Maryland Paycheck Calculator 2026 — State + County Tax & Take-Home Pay

Maryland taxes paychecks twice: a progressive state income tax from 2% to 6.5% plus a county “piggyback” tax of 2.25% to 3.2% — the combined bite is among the heaviest in the Mid-Atlantic. See the full two-layer stack — free, private, no sign-up.

How Maryland Paychecks Work

1. Federal tax: progressive brackets 10%–37% minus the $16,100 standard deduction (single, 2026) — same as everywhere.
2. FICA: 6.2% Social Security (up to the $184,500 wage base) + 1.45% Medicare — same as everywhere.
3. State tax: 2%–6.5% progressive (10 brackets). At $85,000 single you span four: 2%–4% on the first $3,000, then 4.75% to $100,000 — after the $3,350 standard deduction and $3,200 exemption, state tax is $3,674. Every county adds a local income tax of 2.25%–3.2% on the same base (shown below at a ~2.96% illustrative average). Withholding follows Form MW507.

Worked Example: $85,000 Single Filer

Maryland vs Texas vs California on $85,000

The same single filer keeps $62,631 in Maryland against $68,627 in Texas and $63,760 in California — the county layer makes Maryland the costliest of the three by a wide margin. Model any state in the calculator.

Illustrative estimate for a single filer, standard deduction, no pre-tax contributions. Confirm with the IRS or a tax professional.

Federal Withholding on a Maryland Paycheck

Only one income tax touches a Maryland paycheck: the federal one. Withholding follows the IRS percentage method in Publication 15-T, and three inputs drive it: your filing status, the dependents and credits you claim on Form W-4, and any extra withholding you request. Change any of the three and the same salary produces a different stub, which is why two Maryland workers earning $85,000 can take home different amounts.

Federal tax is progressive, which means it applies in slices, not to the whole salary at once. Only the dollars inside each bracket are taxed at that bracket's rate, so a single filer's effective rate is always lower than their top marginal rate. The standard deduction then removes a further slice of income from tax entirely before the brackets even start. Pre-tax items shrink the taxable wage base further: 401(k) contributions and health premiums taken pre-tax reduce the wages the percentages apply to, though the exact treatment differs by deduction type, so read your stub labels rather than assuming.

Our US paycheck calculator models this with an editable withholding percentage instead of hard-coding tables that Congress and inflation adjust every year. If you want the precise official arithmetic for the current year, Publication 15-T is the source the payroll industry itself uses.

FICA: the Two Lines That Always Appear

Below the federal line sit two flat deductions that behave nothing like income tax. Social Security takes 6.2% of wages up to the Social Security Administration's annual wage base, a cap it resets every year. Medicare takes 1.45% of all wages with no cap, plus an additional 0.9% on earnings above $200,000 for single filers ($250,000 joint) — those thresholds are set in statute, not adjusted annually. Your employer matches the 6.2% and the 1.45% dollar for dollar; the additional 0.9% is employee-only.

On the $85,000 example: Social Security is $85,000 x 0.062 = $5,270, comfortably below any recent wage-base cap, and Medicare is $85,000 x 0.0145 = $1,232.50. Together with federal withholding that is the entire deduction stack on a Maryland stub. There is no third line, which is exactly the point of the next section.

What Maryland Does Differently

Maryland is the only state with a mandatory local income tax everywhere: all 23 counties plus Baltimore City levy a piggyback tax of 2.25%–3.2% on your state taxable income, withheld in the same run — Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Allegany and Baltimore City charge the full 3.2%. The state layer itself changed for 2026: the Budget Reconciliation Act added 6.25% and 6.5% top brackets (over $500,000/$1,000,000 single). And Maryland's paid family and medical leave program (FAMLI) starts withholding in 2027 — not 2026 — so it is not on this year's stub yet.

Overtime and Pay-Frequency Math

Maryland follows the federal Fair Labor Standards Act: non-exempt employees earn 1.5x their regular rate for hours over 40 in a week, with no stricter state daily-overtime rule on top. At $30/hour and a 45-hour week: 40 x $30 = $1,200 straight time, 5 x $45 = $225 overtime, $1,425 gross for the week. Salaried exempt employees are outside this rule under the duties-and-salary-basis test, so a $85,000 salary means $85,000 of gross regardless of hours.

