Bonus Tax Calculator

Example Calculation

A single filer in Ohio earns $75,000 and gets a $5,000 bonus. The bonus lands inside the 22% federal bracket, so it adds $1,100 of federal income tax. Social Security and Medicare add $382.50 (7.65%), and Ohio income tax adds $138. You keep about $3,380, which is 67.6% of the bonus. In Texas or Florida, which have no state income tax, the same bonus leaves $3,518. In California it leaves $3,095.

How much of a $5,000 bonus you keep, by state

Single filer, $75,000 salary, 2026 tax tables, standard deduction, no other deductions. The tax is what the bonus adds to the year.

How It Works

A bonus is wages. It is taxed in the year you get it, at the same rates as the rest of your pay. What looks different is the withholding. When a bonus is paid as a separate payment, many employers withhold federal income tax at a flat 22% instead of using your usual W-4 method, because the IRS treats bonuses as supplemental wages. Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) apply as well, and most states withhold their own income tax.

The flat 22% is a withholding rate, not the tax you really owe. Your real tax comes from your total income for the year. If your top bracket is 10% or 12%, part of the 22% comes back as a larger refund. If your top bracket is 24% or more, you may owe a little more when you file. That is why a bonus check can look small even though the bonus is not taxed at a higher rate.

This calculator shows what the bonus adds to your tax for the year. It runs your paycheck with and without the bonus, using the 2026 federal brackets, the Social Security limit and the 2026 brackets of the state you pick, and it takes the difference. The last two lines compare the federal tax with a flat 22% withholding, so you can see whether you should expect money back or a bill.

If your employer adds the bonus to a regular paycheck (the aggregate method), the withholding on that stub is figured on the combined amount and can look different. The tax for the year is the same either way. To see the rest of your pay, use the paycheck calculator for your state.

Formula Explained

tax on the bonus = tax on (salary + bonus) - tax on salary, worked out for federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and state income tax. You keep = bonus - tax on the bonus.

Flat withholding on a separate bonus: 22% × bonus for federal income tax, up to $1 million of supplemental wages in a year. The difference between that and the federal tax above is what comes back, or what you owe, when you file.

Assumptions and limits

• Tax year 2026. Federal brackets and the standard deduction come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, and the Social Security wage base is $184,500.
• Your salary and the bonus are taxed together as wages, with the standard deduction and no other deductions or credits. Pay is every two weeks.
• State income tax comes from the state's 2026 brackets, standard deduction and personal exemptions for a typical wage earner (Tax Foundation data). Local taxes and state payroll programs are not included.
• The flat 22% line assumes the bonus is a separate payment and your supplemental wages for the year are below $1 million.

Bonus tax by state: how much of a $5,000 bonus you keep

The federal part is the same everywhere: a $5,000 bonus on top of a $75,000 salary adds $1,100 of federal income tax (the 22% bracket) and $382.50 of Social Security and Medicare. What changes is the state income tax. 9 states take none, so you keep $3,518; in Oregon you keep $3,080. Single filer, standard deduction, no other deductions; the state tax is what the bonus adds to the year, which can differ from what your employer withholds from the bonus check.