Take-Home Pay Calculator
Your salary is not your paycheck. This shows what each check actually keeps for 2025 and 2026 — federal tax bracket by bracket, Social Security, Medicare, state tax, 401(k), and health premiums — and what a raise or one more percent of saving really costs you.
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Where a paycheck actually goes
Every paycheck runs the same pipeline: gross pay, minus pre-tax benefits (Section 125 health premiums, HSA), minus a traditional 401(k), then federal income tax on what's left after the standard deduction, Social Security, Medicare, and state tax. What survives is the number that hits your account — and it's usually a much friendlier number than your bracket suggests.
That's because brackets are marginal: each slice of income pays its own rate, and only the top slice pays the headline one. A single filer on $85,000 sits "in the 22% bracket" but pays an effective federal rate near 9.5% — most people overestimate their own tax by a wide margin. The calculator shows the bracket-by-bracket walk so you can watch each slice get priced separately.
Three details the back-of-the-envelope version always misses:
- The 401(k)–FICA nuance: a traditional 401(k) skips federal and state income tax — but Social Security and Medicare are charged on it anyway. Health premiums and payroll HSA dollars skip both, which makes them the cheapest dollars on your stub.
- The raise myth: a raise can't lower your take-home — brackets are marginal, so only the dollars inside the higher bracket pay the higher rate. The tool prices your next $1,000 exactly: federal, FICA, and state on just that slice.
- Liability vs. withholding: this estimates your annual tax bill spread evenly across checks. Your employer follows W-4 withholding tables instead, which often over-withhold on purpose — that's what a refund is.
The same math answers the question worth asking every January: what does one more percent to the 401(k) actually cost per check? Traditional contributions come back partly as tax savings, so the honest answer is usually less than you think — and the tool shows it next to the Roth alternative, with the deferred-tax catch spelled out.
Common questions
- Why doesn't this match my actual paystub?
- Because withholding isn't liability. This tool estimates the tax you'll actually owe for the year and spreads it evenly; your employer follows the IRS W-4 tables, which depend on how you filled out the form and usually over-withhold into a refund. Bonuses get a flat supplemental rate, and state brackets, city taxes, and SDI shift the per-check number further. If your stub withholds more than this estimate, you're likely lending the IRS money until April.
- Does a 401(k) really lower my taxes?
- Traditional contributions skip federal and most state income tax today — but not Social Security and Medicare, which are charged on them anyway. That's why +1% of pay usually costs well under 1% of your check. Roth contributions don't reduce today's taxes at all; the payoff is tax-free withdrawals later. Neither erases tax — traditional defers it, and the right choice hangs on your rate in retirement versus now.
- Is anything saved or sent anywhere?
- No. Every number runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or shared — and you can export the full paycheck breakdown to CSV with one click.
Know the number — then put it to work
This tool tells you what each paycheck actually keeps. Taly splits it the moment it lands — bills, savings, and spending money each get their cut automatically, so the plan survives contact with the month.