South Carolina Paycheck Calculator (2026 Take-Home Pay)

How much of a South Carolina paycheck actually makes it to your bank account? Federal income tax and FICA take their usual share, and on top of that South Carolina applies its own graduated tax, two brackets under H. 4216 climbing to a 5.21% top marginal rate. This calculator works through that full chain under verified 2026 figures, then prorates the result across bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or weekly pay periods depending on how an employer runs payroll. Pre-tax elections change the math too: a 401(k) or HSA contribution lowers the wages used to calculate federal and state tax, even though FICA still applies to the full gross amount, so the sequence those deductions happen in affects the final figure more than a rough estimate would capture. Salaried employees weighing an offer, hourly workers tracking a raise, and the payroll staff processing their pay all rely on the same precise arithmetic, just pointed at different numbers. With two brackets and a 5.21% top rate in play, getting the exact calculation right matters more here than in a state running a single flat percentage.

South Carolina charges 1.99% on the first $30,000 of taxable income and 5.21% above it, the two-band schedule H. 4216 put in place for tax year 2026. The step from 1.99% to 5.21% is a large one, so most full-time salaries are taxed at the upper rate on the majority of their income. The paycheck subtraction:

Four steps get from gross salary to net pay:

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. South Carolina State Income Tax Withholding: 1.99% on the first $30,000 of taxable income and 5.21% above that. No South Carolina deduction or exemption is subtracted before the schedule is walked.
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 South Carolina 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. South Carolina state tax withholding. South Carolina's withholding tables apply to the reduced taxable wage, withholding $106.12 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 $106.12 state tax leaves $2,157.82 per paycheck, or $56,103.35 per year, an effective total tax rate of 20.53%.

The Second Month, And The Twelfth

South Carolina charges 1.99% to $30,000 and 5.21% above it, and the $3,500 deferral leaves a state base of $71,500, well into the upper band.

Step 7 -- Two months of cumulative pay. The schedule's first row shows $6,250.00 of cumulative gross against $4,675.28 of cumulative take-home. Row two doubles both: $12,500.00 gross, $9,350.56 take-home, with $3,149.44 accumulated on the deduction side.

Step 8 -- The full year. By month twelve the schedule reaches $75,000.00 of cumulative gross and $56,103.35 of cumulative take-home, adding $4,675.28 every month without variation.

Step 9 -- What the year actually withheld. The cumulative deduction column closes at $18,896.65. That column carries the $3,500 pre-tax 401(k) contribution alongside the tax, so tax alone is $18,896.65 - $3,500 = $15,396.65, an effective total tax rate of 20.53% on $75,000.00 of gross pay.

Step 10 -- Why the monthly increment never changes. Watch the increments and they never change. The reason is structural: annual FICA is calculated first, with Social Security stopping at $184,500 and Additional Medicare beginning at $200,000 for a single filer, and only the annual total is prorated across the twelve rows. A live payroll system would show the paycheck grow in the month the wage base is hit. This one cannot, and at $75,000 there is nothing to show -- the wage base is $109,500 away.

$56,103.35 survives the year. With $41,500 of the $71,500 state base sitting in the 5.21% band, South Carolina's slice of the $15,396.65 total behaves close to a flat tax.

The engine hands the South Carolina schedule gross salary minus pre-tax deductions, with no South Carolina deduction or exemption taken out first. The statutory $30,000 band edge therefore lands at a salary of $33,500 once the default $3,500 deferral is removed, and a $100 sweep of grossSalaryAnnual shows the step exactly there.

At $33,500 of salary. Net take-home is $977.70 per bi-weekly check. South Carolina withholds $22.96, federal withholding is $54.62 and FICA is $98.57. The preceding $100 of salary had added $3.01 to the net check.

At $33,600, one hundred dollars later. Net take-home is $980.59 and South Carolina withholds $23.16. The per-check increment drops to $2.89 and holds there through the next $900 of salary. That $0.12 per check is the 1.99% band ending and the 5.21% band starting. Carried across the full sweep step, $100 of salary that used to add $3.01 to the check now adds $2.89.

How far the upper band already reaches at the default. At $75,000 the state base is $71,500, so $30,000 of it is charged at 1.99% and the remaining $41,500 at 5.21%. There is no headroom question left to answer going up: the only boundary in the South Carolina schedule is $16,500 of salary behind this filer, and the state line behaves as a near-flat charge from here to any salary the calculator accepts. The reverse question that does have an answer runs downward: state withholding does not fall back to the 1.99%-only band until salary drops to $33,500.

What the next $1,000 of salary costs. Moving from $75,000 to $76,000 lifts annual take-home from $56,103.35 to $56,754.75. Of that $1,000, $651.40 arrives and $348.60 is withheld, the highest marginal bite of the five states in this family that share this engine and this default. Per check the number goes from $2,157.82 to $2,182.88, up $25.06, of which South Carolina takes $2.01 more per check, $52.26 across the year.

A right method and a wrong one, priced. The common error on this page is assuming a pre-tax election shrinks every line on the stub. calculateW2PayrollFICA receives full gross, never gross minus pre-tax, so FICA is $220.67 per check with the $3,500 deferral in place and $220.67 per check with the deferral set to zero. The counterfactual the saver imagines is computable: enter $71,500 of gross with no deferral and FICA comes back as $210.38, $10.29 per check lower, $267.54 across 26 checks. That is the size of the payroll-tax saving this engine will never produce from the pre-tax field. What the $3,500 does buy is income tax: annual take-home is $56,103.35 with the deferral and $58,651.00 without, a cash difference of $2,547.65 for $3,500 diverted, so the election is worth $952.35 of federal and South Carolina tax and nothing at all on the FICA line.

Two limitations that matter to the state figure specifically. The SC Income Adjusted Deduction introduced by the same act, $15,000 for a single filer and income-reduced, is not modelled, and neither is the act's move to federal AGI as the starting point. Both are recorded as unmodelled in the state table's own bracket note. The $106.12 of state tax per check is therefore charged against $71,500 rather than a smaller South Carolina taxable income, and overstates real SC1040 withholding accordingly. Separately, treating FICA as a charge on full gross is correct for a 401(k) or a traditional HSA deduction and wrong for a Section 125 cafeteria plan premium, which is genuinely exempt from Social Security and Medicare; entering one in the pre-tax field returns a FICA figure that is too high.

One boundary that is real but out of reach. The $184,500 Social Security wage base and the $200,000 Additional Medicare threshold both exist in this engine and both bind at higher salaries, but neither is approached at $75,000, and the schedule table could not display either in any case: FICA is settled annually and only then split across twelve rows.

• 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).
• The SC Income Adjusted Deduction and the decoupling to federal AGI, as described above.
• South Carolina's 44% long-term capital gain deduction, which the state table carries but which does not apply to wage income and is not used on this page.

• 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
• South Carolina Department of Revenue: Employer Withholding Tax Tables (2026). dor.sc.gov