Kentucky · rates effective Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026 · verified 2026-08-07
Kentucky Paycheck Calculator 2026
3.5% flat state tax rate in Kentucky — no local income tax, no state payroll deduction.
Kentucky taxes wages at a flat 3.5% in 2026, after a single $3,360 standard deduction that is the same for every filing status. What this calculator does not add is the local occupational tax many Kentucky cities withhold, and the page explains why.
Official 2026 tables, never copiedSources stamped & dated99 golden tests before publish
CEBy the Calceva data desk · Verified against official sources · Updated 2026-08-07 · 3 min read
This figure does not include a Kentucky city or county occupational tax. Louisville, Lexington and many smaller jurisdictions withhold one from wages, and we could not read their published rates at an official source, so no local rate is applied here. If your employer withholds a local line, your take-home is lower than shown.
Jan 1 · 2026 tables take effectAug 7 · verified against the official documentAug 28 · 2 of 3 sources re-checked automatically (the rest by hand)
Click any line to see exactly how it is computed, straight from the official documents.
ESTIMATE — NOT A PAY STUB
Educational rendering by Calceva — no employer, no pay-period history. ANNUAL = full-year projection.
3.5% in 2026, and the state's own pages do not agree yet
Kentucky cut its flat rate to 3.5% for 2026, down from 4%. The employer withholding page says so outright, while the department's individual income tax page still describes the 4% rate, because that is the rate for the year people are filing right now. Both are correct on their own terms and the pair catches out plenty of calculators: if a site shows you 4% for a 2026 paycheck, it read the wrong page. The rest of the arithmetic is short. Kentucky grants a single standard deduction of $3,360, identical for every filing status, and has no personal exemption at all.
The local tax this calculator does not show
Kentucky is a local-tax state. Cities and counties levy occupational license taxes on wages, and they are withheld from your pay: Louisville Metro and Lexington-Fayette are the largest, and a great many smaller jurisdictions charge their own. None of them is modelled here. Their rate pages refused our requests when we built this page, and we would rather show you a state figure with a clearly stated gap than invent a local rate. If you work in a city that levies one, expect a further line on your stub of roughly two percent of gross, and check the figure with your employer.
One more Kentucky quirk worth knowing: because the standard deduction is baked into the withholding formula, a second job gets that deduction a second time it is not entitled to. The state's own formula sheet warns about it and suggests withholding an extra $117.60 a year if you hold two W-2 jobs.
A flat 3.5%, down from 4%. The state's employer withholding page states the 2026 rate directly; its individual income tax page still shows 4%, which is the rate for the tax year being filed.
How much is the Kentucky standard deduction?
$3,360 for 2026, the same amount whatever your filing status. Kentucky has no personal exemption on top of it.
Why does my Kentucky stub show a second tax line?
Probably a local occupational license tax. Louisville, Lexington and many smaller jurisdictions levy one on wages, typically around two percent. This calculator does not include it, because we could not read the official rates at source.
I have two jobs in Kentucky. Am I under-withheld?
Possibly. The standard deduction is built into the withholding formula, so a second employer applies it again. The state's formula sheet suggests withholding an extra $117.60 over the year if you receive more than one W-2.
We never copy another calculator. Each rate is read from the official document, dated, and re-checked when agencies publish changes. This page's paper trail:
Verified 2026-08-07
Kentucky 42A003 (TCF)(10-2025), 2026 Kentucky Withholding Tax Formula — 2026 flat income tax rate 3.5% and Kentucky standard deduction $3,360, read from the official withholding formula: '2026 Kentucky Standard Deduction: $3,360 / 2026 Kentucky Tax Rate: 3.5% of taxable income'. The department adjusts the standard deduction annually under KRS 141.081(2)(a).
Verified 2026-08-07
Kentucky Department of Revenue, Employer Payroll Withholding — Confirmation of the rate change for the year: 'The Kentucky Withholding Tax rate will be 3.5% for tax year 2026' on the employer withholding page. Note the department's individual income tax page still describes the 4% rate, which is the rate for the tax year currently being filed.
Verified 2026-08-07
Kentucky 42A003 (TCF)(10-2025), worked examples — Withholding formula: annualize the pay-period wages, subtract the standard deduction, apply 3.5%, divide by the number of pay periods. Worked example 1 (monthly, $3,270) yields $104.65, which our implementation reproduces.
Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare on this page follow IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, Publication 15 and Publication 15-T, verified 2026-08-07. Our federal engine reproduces 2,175 of 2,175 Publication 15-T cells on every build. The six federal sources, itemised.
Matches the agency
Reproduces the agency’s own published figures. Our implementation of the Kentucky withholding formula reproduces the worked example of Kentucky 42A003 (TCF)(10-2025), 2026 Kentucky Withholding Tax Formula exactly as the agency prints it, re-checked on every build. Check them in the official PDF.
Cite this pageCalceva, “Kentucky Paycheck Calculator (2026),” verified 2026-08-07, https://calceva.com/kentucky-paycheck-calculator/