US State Tax Difference Calculator

The same salary can produce meaningfully different take-home pay depending purely on which state taxes it — nine states have no state income tax at all, fifteen use a single flat rate regardless of income, and the rest use progressive brackets similar to the federal system. This calculator isolates that state-tax difference by holding federal tax, Social Security, and Medicare constant (they're the same regardless of state) and comparing only the state tax layer between two states you specify.

A reference table of every state's top marginal or flat income tax rate, verified against Tax Foundation's published 2026 state rate map, follows below — for the 9 no-tax states and 15 flat-tax states, the listed rate applies exactly at every income level. For the remaining graduated-rate states, the listed figure is the top marginal rate only, which overstates the actual rate for income below the top bracket — use it as a ceiling, not necessarily your exact rate, unless your income is well into that state's top bracket.

For a comparison that also factors in cost-of-living differences between two cities, see the Relocation Salary Comparison Calculator, and for precise, full-bracket calculations specifically for California or New York, see this category's dedicated state take-home calculators.

Federal tax uses the current 2026 progressive brackets and standard deduction by filing status, and FICA applies Social Security (6.2% up to the wage base) and Medicare (1.45%, plus an Additional Medicare Tax above $200,000) — identically regardless of which state you select, since these are federal, not state, taxes. Only the state tax line changes between the two comparisons, isolating the true state-level difference in take-home pay for the same gross salary.

This calculator treats each state's rate as a flat percentage of gross salary for simplicity — exact for no-tax and flat-tax states, an approximation (specifically an overstatement, since it uses the top marginal rate) for graduated-rate states. If you know your actual effective state tax rate from a prior return or a more detailed calculator, enter that instead of the reference table's top-rate figure for a more accurate comparison.

The take-home figures show what the identical salary nets after federal tax, FICA, and each state's tax rate — the difference between them is attributable entirely to the state tax layer, since every other input is held constant. For flat-tax and no-tax states, this comparison is exact; for graduated-rate states using the reference table's top rate, treat the state with the graduated rate as potentially overstated on the tax side (understated on take-home) unless your income is near or above that state's top bracket.

This calculator doesn't account for other state-specific payroll deductions some states have (like California's SDI or New York's Paid Family Leave) — for those two states specifically, use the dedicated California and New York take-home calculators in this category for a more complete picture.