Withholding, not income tax
2026 Payroll Tax Calculator
Payroll tax is deducted from wages under a separate system from income tax, and it does not use the bracket schedule at all. Two flat rates apply: 6.2% for Social Security up to an annual wage ceiling, and 1.45% for Medicare with no ceiling whatsoever. A third layer, an additional 0.9%, begins above a threshold that depends on filing status.
Enter annual wages and a filing status. The tool reports each layer separately and shows the exact wage at which the Social Security portion stops growing, a number most pay stubs never display.
Calculator
Official 2026 figures used here
| Annual wages | Social Security 6.2% | Medicare 1.45% | Additional 0.9% | Total employee tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $3,100 | $725 | $0 | $3,825 |
| $100,000 | $6,200 | $1,450 | $0 | $7,650 |
| $184,500 | $11,439 | $2,675 | $0 | $14,114 |
| $250,000 | $11,439 | $3,625 | $450 | $15,514 |
| $400,000 | $11,439 | $5,800 | $1,800 | $19,039 |
How to read the result
The Social Security portion is capped, and the cap is the entire point of this calculator. For 2026 the wage base is $184,500, so 6.2% applies to the first $184,500 of wages and nothing above it. Someone earning $400,000 pays the same $11,439 into Social Security as someone earning exactly $184,500; every additional dollar is Medicare-only.
Medicare has no cap, which is why the Medicare column keeps climbing in the table above while the Social Security column freezes. That asymmetry explains a counterintuitive fact about high earners: their effective payroll rate falls as income rises, because the capped portion becomes a smaller share of a larger paycheck.
The additional 0.9% is not a separate line on a pay stub. Employers withhold it once wages pass $200,000 in a calendar year regardless of filing status, but the amount actually owed depends on the return, where the threshold is $250,000 for a joint return and $200,000 for everyone else. A two-earner couple can therefore have too little withheld, because each employer applies the $200,000 trigger separately to its own payroll.
One structural detail is easy to miss: the employer pays a matching amount that never appears on the employee's pay stub. The 6.2% and 1.45% rates apply twice, once withheld and once paid by the employer, and the additional 0.9% has no employer match at all. Self-employed workers pay both halves directly, which is why their combined rate looks roughly double an employee's.
Questions people ask about this figure
Is payroll tax the same as income tax?
No. Income tax is progressive and follows the seven-bracket schedule after deductions. Payroll tax is two flat rates with a wage ceiling on one of them, computed on wages before most deductions.
Why did my Social Security withholding stop increasing?
Wages above the annual wage base are not subject to the 6.2% Social Security rate. For 2026 that ceiling is $184,500, so withholding stops once year-to-date wages reach it.
Does a 401(k) contribution reduce payroll tax?
Traditional deferrals generally reduce Social Security and Medicare wages as well as income tax withholding. Roth deferrals reduce neither, because the money is taxed before it enters the plan.
Related calculators
Every figure on this page appears in the official release listed below. The values were checked against those pages on 2026-11-14. Where a release states a threshold but does not publish a rate, this site reports the threshold and does not estimate the missing value.
- SSA: Contribution and benefit base — SSA automatic determination table
- IRS: Additional Medicare tax — Topic no. 560