Maryland Paycheck Calculator (2026 Take-Home Pay)

Eight separate brackets make up Maryland's graduated income tax, climbing to a top marginal rate of 5.75%, and that's before counting the local county income taxes Maryland also layers on top of the state system. The Maryland Paycheck Calculator applies the state's eight brackets alongside federal withholding and FICA to compute exact net take-home pay.

Eight brackets is more than most states use, which means Maryland's effective state tax rate rises in smaller increments than in states with just three or four tiers. This calculator models state withholding only; Maryland's county-level income taxes are a separate line item not included here.

Maryland is the clearest case in the country of a state rate that understates what actually comes out. The state schedule runs from 2% to 5.75%, but every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies its own income tax on residents, withheld on the same stub and set locally, so two people with identical salaries in different counties take home different amounts. This calculator models the state schedule only:

The state-level figure is built in four steps:

1. FICA Payroll Tax Computation: - Social Security (OASDI): 6.20% withheld on wages up to the 2026 statutory wage base ($184,500). - Medicare (HI): 1.45% withheld on all gross earnings (no wage cap), plus 0.90% Additional Medicare Tax on earnings exceeding $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly).
2. Federal Income Tax Withholding: Evaluated using 2026 progressive federal tax brackets (10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37%) after applying standard deduction thresholds ($16,100 single / $32,200 married joint).
3. Maryland State Income Tax Withholding: Run against the 2026 Maryland schedule, eight brackets from 2% up to 5.75%. County income tax is withheld separately and is not included here.
4. Pay Period Proration: Annual net compensation is divided across the designated pay frequency (26 bi-weekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly, or 52 weekly pay periods).

Consider an employee in Maryland earning $75,000 annually, paid bi-weekly (26 paychecks per year), filing single, with $3,500 in annual pre-tax 401(k) contributions.

1. Gross pay per paycheck. $75,000 ÷ 26 pay periods = $2,884.62 before any withholding.
2. Pre-tax deduction. The $3,500 annual 401(k) contribution reduces each paycheck by $134.62 and also shrinks the wages used to calculate federal and state income tax; FICA is still assessed on the full gross amount.
3. FICA payroll taxes. Social Security withholds 6.2% of gross pay ($178.85) and Medicare withholds 1.45% ($41.83), for $220.67 per paycheck.
4. Federal income tax withholding. Applying the 2026 IRS withholding tables to the reduced taxable wage withholds $265.38 per paycheck.
5. Maryland state tax withholding. Maryland's withholding tables apply to the reduced taxable wage, withholding $128.61 per paycheck.
6. Net take-home pay. $2,884.62 gross, minus $134.62 pre-tax, minus $220.67 FICA, minus $265.38 federal tax, minus $128.61 state tax leaves $2,135.34 per paycheck, which comes to $55,518.75 per year, an effective total tax rate of 21.31%.

The Second Month, And The Twelfth

Maryland's eight state brackets are only half the story: county income tax is withheld separately and is absent from this schedule, so the cumulative figures understate the real burden.

Step 7 -- Two months of cumulative pay. The schedule's first row shows $6,250.00 of cumulative gross against $4,626.56 of cumulative take-home. Row two doubles both: $12,500.00 gross, $9,253.13 take-home, with $3,246.88 accumulated on the deduction side.

Step 8 -- The full year. By month twelve the schedule reaches $75,000.00 of cumulative gross and $55,518.75 of cumulative take-home, adding $4,626.56 every month without variation.

Step 9 -- What the year actually withheld. The cumulative deduction column closes at $19,481.25. That column carries the $3,500 pre-tax 401(k) contribution alongside the tax, so tax alone is $19,481.25 - $3,500 = $15,981.25, an effective total tax rate of 21.31% on $75,000.00 of gross pay.

