2026 · Illinois · Flat 4.95%
Illinois Paycheck Calculator
Illinois charges one rate on every dollar of income above a fixed allowance — 4.95%, the same for a single filer and a married couple. What makes an Illinois stub different is not the rate but the base: the state starts from federal adjusted gross income, before the federal standard deduction, so it taxes a larger number than the IRS does. This calculator applies the 2026 federal brackets and the Illinois rule exactly as written.
Your Illinois paycheck, period by period
An Illinois salary is quoted as an annual figure and paid in slices. $52,000 is $1,000 a week, $2,000 every two weeks, $2,166.67 twice a month or $4,333.33 once a month. The annual total does not change with the schedule; the size of each deposit does, because withholding is computed per pay period and then multiplied back out to a year.
Illinois adds one line to the federal ones: 4.95% of wages after a $2,925 allowance. On $52,000 paid every two weeks that is $93.43 per check, on top of $156.15 of federal income tax, $124.00 of Social Security and $29.00 of Medicare. The ticket above recalculates all of it the moment you change the frequency.
| Pay frequency | Gross per check | Net per check | Net per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $1,000.00 | $798.71 | $41,533 |
| Bi-weekly | $2,000.00 | $1,597.41 | $41,533 |
| Semi-monthly | $2,166.67 | $1,730.53 | $41,533 |
| Monthly | $4,333.33 | $3,461.07 | $41,533 |
What comes out of an Illinois paycheck in 2026
Four deductions come out of an Illinois paycheck: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Illinois income tax. There is no state disability insurance, no employee paid-leave premium and no city or county income tax, so the state contributes exactly one line and nothing else.
Federal income tax
Federal tax is progressive: each slice of taxable income carries its own rate, so a raise never re-prices the dollars you already earned. For a single filer in 2026 the bands are 10% to $12,400 of taxable income, 12% to $50,400, 22% to $105,700, 24% to $201,775, 32% to $256,225, 35% to $640,600 and 37% above that. A married couple filing jointly gets bands twice as wide up to the top bracket.
Federal taxable income is salary minus pre-tax deductions minus the standard deduction — $16,100 single, $32,200 joint, $16,100 married filing separately, $24,150 head of household in 2026. A single filer on $52,000 therefore has $35,900 of federal taxable income and pays $4,060 across the year, about 7.8% of salary, even though the last dollar sits in the 12% bracket.
Social Security
Social Security takes 6.2% of gross wages, and your employer pays a matching 6.2% that never appears on your stub. The tax stops at an annual wage base: in 2026 the first $184,500 of wages is taxed and everything above it is exempt, so the maximum employee contribution is $11,439. A $52,000 salary pays $3,224 over the year; a $250,000 salary pays the maximum and no more.
Almost nothing lowers this base — not a 401(k) deferral, not a Section 125 health premium. Below roughly $37,000 of salary that makes Social Security the largest single deduction on the check; above it, federal income tax takes the lead.
Medicare
Medicare takes 1.45% with no ceiling at all. High earners pay an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 single, $250,000 joint or $125,000 married filing separately. The surtax is employee-only and applied employer by employer rather than per household, so two spouses earning $180,000 each will not see it withheld until they file.
Illinois income tax
Illinois charges 4.95% of everything above a per-person allowance of $2,925. On $52,000 that is $49,075 of Illinois income and $2,429.21 of tax across the year, or $93.43 per bi-weekly check. The effective rate works out to 4.67% of salary, not 4.95%, because the allowance removes a slice of income from the tax.
Two features of this tax surprise people. The first is that the rate never changes: there are no brackets to climb, so a raise from $52,000 to $520,000 is taxed at 4.95% on every additional dollar. The second is the base — Illinois starts from federal adjusted gross income, which is calculated before the federal standard deduction, so the state is taxing a bigger number than the IRS is. On $100,000 the IRS taxes $83,900 and Illinois taxes $97,075.
What does not come out
No disability insurance: Illinois has never run a state SDI programme. No paid-leave premium: the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, in force since 1 January 2024, requires employers to provide up to 40 hours of paid leave a year and to fund it themselves, so nothing is withheld from the employee. No local income tax: Illinois has no municipal or county income tax anywhere in the state, Chicago included.
What your employer pays that you never see
An employer matches your Social Security and Medicare contributions, pays the federal unemployment tax, and pays Illinois unemployment insurance. The Illinois tax is experience-rated, charged on a wage base far below a typical salary, and is never deducted from a paycheck. On a $52,000 salary the employer side adds roughly $4,200 across the year, none of which touches your take-home pay.
Does Illinois have a flat income tax?
Yes. Illinois taxes individual income at a single rate of 4.95%, set by 35 ILCS 5/201 and in force since 1 July 2017. The rate has not moved since, and there is no bracket structure to look up: one rate covers every dollar above the allowance, for every filing status.
That makes Illinois unusual among the states on this site. California runs ten brackets from 1% to 14.63%, Oregon four from 4.75% to 9.9%, Virginia four from 2% to 5.75%. Texas and Florida charge nothing. Illinois sits alone in the middle: a rate high enough to matter, applied without any progression at all.
The flat rate is not a policy preference that could change with the next budget. Article IX, Section 3(a) of the Illinois Constitution says a tax on or measured by income "shall be at a non-graduated rate" — one rate, by constitutional requirement. The General Assembly cannot introduce brackets on its own. In November 2020 voters were asked to delete that sentence and allow graduated rates; the amendment failed, and the flat-rate clause stayed. Any future change to Illinois brackets requires another constitutional amendment, not a statute.
