How much money will the U.S. government let you keep out of each of your regular paychecks in 2026?

2025 saw big changes to U.S. income taxes, mainly in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act making the income tax cuts that were originally passed in 2017 and set to expire at the end of 2025 permanent. Without those changes, nearly all Americans would have been in for an income tax shock in 2026.

If they hadn't been, the higher income tax rates that prevailed back in 2017 would have come back into full force. If you're like many Americans, chances are you wouldn't have noticed until you got your first paycheck in the new year. That would be when you would direct evidence of how much more ol' Uncle Sam is gouging you. Fortunately, that nasty situation was avoided and the changes to how much the U.S. government is taking out of every one of your paychecks are pretty small by comparison. Compared to 2025, the various withholding levels have been adjusted for inflation and that's about all.

But inflation adjustments may not be the only changes that affect the bottom line of your paycheck. If you changed the contribution percentage to your 401(k) or 403(b) retirement savings plans, both the amount that goes these plans and the amount of your federal withholding taxes will change. Likewise if you use changed your contributions for a tax-deferred flexible spending account for covering your dependent or health care expenses.

Your 2026 paycheck may also see a change to its top line. If you get a raise, for example, that will affect the bottom line of your paycheck. The question is how much.

Our 2026 paycheck tool can help you find out what your paycheck will look like before you even see your first paycheck of the year! If you're reading this article on a site that republishes our RSS news feed, please click through to our site to access a working version of the tool. Otherwise, you're more than welcome to enter whatever numbers you want to consider for what your paychecks might look like in 2026.

But if you really want to see something, after you run the numbers for 2026, please check out our paycheck tool using 2017's income tax rates with your 2026 income to get an indication of how different your paycheck could have been without the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

The tool's results convey how much money the IRS withholds for federal taxes from each of your paychecks in 2026. There are however a number of factors that will complicate your withholding tax results based upon how much you cumulatively earn during the year.

For example, once your cumulative income reaches $184,500 or higher, you will no longer have Social Security's payroll tax of your income deducted from your paycheck, which is 6.2% if you're an employee, but which doubles to 12.4% if you're self-employed (the self-employed pay both the employee and employer payroll taxes). Our tool is designed to provide withholding tax estimates for the majority of Americans who are employed by others. People making this amount of money don't really get a break however because they've already been pushed into a higher tax bracket - they are paying higher regular income tax rates than those paid by over half of all income-earning American households.

There's also the complication provided by the so-called "Additional Medicare Tax" that your employer is required to begin withholding from your paycheck if, and as soon as, your year-to-date income rises above the $200,000 mark. This surtax of 0.9% of gross income was imposed by the "Affordable Care Act" (a.k.a. "Obamacare") in 2010, which is still in effect. Since the money collected through this surtax does not directly support the Medicare program, unlike the real Medicare payroll taxes paid by you and your employer, it is really best thought of as an additional income tax. That additional income tax is not adjusted for inflation, which means that those who must pay it are subject to 1970s-style income tax bracket creep, even though the tax was sold on the claim that it would be limited to only very high income earners.

In the tool above, when the amount of your annual 401(k) or 403(b) retirement savings contributions exceed the annual limits set by law, we've limited the results our tool provides to be those consistent with their statutory limits, and will do so as if you specifically set the percentage contributions for these contributions with that in mind. Our tool does not consider whether you might take advantage of the "catch-up" provisions in the law that are available to individuals Age 50 or older. For example, individuals Age 50 to 59 can increase their annual contributions by $8,000 in 2026 (up from $7,500 in 2025). Meanwhile, individuals Age 60 to 63 can contribute up to an extra $11,250 beyond the standard maximum contribution to their tax-deferred retirement savings account.

Elsewhere on the Web

There are other salary and hourly paycheck calculators like this on the Internet, including the very well done tools available at PaycheckCity.com. PaycheckCity's State Salary Paycheck Calculators allow you to determine the amount of state income tax withholding that will be taken out of your paycheck in addition to what the federal government will take out. Payroll processing giant ADP also has a salary paycheck calculator that will give you good results. We still find the format of PaycheckCity's calculators to be more user friendly, but ADP's version has the benefit of having an all-in-one user interface.

If however you live in one of the states that have no taxes on earned income (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wyoming), our tool above will provide you with a very good estimate of your actual take-home pay after Uncle Sam has gotten his dirty ape paws all over it.

Previously on Political Calculations

We've been in the business of calculating people's paychecks (not including state income tax withholding) since 2005!

• Your 2005 Paycheck
• Your 2006 Paycheck
• Your 2007 Paycheck
• Your 2008 Paycheck
• Your 2009 Paycheck
• Your Paycheck in 2010
• Your Paycheck in 2011
• Your Paycheck in 2012
• Your Paycheck in 2013: Part 1 - the "same as 2012" version.
• Your Paycheck in 2013: Part 2 - the "over the fiscal cliff" version.
• Your Paycheck in 2013: Part 3 - the "post-fiscal cliff deal" version.
• Your Paycheck in 2014
• Your Paycheck in 2015
• Your Paycheck in 2016
• Your Paycheck in 2017
• Your Paycheck in 2018, Before the Tax Cuts Kick In
• Your Paycheck in 2018, After the Tax Cuts Kick In
• The Bottom Line for Your 2018 Paycheck After the Tax Cuts
• Your Paycheck in 2019
• Your Paycheck in 2020
• Your Paycheck in 2021
• Your Paycheck in 2022
• Your Paycheck in 2023
• Your Paycheck in 2024
• Your Paycheck in 2025
• Your Paycheck in 2026

Image Credit: Microsoft Copilot Designer. Prompt: "An editorial cartoon of a boss and Uncle Sam sitting at a table marked as 'PAYROLL'. The boss is setting out stacks of cash to pay employees and Uncle Sam is taking part of that money."