After-tax income calculator

Your after-tax income is gross pay minus every tax — the money that is yours. Take-home pay is smaller, because it also nets out what you route into savings. This tool shows both, and never pretends the second number is the first.

After-tax income is not take-home pay

These two numbers get used as if they were the same. They aren't. After-tax income is your gross pay minus federal income tax, payroll tax, and state income tax. Take-home pay is that number minus the money you send to a pre-tax 401(k) or HSA before it ever reaches your paycheck.

The difference is not a tax. A pre-tax 401(k) dollar is still yours — it sits in your retirement account instead of your checking account. Most paycheck calculators subtract it, print the smaller number, and label the page "after-tax income." That understates what you keep by exactly your contribution. When your pre-tax contribution is $0, the two numbers are identical. Route money into a 401(k) and they split apart.

How the math works

The calculator applies the three taxes in the order the IRS and payroll do, then subtracts them from gross.

Federal income tax runs on the 2024 brackets against gross − pre-tax − standard deduction. Pre-tax contributions and the standard deduction both lower it. FICA is 6.2% Social Security on wages up to the $168,600 wage base plus 1.45% Medicare on everything, and traditional 401(k) money does not reduce it. State income tax here is a single flat rate you supply, applied to gross − pre-tax — a stand-in, not a 50-state engine.

Worked example

Take a single filer earning the U.S. median individual income for full-time workers, $59,540, living in one of the nine states with no broad income tax, contributing nothing pre-tax.

The 2024 standard deduction of $14,600 leaves $44,940 of taxable income. Federal income tax on that is $5,160.80 — 10% on the first $11,600 and 12% on the rest. FICA takes 6.2% plus 1.45% of the full salary, or $4,554.81. Total tax: $9,715.61. After-tax income lands at $49,824.39, and because nothing went into a 401(k), take-home pay is the same figure.

Now have the same worker put the 2024 limit of $23,000 into a traditional 401(k). Taxable income drops to $21,940, cutting federal tax. After-tax income rises — the tax bill fell and none of the contribution was lost — but take-home pay falls by more than the tax saving, because $23,000 left the paycheck for the retirement account. Same person, two very different numbers depending on which one you asked for.

When this calculator is wrong

This is a clean federal-plus-FICA model with a flat state rate. It gets several things deliberately, and one thing structurally, less than exact.

• The state rate is a single flat number, and states are not flat. Real state income tax is bracketed, and the spread across states is enormous — from 0% in nine states to a top rate of 13.3% in California. There is no national after-tax income; enter your own state's effective rate to get close.
• It assumes the standard deduction. Fewer than 12% of filers itemize after the 2017 law nearly doubled the standard deduction, so this is right for most people — but if you itemize past $14,600 single or $29,200 married, your federal tax is lower than shown.
• Above $168,600, your marginal payroll tax falls, and the calculator's average rate hides it. Social Security stops at the wage base. On the next dollar earned below it, FICA is 6.2% + 1.45% = 7.65%; above it, only the 1.45% Medicare remains. So crossing the cap can raise your after-tax share of the next dollar even as your income-tax bracket climbs. A high earner past $200,000 also picks up the extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax, which pushes the other way.
• It models pre-tax retirement, not health premiums or post-tax deductions. Employer health premiums, disability insurance, and post-tax items also come out of a real paycheck. Those lower take-home pay further, but like the 401(k), they are not taxes and don't change your after-tax income.

What to do with the result

Decide which number your question actually needs. For a budget — what you can spend and save each month — take-home pay is the honest denominator, because the 401(k) money genuinely isn't available to spend. For comparing job offers, tax burden, or the value of a pre-tax contribution, after-tax income is the right number, because it counts the retirement dollars as the assets they are. If a paycheck calculator only gives you one figure and calls it "after-tax," check whether it quietly subtracted your own savings first.

Common questions

What is the difference between after-tax income and take-home pay?

After-tax income is gross pay minus taxes. Take-home pay is after-tax income minus the money you divert into a pre-tax 401(k) or HSA and any benefit premiums. The gap is not tax — it's your own money going somewhere other than your checking account.

Does a 401(k) contribution lower my after-tax income?

No — it raises it. A traditional 401(k) contribution cuts your federal (and usually state) income tax, so gross-minus-tax goes up. What it lowers is take-home pay, because the contribution leaves the paycheck. The dollars aren't gone; they're in the account.

Why does my tax rate seem to drop when my income goes up?

Social Security's 6.2% only applies to the first $168,600 of wages in 2024. Once your income clears that wage base, the next dollar carries just 1.45% Medicare instead of the full 7.65%, so your marginal payroll rate falls even as your income-tax bracket rises.

Does this calculator handle state taxes?

Only as a flat rate you type in. State income tax is bracketed and ranges from 0% in nine states to 13.3% at the top in California, so a single national figure would be fiction. Enter your state's effective rate and treat the result as an estimate.

Is FICA the same as income tax?

No. FICA is payroll tax — 6.2% Social Security up to the wage base and 1.45% Medicare — funding those two programs. It's separate from federal income tax, has no standard deduction, and a traditional 401(k) doesn't reduce it.