What is this calculator for?
It's late February, your W-2 just landed, and you want to know roughly what you'll owe (or get back) before you spend the weekend in TurboTax. Or you got a job offer in Denver paying $115K, you currently make $108K in Houston, and you need to know whether the move is a raise or a pay cut after Colorado state income tax. Or you're a freelancer estimating quarterly payments and you'd rather not under-withhold and eat a penalty. This calculator gives you the honest answer in under sixty seconds.
The US has two layers of income tax that everyone faces: federal (one set of brackets, the same in all 50 states) and state (varies wildly — Texas, Florida, Nevada and four others have zero state income tax; California's top bracket is 13.3%). On top of those, FICA — 6.2% Social Security on wages up to $176,100 in 2026 plus 1.45% Medicare on all wages — pulls another 7.65% out of every paycheck. The combined hit on a $90,000 W-2 worker in California is roughly 28% effective; the same earner in Texas pays roughly 19%. That 9-point gap is the largest financial difference between identical jobs in two cities.
This tool uses the 2026 federal brackets from IRS Rev Proc 2025-32, the standard deduction for each filing status, and the state brackets for whichever state you select. The output: total federal tax, total state tax, FICA, your effective rate, your marginal rate, and your annual take-home. Use it to model income changes, state moves, or filing-status decisions before they happen, not after.
How to use this calculator
Pick your filing status. Single is the default. Married Filing Jointly typically benefits couples with very different incomes — the lower-earner's income fills up the lower-brackets of the joint return. Married Filing Separately is rarely better but is sometimes required (income-driven student loan repayment plans, divorce mid-year, one spouse with significant medical deductions). Head of Household requires you to be unmarried and have a qualifying child or dependent living with you for more than half the year.
Enter your annual gross income. For W-2 workers, this is your salary plus bonuses, RSU vesting at fair market value, and any taxable benefits. Box 1 of last year's W-2 is the cleanest reference. For self-employed: net business income after deductible expenses (Schedule C line 31, or the net of Schedule E). For most people, gross is your salary as stated in your offer letter; the line above what hits your bank.
Select your state. State income tax in 2026 ranges from 0% (TX, FL, NV, WA, WY, SD, AK, TN, NH) to 13.3% top bracket (CA). New York City and Yonkers add local income tax on top of NY state. Most states have progressive brackets like the federal system, but seven (CO, IL, IN, KY, MI, NC, PA, UT) use a flat rate. The calculator handles all of these.
The deduction field defaults to standard ($14,600 single, $29,200 MFJ for 2024, slightly higher for 2026 — the calculator uses current-year figures). Switch to "custom" only if your itemized deductions exceed the standard (state and local tax capped at $10K, mortgage interest, charitable contributions, etc.). For most filers post-2017, the standard is the right answer.
Understanding your results
The calculator returns five numbers that together explain your tax situation: federal tax, state tax, FICA, effective tax rate (total tax ÷ gross income), and annual take-home pay. The breakdown shows your marginal rate, which is the rate on your next dollar earned — different from the effective rate by 5-15 percentage points for most middle-income filers.
How to read the numbers in context. Effective rate of 20-25% is typical for a single W-2 earner in a no-state-tax state making $80-120K. Same earner in California or New York: 28-33%. Married couples with one earner often have effective rates 3-5 points lower than the same household income filed as single — joint filing fills up lower brackets twice. High earners ($300K+) typically hit 30-40% effective; the top bracket is 37% federal plus state.
The marginal-versus-effective distinction is the most-confused concept in personal taxes. Your marginal rate is the rate you pay on your NEXT dollar — relevant for "should I take overtime" or "should I contribute another $5K to my 401(k)" decisions. Your effective rate is the average rate across your whole income — relevant for "what percentage of my income goes to taxes" framing. A 32% marginal rate doesn't mean you pay 32% on every dollar; it means the bracket you're CURRENTLY in (not yet crossed) is 32%. Your earlier dollars were taxed at 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%. The blended effective is much lower.
One critical interpretation: the calculator estimates annual liability, not refund or balance due. Whether you get a refund or owe at tax time depends on what was withheld throughout the year (Form W-4 settings) versus this calculated liability. Over-withhold and you get a refund (you gave the government a free loan). Under-withhold and you owe (potentially with an underpayment penalty if the gap is large). The Mubboo W-4 Withholding tool adjusts your paycheck withholding to target the right number.
Self-employed filers: the calculator's FICA line is the 7.65% employee portion. As a self-employed person you pay the full 15.3% self-employment tax (SECA — employee + employer halves). Run the calculator for the equivalent W-2 income, then double the FICA number for an accurate SECA estimate, then subtract the deductible half of SECA from your AGI for the income-tax portion. Or use a self-employment-specific calculator.