Pay frequency then decides the per-check number without changing the annual total. On $85,000: weekly (52) = $1,634.62; biweekly (26) = $3,269.23; semi-monthly (24) = $3,541.67; monthly (12) = $7,083.33. The existing $85,000 example uses biweekly, the most common Maryland schedule. Note that overtime and bonuses can push individual checks into higher withholding on that check alone; withholding per check annualizes the amount, so a spike check withholds as though you earned at that pace all year, with the balance settling at filing time.

New to Maryland Paychecks: Reading Your First Stub

A first Maryland pay stub surprises newcomers in two ways: there is no state line at all, and the federal and FICA lines look larger than expected because nothing else shares the load. Read it top to bottom. Gross is what you earned. Pre-tax items come off next. FITW (federal income tax withheld) follows your W-4. Then the two FICA lines. The remainder is net. The year-to-date column repeats the same stack cumulatively, which is how you spot a drift early — if YTD federal withholding looks high relative to gross in March, file a new W-4 rather than waiting until filing season. Anyone arriving mid-year should set the W-4 for the new situation on day one: settings calibrated to a previous state system will systematically over- or under-withhold here. Our US paycheck calculator lets you model the stub before the first one prints.

Tipped, Hourly, and Third-Paycheck Months

Maryland hospitality runs on tipped wages, and the federal rules are specific. Employers may pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour provided tips bring total hourly earnings to at least the $7.25 federal minimum; if they do not, the employer makes up the difference. Overtime for tipped and hourly staff alike is 1.5 times the regular rate past 40 hours a week. Separately, biweekly earners get two third-paycheck months every year: 26 paychecks cannot divide evenly into 12 months, so two months contain three paydays. The annual total is unchanged, but budgeting monthly on two checks and treating the third as surplus is the standard move. Monthly billers should note the mirror image: semi-monthly schedules never produce a third check, so compare offers on annual gross, not per-check size.

Self-Employed in Maryland: What Changes

Without an employer there is no withholding at all, so the full stack lands on you four times a year. Self-employment tax replaces both halves of FICA: 12.4% for Social Security up to the annual wage base plus 2.9% for Medicare, with the additional 0.9% over the statutory thresholds exactly as for employees — 15.3% combined before income tax. Half of that combined amount is deductible when computing income tax, which softens it but does not remove it. Federal estimated payments fall on the fixed calendar: January 15, April 15, June 15 and September 15, shifting to the next business day when the date lands on a weekend. Maryland adds nothing on top: no state estimates, no state return, no state-level equivalent to argue about. Miss a federal quarter and interest accrues from the due date, so new freelancers should set calendar reminders before the first April deadline surprises them. Keep 25 to 30 percent of each client payment in a separate account and the quarters stop hurting.

Bonuses, Commissions, and Supplemental Pay

Not everything on a Maryland stub follows the salary rules. Bonuses, commissions, severance, and back pay are supplemental wages, and employers may withhold federal tax on them at a flat 22% up to $1 million in a year (37% above that), instead of running them through the W-4 percentage method. That is why a $5,000 bonus can arrive as $3,900 before FICA even though your salary withholding implies a lower rate: $5,000 x 0.22 = $1,100 held back, plus 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare on top. Maryland adds nothing either way, so a Maryland bonus beats the same bonus in California by the state slice alone. The flat rate is only withholding, not the final tax — the actual liability settles at filing time against your real marginal rate, which is why bonus-heavy earners in Maryland often see meaningful refunds. Overtime already covered above counts as regular wages, not supplemental pay, so the two rules never stack on the same dollar.

The Honest Footnote: Total Burden Matters

The county tax is the line that shocks newcomers: at 3.2%, a Montgomery County worker pays nearly as much to the county as to the state. County rates are set annually, so check yours each year — Allegany raised its rate to 3.2% for 2026, and Anne Arundel and Frederick switched to progressive local brackets capping at 3.2%. Remote workers generally owe the county tax where they physically live.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: MD Comptroller (marylandtaxes.gov); 2026 brackets 2%–6.5% (10 brackets); county piggyback tax 2.25%–3.2%; $3,350 standard deduction + $3,200 exemption single. Federal figures: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, SSA.gov. Accessed 2026-11-01.

Disclaimer: Estimates only — not tax advice. Confirm with the IRS or a tax professional.