Washington · rates effective Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026 · verified 2026-08-07
Washington Paycheck Calculator 2026
No state income tax on wages in Washington, plus 2 employee payroll programs on the stub.
No income tax is withheld from Washington paychecks in 2026. Two state payroll premiums still reduce take-home pay: Paid Family & Medical Leave (1.13% total, employee pays 71.43%, capped at $184,500 of wages) and WA Cares (0.58%, no cap, exemptions available). A 9.9% tax on income over $1M was enacted in 2026 but does not start until tax year 2028 and faces a repeal vote in November 2026.
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
Type what your stub prints; every line is recomputed from the official 2026 formulas, in your browser only.
Educational reconciliation, not tax advice. Withholding legitimately varies with your exact W-4 entries; your final bill is set by your return.
The audit report appears here, line by line, stamped.
0%
Washington state income tax on wages in 2026
0
local wage taxes anywhere in Washington
2
payroll programmes deducted from Washington pay
Washington withholding rates for 2026
Washington levies no state income tax on wages in 2026, so there is no state withholding table to publish. What is withheld from a Washington paycheck is federal, plus any state payroll program listed above.
Read from WA Department of Revenue on 2026-08-07. Every figure above is taken from that document; nothing here is our estimate.
No income tax withheld - but a Washington stub is not empty
The precise statement matters here: no income tax is withheld from Washington paychecks. A 9.9% tax on income over $1 million was enacted in 2026, but it does not start until tax year 2028 and faces a repeal vote in November 2026. For every paycheck in 2026, the state income tax line is zero.
What Washington does collect from workers are two insurance premiums. Paid Family and Medical Leave runs at 1.13% of pay, and employees carry 71.43% of that premium - about $0.81 per $100 earned - on wages up to $184,500. WA Cares, the long-term-care fund, takes another 0.58% on every dollar, with no wage cap; workers holding an approved state exemption can opt out, and this calculator has a checkbox for exactly that case. Employers are allowed to pay part or all of the employee share, so your own stub may show less than the calculator assumes.
On a $75,000 salary, those two programs cost about $1,040 a year. Smaller than an income tax, real enough to notice - and missing from several competing calculators, which is why our Washington number can differ from theirs. The receipts are on the methodology page.
If Washington has no income tax, what are these deductions on my stub?
Two state insurance premiums, not income taxes. Paid Family and Medical Leave costs employees about 0.81% of pay up to the $184,500 wage cap, and WA Cares takes 0.58% of every dollar with no cap. Together, roughly $1,040 a year on a $75,000 salary.
Can I opt out of WA Cares?
Only with an exemption approved by the state. If you hold one, tick the exemption box in the calculator above and the 0.58% line disappears from your estimate.
Is Washington getting an income tax soon?
A 9.9% tax on income over $1 million was enacted in 2026, but it does not start until tax year 2028 - and voters will decide whether to repeal it in November 2026. Paychecks in 2026 see none of it.
Does Seattle tax wages?
No Washington city or county withholds a wage tax from employees. Seattle's payroll taxes are levied on large employers, not on your paycheck.
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
WA Department of Revenue — No personal income tax withheld from Washington wages in 2026. (A 9.9% tax on income over $1M was enacted 2026-03-30 (ESSB 6346) but is effective tax year 2028, has no paycheck withholding, and faces repeal initiative I-645 in Nov 2026.)
Verified 2026-08-07
WA Paid Family & Medical Leave (ESD) — PFML 2026: total premium 1.13% of gross wages (tips excluded), employee share 71.43%, wages capped at the Social Security wage base $184,500
Verified 2026-08-07
WA Cares Fund — WA Cares 2026: 0.58% of all wages, 100% employee-paid, no wage cap; worker-initiated exemptions exist
Verified 2026-08-07
WA Paid Leave, Employer Wage Reporting and Premiums Toolkit v25.1 (June 2026) — 2026 Paid Leave premium 1.13% of gross wages up to the Social Security cap ($184,500), employee share 0.7143 of the premium (family 0.4806 + medical 0.2337); WA Cares 0.58% of gross wages with no cap. Re-verified 2026-08-07 in the official employer toolkit (pp. 20-21) and on wacaresfund.wa.gov.
Federal lines
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.
Cite this pageCalceva, “Washington Paycheck Calculator (2026),” verified 2026-08-07, https://calceva.com/washington-paycheck-calculator/