A worked example
Daniel and Lin are married, ages 36 and 34, living in Austin, Texas. Daniel earns $148,000 as a software engineer; Lin earns $72,000 as a teacher. They're filing jointly with the standard deduction. Total household gross: $220,000.
Running through the federal calculation (2026 numbers): gross $220,000 minus standard deduction of $29,200 = taxable income $190,800. Federal tax (married joint brackets): roughly $33,800. FICA: 7.65% × $220,000 (both salaries within Social Security cap) = $16,830. Texas state income tax: $0. Total tax: $50,630. Effective rate: 23.0%. Take-home: $169,370/year, or $14,114/month combined.
Now imagine they relocate to San Jose, California, where Daniel's same job pays $172,000 (cost-of-living adjusted) and Lin's teaching job pays $87,000. New gross: $259,000. Federal tax climbs to about $42,900 (higher bracket). FICA stays similar at $17,000 (Daniel above the Social Security cap, but Medicare still applies; Lin fully covered). California state tax: roughly $13,400 (CA progressive brackets, joint). Total tax: $73,300. Effective rate: 28.3%. Take-home: $185,700/year, $15,475/month.
On paper they're up $1,361/month gross of take-home in San Jose. But median rent in San Jose is roughly 2.4x Austin's. Their housing budget jump alone — easily $2,000-3,500/month higher rent for equivalent — wipes out the take-home increase and then some. The CA state tax cost them $13,400/year of what would otherwise have been take-home. This is why "Should I move from a no-tax state to California for the salary bump?" is a real spreadsheet question, not a vibe call.
Variation: if Lin's teaching career is paused for two years to raise their first child, their gross drops to just Daniel's $148K (Austin). Federal tax: about $19,300. FICA: $11,322. Effective rate: 20.7%. Annual take-home: $117,378. The marginal hit of losing Lin's income isn't just $72K — it's $72K minus the marginal taxes she would have paid on those dollars (roughly $17K), so the net household cash flow loss is about $55K. Worth knowing before deciding which spouse pauses career.
State-by-state variations
State income tax is the biggest geographic financial variable in US life. Nine states have zero state income tax: Texas, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, New Hampshire (NH taxes only interest and dividends, phased out by 2027). These states compensate with higher property taxes (TX averages 1.6%, WA 0.92%), higher sales taxes (TN 9.55% combined), or extraction revenue (AK oil, WY coal). The savings are real for high earners but partly offset by other state taxes.
Flat-tax states charge one rate across all incomes: Colorado 4.4%, Illinois 4.95%, Indiana 3.05%, Kentucky 4.0%, Michigan 4.25%, North Carolina 4.5%, Pennsylvania 3.07%, Utah 4.65%, Massachusetts 5% (with a 9% surtax above $1M). Flat-tax states penalize low-income earners (no zero-bracket) but benefit high earners (no progressive escalation). The single moderate earner ($50-80K) often pays similar effective rates in flat-tax versus progressive states; the high earner ($300K+) saves significantly in flat-tax states relative to CA, NY, NJ.
High-tax progressive states with significant top brackets: California (13.3% above $1M), Hawaii (11% above $200K), New York (10.9% above $25M plus NYC adds 3.876% local), New Jersey (10.75% above $1M), Oregon (9.9% above $125K), Minnesota (9.85% above $193K). Two-earner professional households in these states routinely pay 30%+ effective combined federal and state. Domicile-shopping (changing your tax home to FL or TX while maintaining a residence in a high-tax state) is a legal but heavily-audited tax-reduction strategy used by ultra-high earners.
Reciprocity agreements: about 16 states have agreements that prevent double-taxation when you live in one and work in another. Example: New Jersey and Pennsylvania have reciprocity — a PA resident commuting to a NJ job pays only PA income tax. Without reciprocity (the more common case), you typically pay your work-state tax and your home-state tax with a credit for taxes paid to the other state, netting out to roughly the higher of the two rates. Remote workers post-2020 created confusion here — most states tax based on where you physically work, not your employer's office; this is still a hot area of state tax law.
Related resources
For converting the annual tax liability into per-paycheck withholding adjustments, use the Paycheck Calculator and the W-4 Withholding Adjuster. To estimate whether you'll receive a refund or owe, the Tax Refund Estimator. For payroll-tax-impact decisions about retirement contributions, the 401(k) Planner. For state-move decisions where tax is one factor, Cost of Living Comparison. The IRS Publication 17 (Your Federal Income Tax) is the authoritative annual reference; the Tax Foundation state income tax report publishes current state brackets for all 50 states.