Mo Paycheck Calculator
Estimate your Missouri take-home pay with 2026 tax-year parameters: federal income tax with 2026 brackets and the standard deduction as amended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly), Missouri’s graduated state brackets topping out at 4.7% on indexed bands of $1,348, the Missouri federal income tax deduction applied at the percentage Missouri law actually allows, Social Security capped at the $184,500 wage base, optional pre-tax 401(k) and health deductions, and the 1% Kansas City / St. Louis earnings tax.
Planning estimate for tax year 2026. Annual liability is estimated with standard deductions; actual per-paycheck withholding follows your Form W-4 and MO W-4 elections and may differ. FICA uses the 2026 Social Security wage-base cap of $184,500, Medicare at 1.45% and the 0.9% additional Medicare tax above $200,000.
Quick Answer
A single filer paid biweekly at $2,884.62 per period (about $75,000 a year) with no pre-tax deductions takes home $2,271.50 per paycheck, $59,058.98 a year under the 2026 rules. The deductions are $7,670.03 federal income tax, $2,533.60 Missouri state tax, and $5,737.51 FICA, an effective tax rate of 21.25% before any city earnings tax.
Key takeaways
- The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 single and $32,200 joint, per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, and Missouri uses the same figures for its state standard deduction.
- Missouri's federal tax deduction is a percentage of your federal tax (35%, 25%, 15%, 5% or 0% depending on Missouri gross income), not a flat deduction of the full amount up to $5,000.
- A $200 biweekly 401(k) contribution cuts this example's take-home to $2,124.59 per check while saving $1,380.33 a year in income tax.
- Kansas City and St. Louis each add a 1% earnings tax, $750.00 a year at this pay level.
- Quick Answer
- Worked example, checked line by line
- How Missouri taxes a paycheck in 2026
- The federal tax deduction, corrected
- Kansas City and St. Louis: the extra 1%
- Why your pay stub will not match exactly
- What this estimate leaves out
- Checking this page in 2027: what changes next
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
Worked example, checked line by line
The pre-filled example is a single filer, biweekly pay, $2,884.62 gross per period, no pre-tax deductions, no city tax, no extra withholding. Every line below is the tool’s own output for those inputs.
| Line | Per period | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $2,884.62 | $75,000.12 |
| Federal income tax | $295.00 | $7,670.03 |
| Missouri state tax | $97.45 | $2,533.60 |
| FICA (Social Security capped, Medicare, additional Medicare) | $220.67 | $5,737.51 |
| Net pay | $2,271.50 | $59,058.98 |
The federal math runs: $75,000.12 annualized gross, minus the $16,100 standard deduction, leaves $58,900.12 of federal taxable income and $7,670.03 of federal tax through the 2026 brackets. Missouri then subtracts its federal tax deduction, 15% of $7,670.03 at this income, which is $1,150.50, leaving $57,749.62 of Missouri taxable income and $2,533.60 of state tax through the indexed $1,348 bands. Add a $200 biweekly pre-tax contribution and the same worker’s take-home becomes $2,124.59 per check: the $200 leaves the paycheck, and in exchange federal tax falls to $6,526.03 and Missouri tax to $2,297.27.
How Missouri taxes a paycheck in 2026
Missouri taxes wages in eight graduated brackets, and its standard deduction matches the federal one. The state part of your paycheck is small next to the federal part, but its two quirks, the low top bracket and the federal tax deduction, decide most of the number.
The state brackets
For 2026, Missouri taxes the first $1,348 of taxable income at 0%, then steps through 2%, 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%, 4% and 4.5% in bands of $1,348, with everything above $9,436 taxed at the top rate of 4.7%, per the Missouri Department of Revenue 2026 withholding formula. Because the top band starts so low, nearly all of a full-time worker’s state-taxable income is taxed at 4.7%, and the graduated part only softens the first $9,436. The bracket thresholds are indexed for inflation most years, which is why the 2025 bands of $1,313, topping out above $9,191, no longer apply.
