Take-Home Pay Calculator: Federal & FICA After-Tax Income

Disclaimer: This calculator is provided for educational and estimation purposes only and does not constitute formal financial advice. It uses 2026 federal tax law with a simplified flat state rate and does not model credits, itemized deductions, or withholding adjustments.

What this calculator actually answers

Every salary has two numbers: the gross figure in the offer letter and the net figure that actually lands in the account. The gap between them is federal income tax, FICA — Social Security plus Medicare — and state tax, and it is bigger than most people expect: on an $85,000 salary, the gap is $14,356 a year, which is the whole budget of some households. This calculator answers one question: given a gross salary, what is the take-home pay, and where does every withheld dollar go?

It is deliberately US-specific. The 2026 federal brackets, the $16,100 single standard deduction, and the $184,500 Social Security wage base are all figures of US law, so the calculator applies them to US-dollar salaries and — uniquely on this site — has no currency selector. Switching the symbol to pounds or euros without switching the law would produce a number that means nothing in either currency.

The 2026 federal picture

Federal income tax is marginal: each slice of taxable income is taxed at its own rate. Taxable income is gross minus pre-tax 401(k) contributions minus the standard deduction. For a single filer, the 2026 brackets are:

Married filing jointly uses double-width brackets at the bottom ($24,800 at 10%, $100,800 at 12%) and a $32,200 standard deduction. On top of income tax, FICA takes 6.2% for Social Security, capped at the $184,500 wage base, and 1.45% for Medicare, uncapped, with an extra 0.9% above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married).

The math, with $T$ the taxable income and $b_k$ the bracket bands:

The default run

Run the defaults: $85,000 single, paid monthly, no state tax, contributing 8% of gross to a pre-tax 401(k). The 401(k) money comes off the top first — $6,800 — because it is pre-tax. That leaves $78,200 for FICA, and after the $16,100 standard deduction, $62,100 of taxable income. The federal tax:

FICA adds $4,848 in Social Security and $1,134 in Medicare. Total withheld: $14,356. Take-home: $70,644 a year, or $5,887 a month. The effective rate is 16.9% — well below the 22% marginal bracket, because the standard deduction and the 10% and 12% bands were all taxed at less than the top rate on that income.

What each gross dollar becomes

The take-home share is remarkably flat across income levels, because the marginal brackets rise just as the standard deduction becomes relatively smaller. With the default 8% 401(k) contribution and no state tax:

The pattern to read here: at $50,000 the effective rate is 13.7%; at $400,000 it is 27.6%. The marginal rate on the top slice is 12% at $50,000 and 35% at $400,000, but the effective rate — what you actually lose — moves far less, because it averages every band and the deduction together. The $400,000 row also shows FICA’s shape: Social Security stops growing at the $184,500 wage base ($11,439 max), while Medicare keeps climbing and the 0.9% surtax kicks in — $6,848 on that income.

Pay frequency only changes the packaging

Whether you are paid weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, the annual net is the same $70,644 — the frequency only divides it differently:

The one real difference is budgeting rhythm: biweekly paychecks arrive 26 times a year, which means two months each year get three paychecks. The 50/30/20 budget calculator is the place to divide net pay into needs, wants, and savings; this calculator is the step before it — establishing what the net pay is.

The 401(k) lever: pre-tax money is tax-free now

The pre-tax retirement contribution is the one input that reduces every other line: it lowers federal tax (by your marginal rate on those dollars), lowers FICA, and lowers state tax. On the $85,000 default:

The interesting number is the bottom row: contributing 15% of gross to a 401(k) costs the paycheck only $8,969 a year, because $3,781 of the $12,750 deferred would have gone to taxes anyway. Pre-tax retirement saving is the closest thing to a free lunch in this table — the 401(k) calculator shows what those contributions grow into, and the Roth vs. Traditional IRA calculator shows why the tax treatment of the account matters at the other end.

State tax: the honest approximation

The state input is a single flat percentage, and it is an approximation on purpose. Nine states have no income tax at all (0% is the honest entry); states with flat rates (Colorado’s 4.4%, Pennsylvania’s 3.07%) take one number; progressive states like California and New York need a marginal rate for your income, which is what a state-specific calculator reports. The model charges it on gross minus 401(k), the most common treatment:

The 9.3% row is California’s 9.3% marginal rate, and it shows why state tax is not a rounding error: it adds 8.6 percentage points to the effective rate and takes $7,273 out of an $85,000 salary. If you live in a high-tax state, this input is the difference between a realistic budget and an optimistic one. The emergency fund calculator is the natural next step once the net figure is real: a take-home figure that overstates what you keep will understate how many months of expenses the fund actually covers.

Where the assumptions break

• No credits or itemized deductions. The Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit, mortgage interest, and charitable giving all change the federal line. This model uses the standard deduction only, which is the right default for most filers and wrong for some.
• No HSA, FSA, or health premiums. Pre-tax health spending is not modeled; adding it would reduce the federal and FICA lines further.
• A flat state rate. Progressive state schedules are approximated by a single rate; the number is only as good as the rate you enter.
• 2026 law, frozen. Brackets, deductions, and the wage base change every year. The figures on this page are the 2026 numbers, not a projection.
• Annual liability, not withholding. Your employer withholds per paycheck using your W-4; the calculator reports the annual liability divided by periods. The two converge at filing time, not necessarily per check.
• No Additional Medicare for married separate filers, no head-of-household status. The two supported statuses cover most filers; the rest need a tax software check.

None of these make the take-home figure wrong — they make it a planning number. Budget the net, save from it, and let the 50/30/20 calculator do the dividing: the point of knowing take-home pay precisely is that every decision downstream of it — rent, savings rate, emergency fund — is a slice of a figure you actually keep. The savings rate is the one with the longest reach: the savings rate retirement date calculator converts the share of this figure you invest into the year you could retire.

How to use this calculator

• Gross annual salary is the number in the offer letter, before any deduction. Quoted an hourly rate instead? The hourly to salary calculator converts the rate and schedule into the annual figure first.
• Pay frequency picks how the annual net is divided; the annual total never changes.
• Filing status chooses the bracket schedule and standard deduction. Married filing jointly doubles the bottom of the brackets, worth $3,350 of federal tax on the default salary.
• State / local tax rate is your state’s effective marginal rate on your income — 0 if none, the flat rate if your state has one, otherwise the marginal figure from a state calculator.
• Pre-tax 401(k) contribution is the percentage of gross you defer. Every percentage point lowers taxable income, FICA, and state tax at once; the 401(k) calculator shows what the deferred money becomes.

The result is annual liability, not a paycheck guarantee — but it is the number your budget should be built on. Know the take-home, plan from it, and the gap between gross and net stops being a mystery and becomes the line item it always was.