Take-Home Paycheck Calculator
Convert your gross salary to take-home pay after federal tax, FICA, state tax, and 401(k) contributions.
What is Take-Home Paycheck Calculator?
This paycheck calculator converts your annual gross salary into net take-home pay per pay period after the big line items: federal income tax (using 2025 IRS brackets and standard deduction), FICA (Social Security + Medicare), state income tax, and pre-tax 401(k) contributions.
Use it to see the real impact of a raise, a bigger retirement contribution, or moving between states — and to figure out what your paycheck will actually look like after payroll withholding.
Formula
Gross salary flows through these deductions, in order, to produce take-home pay:
- 401(k) contribution (pre-tax) — reduces taxable income.
- Federal tax — applied to (salary − 401(k) − standard deduction) using progressive 2025 brackets.
- Social Security — 6.2% up to the 2025 wage base of $176,100.
- Medicare — 1.45% on all wages.
- State tax — flat rate applied to (salary − 401(k) − standard deduction).
Net per paycheck = (salary − all deductions) ÷ pay periods per year.
Worked example
$75,000 salary, single, bi-weekly, 5% state tax, 6% 401(k):
- 401(k) = $4,500 (pre-tax)
- Taxable income = $75,000 − $4,500 − $15,000 = $55,500
- Federal tax ≈ $7,122 · FICA ≈ $5,393 · State ≈ $2,775
- Net annual ≈ $50,210 · Bi-weekly ≈ $1,931
How to use this calculator
- Enter your annual gross salary (base pay, before any deductions).
- Pick how often you are paid.
- Choose your federal filing status.
- Enter your state income tax rate. Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, and New Hampshire are at 0%.
- Enter your 401(k) contribution percent — even 1% compounds dramatically over a career.
Frequently asked questions
Does this include FICA?
Yes. Social Security is 6.2% up to the 2025 wage base of $176,100, and Medicare is 1.45% on all wages (plus an additional 0.9% on earnings over $200,000 single / $250,000 MFJ, which this calculator does not add).
Is my Roth 401(k) handled the same way?
No. Roth 401(k) contributions are after tax. Set the 401(k) field to 0% in this calculator and mentally subtract your Roth contribution from the net instead.
Why does my actual paycheck look different?
Real paychecks also include health insurance premiums (pre-tax), HSA/FSA contributions, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, garnishments, and bonus withholding quirks. This tool covers the five biggest lines and gets most people within a few percent.
Can I see what a raise actually nets me?
Yes — change the salary field and compare. Because federal tax is marginal, a raise is never "eaten by taxes"; you always take home more, just not the full raise.