How to Calculate Your Salary After Taxes (Step by Step)

Working out your salary after taxes by hand isn’t hard once you know the order of operations. The trick is that different taxes are calculated on different numbers — income tax uses your taxable income, while FICA uses your gross salary. Here’s the six-step method, followed by a full worked example.

The six steps

• 1. Start with your gross annual salary — the headline figure before anything is taken out.
• 2. Subtract pre-tax deductions like a traditional 401(k) or HSA — see tax deductions on your salary.
• 3. Subtract the standard deduction ($15,000 single / $30,000 married in 2025) to get your taxable income.
• 4. Apply the federal tax brackets to that taxable income (only the slice inside each bracket is taxed at that rate).
• 5. Add FICA — 6.2% Social Security (up to $176,100) + 1.45% Medicare, calculated on your gross salary, not your taxable income.
• 6. Add state income tax if your state has one, then subtract every tax from gross to get your net pay.

Worked example: $70,000, single, no state tax

Let’s run a $70,000 salary for a single filer in a no-income-tax state, taking the standard deduction and no 401(k):

• Gross salary: $70,000
• Taxable income: $70,000 − $15,000 standard deduction = $55,000
• Federal income tax (2025): 10% on the first $11,925, 12% to $48,475, then 22% on the rest of the $55,000 ≈ $7,241
• Social Security: 6.2% × $70,000 = $4,340
• Medicare: 1.45% × $70,000 = $1,015
• State tax: $0

Total tax is roughly $12,596, leaving a take-home pay of about $57,400 a year — close to $4,780 a month. That’s an effective tax rate near 18%, even though the top bracket touched is 22%. (See effective vs marginal tax rate for why those differ.)

Adding a state and a 401(k)

A state income tax simply adds another layer calculated on your state taxable income (rules vary by state). A traditional 401(k) is subtracted at step 2, lowering the income tax in step 4 — but remember it doesn’t reduce the FICA in step 5, which is always charged on your gross.

Or skip the math

Our free calculator runs all six steps for any salary, state and 401(k) percentage instantly, and shows each deduction as a separate line. It’s the fastest way to go from gross to net — but now you know exactly what it’s doing under the hood.