Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026)
A $100,000 salary is never $100,000 in your pocket. Enter your gross pay and filing status to see what federal tax and FICA take — using the actual 2026 brackets.
Your inputs
Where your salary goes
Take-home vs gross, across salaries
Marginal vs effective: the key idea
The U.S. taxes income in slices. In 2026, a single filer's first $12,400 of taxable income is taxed at 10%, the next chunk at 12%, then 22%, and so on. Your marginal rate — the rate on your next dollar — is the bracket your top slice lands in. Your effective rate — total tax divided by total income — is always lower, because the early slices were taxed cheaply. Moving into a higher bracket never taxes your whole income at the higher rate.
The math behind this calculator
Taxable income = gross salary − the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household). Federal tax is computed slice-by-slice through the 2026 brackets (10%–37%). FICA is computed separately:
Medicare: 1.45% × all wages, + 0.9% on wages above $200,000 (single/HoH) or $250,000 (MFJ)
Take-home = gross − federal tax − FICA − your optional state/local estimate.
Worked example
$100,000 salary, single, no state tax. Taxable income = $100,000 − $16,100 = $83,900. Federal tax: 10% on the first $12,400 ($1,240) + 12% on the next $38,000 ($4,560) + 22% on the remaining $33,500 ($7,370) = $13,170. FICA: 6.2% Social Security ($6,200) + 1.45% Medicare ($1,450) = $7,650. Take-home ≈ $79,180 — an effective rate of about 20.8%.
Caveats worth knowing
- State and local taxes are excluded unless you enter a rate. In high-tax states these can rival the federal bill; in Texas, Florida, and a few others there is no state income tax at all.
- Your paycheck deducts more. 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, HSA contributions, and FSAs come out pre-tax and aren't modeled here — which is also why maxing them lowers the federal tax this calculator shows.
- No credits or AMT. Child tax credits, education credits, and the alternative minimum tax aren't included — this is an estimate, not a tax return.
- Brackets are inflation-adjusted yearly. These are the 2026 figures; they shift slightly every year.
Brackets and standard deduction: IRS 2026 inflation adjustments (Revenue Procedure 2025-32). FICA wage base: Social Security Administration, $184,500 for 2026.