The federal side
Federal tax uses the 2026 IRS brackets (10% up to $12,400 of taxable income for single filers, rising to 37%) after the standard deduction, per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The 2025 history still explains older pages: the IRS first published a $15,000 single standard deduction for 2025, then the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised it mid-year to $15,750 single and $31,500 married filing jointly. For 2026 the figures are $16,100 single and $32,200 married filing jointly, and Missouri uses the same amounts for its own standard deduction. This tool uses the 2026 figures.
Comparing states is easier when the same method runs everywhere. The companion state tools in this batch, the Michigan paycheck calculator and the Minnesota paycheck calculator, use the same annual-liability approach, so the state lines can be compared side by side.
The federal tax deduction, corrected
Missouri is one of the few states that lets you deduct some of your federal income tax, and the rule changed years ago in a way many calculators never caught up with. Getting this one rule right is the main thing that separates this tool's Missouri line from a flat-rate estimate.
Before 2019, Missouri allowed a deduction of the full federal liability, capped at $5,000 single or $10,000 joint. House Bill 2540 replaced that rule for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2019. Under Missouri statute 143.171 on the federal income tax deduction, the deduction is now a percentage of the federal liability, set by Missouri gross income on the return:
| Missouri gross income | Deductible share of federal tax |
|---|---|
| $25,000 or less | 35% |
| $25,001 to $50,000 | 25% |
| $50,001 to $100,000 | 15% |
| $100,001 to $125,000 | 5% |
| $125,001 or more | 0% |
The $5,000 and $10,000 caps still exist in the statute, but at these percentages they rarely bind. At $75,000 of gross income the deductible share is 15%, worth $1,150.50 in the worked example under the 2026 federal tax. The earlier version of this calculator deducted the full $5,000 cap, which understated Missouri tax on this example by about $181 a year. One related subtlety: the Department of Revenue removed the federal tax deduction from its employer withholding formula entirely, to keep payroll simpler, so your pay stub withholding runs without it and any excess comes back as a refund. This tool estimates your annual liability, where the deduction does apply, which is the right basis for planning.
Kansas City and St. Louis: the extra 1%
Two Missouri cities levy their own earnings tax, and it comes on top of everything above. If you live or work in Kansas City or St. Louis, budget an extra 1% of gross earnings.
Both cities charge the same flat 1% on salaries, wages and commissions, with no brackets and no standard deduction. On the worked example's $75,000.12 of gross pay that is $750.00 a year, taking annual take-home from $59,058.98 to $58,308.98 if the city tax applies. Kansas City renewed its tax by voter approval in April 2026, keeping it in place until the next required vote in 2031, as the Kansas City earnings tax renewal FAQs explain. Nonresidents who work only some days inside either city can claim a refund for days worked outside it, which a flat annual estimate cannot model, so treat the city line as the full-time-in-city figure. If you are weighing an hourly offer against these numbers, the hourly after taxes calculator runs the same style of estimate from an hourly rate.
Why your pay stub will not match exactly
A gap of a few dollars between this estimate and a real pay stub is normal, because the two numbers are built differently. This tool estimates annual tax liability with standard deductions; your employer withholds per paycheck from tables and formulas driven by your elections.
- W-4 and MO W-4 elections. Extra withholding, multiple jobs, and working-spouse settings all move the stub number. The tool's extra withholding field exists for the first of these.
- Withholding skips the federal tax deduction. As noted above, Missouri's withholding formula omits the 143.171 deduction, so state withholding during the year runs slightly high for most workers.
- Rounding and timing. Payroll systems round each period and annualize from that period's pay, so overtime or an unpaid week moves a stub in ways an annual estimate smooths out.
- Benefits mix. The tool treats pre-tax money as one bucket. In real payroll, 401(k) deferrals still owe FICA while most health premiums do not, so the FICA line on a stub can sit a little lower than the estimate when pre-tax money is mostly health premiums.
For an offer comparison or a raise decision, the cleaner approach is to compare two runs of this tool, before and after, rather than estimate against stub. A gross-up paycheck calculator answers the reverse question, what gross pay hits a target net, when you are negotiating.
