About StartEarnings

What this site is for

Most people meet their payroll numbers once a fortnight, on a stub that shows the result and none of the reasoning. StartEarnings exists to show the reasoning: every deduction in the order it is applied, for all fifty states and the District of Columbia, at the rates in force for the 2026 tax year.

There are fifty-one separate calculators here rather than one with a state dropdown, because the states genuinely differ. Pennsylvania counts a 401(k) contribution as taxable compensation when most states do not. Ohio municipalities add elective deferrals back for local tax while leaving Section 125 health premiums out. Alabama lets you deduct federal tax paid. Utah runs a credit that phases out instead of a standard deduction. A single generic calculator gets those wrong, and the person reading it has no way to tell.

Where the numbers come from

Federal figures come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, IRS Notice 2025-67, IRS Publication 15-T for 2026 and the Social Security Administration's 2026 cost-of-living announcement. State figures come from each state's own revenue department or published withholding tables.

Every state carries a named source and a confidence label on our how we calculate page. Where a state had not published its 2026 figures when we built the page, we say so on the page instead of guessing. We would rather tell you a number is provisional than have you plan around a number we invented.

How the calculators run

The arithmetic happens in your browser. The salary, contribution rate and premium you type are never sent to us, stored, or logged, which is set out in full in our privacy policy. Nothing here needs an account and nothing here asks for one.

Corrections

Payroll rules change mid-year and published tables get reissued. If a figure on this site is wrong, we want to know, and a specific report beats a general one: tell us the page, the figure you saw and the source that disagrees. Write to us through our contact page and we will check it against the issuing authority and correct the page or explain why we read it differently.

What this is not

These are estimates for planning. They model withholding and annual liability on wage income. They do not model itemized deductions, credits beyond the standard deduction, income from more than one job, self-employment, equity compensation, or local taxes except where a state page says otherwise. Nothing here is tax advice, and for anything that affects a filing decision you want a qualified preparer who can see your whole position.