How We Calculate Your Paycheck

Every salary figure, tax estimate, and take-home number on this site comes from official, primary government sources — not scraped from other websites or generated from guesswork.

Our data sources

• Federal income tax — the IRS, specifically Publication 15-T and the annual revenue procedure that sets inflation-adjusted brackets.
• Social Security & Medicare (FICA) — the SSA for the annual wage base limit; the IRS for the fixed FICA rates.
• State income tax — each state’s Department of Revenue for current rates, brackets, and deductions.
• Occupational salary data — the Bureau of Labor Statistics, primarily the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program.

How the paycheck calculation works

Our take-home estimate follows the same sequence an employer’s payroll system uses:

1. Gross pay — your stated wage, annualized.
2. Pre-tax deductions — 401(k), HSA, etc. subtracted before tax where applicable.
3. Federal income tax — current-year IRS brackets and standard deduction, by filing status.
4. FICA — Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare, plus Additional Medicare Tax above the federal threshold.
5. State (and local) income tax — using the rules of the state you select.
6. Net take-home — shown annually, monthly, and per paycheck.

The fixed FICA rates are stable year to year. The figures that change annually — brackets, the standard deduction, and the Social Security wage base — are reviewed and updated each tax year as the IRS and SSA publish them.

How we keep this accurate

• Tax figures updated at the start of each tax year, as soon as official sources publish them.
• Salary data updated when BLS releases new OEWS estimates.
• Pages are date-stamped with the tax year each figure reflects.
• Spotted an error? Tell us — our correction process is in our Editorial Policy.