SalaryTakeHomePay

How we calculate

SalaryTakeHomePay’s paycheck and tax tools follow official rules. This page lists where every number comes from, what we test, and what the calculators leave out.

US federal tax (2026)

  • Paycheck withholding uses the IRS percentage method for automated payroll systems (Publication 15-T, 2026, Worksheet 1A and the annual tables), with your Form W-4 choices: Step 2 checkbox, Step 3 dependents, Step 4(a) other income, Step 4(b) deductions and Step 4(c) extra withholding.
  • Yearly tax uses the 2026 brackets and standard deductions in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the extra standard deduction for age 65+ or blindness, the Schedule 1-A deductions for qualified tips, overtime, car loan interest and seniors (with their income phase-outs and Social Security number rules), the Child Tax Credit ($2,200, up to $1,700 refundable), the $500 credit for other dependents and the Earned Income Credit.
  • Social Security and Medicare: 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base (SSA), 1.45% Medicare, and 0.9% Additional Medicare withheld on wages above $200,000.

US states and local taxes

  • State income tax rates, brackets, deductions and exemptions for all 50 states and DC come from the Tax Foundation’s 2026 table, checked against state laws passed in 2026 (Georgia, Utah, South Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas and Hawaii changed their 2026 rules after that table was published).
  • State tax is a yearly estimate spread evenly over your paychecks. Your employer uses the state’s own withholding tables, so a pay stub can differ by a few dollars; your state tax return settles the difference.
  • If you live in one state and work in another, we apply reciprocal agreements where they exist; otherwise the work state taxes your wages and your home state gives a credit for that tax.
  • Where every resident pays a local tax, we include it even if you don’t pick a place: a typical 1% earned income tax in Pennsylvania, a 3.20% county tax in Maryland and the average county tax in Indiana. Pick your exact town or county to replace the assumption.
  • Married couples filing jointly can enter the spouse’s pay: yearly tax and the refund estimate then cover both incomes, and state tax is shared between the two jobs in proportion to pay.
  • State disability, paid family leave, long-term care and employee unemployment deductions come from each state agency’s 2026 rates. Local taxes cover New York City, Yonkers, Philadelphia, Maryland and Indiana counties, major Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri cities, and the Portland area, plus any rate you enter.

Germany

The Brutto-Netto-Rechner is a line-by-line implementation of the Federal Finance Ministry’s official payroll-tax flowchart (Programmablaufplan 2026). We checked 21 cases, across all six tax classes, children, church tax, Saxony, private health insurance and the factor method, against the ministry’s own calculator: every result matched to the cent. Social insurance uses the 2026 contribution ceilings and rates.

What the calculators don’t include

  • Itemized deductions (including the $40,000 SALT cap), capital gains, self-employment tax, state earned income credits and most other state credits (for example state child tax credits), so low-income families may get more back from their state than shown.
  • High-income state recapture rules in New York and Connecticut (the page tells you when they apply).
  • Head-of-household schedules in a few states (Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, Idaho, Arizona), which use the single schedule and say so.
  • Washington workers’ compensation (L&I) premiums, which depend on your job.

Testing

Every change runs an automated test suite: hand-worked federal examples, all 51 state calculations at several incomes and filing statuses, cross-state cases and the German cases above. Pages are checked on phone and desktop for errors before they go live.

Updates

Federal figures change every January (the IRS publishes them each autumn), state figures whenever a state changes its law, and Germany’s each January. Each calculator shows the tax year it uses. Found a number that looks wrong? Tell us; we reply and fix confirmed errors quickly.