Where your 2026 paycheck actually goes

The order of operations, which is the whole trick

Different deductions dodge different taxes, and the sequence decides what you keep. Here is the exact order this calculator uses.

Health premiums taken through a Section 125 cafeteria plan and HSA contributions made through payroll come out first, and they escape both federal income tax and FICA. Traditional 401(k) money comes out next and escapes federal income tax but not Social Security and Medicare — your FICA is calculated on wages that still include your 401(k) contribution. That surprises people, and it's why maxing a 401(k) doesn't cut your payroll tax at all.

What's left, minus the standard deduction, is your taxable income. That runs through the 2026 brackets one slice at a time. Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 and nothing above it. Medicare is 1.45% of every dollar with no ceiling, plus 0.9% on wages over the threshold for your filing status.

Worked example

Take the page defaults: $78,000 gross, single, paid every two weeks, 6% into a traditional 401(k), $145 a paycheck in health premiums, $1,200 a year into an HSA.

Health premiums are $145 × 26 = $3,770. With the $1,200 HSA, FICA wages come to $78,000 − $3,770 − $1,200 = $73,030. Social Security is 6.2% of that, $4,527.86. Medicare is 1.45%, $1,058.94. The 401(k) takes $4,680, which reduces income tax but not those two.

Federal taxable income is $78,000 − $4,680 − $3,770 − $1,200 − $16,100 standard deduction = $52,250. That falls in the 22% bracket, but only the part above $50,400 pays 22%. The first $12,400 pays 10% ($1,240), the next $38,000 pays 12% ($4,560), and the last $1,850 pays 22% ($407) — $6,207 total. The marginal rate is 22%; the average rate on gross pay is under 8%. People conflate those two constantly, usually while turning down overtime.

Why we won't give you a state tax number

Most sites will hand you a state figure and hope you don't check it. We won't, because a single flat rate is wrong for almost every state that has an income tax. Some run graduated brackets, some are genuinely flat, some tax at the county or city level on top, and several have credits and exemptions that move the effective rate by percentage points. A number that looks precise and is wrong is worse than an obvious estimate.

Nine states don't tax wage income at all: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. If you're not in one of them, search your state's department of revenue for its withholding tables, work out roughly what percentage of your income they take, and put that in the field. Fifteen minutes, and the whole calculation stops being a guess.

What this doesn't model

It assumes the standard deduction. If you itemise, your federal tax is lower than shown. It assumes no dependents and no credits, so the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits and the saver's credit are all absent — any of them can move your actual liability by thousands.

It doesn't model the newer deductions introduced for tax years starting in 2025 for qualified tips, qualified overtime, seniors, or car loan interest. If a meaningful part of your income is tips or overtime, this overstates your federal tax. Check the current IRS guidance for those.

It ignores Roth 401(k) contributions, which come out after tax and therefore don't reduce your taxable income at all — enter zero in the 401(k) field if yours is Roth. It also ignores wage garnishment, union dues, life insurance premiums, commuter benefits, FSA contributions and anything else on your specific stub.

And it spreads annual tax evenly across your paychecks. Real payroll withholding uses your W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T tables applied per period, so a bonus check or a mid-year raise makes individual paychecks diverge from this. Over a full year the totals land close; any one paycheck can be off.

The one thing worth doing after reading this

Look at how much of your gross is going to the 401(k) and find out what your employer matches. If your match is 50% up to 6% and you're contributing 3%, you are declining free money — and this calculator will show you that raising your contribution to 6% costs less take-home than the raw dollars suggest, because the contribution comes out before federal income tax.

If your refund last year was over $3,000, the opposite move is worth making: file a new W-4 and cut your withholding. A big refund is a year-long interest-free loan to the government, and the money is more useful to you in March than next April.