Paycheck Calculator
Estimate your take-home pay after federal taxes and FICA.
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- CentCompass
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- 4 min read
Take-home pay (per period)
$2,368.94
$61,592.50 / year
Federal tax (annual)
$7,670.00
Social Security
$4,650.00
Medicare
$1,087.50
Total deductions (annual)
$13,407.50
Effective rate
17.88%
Federal estimate for tax year 2026 (no state taxes). Not professional tax advice.
What is the Paycheck Calculator?
A paycheck calculator estimates your take-home pay for each pay period after federal income tax and FICA — the payroll taxes funding Social Security and Medicare. It reconciles the gap between the salary you negotiated and the amount that actually arrives in your account, using the 2026 federal rules.
How the calculation works
Annual gross pay minus any pre-tax deductions gives the wage base for income tax; subtracting the standard deduction from that produces taxable income, to which the progressive federal brackets are applied. FICA works differently: it is charged on gross wages without regard to the standard deduction, with Social Security stopping once you reach the annual wage base and Medicare continuing on every dollar. The net annual figure is then divided by the number of pay periods in your chosen frequency.
The formula
Federal income tax is computed on (gross − pre-tax deductions − standard deduction) using the 2026 brackets. Social Security is 6.2% of gross wages up to the $184,500 wage base, so the maximum employee contribution is $11,439. Medicare is 1.4500000000000002% of all wages with no cap, plus an additional 0.8999999999999999% on wages above $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. Net pay = gross − federal tax − FICA, divided by your number of pay periods.
Worked example
A single filer earning $100,000 with no pre-tax deductions takes the $16,100 standard deduction, leaving $83,900 taxable. Applying the 2026 brackets produces about $13,170 of federal income tax. FICA adds $6,200 of Social Security and $1,450 of Medicare, totalling $7,650. Take-home is therefore roughly $79,180 a year, which is about $3,045 per biweekly paycheck across 26 pay periods. Contributing $10,000 to a pre-tax 401(k) would cut the income tax bill while leaving FICA untouched, since payroll taxes apply to gross wages.
Tips
- Pre-tax 401(k) and HSA contributions reduce income tax but not Social Security or Medicare.
- Social Security stops at the annual wage base; Medicare never does.
- Biweekly pay produces two months a year with three paychecks — plan around them rather than on them.
- Withholding is an estimate; your true liability is settled when you file.
- Review your Form W-4 after marriage, a second job, or a large raise.
Common mistakes
- Dividing gross salary by pay periods and treating that as take-home.
- Expecting a raise to be fully visible in the next check, before withholding catches up.
- Assuming pre-tax deductions reduce FICA — they generally do not for 401(k) contributions.
- Forgetting state and local withholding, which this federal-only estimate excludes.
- Reading a large refund as a bonus rather than as over-withholding through the year.
Limitations
This is a federal-only estimate for 2026. It excludes state and local income tax, state disability and paid-leave contributions, employer benefit deductions, garnishments, bonuses and supplemental wages, and tax credits. It assumes steady pay across the year and applies the standard deduction rather than modelling Form W-4 adjustments, dependents, or multiple jobs.
Frequently asked questions
What is FICA?
FICA is the payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to $184,500 and 1.4500000000000002% for Medicare on all wages, and employers match both. An extra 0.8999999999999999% applies to high earners, with no employer match.
Why is take-home less than my salary?
Federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare are withheld before you are paid, and any pre-tax benefit deductions come out as well. In most states an additional layer of state withholding applies on top of everything shown here.
Does this include state taxes?
No — this is a federal-only estimate. Some states levy no income tax, others apply progressive schedules of their own, and a number of cities add local income tax, so your actual net pay may be meaningfully lower.
How do 401(k) contributions affect my paycheck?
Traditional 401(k) contributions come out before federal income tax is calculated, so they reduce your tax bill as well as your take-home. They do not reduce Social Security or Medicare, which are assessed on gross wages.
Biweekly vs semimonthly?
Biweekly means 26 paychecks a year, paid every two weeks; semimonthly means 24, typically on fixed dates. Annual pay is identical, but each semimonthly check is slightly larger, and biweekly schedules produce two three-paycheck months.
What is the Social Security wage base?
It is the annual earnings ceiling for Social Security tax, $184,500 for 2026. Once your year-to-date wages pass it, Social Security withholding stops and your take-home rises for the rest of the year. Medicare has no equivalent cap.
What is the Additional Medicare Tax?
It is an extra 0.8999999999999999% on wages above $200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for joint filers, and $125,000 for married filing separately. These thresholds are set by statute and are not adjusted for inflation.
How do I change my withholding?
Submit an updated Form W-4 to your employer. Adding dependents or deductions lowers withholding, while requesting an extra dollar amount per period raises it — useful if you have self-employment income or a second job.
Is a bonus taxed at a higher rate?
No, though it often looks that way. Supplemental wages are commonly withheld at a flat percentage that exceeds many people's marginal rate, but the bonus is ultimately taxed as ordinary income and any over-withholding returns as refund when you file.
Why did my paycheck change mid-year?
Common causes are hitting the Social Security wage base, a change in benefit elections, crossing the Additional Medicare threshold, or an updated W-4. Comparing two pay stubs line by line usually identifies which one moved.
Related calculators
Related guides
Sources
- IRS — Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates
- Social Security Administration — Contribution and Benefit Base
- IRS — Federal income tax rates and brackets
- IRS — Tax Withholding Estimator
How this page is produced
Editorial process. CentCompass is maintained independently, and this page is written and checked against the official publications listed above before it goes live. There is no separate editorial reviewer. This page was last checked on . See our editorial policy.
How the calculations work. Every result comes from a small, unit-tested calculation engine rather than a spreadsheet or a hardcoded table. Loans use the standard amortization formula, growth uses compound-interest math, income tax applies the federal progressive brackets, and payroll applies Social Security and Medicare rules. Our methodology sets out each one.
Where the figures come from. Tax brackets, standard deductions, FICA parameters, and contribution limits are stored once in a dated registry and read directly by the calculators — the same values appear in the text above, so the two can never drift apart. Each figure records its source, effective tax year, and review status on our data sources page.
Update policy. Regulatory figures are checked against their primary source when the IRS, SSA, or another authority publishes new values — typically each autumn for the following tax year — and again at the scheduled review date recorded for each dataset. Figures that have not been checked yet are marked as draft on the data sources page until that check is complete.
Educational purposes only — not financial, tax, or investment advice (disclaimer).