Paycheck Calculator

Use our Free Paycheck Calculator spreadsheet to estimate the effect of deductions, withholdings, federal tax, and allowances on your net take-home pay. Unlike most online paycheck calculators, using our spreadsheet will allow you to save your results, see how the calculations are done, and even customize it.

The calculator and other resources on this page can help you learn more about W-4 Allowances and how they affect your take-home pay. Waiting until the spring for your tax return is not the only option!

Important Notice: Substantial changes were made to how Employee Tax Withholdings work in 2020. The spreadsheet now contains separate worksheets based on whether you are using the OLD or NEW W-4 forms. Use the IRS Tax Withholding Assistant to verify results. The older worksheets are now hidden by default.

Paycheck Calculator for Excel

"No installation, no macros - just a simple spreadsheet" - by Jon Wittwer

Download

⤓ Excel (.xlsx)

For: Excel 2007 or later

License: Private Use (not for distribution or resale)

Description

Estimate your Net Take Home Pay using this Paycheck Calculator for Excel. Answer questions such as:

• How do the number of allowances affect the federal tax withholdings?
• How much will my take-home pay change if I contribute more to my 401(k)?

Update 1/23/2024: Updated tax tables for 2024. The older W-4 worksheets are no longer included. Would recommend having employees use the new W-4 form.

Update 9/30/2020: Updated the tax tables based on the new Publication 15-T (page 6).

Update 2/13/2020: Added worksheets for using the NEW W-4 form. The formulas are based on the way the IRS Tax Withholding Assistant works, but consider this a BETA version for now, and get a qualified tax professional to check the results carefully!

Some Notes About the New W-4 Form

Here are some notes about the differences with the new W-4 form (as of 2020) that I learned or noticed as I created the new version of the calculator.

• The New W-4 form is more complicated (when working muliple jobs), but designed to help you estimate your tax withholding more accurately.
• The New W-4 form eliminated the concept of "Allowances" but added in the option to specify dollar amounts for other income, additional deductions, dependents, and extra withholding.
• The amount from Step 3 (Dependents) is subtracted after the federal tax withholding is calculated, unlike deductions which are subtracted from the gross wage prior to the calculation.
• If Box 2(c) is checked, then the federal tax is calculated using the "HIGHER" withholding tables, which are designed to withhold tax based on the assumption that the second job is earning similar pay.
• Read the instructions on the W-4 form carefully. Most of what you need to know is on there.

Notes About the Paycheck Calculator

• Use the worksheet corresponding to the correct W-4 form (old = 2019 or older).
• Enter your Gross Pay for monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly pay periods.
• Federal taxes are calculated using tables from IRS Publication 15.
• FICA Social Security Tax and Medicare are calculated based on the percentage of your Gross Pay.
• State and Local taxes are estimated by multiplying the federal taxable gross by a percentage that you input.
• Read the cell comments for more information about an input or calculation.

How Do W-4 Allowances Affect Take-Home Pay?

Answer: The more allowances you claim, the less tax is withheld. If you want to give yourself a raise by reducing the amount of taxes withheld, simply claim as many allowances as you legally can. You can claim an allowance for yourself, your spouse if he/she isn't working, and your dependents. Remember that if you don't pay enough in withholding throughout the year, you could be stuck with a big tax payment bill when you file your taxes.

Have you recently gotten married? Have you had a couple of kids since you last modified your W4? Your employer might have a system for updating your W4, but if not, simply fill out a new W-4 Form (from www.irs.gov) and submit it to your employer with a request that they apply the change as soon as possible. This won't affect past paychecks, and maybe not your next paycheck, but you could start seeing the difference after that.

You don't have to wait for a paycheck stub to find out how much your take-home pay will change. After you've completed the W-4 form, your employer uses a table system provided by the government to see how much they need to pay you. The table can be found in the Employer's Tax Guide, published by the IRS (see below). This is the table we update each year within the Paycheck Calculator.

Why give the government an interest-free loan? Did you realize that if you overpay your taxes throughout the year, you're just letting the government hold your money, interest-free? If you typically overpay your taxes, resulting in a "return" after you file your taxes, maybe it's time to adjust your W-4.

Give yourself a raise. If your withholdings are typically too high, then adjusting your W-4 could lead to an immediate monthly bump up in your take-home pay. What could you do with an extra $100 or $200 per month? You can certainly do better than 0% interest from the government. Apply it to your mortgage for a 5%-6% "return", pay off a credit card balance for a 10%-20% "return", build up your emergency fund, or apply it to one of your many other savings goals.

Of course, if you reduce your tax withholdings, then you will have a lower tax return, or you may actually end up with a tax payment. But, the point is to stop letting the government hold onto your money when you could be doing something better with it.

Paycheck Calculation References