Step 10 -- Why the monthly increment never changes. The twelve rows rise in identical increments, which is worth naming rather than assuming. FICA is computed once on the full annual wage -- Social Security capped at $184,500, Additional Medicare charged above $200,000 for a single filer -- and the annual figure is then spread evenly across the months. So the mid-year jump in take-home that a high earner sees on a real pay stub never appears here. At $75,000 nothing crosses either threshold anyway; it would take $184,500 to reach the first and $200,000 to reach the second.

$55,518.75 is the state-only modeled take-home. A Maryland county levy would come out of that, so the $15,981.25 figure is a floor.

The salary sweep here is a parameter sweep rather than a forecast, and three inputs move the answer. Each is worth a figure.

The marginal cost of the next unit. Raising gross salary from $75,000 to $76,000 takes annual take-home from $55,518.75 to $56,174.75, so each additional $1,000 of Maryland salary is worth $656.00 in the hand and $344.00 is withheld. That wedge is about 22 cents of federal income tax, 7.65 cents of FICA and roughly 4.7 cents of Maryland withholding per marginal dollar. At $100,000 the engine returns $71,918.75 of annual take-home at an effective total tax rate of 24.58%, against 21.31% at $75,000.

Pricing the pre-tax deferral. Raising the annual pre-tax contribution from $3,500 to $8,500 moves annual take-home from $55,518.75 to $51,856.25. Diverting $5,000 into the plan therefore costs only $3,662.50 of spendable pay, because $1,337.50 of it is funded by tax that would otherwise have been withheld, an effective subsidy of 26.75%. The engine reduces the federal and Maryland taxable wage by the contribution and leaves FICA on the full gross, which is why the subsidy falls short of the combined marginal income tax rates.

A filing-status limitation visible in the output. Switching to married filing jointly moves annual take-home from $55,518.75 to $58,198.75, a gain of exactly $2,680.00, and every dollar of it comes from the federal line. The Maryland withholding output reads $128.61 per paycheck under both statuses. The config passes filing status to the federal bracket walk and to FICA but calls the state primitive without a status argument, so Maryland's single schedule is applied to joint filers too. Maryland publishes a genuinely different joint schedule, widening the 4.75% band from $100,000 to $150,000, so this overstates a joint filer's Maryland withholding.

Pay frequency changes the cheque, not the year. Switching from bi-weekly to monthly moves the headline from $2,135.34 to $4,626.56 while annual take-home stays at exactly $55,518.75. Everything is computed annually and divided at the end, so frequency is presentation in this model.

What the Maryland line is actually computing. The engine runs the reduced taxable wage through Maryland's income tax bracket schedule with no state standard deduction, no personal exemption and no other income, which is why $128.61 per paycheck works out to about 4.7% of the reduced wage. It also applies no county or Baltimore City income tax, which for 2026 runs 2.25% to 3.30% on the same base. On this salary that missing layer is worth roughly $1,600 to $2,360 a year, which is between half and three quarters again on top of the state figure.

• Local municipal, city, or county wage taxes where applicable.
• Post-tax wage garnishments (child support, tax levies, student loans).
• Voluntary post-tax deductions (Roth 401k, charitable giving, supplemental insurance).

• Confusing Bi-Weekly with Semi-Monthly Pay: Bi-weekly pay results in 26 paychecks per year (two 3-paycheck months), whereas semi-monthly pay results in 24 equal paychecks.
• Failing to Update Form W-4: Inaccurate withholding allowances on Form W-4 can lead to substantial underpayment penalties or large unexpected tax bills.
• Forgetting Pre-Tax Deduction Benefits: Contributions to 401(k) and HSA accounts directly reduce taxable income, lowering both federal and state tax burdens.
• Overlooking Additional Medicare Tax: Failing to anticipate the 0.9% surtax on high-earning households with multiple income sources.

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Publication 15 (Circular E) and Publication 15-T (2026). irs.gov/publications/p15
• Social Security Administration (SSA): 2026 Social Security Wage Base Limit. ssa.gov
• Comptroller of Maryland: Employer Withholding Tax Tables (2026). marylandtaxes.gov