Paycheck Ledger

About Paycheck Ledger

Paycheck Ledger is an independent set of US paycheck calculators. It shows what lands in your account after every deduction, and how each line was worked out.

What the site does

Enter a salary or an hourly rate and the calculator works out one paycheck the way a payroll system does: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and whatever your state withholds, each on its own line. Every state has its own page, because every state withholds by its own rules.

Most paycheck calculators stop at a single number. We show the arithmetic, so you can hold it up against your own pay stub and see where the two differ.

How take-home pay is worked out

  1. Gross pay. Salary divided by the number of paychecks in the year, or hourly rate times hours, with overtime paid at time and a half.
  2. Pre-tax deductions. A 401(k) contribution lowers the pay that income tax is worked out on, but not the pay that Social Security and Medicare are charged on.
  3. Federal income tax. The percentage method in IRS Publication 15-T for 2026, for a Form W-4 from 2020 or later. Pay is annualized, run through the withholding schedule, reduced by any W-4 Step 3 credits and divided back down to one paycheck. The first $7,500 a single filer earns is withheld at 0%, which is how the schedule accounts for the $16,100 standard deduction.
  4. Social Security and Medicare. Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 a year. Medicare is 1.45% with no cap, plus 0.9% on wages above $200,000.
  5. State withholding. Each state's own formula from its withholding guide: its allowances or exemptions, its rates, and the payroll contributions some states take from employees, such as disability, family leave or unemployment insurance.

Unless you change them, the calculator assumes a single filer paid every two weeks, with no dependents and no extra withholding. City and county income taxes are not included, with one exception: Maryland's county tax, which comes out of the same paycheck as the state tax.

Where the numbers come from

Federal figures come from IRS Publication 15-T and Revenue Procedure 2025-32 for the 2026 tax year. The Social Security wage base comes from the Social Security Administration. State figures come from each state's own tax or labor department. These are the sources used for every state page, last checked on September 1, 2026.

Changes tracked for 2026

Tax rules do not only change in January. These are the 13 states where something that affects a paycheck changed for 2026, as reflected on their pages.

How the figures are checked

What this site is not

Paycheck Ledger is not a payroll provider, an accountant or a government agency, and it is not affiliated with the IRS or any state. The figures are estimates, not tax advice. Your employer withholds based on the W-4 you filed and may take deductions we cannot see, such as health insurance or union dues.

How the site is paid for

The calculators are free to use. The site may show advertising, and may in future link to payroll or tax services. Neither changes the figures: every number comes from the same published rules, whoever advertises. How advertising and analytics use cookies is set out in the privacy policy.

Corrections

If a figure does not match your pay stub or your state's guide, tell us. Write to contact@paycheckledger.com or use the contact page. A correction is checked against the original source and then fixed on every page that uses it at once.