California Income Tax Calculator

At a glance

Everything below is for tax year 2026 and a single filer unless stated otherwise. Rates, brackets and deductions come from the Tax Foundation tables in force on January 1, 2026, as amended by state laws enacted through June 2026; federal amounts come from IRSRevenue Procedure 2025-32.

Verified: October 6, 2026. How we calculate · A figure looks wrong? Report it

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Paycheck examples

Four salaries, all computed by this site's own engine: single filer, paid every two weeks, no 401(k) deferral, no health premiums and no local tax. “Take-home” is what lands in the account each payday after every withholding below.

Payroll taxes on a California paycheck

A $75,000 salary paid every two weeks, single filer, no 401(k) deferral, no health premiums and no local tax. Each line below comes off the gross before the money lands; the last column is what that line costs out of every dollar earned.

Payroll taxes come in two halves. The table above is the employee half — what is withheld from you. The employer half is paid on top of your salary and never shows up on a pay stub: a matching share of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment insurance (FUTA) and California's own unemployment insurance. It changes what you cost to employ, not what you take home, and this calculator does not model it. Working for yourself means carrying both halves — the 1099 calculator prices that in.

Withholding forms and payroll rules in California

What decides each line above: the certificate you file, the deductions it produces, and any local tax stacked on top.

• New hires must complete both the federal Form W-4 and the state DE 4, and without a signed DE 4 the employer must withhold California tax as if the employee were single with zero allowances.
• State Disability Insurance is a mandatory employee-funded deduction, and Paid Family Leave is part of the same SDI program, so a single deduction line on the pay stub funds both benefits.
• Effective January 1, 2024, SDI applies to all wages rather than a capped amount, and employees cannot opt out unless the employer operates an EDD-approved voluntary plan.
• Unemployment Insurance and the Employment Training Tax are employer-paid, while SDI and personal income tax are withheld from the worker, so only the latter two appear as employee deductions.

Source: California Franchise Tax Board, last verified October 27, 2026. A figure looks wrong? Report it

Hourly pay in California

Hourly wages are annualised the way the hourly-to-salary converter does it: 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, or 2,080 hours a year. The take-home column runs through the same engine as every other table on this page.

An extra dollar an hour is worth $2,080 of gross pay a year. At $35 an hour the total effective tax rate is 21.3%, which leaves $27.54 of every hour worked in the account.

Take-home by pay frequency

The same $100,000 salary, paid the four ways the calculator supports, under the assumptions above. Moving the payday changes the size of each deposit, never the yearly totals.

More scenarios at $100,000

Two setups readers ask about most, beside the single-filer baseline above: filing jointly, and deferring 6% of pay into a 401(k). Both stay biweekly, with no premiums and no local tax.

A 401(k) lowers the wages federal and California income tax are figured on, but Social Security and Medicare stay charged on the full salary — and the deferral itself still leaves every paycheck, so take-home drops by the deferral minus the tax it saved.

Real-world worker profiles in California

How different career stages and family setups fare under California's tax rules:

Brackets and deductions

California applies these rates to state-taxable income for single filers. Married couples filing jointly use the same rates against the joint thresholds in the source tables. The California standard deduction of $5,540 (single) or $11,080 (married) comes off first.

What we do not model

For California: An additional 1% tax applies to taxable income above $1,000,000 (not modelled). The figures above exclude local and municipal income taxes, tax credits, dependent exemptions and credits, itemized deductions, additions for age or blindness, income-specific exemptions such as tips and overtime, phase-outs, alternative minimum tax, state disability insurance, and the Form W-4 details that change real withholding. They are an estimate, not tax advice — see the full disclaimer for what the model does and does not cover. The method shows how each figure above is calculated.

Common questions

Want to run the numbers yourself? Open the calculator with California selected, put any second state next to it, or browse income tax in all 50 states — including its rank on a $100,000 salary, cheapest first.