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🧾 Paycheck Calculator

Estimate your federal tax withholding and take-home pay from your gross paycheck - free and unlimited, no sign-in required.

Federal estimate only - not tax advice. This tool uses a simplified 2024-era US federal model (Social Security, Medicare, Additional Medicare surtax, plus a simplified income-tax withholding estimate using only the standard deduction). It ignores state/local taxes, your actual W-4 elections, and pre-tax deductions such as 401(k) or health insurance, and the underlying thresholds change every tax year. Use it for ballpark planning only - check an actual pay stub or ask your payroll department for exact figures.

Your paycheck

Gross pay per paycheck

Pay frequency

Filing status

Estimated take-home pay

Net pay per paycheck$0

Total tax per paycheck$0

Annualized: $0 gross → $0 net ($0 total tax/year).

How this was calculated (per paycheck)

Item	Per paycheck	Annual
Gross pay	$0	$0
Federal income tax withholding	$0	$0
Social Security (6.2%, capped at the annual wage base)	$0	$0
Medicare (1.45%, uncapped)	$0	$0
Additional Medicare surtax (0.9% above the threshold)	$0	$0
Total tax	$0	$0
Net pay	$0	$0

Annualise, tax, then divide back

Nothing is worked out per paycheck directly. Your gross is multiplied up to a year, all four federal taxes are computed on that annual figure, and each one is divided back down. It has to work that way: the Social Security wage base and the surtax threshold are annual amounts, and applied paycheck by paycheck neither would ever trigger.

annual = gross × periods       (weekly 52, biweekly 26, semimonthly 24, monthly 12)

social security = min(annual, 168,600) × 6.2%
medicare        = annual × 1.45%              (uncapped)
extra medicare  = max(0, annual - 200,000 single / 250,000 joint) × 0.9%
income tax      = 2024 brackets on (annual - 14,600 single / 29,200 joint)

$2,500 biweekly annualises to $65,000. Single, that is $4,030.00 Social Security, $942.50 Medicare, no surtax, and $6,141.00 income tax on $50,400 taxable — $11,113.50 a year, leaving $53,886.50. Per cheque: $427.44 withheld, $2,072.56 in hand.

What it leaves out

The figures are 2024 federal ones and every one of them moves each tax year. Only Single and Married filing jointly are offered, so head of household has no setting here.

No state or local income tax, and no state disability or unemployment withholding.
No W-4 detail — dependents, a second job, extra withholding you asked for.
No 401(k), health premiums or HSA, all of which come out before tax and would lower every line above.

Each per-cheque line is the annual figure divided and rounded again, so multiplying back does not always land exactly on the annual total — $427.44 × 26 is $11,113.44, six cents under. Real payroll also applies the 0.9% surtax once one employer's wages pass $200,000, whatever your filing status.

Frequently asked questions

What is the take-home pay on $65,000 a year?

About $53,887 after federal tax alone, or $2,072.56 of a $2,500 biweekly cheque. A state income tax would take a further chunk on top.

Why is Social Security missing from a big paycheck?

It stops at the $168,600 wage base. Earnings above that owe no more Social Security at all, though Medicare keeps running uncapped and the 0.9% surtax starts.

Will my real pay stub match this?

Rarely to the dollar. Pre-tax deductions, your actual W-4 and state tax all move it, and this assumes a plain W-4 with nothing but the standard deduction.