Income Tax Estimator
Estimate 2025 US federal income tax, payroll taxes and take-home pay from your salary. See which brackets your income falls into and what lands in each paycheck.
Estimate only, not tax advice. Uses 2025 federal figures for wage income. It leaves out tax credits (child tax credit, EITC and others), other income, the new 2025 deductions for tips, overtime and seniors, and state-specific rules. Check a tax professional or the IRS for your actual return.
| Period | Gross | Federal | FICA | State | Pre-tax | Take-home |
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How it’s calculated
Taxable income is your wages minus pre-tax 401(k) and HSA contributions, minus the larger of the standard deduction or your itemized total. For 2025 the standard deduction is $15,750 (single or married filing separately), $31,500 (married filing jointly) and $23,625 (head of household), the amounts set by the July 2025 tax law that replaced the earlier $15,000 / $30,000 / $22,500.
Federal income tax applies each bracket’s rate only to the slice of income inside it (IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-40). Your marginal rate is the rate on your last dollar; your effective rate is total federal income tax divided by gross wages.
FICA is 6.2% Social Security on wages up to $176,100 plus 1.45% Medicare on all wages, with an extra 0.9% Medicare above $200,000 (single and head of household), $250,000 (joint) or $125,000 (separate). 401(k) deferrals still pay FICA; HSA contributions made through payroll don’t.
What it leaves out
Credits such as the child tax credit and earned income credit, self-employment tax, investment income, the 2025–2028 deductions for tips, overtime, car-loan interest and people 65 or older, the extra standard deduction for age or blindness, and state rules beyond a single flat rate applied to wages after pre-tax deductions. For married couples filing jointly, enter combined wages; the Social Security cap is applied as if one person earned it all, which overstates FICA when both spouses work.
Questions
What are the 2025 federal tax brackets?
For single filers: 10% up to $11,925, 12% to $48,475, 22% to $103,350, 24% to $197,300, 32% to $250,525, 35% to $626,350 and 37% above. Joint filers’ thresholds are roughly double: $23,850, $96,950, $206,700, $394,600, $501,050 and $751,600.
Does moving into a higher bracket reduce my take-home pay?
No. Only the income above the bracket threshold is taxed at the higher rate, so a raise always increases take-home pay. The bracket panel shows exactly how much of your income sits in each band.
What’s the difference between marginal and effective tax rate?
The marginal rate applies to your next dollar of income and is what matters for decisions like a 401(k) contribution: at a 22% marginal rate, each $1,000 contributed saves about $220 of federal tax. The effective rate is your total federal income tax as a share of gross pay and is always lower.
How much is $85,000 a year after taxes?
For a single filer contributing $5,000 to a 401(k) with no state income tax, about $64,450 a year, or roughly $2,479 every two weeks. That is after about $9,050 of federal income tax and $6,500 of Social Security and Medicare.
Will this match my paycheck exactly?
Not exactly. Employers withhold using the W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T tables, which approximate your annual tax. Your actual tax is settled when you file. Health premiums and other payroll deductions also change the check.