / $11,412 joint and head of household). These are
tax year 2025 figures, not 2026 — California indexes its brackets to state CPI and does not publish the 2026 schedule until late 2026, so 2025 is the newest table that exists. The federal side of this page uses 2026 figures, so the two years are mixed; we would rather use a published table and say so than estimate next year’s brackets. The extra 1% above $1,000,000 of taxable income is the Mental Health Services Tax (Proposition 63) — that is why the top rate is quoted as 13.3% rather than the statutory 12.3%, and the $1,000,000 threshold is
not doubled for joint filers. California’s personal exemption credit (about $153) is not applied, in line with this page leaving tax credits out; that makes the result slightly high.
New York: bracket boundaries and standard deductions from the Department of Taxation and Finance’s
Form IT-201 instructions ($8,000 single / $16,050 joint / $11,200 head of household). The boundaries are set in statute and do not move with inflation; for 2026 the first five rates each drop 0.1 percentage point (4.00→3.90, 4.50→4.40, 5.25→5.15, 5.50→5.40, 6.00→5.90) while 6.85% and above are unchanged.
New York City rates (3.078% / 3.762% / 3.819% / 3.876%) come from the city tax rate schedule in the same instructions.
New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, Alabama and Oregon: brackets, standard deductions and personal exemptions from the Tax Foundation table above (2026, as of 1 January 2026). Massachusetts shows 9% at the top because the 4% surtax on income above $1,083,150 sits on the flat 5%. Oregon’s personal exemption is a credit rather than a deduction, so it is not applied, in line with this page leaving credits out. Maryland county income tax (2.25%–3.20% depending on where you live) is not included.
Philadelphia: wage tax rates from the
City of Philadelphia rate table — 3.735% resident and 3.425% non-resident, effective 1 July 2026. (The widely quoted 3.75%/3.44% figures are the July 2024 rates; the city has cut them twice since.)
One limit worth naming: above $107,650 of New York AGI the state applies a benefit-recapture worksheet that claws back the lower brackets. This page does not model it, so New York figures above that income come out
slightly low. Federal figures checked 30 August 2026; California, New York and New York City added and checked 9 September 2026; ten more states and Philadelphia added the same day. If a figure has moved, email zkqm01@gmail.com and we will correct it and update the date.