Take-home pay calculator by state
What you actually keep from self-employment income in 2026, after federal tax, self-employment tax and your state's income tax — and how that compares somewhere else.
US All 50 US states plus Washington DC
Updated August 1, 2026
Every state, ranked
State income tax on the profit entered above. Local taxes are not included — see the notes on individual states.
| State | Structure | State tax | Effective | You keep |
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Why state tax matters more than people expect
Federal tax is the same wherever you live in the US. State tax is not, and the spread is wide enough to change where it makes sense to live.
Nine states levy no income tax on wages at all: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. At the other end, California's top rate reaches 13.3% and Hawaii's 11%. On a six-figure freelance income the difference between the extremes runs to five figures a year.
No income tax does not mean no tax
States without an income tax raise money elsewhere — usually property and sales tax. Texas and New Hampshire have notably high property taxes; Washington and Tennessee lean on sales tax. If you own a home, a chunk of the "saving" comes straight back.
The saving is largest for renters with high incomes, and smallest for homeowners with modest incomes. It is worth running your actual numbers rather than assuming.
The local taxes this does not include
Several places levy income tax below the state level, and it can be substantial:
- New York City — roughly 3–4% on top of New York State
- Maryland — every county adds roughly 2.25–3.20%
- Ohio and Pennsylvania — many municipalities levy their own earned income tax, commonly 1–3%
- Indiana — county income taxes throughout the state
- Michigan, Kentucky, Oregon — various city and county taxes
Where a state carries one of these, the calculator flags it. But it does not add it, because the rate depends on exactly where you live.
What else is left out
- Credits — child tax credit, education credits, state-specific credits
- Itemised deductions — this assumes the standard deduction everywhere
- Retirement contributions, which can shelter a large share of profit
- Self-employed health insurance, deductible above the line
- Other household income, which changes your bracket
- Filing status — this models a single filer
Nearly all of those reduce your real bill, so treat this as an upper bound rather than a quote.
Moving mid-year is more complicated than this
If you move during the year you will generally file part-year returns in both states, splitting income by when you earned it — not by when you were paid. Some states are also aggressive about continuing to treat you as a resident after you leave.
Our guide on moving states as a freelancer covers what actually determines which state taxes you.
Where these figures come from
Rates, brackets, standard deductions and personal exemptions are from the Tax Foundation, data as of 1 January 2026. Deliberately a single authoritative source rather than a blend — while building this, three popular aggregator tables disagreed with each other and with Tax Foundation on Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Iowa and Utah. Averaging them would have produced a table that was wrong in a different way for every state.
State legislatures change rates frequently, sometimes mid-year. Check your state's revenue department before relying on this for anything consequential.