Income Tax Calculator
Estimate US federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, your effective and marginal rates, and take-home pay from your gross salary.
Comment utiliser cette calculatrice
- 1Enter your gross annual income before any deductions.
- 2Choose your filing status — it changes both the brackets and the standard deduction.
- 3Take the standard deduction unless your itemized total exceeds it.
- 4Add traditional 401(k) and HSA contributions as pre-tax, since they reduce taxable income.
Comment ça marche
US federal income tax
AGI = gross income − pre-tax contributions taxable income = AGI − deduction tax = Σ (income in each bracket × that bracket's rate) Social Security = 6.2% of wages up to the annual wage base Medicare = 1.45% of all wages (+0.9% above the threshold)
US federal income tax is progressive and marginal: each slice of income is taxed at its own rate, and only the slice inside a bracket is taxed at that bracket's rate. Moving into the 22% bracket does not tax your whole income at 22% — it taxes only the dollars above the threshold. That is why your effective rate is always lower than your marginal rate.
Exemple détaillé
A single filer earning $85,000 takes the $15,000 standard deduction, leaving $70,000 taxable. That is taxed at 10% on the first $11,925, 12% up to $48,475, and 22% on the remainder — about $10,015 in income tax. Adding $6,502 of FICA gives roughly $68,483 take-home, an effective income tax rate of 11.78% despite a 22% marginal bracket.
Income Tax Calculator : le guide complet
Marginal versus effective rate
This is the most persistent misunderstanding in personal finance. Your tax bracket is the rate on your *last* dollar, not your average rate. A single filer earning $85,000 sits in the 22% bracket but pays about 11.8% of gross income in federal income tax, because the first $11,925 of taxable income is taxed at 10% and the next slice at 12%.
The practical consequence: a raise can never reduce your take-home pay. Crossing into a higher bracket taxes only the dollars above the threshold at the higher rate. The dollars below it are taxed exactly as before.
Standard or itemized
You take whichever is larger. Since the standard deduction roughly doubled in 2018, the large majority of filers take it — itemizing only wins when mortgage interest, state and local taxes (capped at $10,000), and charitable giving together exceed it.
The cap on state and local tax deductions is what pushed most people to the standard deduction. If you are close to the line, bunching two years of charitable giving into one tax year can let you itemize in alternate years and take the standard deduction in between.
FICA is separate, and it is not progressive
Social Security and Medicare are payroll taxes charged on gross wages, not on taxable income — deductions do not reduce them. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security up to an annual wage base, and 1.45% for Medicare on every dollar, with an extra 0.9% above a high-income threshold.
Your employer pays a matching 7.65%, which economists generally treat as part of your compensation. Self-employed people pay both halves as the 15.3% self-employment tax, which this calculator does not model.
Because Social Security stops at the wage base, FICA is regressive at the top: someone earning $500,000 pays a smaller share of income in Social Security tax than someone earning $100,000.
What this estimate leaves out
State income tax is the biggest omission. Rates run from zero in nine states to over 13% at the top in California, which can move take-home pay by tens of thousands of dollars on the same salary.
Tax credits are the other significant gap. Credits reduce tax owed dollar for dollar — far more valuable than a deduction of the same size — and the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and education credits materially reduce what many households actually pay.
Also excluded: capital gains and qualified dividends (taxed on a separate schedule), the QBI deduction for pass-through business income, the Alternative Minimum Tax, and the self-employment tax. Treat this as a planning estimate, not a filing figure.
Questions fréquentes
Will a raise push me into a higher bracket and cost me money?
No. Only the income above the bracket threshold is taxed at the higher rate — everything below is taxed exactly as before. A raise always increases take-home pay. The one genuine cliff to watch is income-tested benefits and subsidies, which can phase out sharply, but the tax brackets themselves never do.
What is the difference between a deduction and a credit?
A deduction reduces your taxable income, so a $1,000 deduction saves you $1,000 × your marginal rate — $220 in the 22% bracket. A credit reduces the tax itself, so a $1,000 credit saves the full $1,000. Credits are worth far more, which is why this calculator's exclusion of them means it overstates tax for households that qualify.
Does a 401(k) contribution reduce my tax?
A traditional 401(k) does — it comes out before income tax, so contributing $10,000 in the 22% bracket saves $2,200 this year. It does not reduce Social Security or Medicare tax. A Roth 401(k) is funded after tax and gives no current-year reduction, but withdraws tax free.
Why is my paycheck withholding different from this figure?
Withholding is an estimate your employer makes from your W-4, and it does not know about other income, a spouse's earnings, or credits you will claim. Differences are settled when you file — a refund if too much was withheld, a bill if too little.