The Journey

Each layer is a stop your income makes on its way to your bank account: gross income first, then a deduction shield, then federal tax, then FICA, then your state, and finally what is actually left. Tap any layer to open the exact math behind that step, with your own numbers plugged in instead of a generic example. For example, a single filer earning $95,000 keeps about $71,718 after federal tax, FICA, and a 5% state estimate, because the standard deduction shields the first $16,100 before any bracket applies, and only the remaining $78,900 ever gets taxed.

Bracket Climb

Federal income tax is not one flat rate on your whole paycheck, it is a stack of brackets, and only the slice of income inside each bracket gets taxed at that bracket’s rate. The steps below are built on taxable income, after your deduction, not on gross income; drag the marker and the code adds your deduction back automatically to keep the gross income field in sync. The marginal rate is your last federal dollar’s rate, based on brackets alone; the combined effective tax rate folds in FICA and your state estimate too, spread across your whole paycheck. For example, on $95,000, marginal sits at 22% while the combined effective tax rate comes out closer to 24.5%, because payroll and state taxes apply to every dollar, not just the top slice.

Your Next $1,000

Not a yearly average: this recalculates the next $1,000 using the same tax model as the rest of your result, including any bracket it crosses along the way. For example, on $95,000, the next $1,000 leaves about $654 in your pocket, because that slice sits entirely inside the 22% federal bracket with no boundary to complicate it. The buttons below run the same math on a bigger swing, so a $5,000 raise or a $1,000 pay cut shows you what actually changes in take-home, not just in gross.

Paycheck DNA

Every $100 of your income, split by where it lands: federal tax, FICA, your state estimate, and what actually reaches you, using the same four colors as everywhere else on this page. For example, on $95,000, that split comes out to about $12.71 to federal tax, $7.65 to FICA, $4.15 to a 5% state estimate, and $75.49 that stays with you, which reads very differently from a single blended tax rate.

Same Income, Two Work Models

Both columns start from the identical gross income, so the only thing that changes between them is what each work model costs in tax. For example, on $95,000, a W-2 employee keeps about $4,343 more than a 1099 contractor with the same gross, because self-employment tax picks up the employer’s half of FICA that a payroll job would otherwise absorb quietly in the background.

Both columns use the same dollar amount entered above. The W-2 column treats it as gross wages; the 1099 column treats it as net self-employment income already after business expenses, since this calculator does not model business expenses separately. A real contractor with $95,000 in revenue and $20,000 in deductible expenses would run this comparison on $75,000, not $95,000, so treat this as a same-income comparison, not a full self-employment projection. The 1099 estimate includes self-employment tax and the deduction for one-half of that tax, but it does not calculate the Qualified Business Income deduction or every self-employment tax rule. It also assumes this self-employment income is your only earned income; it does not coordinate the Social Security wage base or Additional Medicare Tax threshold with wages from a separate job.

Federal Withholding Comparison

Compares federal income tax withholding only, not FICA or state, against the calculator’s estimated federal income tax for the full year on the gross income entered above. This assumes your withholding continues at its current pace through December; it is not a paycheck-by-paycheck or year-to-date forecast, so treat it as a projection, not a promise.

Calculation Ledger

The full math, in order, with your own numbers plugged in instead of a generic example: every federal bracket that applied, the exact FICA components, the state estimate, and the final total. Nothing above this line is hidden from the calculation below it.

Where This Estimate Stops

This calculator does not compute the Alternative Minimum Tax, preferential capital gains rates, or credits like the Child Tax Credit or EITC. It does not know your state’s specific deductions, only a flat rate you provide. Federal brackets and the standard deduction match the official 2026 figures published by the IRS in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. That is the intended scope, not an oversight: adding AMT, capital gains, and every credit means promising to keep all of it accurate every year, and a single calculator page cannot hold that line reliably. Every number here is still an estimate built on a simplified model. For anything you will file, talk to a CPA.