Free resources · 2026

Know what leaves
your paycheck.

Employee withholding and employer taxes are different amounts. Start with the wage bases you know, keep missing facts visible, and take location questions to the right official source.

Check paycheck arithmetic ↓Find location resources ↓

Employee taxes

Withheld from employee pay: federal income tax, employee Social Security and Medicare, and applicable state, local or employee programs.

Employer taxes

The employer’s own cost. Employer FICA, FUTA, state unemployment and other applicable employer programs do not become employee deductions here.

Taxable wages

Use a separate wage base for each tax. Benefit and retirement deductions do not all have the same treatment. This page does not decide taxability from a label.

Home + actual work + assigned office

Take the address question
to the right agency.

Select the states to build a review checklist. Enter exact street addresses directly at the official agency’s address tool when available. This page asks for no street address and does not perform an address-tax lookup.

Start with precise facts.

A ZIP code, postal city, Census location or map pin is not a tax-jurisdiction determination. Review effective dates, local boundaries, resident/nonresident rules, certificates and employer facts. Working remotely does not by itself settle which state may require withholding.

Browse the existing 50-state + DC resource directory → IRS state-government directory ↗

One ordinary employee check · 2026 only

A paycheck worksheet.
Two sides of the tax.

Amounts stay in this page’s memory. They are not saved to your account, sent to a tax provider, or placed in analytics by this tool. Do not enter a name, address, SSN, account number or employee file.

Open the free worksheet.

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Local paycheck worksheet

1. Keep cash separate from the wage record.

Cash gross earnings for this check ($)Already-paid noncash taxable benefit ($; optional context)Nontaxable cash reimbursement ($)Employee benefit / retirement / other deductions ($)

Cash gross excludes a benefit already paid by a vendor. Do not put its matching noncash reversal in the deduction field. Enter employee benefit and retirement deductions once; the FICA wage bases below must already reflect their established treatment.

2. Ordinary employee FICA.

Use taxable wages and YTD amounts from the same employer before this check. This scope excludes special collection/exemption cases, successor-employer adjustments and gross-ups. Confirm those separately.

I confirmed ordinary employee FICA applies in 2026, and I know these separate wage bases.

Current Social Security taxable wages ($)Prior YTD Social Security wages ($)Current Medicare taxable wages ($)Prior YTD Medicare wages ($)

2026: Social Security 6.2% each, up to a $184,500 wage base; Medicare 1.45% each, without that cap. Employer withholding adds 0.9% above $200,000 of employer-paid Medicare wages. That withholding threshold is not your filing-status tax-liability threshold. There is no employer Additional Medicare share.

3. Known employee withholding amounts.

Enter actual payroll-supplied amounts for this check. These are amounts, not tax rates. Leave an unknown blank; enter zero only when confirmed.

Federal income tax withheld ($)State income tax withheld ($)Local income tax withheld ($)Other employee payroll programs ($)

This worksheet does not calculate FIT or state/local withholding from elections or an address. Use the official IRS withholding estimator ↗ or P.A.Y.’s existing scoped withholding comparison → when appropriate.

4. Separate employer taxes.

Supply verified current employer amounts. Assigned rates, taxable wage bases, exemptions, financing methods and FUTA credits require their own review. No typical rate is substituted.

Employer FUTA amount ($)Employer state unemployment amount ($)Other employer payroll programs ($)

FUTA is employer-only. State unemployment, disability and leave programs can have different employee and employer obligations. Unknown employer costs do not change the employee withholding inputs.

Source and scope

Use the number.
Keep its limits.

This is educational arithmetic, not a payroll approval, tax return, taxability determination or complete employer-cost quote. It does not call a licensed tax engine. Reading and official links work without an account or JavaScript.

IRS Publication 15 (2026) ↗ — FICA, Additional Medicare and employer FUTA distinctions.
IRS Social Security and Medicare rates ↗
PA DCED official home/work address finder ↗ — confirm geographic matches with local authorities.
Ohio Department of Taxation: The Finder ↗

Core sources reviewed November 2, 2026. The reused state certificate directory records its separate October 31 review and access limits. A review date is not an effective date or a guarantee of future rules.