About Payroll Tax Calc

What we built

Payroll Tax Calc answers one question with precision: what does your paycheck actually keep? Enter your gross pay, filing status, state and withholding details, and you get an exact, line-by-line breakdown — federal income tax, state and local income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and every pre-tax and post-tax deduction.

Every calculation runs entirely in your browser. Your salary never touches our servers, and the shareable report links simply encode your inputs in the URL.

Why free? Why unlimited?

Here's the catch: there isn't one.

A truly precise paycheck tool is strangely hard to find on the web — and when you do track one down, there's usually a catch waiting: a paywall after three calculations, your email harvested before you see a single number, or a 'free trial' that expires before your next payday. We think that's backwards.

Your paycheck is not a luxury product. Consumers, workers and everyday Americans deserve straight answers about their own money — what Washington takes, what your state takes, and what you actually keep — without an account, a usage cap, or a credit card. That conviction is exactly why Atkins Media, LLC built Payroll Tax Calc and keeps it free and unlimited.

The ads you may see (only if you accept cookies) cover our costs — so you never have to. Run the numbers as many times as you like, for as many scenarios as you like, forever.

The data behind it

Federal figures use the 2026 progressive brackets and standard deductions from the IRS annual inflation adjustments. FICA applies Social Security at 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base and Medicare at 1.45%, plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above the statutory thresholds.

State results apply each state's published 2026 bracket schedule after its standard deduction and personal exemptions, and county or city income taxes are included for the major local jurisdictions — from Maryland's 24 counties and New York City to Detroit and Philadelphia.

Both eras of Form W-4 are supported natively: pre-2020 allowance-based withholding and the post-2020 dollar-based method.

Who runs it

Payroll Tax Calc is operated by Atkins Media, LLC. The site is free to use and supported by advertising, which lets us keep every calculator and report free forever.