Use SmartAsset’s paycheck calculator to calculate your take home pay per paycheck for both salary and hourly jobs after taking into account federal, state and local taxes.
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For reference, the top federal income tax rate is 37%, and the bottom rate is 10%. Here’s a breakdown of the income tax brackets for 2024, which is filed in 2025:
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When it comes to tax withholdings, employees face a trade-off between bigger paychecks and a smaller tax bill. It’s important to note that while past versions of the W-4 allowed you to claim allowances, the current version doesn’t. Additionally, it removes the option to claim personal and/or dependency exemptions. Instead, filers are required to enter annual dollar amounts for things such as total annual taxable wages, non-wage income and itemized and other deductions. The new version also includes a five-step process for indicating additional income, entering dollar amounts, claiming dependents and entering personal information.
When you fill out your W-4, there are worksheets that will walk you through withholdings based on your marital status, the number of children you have, the number of jobs you have, your filing status, whether someone else claims you as your dependent, whether you plan to itemize your tax deductions and whether you plan to claim certain tax credits. You can also fine-tune your tax withholding by requesting a certain dollar amount of additional withholding from each paycheck on your W-4.
A financial advisor can help you understand how taxes fit into a set of financial goals. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
In addition to income tax withholding, the other main federal component of your paycheck withholding is for FICA taxes. FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. Your FICA taxes are your contribution to the Social Security and Medicare programs that you’ll have access to when you’re a senior. It’s your way of paying into the system.
FICA contributions are shared between the employee and the employer. 6.2% of each of your paychecks is withheld for Social Security taxes and your employer contributes a further 6.2%. However, the 6.2% that you pay only applies to income up to the Social Security tax cap, which for 2024 is $168,600 and for 2025 is $176,100. So any income you earn above that cap doesn’t have Social Security taxes withheld from it. It will still have Medicare taxes withheld, though.
There is no income limit on Medicare taxes. 1.45% of each of your paychecks is withheld for Medicare taxes and your employer contributes another 1.45%. If you make more than a certain amount, you’ll be on the hook for an extra 0.9% in Medicare taxes. Here’s a breakdown of these amounts for the current tax year:
$200,000 for single filers, heads of household and qualifying widow(er)s with dependent children
$250,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly
$125,000 for married taxpayers filing separately
If you work for yourself, you need to pay the self-employment tax, which is equal to both the employee and employer portions of the FICA taxes (15.3% total). Luckily, when you file your taxes, there is a deduction that allows you to deduct the half of the FICA taxes that your employer would typically pay. The result is that the FICA taxes you pay are still only 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare.
A financial advisor can help you understand how taxes fit into a set of financial goals. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Federal income tax and FICA tax withholding are mandatory, so there’s no way around them unless your earnings are very low. However, they’re not the only factors that count when calculating your paycheck. There are also deductions to consider.
For example, if you pay any amount toward your employer-sponsored health insurance coverage, that amount is deducted from your paycheck. When you enroll in your company’s health plan, you can see the amount that is deducted from each paycheck. If you elect to contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to help with medical expenses, those contributions are deducted from your paychecks too.
Also deducted from your paychecks are any pre-tax retirement contributions you make. These are contributions that you make before any taxes are withheld from your paycheck. The most common pre-tax contributions are for retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or 403(b). So if you elect to save 10% of your income in your company’s 401(k) plan, 10% of your pay will come out of each paycheck. If you increase your contributions, your paychecks will get smaller. However, making pre-tax contributions will also decrease the amount of your pay that is subject to income tax. The money also grows tax-free so that you only pay income tax when you withdraw it, at which point it has (hopefully) grown substantially.
Some deductions from your paycheck are made post-tax. These include Roth 401(k) contributions. The money for these accounts comes out of your wages after income tax has already been applied. The reason to use one of these accounts instead of an account taking pre-tax money is that the money in a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) grows tax-free and you don’t have to pay income taxes when you withdraw it (since you already paid taxes on the money when it went in). If you are early in your career or expect your income level to be higher in the future, this kind of account could save you on taxes in the long run.
Some people get monthly paychecks (12 per year), while some are paid twice a month on set dates (24 paychecks per year) and others are paid bi-weekly (26 paychecks per year). The frequency of your paychecks will affect their size. The more paychecks you get each year, the smaller each paycheck is, assuming the same salary.
If you live in a state or city with income taxes, those taxes will also affect your take-home pay. Just like with your federal income taxes, your employer will withhold part of each of your paychecks to cover state and local taxes.
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To find the most paycheck friendly places, we considered four factors for counties across the U.S.: Semi-Monthly Paycheck, Purchasing Power, Unemployment Rate and Income Growth.
First, we calculated the semi-monthly paycheck for a single individual with two personal allowances. We then created a purchasing power index for each county. This reflects the counties with the highest ratio of household income to cost of living. Then, we created an unemployment index that shows the counties with the lowest rate of unemployment. For income growth, we calculated the annual growth in median income throughout a five year period for each county and then indexed the results.
Finally, we calculated the weighted average of the indices to yield an overall paycheck friendliness score. We used a one-half weighting for semi-monthly paycheck and a one-sixth weighting for purchasing power, unemployment rate and income growth. We indexed the final number, so higher values reflect the most paycheck friendly places.
Sources: US Census Bureau 2022 American Community Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, SmartAsset
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