About
Who publishes this, and where the numbers come from
Online Paycheck Calculator is an independently operated US payroll reference covering all 51 states and DC. It is not affiliated with the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor, any state agency or any payroll provider. Editorial responsibility for every figure here rests with the site operator, reachable at hello@onlinepaycheckcalculator.com.
What the site is
A set of 22 calculators and 19 plain-English guides that answer one question in its many forms: what is actually left of your pay after tax. The calculators implement the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method — the same routine an employer's payroll software runs on payday — alongside each state's own withholding rules, the mandatory disability and paid-leave contributions that ten states take from employees, and the local wage taxes levied by a dozen cities.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server, which is a design decision rather than a policy: the calculators are static JavaScript and there is no endpoint to send it to.
Where the figures come from
Primary sources, cited on the pages that use them:
| IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 | 2026 inflation adjustments: brackets, standard deduction |
| IRS Publication 15-T | Federal income tax withholding methods, the percentage-method tables the calculators implement |
| IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) | Employer's tax guide, supplemental wage withholding |
| IRS Publication 3 | Armed Forces' Tax Guide, which pay is and is not included in gross income |
| Social Security Administration | 2026 COLA fact sheet and the contribution and benefit base |
| US Department of Labor | FLSA overtime, state minimum wage and tipped wage tables, wage garnishment limits |
| State revenue and labor departments | Individual state income tax rates, disability and paid-leave contribution rates, minimum wages |
How a figure gets published
- Take it from the agency that administers it where that source is reachable — the state revenue department for an income tax rate, the city labor office for a local minimum wage.
- Otherwise corroborate two independent publications that agree on the figure, and cite both.
- Check the arithmetic where the structure allows it. A tipped cash wage should equal the minimum wage less the state's tip credit; a percentage raise should reproduce last year's table. Figures that fail their own internal check are not published.
- Leave out what cannot be verified, and say so. Four states' tipped cash wages and a number of Ohio municipal income tax rates are absent for this reason. The pages that would carry them say they are absent and point at the office that holds them.
- Store it once. Rates live in shared data files rather than in page copy, so a correction reaches every page that uses the figure at the same time.
What these calculators do not do
- They estimate withholding, not your final tax liability. Your return settles the difference in either direction.
- They do not know your year-to-date wages, which matter once you approach the Social Security wage base.
- They do not model local income taxes beyond the cities explicitly covered, and there are thousands of taxing municipalities in the US.
- They do not model the qualified business income deduction, most credits, itemised deductions, or multi-state allocation.
- They are not tax advice. For anything consequential, use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator or a tax professional.
The full calculation order, the assumptions behind it and the refresh schedule for each rate are set out on the methodology page.
Corrections
If a figure here is wrong, it should be fixed rather than argued about. Email hello@onlinepaycheckcalculator.com with the page, the figure and the source you are comparing it against. Corrections are made in the underlying data so every affected page updates together.
Advertising
The site is funded by advertising, served through Google AdSense and marked as advertising where it appears. No advertiser has any input into the figures published, and there are no affiliate arrangements with payroll providers or tax preparers. See the privacy policy for what advertising partners collect and the terms for the limits of what is offered here.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Who is responsible for this site?+
Online Paycheck Calculator is an independently operated US payroll reference. It is not affiliated with the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor, any state agency or any payroll provider. Editorial responsibility for every figure published here rests with the site operator, who can be reached at hello@onlinepaycheckcalculator.com. Corrections are acted on and dated.
Where do the tax figures come from?+
Primary sources only, listed in full on this page and cited again on each page that relies on them. Federal figures come from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, Publication 15-T and Publication 15, and from the Social Security Administration's 2026 COLA fact sheet. State income tax rates come from each state's own revenue department, and minimum wage and overtime rules from the Department of Labor and state labor offices. Every page carries a Sources block naming what it used.
How is a figure verified before it goes live?+
Against the agency that administers it wherever that source is reachable, and otherwise against two independent publications that agree. Where a figure cannot be corroborated to that standard it is left out and the omission is stated rather than filled with a guess. Four states' tipped cash wages and several Ohio municipal rates are absent for exactly this reason, and each page says so where it applies.
Is this tax advice?+
No. These are estimates of payroll withholding, which is not the same as your final tax liability. Withholding is collected in advance against a bill settled on your return, and your actual result depends on your full year of income, deductions, credits and filing position. For a decision that turns on the number, use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator or speak to a tax professional.
How accurate are the calculators?+
They implement the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method, the same routine an employer's payroll software runs, plus each state's own withholding rules and the mandatory state payroll contributions ten states levy on employees. What they do not know is anything you have not entered: mid-year rate changes, prior year-to-date wages, local taxes outside the dozen cities modelled, court-ordered deductions and employer-specific benefit rules. Results are typically within a few dollars per check of a real pay stub when the inputs match.
How is the site funded?+
By advertising. Ads are served through Google AdSense and are marked as advertising where they appear. No advertiser has any input into the figures published, which come from the primary sources listed above, and there are no affiliate arrangements with payroll providers or tax preparers.
How do I report an error?+
Email hello@onlinepaycheckcalculator.com with the page, the figure you believe is wrong and, if you have one, the source you are comparing it against. Corrections to a published rate are made at source in the data files so every page that uses the figure updates together, and the correction is recorded. A source that disagrees with a primary agency is treated as the thing to check, not the thing to publish.
Is my data sent anywhere?+
No. Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser. Salary, hourly rate, filing status, deductions and every other input stay on your device and are never transmitted to a server, which is why the tools work with the network disconnected after the page has loaded.
Last reviewed 2026-08-31.