The exact 2026 federal, payroll, and state-tax model behind the calculator — plus every simplification, stated plainly, and the full dataset to download.
Take-home pay is your gross wage minus three taxes:
Federal income tax and FICA are identical in every state; only the state piece changes your ranking.
Computed on the seven 2026 IRS brackets (10%–37%) from Revenue Procedure 2025-32, applied to gross income minus the federal standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly).
For each of the 50 states and DC, the calculator applies that state's 2026 income-tax schedule (flat or graduated) to a state taxable income of:
Where a state expresses its personal exemption as a tax credit rather than a deduction, that credit is subtracted from the computed state tax instead. Nine states levy no tax on wages and return zero: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. All state rates, brackets, standard deductions, and exemptions are from the Tax Foundation's 2026 dataset.
It does model the federal-income-tax deduction that Alabama (full), Missouri (a percentage of federal tax by income band, capped at $5,000 / $10,000), and Oregon (capped at $7,050 / $14,100 and phased out from $125,000–$145,000 single / $250,000–$290,000 joint) allow against state taxable income.
In short: it's a clean, comparable standard-deduction estimate on wage income — ideal for ranking states against each other, not a substitute for a prepared return.
The page's calculations are generated from a single reference model and unit-tested: the federal and FICA figures are checked by hand, and the on-page JavaScript is asserted to match the reference model to the dollar across a range of states, incomes, and filing statuses.
Public dataset: 2026 estimated annual take-home pay and all-in tax rate for all 50 states + DC, at $50k / $75k / $100k / $150k (single filer).
↓ Download CSV — free to cite with attribution to FriendlyCalc.