How our paycheck estimates work

Calculation sequence

Validate nonnegative numeric inputs and determine the number of pay periods.
Resolve fixed or percentage pre-tax deductions into the federal, Social Security, Medicare, state, employee-program, and local wage bases supported by official sources. Custom classifications require an explicit user confirmation.
Apply IRS Publication 15-T Worksheet 1A for federal income tax withholding, unless the employee selects the 2026 Form W-4 exemption checkbox.
Apply Social Security, Medicare, and Additional Medicare thresholds from IRS Publication 15.
Apply regular or supplemental wages using the verified method selected for that payment. The optional federal flat method is never used when its required wage-withholding history is not confirmed.
Allocate wages across confirmed work and residence states, run federal taxes once, and apply only directed reciprocity rules supported by the named employee certificate.
Apply each selected state’s official withholding method and supported employee or local deductions.
Round included line items to cents and confirm gross pay minus deductions equals estimated net pay.

State methods by region

Open a group to review the state-specific rules used by the published calculators. A forced-partial state method appears with its local omission named; an unavailable state method does not appear as a calculator.

A–D

Alabama applies its verified state formula but always omits Alabama local occupational taxes and remains partial. Alaska has no personal state income tax and includes the employee unemployment contribution. Arizona uses the Form A-4 percentage election. Arkansas applies AR4EC exemptions, dependents, and the official low-income tables when elected. California uses EDD Method B and State Plan SDI. Colorado applies DR 1098, optional DR 0004, FAMLI, and confirmed city OPT. Connecticut follows Circular CT and calculates Paid Leave separately. Delawareuses its annualized table, DE-W4, Paid Leave, and confirmed Wilmington withholding.

F–M

Florida has no individual state income tax. Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Louisiana use their current official pay-period or annualized methods and state certificates. Kentucky applies its state formula but always omits Kentucky local occupational taxes and remains partial. Maine uses its current official method and includes applicable PFML. Indiana uses WH-4 elections and the confirmed January 1 county. Maryland includes every resident county and Baltimore City rate. Massachusettsincludes applicable PFML. Michigan supports all 24 city income-tax jurisdictions. Minnesota includes the entered employee Paid Leave share. Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana apply their official formulas and certificate choices; Missouri also supports confirmed Kansas City and St. Louis earnings tax.

N–O

Nebraska applies Circular EN and supported W-4N special-withholding paths. Nevada has no individual state income tax. New Hampshire has no tax on reported W-2 wages and treats NH PFML as an optional entered premium. New Jersey includes employee UI, TDI, and FLI when applicable. New Mexico applies its current tables and the confirmed quarterly workers compensation assessment. New York uses Method II with NYC, Yonkers, PFL, and optional Disability Benefits. North Carolina and North Dakota use their current percentage methods. Ohio combines the state table with confirmed Finder records. Oklahoma uses OW-2 and OK-W-4. Oregon includes statewide programs and confirmed Eugene, Metro, or Multnomah County withholding.

P–S

Pennsylvania includes 3.07% state withholding, the employee unemployment contribution, every official PSD record, higher-of EIT rules, and work-location LST. Rhode Islanduses exact pay-period tables and TDI/TCI. South Carolinaapplies WH-1603F and SC W-4. South Dakota and Tennessee have no individual wage income-tax withholding. Texas has no individual state income tax.

U–W

Utah selects the Publication 14 schedule by paycheck date. Vermont uses exact pay-period tables and keeps the employee Child Care Contribution separate. Virginiauses its exact method and VA-4 exemptions. Washingtonhas no individual state income tax and includes Paid Leave and WA Cares when applicable. West Virginia applies its state tables but always omits West Virginia municipal service fees and remains partial. Wisconsin uses the W-166 alternate percentage method. Wyoming has no individual state income tax and keeps unemployment insurance as an employer-financed program.

Verified year and unavailable jurisdictions

WageFrame calculates paycheck dates only in tax year 2026. It does not carry 2026 rules into 2027. Washington, D.C. remains unavailable because OTR has not published a verified 2026 employee withholding calculation method; no D.C. numeric estimate or calculator route is published.

What “estimate” means

Withholding depends on employer payroll settings, prior wages, benefit elections, and facts this release does not collect. WageFrame therefore explains the rules it applies without claiming to reproduce a payroll system or tax return. It does not model the special Form W-4 adjustment for nonresident aliens.

Rounding and official example discrepancies

Calculations use decimal arithmetic rather than binary floating-point arithmetic. Published amounts are rounded to cents using half-up rounding after the relevant official method is applied. Required blank values and any negative, nonnumeric, or fractional allowance input produce an associated field error instead of an estimate. Optional blank adjustment fields are treated as zero. Individual tax deductions are never negative. If entered after-tax deductions exceed gross pay, the signed net amount shows the arithmetic shortfall so gross pay minus included deductions still equals net pay.

The 2026 New York publications contain three one-cent conflicts between a printed example total and their own table arithmetic. WageFrame follows the published table columns and one consistent half-up rule, producing $258.50 instead of $258.51 for the NYS single semimonthly example, $248.12 instead of $248.11 for the married example, and $599.09 instead of $599.08 for the Yonkers resident monthly example. These differences are documented and regression-tested rather than hidden in hard-coded exceptions.

A current Delaware Paid Leave employer guide prints $183,600 as the next-year wage limit, while the program separately says the annual cap is the same maximum used for Social Security taxes. WageFrame therefore uses the final 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500 and records the printed guide discrepancy instead of silently preserving the preliminary amount.

The current New Mexico FYI-104 percentage tables took effect January 1, 2025 and remain the tables linked by the Department in 2026. Its narrative $1,000 weekly Married example still cites older $742 and $1,050 thresholds, while the current weekly table uses $769 and $1,077. WageFrame follows the current printed table and regression-tests the $22.70 table result before additional withholding rather than copying the stale narrative result.

Rhode Island's percentage method uses period-specific allowance amounts and rounded table bases. WageFrame therefore selects the exact weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly table rather than annualizing and dividing a result back down, which can otherwise introduce a one-cent difference. RI W-4 allowances are removed entirely when the paycheck exceeds the official period threshold corresponding to $290,800 annually.

Privacy boundary

The calculator is a browser-side pure function. Pay, filing status, W-4 entries, and location selections are not written to a URL, browser storage, or a WageFrame server. Scenario comparison and supporting-tool handoff values exist only in page memory and clear on refresh; no stored paycheck history exists.

Validation

Tax rules are checked against official examples and every implemented tax-bracket boundary. Changes are versioned, reviewed, tested, and listed in the public changelog before release.