Income Tax Calculator
Estimate 2026 U.S. federal income, Social Security, and Medicare tax on W-2 wages, plus state tax for Texas, Illinois, and New York only — other states not yet supported.
How It's Calculated
Formula
\text{Taxable Income} = \max(0, \text{Wages} - \text{Deduction})\\ \text{Tax} = \sum_{\text{brackets}} \text{rate}_i \times \text{amount in bracket}_iThis calculator estimates your 2026 U.S. federal tax liability — plus state income tax where supported — on W-2 wage income only. It does not model dividends, capital gains, rental income, self-employment income, pensions, Social Security benefits, tax-exempt income, or any combination of income types. Federal taxable income is your annual wages minus the federal standard deduction for your filing status (floored at $0) — standard deduction only, with no itemized deductions, age/blind additional deduction, Qualified Business Income deduction, Alternative Minimum Tax, or credits such as the Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit. Federal and state income tax are both computed by walking that jurisdiction's own marginal tax brackets: each dollar is taxed at the rate for the bracket it falls into, not your whole income at one flat rate. On top of income tax, this calculator adds Social Security tax (6.2% up to the annual wage base), Medicare tax (1.45% on all wages), and the Additional Medicare Tax (an extra 0.9% above a filing-status-specific threshold). State income tax is currently supported for Texas (which has no wage income tax at all), Illinois (a flat 4.95% rate with a personal exemption), and New York (a graduated bracket schedule, state tax only — New York City, Yonkers, and other local taxes are excluded). Every other state, including California, shows an explicit "not yet supported" result rather than a fabricated number. This is your ANNUAL TAX LIABILITY, not what an employer withholds from a paycheck — those are related but different calculations. This is an estimate for general planning purposes, not tax advice.
Worked Examples
Single filer, $60,000 in W-2 wages, Illinois
- Federal: standard deduction $16,100.00 → federal taxable income $43,900.00 → federal income tax $5,020.00 (12% marginal)
- FICA: Social Security $3,720.00 + Medicare $870.00 + Additional Medicare $0.00 = $4,590.00
- Total federal + FICA = $5,020.00 + $4,590.00 = $9,610.00
- Illinois: personal exemption $2,925.00 (below the $250,000 phase-out) → Illinois taxable income $57,075.00 → Illinois tax at the flat 4.95% rate = $2,825.21
- Total estimated taxes = $9,610.00 + $2,825.21 = $12,435.21; estimated post-tax income = $60,000 − $12,435.21 = $47,564.79
Single filer, $60,000 in W-2 wages, New York (state only — NYC/Yonkers excluded)
- Federal + FICA total (same as above): $9,610.00
- New York: standard deduction $8,000.00 → New York taxable income $52,000.00
- Bracket walk: 3.90% on $8,500 = $331.50; 4.40% on $3,200 = $140.80; 5.15% on $2,200 = $113.30; 5.40% on $38,100 = $2,057.40
- New York state tax = $331.50 + $140.80 + $113.30 + $2,057.40 = $2,643.00
- Total estimated taxes = $9,610.00 + $2,643.00 = $12,253.00 — this does NOT include NYC or Yonkers local tax, which would be additional for residents of those jurisdictions
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states does this calculator support?
Texas, Illinois, and New York for the 2026 tax year. Texas has no individual wage income tax at all, so its result is a real, confident $0.00 — not the same thing as "not supported." California is listed in the selector but currently returns an explicit "not yet supported" message rather than a number, because this project could not verify genuine 2026 California tax figures from an authoritative source at the time this calculator was built. Every other U.S. state is not yet modeled.
Why does selecting an unsupported state not just show $0 for state tax?
Showing $0 for a state whose tax this calculator hasn't actually modeled would be a false, misleading answer — indistinguishable from a state that genuinely has no income tax (like Texas). Instead, an unsupported state shows an explicit note and leaves the state-dependent totals unavailable, so you're never shown a number that looks confident but isn't.
Does the New York result include New York City tax?
No. This calculator computes New York STATE tax only. New York City and Yonkers each levy their own separate, substantial local income tax on top of state tax — if you live in one of those jurisdictions, your actual total state-plus-local tax burden is higher than this calculator's New York result.
Does this include state or local income tax for every state?
No — outside the three supported states above, no state or local income tax is modeled at all. Your actual total tax bill will be higher than this calculator's result if your state or locality has an income tax this calculator doesn't yet support.
What's the difference between my marginal rate and my effective rate?
Your marginal rate is the tax rate applied to your last dollar of taxable income — the rate for the highest bracket you reach. Your effective rate (shown here as "Effective Federal + FICA + State Rate") is your total federal, FICA, and (where supported) state tax combined, divided by your gross wages. Your effective rate is always lower than your marginal rate whenever you have income taxed in more than one bracket.
Is this the same as what my employer withholds from my paycheck?
No. This calculator estimates your full-year tax liability — what you'd actually owe for the year on this income, for both federal and (where supported) state tax. Paycheck withholding is a separate, employer-side estimate spread across each pay period, using its own withholding tables that can differ meaningfully from the annual liability tables this calculator uses. The two are related but not interchangeable, and this calculator does not model withholding for either federal or state tax.
Why does Illinois use a "personal exemption" instead of a standard deduction?
Illinois's tax law doesn't have a standard deduction the way federal and New York tax law do — instead, it subtracts a flat personal exemption amount ($2,925 for 2026) per exemption, which disappears entirely once your income exceeds $250,000 (or $500,000 filing jointly). This calculator models Illinois's actual mechanism rather than approximating it with a standard-deduction shape that doesn't match Illinois law.