How it works

Methodology

LocalTakehome is an annualized educational estimate for tax year 2026. Last verified September 27, 2026. It is not Pub 15-T payroll software, not a resident return, and not a promise about your next deposit.

Annualize, then split

The engine turns salary, or hourly pay times hours times weeks, into a year. It computes each tax on that year, rounds to the cent, and divides by 52, 26, 24, or 12. The stub’s year column is the paycheck times the number of checks, so the columns add. A few cents can separate that column from the unsplit annual total. Extra withholding is a per-check amount and is not run through the brackets.

Federal income tax

Method: annualized bracket withholding estimate using Rev. Proc. 2025-32 schedules — not Publication 15-T wage-bracket or percentage-method payroll tables. Employers may still use Pub 15-T; this product does not.

Wages after pre-tax deductions that reduce federal income tax, plus W-4 Step 4(a) other income, minus the 2026 standard deduction and Step 4(b) deductions. Tax comes from the Rev. Proc. 2025-32 schedules. Step 3 is a dollar credit. If the Step 2 checkbox is on, the estimate uses half the standard deduction and bracket thresholds at half width. That is an approximation of the checkbox schedule, not the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator’s two-earners worksheet.

Standard deduction: single and married filing separately $16,100; married filing jointly $32,200; head of household $24,150. Single brackets: 10% to $12,400; 12% to $50,400; 22% to $105,700; 24% to $201,775; 32% to $256,225; 35% to $640,600; 37% above that.

FICA

Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 ($11,439). Medicare is 1.45% with no cap. Additional Medicare is 0.9% on wages in excess of $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, and $125,000 married filing separately. At exactly the threshold, Additional Medicare is $0; it starts on the next dollar. Employers must start withholding Additional Medicare at $200,000 of wages regardless of filing status; this estimate uses the return thresholds and labels the line accordingly.

401(k) versus the FICA base

Traditional 401(k), 403(b), and TSP deferrals reduce federal (and most state) taxable wages. They do not reduce Social Security or Medicare wages. HSA contributions and Section 125 health, dental, vision, and commuter amounts reduce both income-tax and FICA wages in this model. The 2026 elective deferral warning level is $24,500. HSA warnings use $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family. Catch-up contributions are not added for you.

State income tax

All 50 states and the District of Columbia live in data/states-2026.json. The main compilation is the Tax Foundation table of rates and brackets as of January 1, 2026, plus state-specific notes in that file. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming have no wage tax. Washington has no wage tax; its capital-gains excise tax is not applied to a paycheck. Head of household uses single brackets and the single deduction except where a page notes otherwise. Married filing separately uses the single schedule. When work state and resident state differ, the estimate taxes the primary resident state only and warns that the split is simplified — it does not invent reciprocity credits or a second return.

States marked estimated, because a phaseout, a conformity question, or a federal-tax deduction is not fully computed: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin. Alabama and Missouri lines run high because a deduction for federal tax is omitted. Arizona, Maine, and South Carolina may use a smaller standard deduction than a state that has conformed to the higher federal amount.

State payroll

Included for employees: California SDI, New York disability (DBL), New York Paid Family Leave, Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave, WA Cares, Oregon statewide transit tax, Colorado FAMLI, Connecticut Paid Leave. Contractor mode skips these because coverage is often optional. Not yet modeled: New Jersey TDI and FLI, Rhode Island TDI, Hawaii TDI, Massachusetts PFML, Oregon PFMLI, and several newer paid-leave programs. If a program were listed without a sourced employee rate, the engine warns and does not invent a silent $0 line. The methodology would rather omit a rate than invent one.

Local tax

Named places apply only when selected (or replaced by a custom percent on gross wages): New York City resident brackets (off when you only work there / live-here unchecked), Yonkers resident surcharge and nonresident earnings tax, Philadelphia resident 3.74% and nonresident 3.43%, Pittsburgh as a modeled 3% / 1% earned-income tax, Detroit 2.4% / 1.2%, Columbus and Cleveland at 2.5%, Montgomery County and Baltimore City at 3.20%, Marion County at 2.02% (confirm the current Indiana chart), and Portland / Multnomah threshold taxes (resident only). New York City is never applied to the rest of New York. Most U.S. cities and counties are not in the named list — use the custom percent.

Exclusions

This estimate does not include: tax credits (beyond the W-4 Step 3 dollar credit you enter), itemized deductions, property tax, sales tax, unsupported local jurisdictions, garnishments unless you enter them as a deduction, QBI for contractors, full multi-state returns or credits, Ohio city-to-city credits, New York benefit recapture above the high brackets, and employer payroll tables that differ from this annualized method. It is not an employer stub, a filed return, or Schedule C / 1040-ES software.

Fixture results

These are the engine’s own outputs for the published scenarios. Tests in tests/engine.test.mjs lock the same ranges.

Scenario	Gross	Federal	FICA	State	Local	Net
$60k single, Texas, biweekly	$60,000.00	$5,020.00	$4,590.00	$0.00	$0.00	$50,390.00
$85k single, California, biweekly	$85,000.00	$9,870.00	$6,502.50	$3,675.42	$0.00	$63,847.08
$85k single, NYC resident, biweekly	$85,000.00	$9,870.00	$6,502.50	$3,993.00	$2,859.69	$61,376.41
$75k single, Philadelphia resident	$75,000.00	$7,670.00	$5,737.50	$2,302.50	$2,805.00	$56,485.00
$20/hr, 40 hours, Florida	$41,600.00	$2,812.00	$3,182.40	$0.00	$0.00	$35,605.60
$120k single, Texas, 10% 401(k)	$120,000.00	$14,930.00	$9,180.00	$0.00	$0.00	$83,890.00
$200k single, California	$200,000.00	$36,734.00	$14,339.00	$14,370.42	$0.00	$131,956.58

A $5,000 bonus on a $70,000 New York salary changes federal tax by about $1,100.00 under the aggregate method. Flat 22% supplemental federal withholding is $1,100.00. New York City is not included unless selected. The $200,000 California case sits on the Additional Medicare threshold, so that 0.9% line is $0; it starts on the next dollar.

Contractor mode

Self-employment tax is 12.4% plus 2.9% on 92.35% of profit after expenses, with Social Security capped at the wage base, plus 0.9% Additional Medicare on that base above the filing-status threshold. Half of the 12.4% and 2.9% portions is an above-the-line deduction. The qualified business income deduction is not included.

Sources

Each JSON file under /data repeats its own source URLs and a last-verified date of September 27, 2026.

See a wrong rate?

If a rate on your stub disagrees with this estimate, the useful report is the jurisdiction, the tax year, the official URL, and the figure you expected. There is no support inbox. The data files are the correction path: rates live in JSON so a 2027 update does not require a new formula. Prefer fixing copy that overclaims the engine over inventing a rate the engine does not use.

Changelog

September 27, 2026 — First 2026 file. Federal method documented as annualized bracket withholding estimate (Rev. Proc. 2025-32), not Pub 15-T. Social Security wage base $184,500. Launch locals listed above. State payroll limited to programs with a published employee rate in hand. Trust pages and FAQ answers aligned to engine behavior.