Calculate gross-to-net payroll with federal/state withholding, FICA, pre-tax deductions, and employer cost breakdowns.
Enter a gross pay amount, its pay period, a filing status, and a state, and the Payroll Calculator returns a full gross-to-net statement: federal income tax withheld, the employee's Social Security and Medicare shares, state withholding, the effect of pre-tax deductions, and net take-home, then the employer's matching FICA and total pay-period cost. Federal withholding follows the IRS percentage method, so it is computed on annualized pay against the standard deduction, not by applying your tax bracket to a single check. The surprise most people hit: pre-tax deductions such as a 401(k) or HSA lower federal and state withholding, but Social Security and Medicare still hit your full gross.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Monthly gross pay: $1,200.00. Filing status: Single. State: Washington (no state income tax). W-4: standard, no extra withholding. Pre-tax deductions: none.
Expected output
Gross pay $1,200.00 | Social Security $74.40 | Medicare $17.40 | Federal income tax $0.00 | State income tax $0.00 | Total deductions $91.80 | Net pay $1,108.20 | Employer Social Security $74.40 | Employer Medicare $17.40 | Total employer cost $1,291.80
Annualized at $14,400, this income sits below the single standard deduction, so federal withholding is $0 under any recent table year; Social Security (6.2 percent) and Medicare (1.45 percent) are flat rates below the wage cap, and Washington has no state income tax, so every figure is exact. The employer pays an equal FICA match of $91.80, making total cost $1,200 plus the match.
Withholding starts from your W-4 filing status and its standard deduction, annualizes the period's pay, applies the federal income tax brackets, and divides the annual tax back into a per-period figure. Extra withholding, dependents, and W-4 deduction entries shift the amount, and supplemental pay such as bonuses is withheld at a flat rate rather than through the tables. The withheld amount is an estimate of liability, not the tax itself.
Social Security is 6.2 percent of gross for employee and employer, up to the annual wage base, where the employee share stops for the year; Medicare is 1.45 percent with no cap, plus 0.9 percent on employee earnings over $200,000 for single filers. The employer matches both shares, so the pay period costs you more than the net check: gross plus the match, before state unemployment taxes and benefits.
Usually the gap is benefits, not math. Health, dental, and life insurance premiums, wage garnishments, and uniform or parking deductions come out of pay alongside taxes, and most payroll calculators do not model them. The calculation runs in your browser with nothing uploaded, so the mismatch is almost always a pay line the tool does not know about. Compare the itemized stub lines, not the totals.
No. The calculator estimates withholding; a refund is what is left after your actual filing, when credits and deductions set the real liability. What net pay can show is direction: if withholding looks high month after month, a refund is likely; if it looks low, expect a bill. Treat the result as a check on withholding, not a forecast.
The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.
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