What this estimate leaves out
The limits below are stated so you can judge whether the estimate fits your situation. None of them is hidden in fine print inside the tool.
- Social Security wage cap. FICA is now modeled with the 2026 limits: Social Security at 6.2% only on the first $184,500 of wages, Medicare at 1.45% on all wages, and the 0.9% additional Medicare tax above $200,000. The previous flat 7.65% version overstated Social Security tax above the cap.
- Two filing statuses only. Single and married filing jointly are supported. Head of household and married filing separately are not, and their standard deductions differ ($24,150 for head of household in 2026).
- No credits or itemizing. Child tax credits, education credits, and itemized deductions above the standard deduction are not modeled.
- Annual estimate, not withholding. The result is a planning figure for the year, spread evenly over pay periods.
Checking this page in 2027: what changes next
This calculator runs tax year 2026. The IRS publishes the next year’s parameters each autumn in its inflation-adjustment release, the Missouri Department of Revenue publishes its withholding formula for the new year, and the Social Security Administration publishes the new wage base. Until those three releases land, no 2027 figure on this page should be treated as published: this section will be refreshed from those releases when they appear, and a 2027 paycheck should not be estimated by carrying the 2026 parameters forward silently.
What competing calculators miss
Missouri is a small market for paycheck tools, and it shows. The big national calculators are accurate on federal tax and vague on Missouri; the Missouri-specific pages are often a single flat rate wearing a state costume.
- SmartAsset and ADP run genuine withholding engines with W-4 inputs, which is the right method for predicting a stub, but neither shows its Missouri working. The 143.171 percentage deduction is invisible inside their state line, so there is no way to check it.
- Flat-rate Missouri pages apply one rate (4.6% or 4.7%) to all income. That skips the graduated bands, the standard deduction, and the federal tax deduction in one move, and can miss the real state line by hundreds of dollars a year.
- Stale-parameter pages are easy to spot once you know the figures: one current Missouri page describes the state tax range as 1.5% to 5.4%, rates Missouri has not used in years, and several tools still deduct the full $5,000 federal-tax cap that stopped applying in 2019.
- Paystub generators produce a realistic-looking stub document. The arithmetic behind them is usually a flat state percentage, and the document is the product, not the estimate.
The edge here is a visible audit trail: annualized gross, both taxable income lines, the deduction percentage actually applied, each tax as a per-period and per-year pair, and an effective rate that counts pre-tax money honestly. If any line looks wrong, the formula text under the results shows exactly how it was produced.
Frequently Asked Questions
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References
- Internal Revenue Service, IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026, including amendments from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (IR-2025-103). Confirms the amended 2025 standard deductions of $15,750 single and $31,500 joint, and the 2026 figures of $16,100 and $32,200. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Missouri General Assembly, Revised Statutes of Missouri, Section 143.171: Federal income tax deduction, amount. The 35% / 25% / 15% / 5% / 0% deduction schedule and the $5,000 / $10,000 caps applied by this calculator. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Missouri Department of Revenue, Employer's Tax Guide (Form 4282). State withholding method, the graduated Missouri brackets, and the Department's note that the federal tax deduction was removed from the withholding formula. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Missouri Department of Revenue, 2026 Missouri Withholding Tax Formula. Source for the 2026 standard deductions used in Missouri withholding and the 4.7% supplemental withholding rate. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, Topic No. 551: Standard Deduction. How the standard deduction works and who may claim it. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 15-T: Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods. How employers convert annual tax into per-period withholding, and why stub amounts differ from annual liability estimates. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Social Security Administration, Contribution and Benefit Base. The Social Security wage base: $176,100 for 2025 and $184,500 for 2026. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Missouri Department of Revenue, Individual Income Tax. Filing requirements, forms, and the Department's individual tax guidance for Missouri residents. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Kansas City Earnings Tax Renewal, Kansas City Earnings Tax FAQs. The 1% rate, who pays it, and the April 2026 voter renewal keeping it in place until 2031. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, About Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate. How W-4 elections, including extra withholding and multiple jobs, change per-paycheck federal withholding. Accessed October 22, 2026.