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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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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