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Virginia Paycheck Calculator 2026 — Tax Brackets & Take-Home Pay
Virginia's four income-tax brackets run from 2% to 5.75% — but the top rate kicks in at just $17,000, so most workers pay 5.75% on nearly everything. There is no local income tax anywhere in the state. See the full stack — free, private, no sign-up.
How Virginia Paychecks Work
- Federal tax: progressive brackets 10%–37% minus the $16,100 standard deduction (single, 2026) — same as everywhere.
- FICA: 6.2% Social Security (up to the $184,500 wage base) + 1.45% Medicare — same as everywhere.
- State tax: 2%–5.75% progressive. Four brackets (2% to $3,000; 3% to $5,000; 5% to $17,000; 5.75% above) — unchanged for decades, not inflation-indexed. On $85,000 single: the $8,750 standard deduction (2026) plus the $930 personal exemption leave $75,320 taxable, for $4,073 of state tax. No local income tax in Virginia. Withholding follows Form VA-4.
Worked Example: $85,000 Single Filer
Virginia vs Texas vs California on $85,000
The same single filer keeps $64,554 in Virginia against $68,627 in Texas and $63,760 in California. Virginia's compressed brackets make it effectively near-flat: at $85,000 your marginal rate is the top 5.75%. 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 Virginia Paycheck
Only one income tax touches a Virginia 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 Virginia 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 Virginia stub. There is no third line, which is exactly the point of the next section.
What Virginia Does Differently
Virginia's brackets are the most compressed in America: the 5.75% top rate starts at $17,000 of taxable income — a threshold set decades ago and never indexed for inflation — so a part-time barista and a surgeon face the same marginal rate. Two offsets soften the bite: the $8,750 standard deduction for 2026 (temporarily raised; scheduled to sunset after 2026) and the $930 personal exemption. And unlike Maryland across the Potomac, Virginia has no local income tax — the stub has one state line. The famous Virginia "car tax" (local personal property tax on vehicles) is separate and never withheld from pay.
Overtime and Pay-Frequency Math
Virginia 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 Virginia 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 Virginia Paychecks: Reading Your First Stub
A first Virginia 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
Virginia 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 Virginia: 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. Virginia 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 Virginia 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. Virginia adds nothing either way, so a Virginia 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 Virginia 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
Virginia's income tax looks progressive on paper but behaves like a 5.75% flat tax for anyone earning over roughly $26,000 — the brackets are that compressed. The real Virginia tax story is Northern Virginia housing and the personal property tax on cars, which can exceed $1,000 a year on a newer vehicle. Remote workers generally owe tax where they physically live.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Virginia's 2026 tax brackets?
Four, and the same for every filing status: 2% to $3,000; 3% to $5,000; 5% to $17,000; and 5.75% above $17,000. Only the dollars inside each bracket face that rate — tax on the first $17,000 is exactly $720. The brackets are not inflation-indexed.
How much will I take home in Virginia on $85,000?
Roughly $64,550 per year (≈$2,483 biweekly) for a single filer — about $157 less per paycheck than the same salary in Texas.
What is Virginia's standard deduction for 2026?
$8,750 for single filers and $17,500 for married couples filing jointly — temporarily raised, scheduled to revert after 2026 — plus a $930 personal exemption per filer.
Does Virginia have local income tax?
No — no city or county in Virginia levies an income tax, unlike Maryland next door. The state line on your stub is the entire sub-federal income-tax stack.
What is the Virginia car tax?
A local personal property tax on vehicles, separate from income tax and never withheld from your paycheck. Rates vary by county and city and can exceed $1,000 a year on a newer car in Northern Virginia.
How is overtime calculated on a Virginia paycheck?
Virginia follows the federal FLSA: 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 per week. At $30/hour, a 45-hour week grosses $1,425 (40 x $30 plus 5 x $45). Salaried exempt employees are outside the overtime rule.
Do I pay Virginia tax if I just moved here?
Virginia taxes income earned while you are a Virginia resident. The move splits the year; file Form VA-4 with your new employer on arrival week.
What is a third-paycheck month?
On a biweekly schedule (26 pays a year), two calendar months contain three paydays instead of two. Annual gross is identical; only the timing shifts. Per-check withholding can look high in a three-pay month because each check is annualized independently, with the difference settling at filing time.
Why was my Virginia bonus taxed so much?
It was withheld, not taxed, at the 22% flat federal supplemental rate (plus FICA), and Virginia withholds at the 5.75% top rate on the bonus too. Your actual liability settles at filing time, which is why bonus-heavy earners often see refunds.
How do I compare two Virginia job offers?
Compare annual gross first, subtract state tax (effectively 5.75% on most of it at $85,000), then price benefits — and in Northern Virginia, housing and the car tax can move the math more than the state rate does.
Do Virginia freelancers pay quarterly taxes?
Federal estimated tax, yes: January 15, April 15, June 15 and September 15. Virginia estimated payments follow a similar quarterly calendar. Budget around 30 percent of each payment for the combined bill.
Should I update my W-4 when I move to Virginia?
Yes — the federal W-4 and Virginia Form VA-4, on arrival week. Your withholding was calibrated to a different state system.
Sources: VA Dept. of Taxation (tax.virginia.gov); 2026 brackets 2%–5.75% (unchanged for decades); $8,750 standard deduction + $930 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.