Philly Paycheck Calculator
Philadelphia paychecks carry a tax most American cities never charge: a city wage tax, stacked on top of Pennsylvania’s flat state tax and the usual federal payroll taxes. Enter your gross pay per period, pay frequency, filing status and Philadelphia residency, and the calculator below works out every line: 2026 federal income tax at current brackets, Social Security with its $184,500 wage-base cap, Medicare including the extra 0.9%, Pennsylvania’s 3.07% state tax, and the wage tax at the exact post-July-2026 rates, 3.735% for residents and 3.425% for nonresidents. National paycheck tools either skip the city tax entirely or still use stale rates; this one does neither.
An estimate of 2026 annual tax liability, not exact withholding: real paychecks follow IRS Publication 15-T tables and your W-4. Pre-tax deductions (401(k), health premiums) are not modeled.
Quick Answer
Biweekly gross $3,000 ($78,000/year), single filer, Philadelphia resident: net pay $2,245.97 per paycheck. The $754.03 in deductions breaks down as federal income tax $320.38, Social Security $186.00, Medicare $43.50, Pennsylvania state tax $92.10 and the city wage tax $112.05. The same paycheck for a nonresident nets $2,255.27, because the wage-tax rate drops from 3.735% to 3.425%.
How to use the Philly paycheck calculator
Four inputs, one click, six tax lines explained. The results stay hidden until you calculate.
- Enter your gross pay per period: the amount on one paycheck before anything comes out. $3,000 biweekly is pre-filled as the worked example. Paid by the hour? Run your hourly rate through an hourly after-taxes calculator to annualize it first, then come back.
- Pick your pay frequency: the tool annualizes your pay (weekly × 52, biweekly × 26, semimonthly × 24, monthly × 12), runs every tax on the annual figure, then divides the bill back down to one paycheck. This is what makes the Social Security wage-base cap and the Medicare surtax land correctly.
- Choose filing status and residency: filing status sets the 2026 standard deduction and the federal bracket table; residency sets the wage-tax rate. Residents pay 3.735% on every dollar earned, anywhere; nonresidents pay 3.425% on Philadelphia workdays only.
- Read the line items, not just the net: each deduction prints with its rate and the annual total, plus a one-line audit trail (“Federal: taxable $61,900.00 -> $8,330.00/yr across 2026 brackets”). Use Copy or Share in the results box to send the breakdown to a recruiter or a spreadsheet.
Every line on a Philly pay stub
Six deductions come out of a Philadelphia paycheck, and each is figured a different way. Here is exactly what the calculator does with each one, using 2026 figures throughout.
| Deduction | How the tool computes it | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax | Annual pay minus the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 joint, $24,150 head of household), taxed through the 2026 marginal brackets, divided by pay periods | $320.38 |
| Social Security | 6.2% of pay, but only on the first $184,500 of annual wages; above that the line stops and the tool flags “(wage base capped)” | $186.00 |
| Medicare | 1.45% on all pay, plus 0.9% on annual wages over $200,000, following the employer-withholding rule (see the FAQs) | $43.50 |
| PA state tax | Flat 3.07% on gross pay, from the first dollar, with no standard deduction | $92.10 |
| Philadelphia wage tax | 3.735% of gross for residents, 3.425% for nonresidents; rates effective on wages paid after June 30, 2026 | $112.05 |
Run the federal line by hand for the worked example: $78,000 of annual pay minus the $16,100 single standard deduction leaves $61,900 of taxable income. The 2026 brackets tax the first $12,400 at 10% ($1,240), the next $38,000 at 12% ($4,560) and the remaining $11,500 at 22% ($2,530), for $8,330 a year, or $320.38 per biweekly check. These are the bracket thresholds and standard deductions the IRS published in Revenue Procedure 2025-32, and the calculator uses all three filing-status tables exactly as written there.
Key takeaways
- Philadelphia’s wage tax applies from the first dollar of wages: there is no exemption, no standard deduction and no filing threshold at the city level.
- Resident and nonresident rates differ (3.735% vs 3.425%), and residents owe it on all wages wherever earned, which is what makes the residency toggle the most valuable input on this page.
- Social Security stops at $184,500 of annual wages in 2026 (a maximum of $11,439 per employee), while Medicare and the PA and Philly taxes have no cap.
- This is an annual-liability estimate, not withholding: your employer withholds per IRS Publication 15-T tables and your W-4, so small differences from your actual stub are normal.
Resident vs nonresident: who pays what
Where you live and where you work are two separate questions in Philadelphia, and the answer decides which rate applies. Live in the city and you owe the resident rate on every dollar you earn: the Center City office, the suburban home office, the week spent visiting a client in Chicago. Live outside the city and you owe the nonresident rate, but only on Philadelphia workdays.
The nonresident case is where money gets left on the table. If you split time between a Philadelphia office and a home office elsewhere, only the Philadelphia days are taxable, and days you did not work in the city may qualify for a refund claim. Track your work location through the year: the city can ask you to document it. Philadelphia has no reciprocal agreements with other municipalities, so if your home town also levies an earned income tax, you can owe both. (Across the state, the arithmetic is the same but the city number changes: Pittsburgh residents face a 3% local earned income tax instead, which is why a Pittsburgh salary calculator uses a different local line than this page.)
One more wrinkle worth knowing: the city runs an income-based wage tax refund program. Qualifying lower-income residents and nonresidents who get approved for Pennsylvania tax forgiveness can petition to be treated as subject to a 1.5% rate and get back what they paid above it. The calculator does not model this; it is a planning tool for the standard case.
