Disclaimer
PaycheckPlain calculators give estimates for information only. They are not tax, legal, accounting or payroll advice, and they are not a substitute for your employer's payroll records or a qualified professional.
Your actual withholding depends on your employer's payroll system, your Form W-4, benefits, timing and rounding, and on rules we may not model. Tax law and official figures change; we update our figures when official sources change and show the date of the last check on each page.
We make no warranty that results are complete or error-free and accept no liability for decisions made using them. For advice about your situation, speak to a qualified tax professional or use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator.
Why an estimate can differ from your pay stub
- Your W-4 or state form. We use what you enter. If your employer has an older W-4 on file, or a different state withholding form, the amounts will differ.
- Pre-tax deductions. Health, dental and vision premiums, HSA, FSA and 401(k) contributions lower taxable pay. If you leave them out, federal and state tax will look higher here than on your stub.
- Pay period and timing. A first or last paycheck can cover part of a period, and a bonus or overtime paid in a different period changes that check.
- Year-to-date limits. Social Security stops at the yearly wage base, and some state programs stop at their own caps, so later paychecks in the year can be larger.
- Local taxes and employer rules. City, county and school district taxes, and how an employer rounds or applies a table, can move a line by a few dollars.
The pay stub checker compares your stub with the rules line by line and gives the likely reason for any line that doesn't match.
What the calculators assume
Federal income tax follows the percentage method in IRS Publication 15-T for a 2020-or-later Form W-4. Social Security and Medicare follow IRS Publication 15. State income tax follows each state's own published withholding method, and each state page lists the documents it uses. Where a state lets employers choose between methods, or where a rule depends on facts we don't ask about, the page says which option we use.
Tax years and updates
Figures are for the tax year shown on each page. When the IRS, the Social Security Administration or a state publishes new figures, we update the calculators and list the change on payroll tax updates. Confirmed errors are listed with dates on the corrections page.
Links, ads and partners
Pages link to official sources and, sometimes, to other sites. We don't control those sites and aren't responsible for their content. The site may show ads, and may later include partner links, which are explained in the affiliate disclosure. Neither changes how any figure is calculated.