What this estimate leaves out
Four gaps to know about before you compare the result with a real pay stub. Pre-tax deductions are the biggest: 401(k) contributions, HSA money and health premiums shrink federal taxable wages, and the calculator models none of them. Pennsylvania adds a twist most people miss, it taxes your 401(k) deferrals as current compensation, so box 16 of your W-2 (state wages) is usually higher than box 1 (federal wages). If you enter your box 1 number, the PA line will read slightly low.
The other three are smaller. The wage-tax rate changed mid-year: 3.74% / 3.43% on paychecks dated before July 1, 2026, then 3.735% / 3.425% after. The tool applies the current rate to the whole year, which is the right choice for planning forward but will be a few dollars off for the first half of 2026. Bonuses and commissions are withheld at a flat 22% federally rather than through the bracket math: run those through a bonus take-home pay calculator instead of adding them to your salary here. And the 2026 standard deduction carries the One Big Beautiful Bill enhancement through 2028, with new separate deductions for tips, overtime and seniors that affect your tax return more than your withholding.
What competing calculators miss
The national paycheck tools fail this keyword in three specific ways, and each is a winning move for this page:
- Stale city rates: several top results still quote 3.79% / 3.44%, figures years out of date, or round the current rates to 3.75% / 3.44%. The July 2026 cut to 3.735% / 3.425% is wired into this tool with the exact decimals, which matters: on $78,000, the rounding alone misstates the city line by about $39 a year.
- No residency split: most competitors use one Philadelphia rate for everyone, or ignore the city tax entirely and silently understate a resident’s deductions by over a hundred dollars a paycheck. The residency toggle is the one input generic calculators cannot fake.
- Old federal figures: tools still running 2025 brackets and the $176,100 Social Security base understate take-home pay for 2026, because the enhanced standard deduction ($16,100 single) and the higher $184,500 wage base both move in the worker’s favor. This page runs the full 2026 parameter set, with the exact Rev. Proc. 2025-32 bracket thresholds for all three filing statuses.
Compare this with a no-city-tax state for a sense of scale: Florida has no state or local wage tax at all, so the same $78,000 salary keeps roughly $200 more per biweekly check in a Miami paycheck calculator than it does in Philadelphia. That gap is the wage tax plus the 3.07% state tax, and it is the reason a Philadelphia-specific tool exists.
Frequently asked questions
3.735% for residents and 3.425% for nonresidents, on wages paid after June 30, 2026. Paychecks dated before July 1, 2026 used 3.74% and 3.43%. The cut is part of a five-year reduction plan the City Council approved in 2025, and the calculator uses the current post-July rates for the full year.
Yes, but only on Philadelphia workdays, at the 3.425% nonresident rate. If you split time between a city office and a home office elsewhere, track your work location: days you did not work in Philadelphia may qualify for a refund claim.
Yes. Residents owe the wage tax at 3.735% on all wages wherever earned, even if the job is entirely outside the city. Select the resident option in the calculator for the right number.
This is an estimate of your annual tax liability, while your employer withholds per the IRS Publication 15-T tables and your W-4 settings. Pre-tax deductions like 401(k) contributions and health premiums also shrink the numbers on a real stub. Small differences are normal.
$184,500. The 6.2% Social Security tax applies only to the first $184,500 of annual wages, a maximum of $11,439 per employee. Once your year-to-date pay passes the cap, that line disappears from your remaining paychecks.
Yes. Unlike the federal treatment, Pennsylvania taxes 401(k), 403(b) and 457 deferrals as current compensation, so your state wages (W-2 box 16) run higher than your federal wages (box 1). If you enter your box 1 number in the calculator, its PA line will read slightly low.
It mirrors the employer-withholding rule: the IRS requires employers to withhold the additional 0.9% once an employee’s wages with that employer pass $200,000, regardless of filing status. Your actual liability is figured on Form 8959 using your real threshold ($250,000 for joint filers, $200,000 for single and head of household), and any excess withholding is credited back on your return.
Possibly. Philadelphia runs an income-based wage tax refund program: qualifying residents and nonresidents who are approved for Pennsylvania tax forgiveness can petition to be treated as subject to a 1.5% rate and get back what they paid above it. The calculator shows the standard case; the refund is a separate claim with the city.
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References
- City of Philadelphia, Department of Revenue. Wage Tax and Earnings Tax rate changes effective July 1, 2026 (3.735% residents, 3.425% nonresidents). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32, IR-2025-103; brackets and standard deductions). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates (2026 wage base $184,500; additional Medicare tax withholding at $200,000 regardless of filing status). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base (OASDI taxable maximum by year). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Revenue. Tax Rates (personal income tax 3.07%). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Revenue. PA Personal Income Tax Guide: Gross Compensation (retirement income and compensation treatment). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- City of Philadelphia, Department of Revenue. Do you qualify for Philly’s income-based Wage Tax refund? Accessed October 23, 2026.
- EY Tax News Update. Social Security wage base to increase in 2026 ($176,100 to $184,500). Accessed October 23, 2026.
- KPMG. Rev. Proc. 2025-32: Inflation adjustments for 2026, individual taxpayers. Accessed October 23, 2026.
- MoneyTrackerDaily. 2026 Tax Brackets and Standard Deduction tracker (single/married/HoH bracket tables). Accessed October 23, 2026.