The statute that matters more than the rate is 35 ILCS 5/203, which defines Illinois base income as federal adjusted gross income with a list of additions and subtractions. Federal AGI is computed before the standard deduction, so the standard deduction never reaches Illinois. Illinois has no standard deduction of its own to replace it — only the $2,925 allowance in 35 ILCS 5/204.
The consequence is a fixed gap between the two tax bases, and it is worth seeing directly. For a single filer with no dependents the gap is $16,100 − $2,925 = $13,175 at every income level, because both figures are fixed amounts rather than percentages.
| Salary | Federal taxable | Illinois taxable | Illinois taxes more by | Illinois tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $23,900 | $37,075 | +$13,175 | $1,835.21 |
| $52,000 | $35,900 | $49,075 | +$13,175 | $2,429.21 |
| $75,000 | $58,900 | $72,075 | +$13,175 | $3,567.71 |
| $100,000 | $83,900 | $97,075 | +$13,175 | $4,805.21 |
| $150,000 | $133,900 | $147,075 | +$13,175 | $7,280.21 |
| $200,000 | $183,900 | $197,075 | +$13,175 | $9,755.21 |
| $300,000 | $283,900 | $297,075 | +$13,175 | $14,705.21 |
Note the shape of the final column: Illinois tax rises in a straight line. There is no bend where a higher rate kicks in, because there is no higher rate. Illinois tax is 4.95% of a base that is always $13,175 wider than the federal one, which is why the effective rate creeps from 4.67% at $52,000 to 4.90% at $300,000 and never actually reaches 4.95%.
For a married couple filing jointly the gap doubles to $26,350, since the joint standard deduction is $32,200 and the joint allowance is two exemptions of $2,925. Head of household sits between the two: the federal standard deduction is $24,150 and the Illinois allowance is still $2,925, so the gap is $21,225. Illinois does not distinguish head of household from single in its own statute — the difference comes entirely from the federal side.
Against the other states with a page here, the $100,000 salary is the cleanest comparison. Illinois leaves $2,860.57 per bi-weekly check. Virginia leaves $2,855.54, California $2,775.71 and Oregon $2,747.39. Illinois is a few dollars ahead of Virginia despite a nominally lower top rate, because Virginia's $8,750 standard deduction does less work than Illinois's much wider base does harm. Against Florida and Texas, which levy nothing, Illinois is $184.82 behind every two weeks — $4,805.21 across the year.
Illinois take-home pay by salary
The table below holds the assumptions still — single filer, bi-weekly pay, no dependents, no pre-tax deductions — so the rows compare cleanly down the column. The last four rows turn an hourly rate at 40 hours a week into the annual salary it represents.
Because Illinois has one rate, the effective-rate column moves very little. It goes from 18.8% on $40,000 to 25.6% on $100,000 and 33.2% on $300,000, and almost all of that movement is federal: the progressive brackets and the Social Security ceiling. The Illinois share of the total sits between 4.6 and 4.9 percentage points at every salary on the page.
The "net per year" column is what actually reaches a bank account over twelve months. The difference between it and the salary column is federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and one flat state line.
| Annual pay | Gross per check | Net per check | Net per year | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $1,538.46 | $1,249.41 | $32,485 | 18.8% |
| $50,000 | $1,923.08 | $1,539.41 | $40,025 | 20.0% |
| $60,000 | $2,307.69 | $1,829.41 | $47,565 | 20.7% |
| $75,000 | $2,884.62 | $2,231.72 | $58,025 | 22.6% |
| $100,000 | $3,846.15 | $2,860.57 | $74,375 | 25.6% |
| $125,000 | $4,807.69 | $3,486.95 | $90,661 | 27.5% |
| $150,000 | $5,769.23 | $4,096.57 | $106,511 | 29.0% |
| $200,000 | $7,692.31 | $5,352.76 | $139,172 | 30.4% |
| $250,000 | $9,615.38 | $6,575.07 | $170,952 | 31.6% |
| $300,000 | $11,538.46 | $7,710.44 | $200,472 | 33.2% |
| $15/hr × 40h ($31,200/yr) | $1,200.00 | $994.21 | $25,850 | 17.1% |
| $20/hr × 40h ($41,600/yr) | $1,600.00 | $1,295.81 | $33,691 | 19.0% |
| $25/hr × 40h ($52,000/yr) | $2,000.00 | $1,597.41 | $41,533 | 20.1% |
| $30/hr × 40h ($62,400/yr) | $2,400.00 | $1,899.01 | $49,374 | 20.9% |
How to use the Illinois paycheck calculator
Start with pay type. Choose salary and enter the annual figure, or choose hourly and enter the rate plus the hours you work in a typical week; the calculator multiplies by 52, so $17 an hour at 40 hours is treated as $35,360 — just above Illinois's $15.00 minimum wage.
Set the pay frequency to match your employer. Bi-weekly means every two weeks, 26 checks a year; semi-monthly means twice a month, 24 checks. Annual totals do not change between them, per-check totals do, and confusing the two is the usual reason a hand calculation disagrees with a stub.
Then set filing status and dependents. Illinois does not change its rate for filing status, but it does change how many $2,925 allowances you claim, and that is worth $144.79 each. Dependents feed both the Illinois allowance and the federal Child Tax Credit.
Finally add pre-tax deductions. A 401(k) percentage, a monthly HSA contribution and a monthly health premium all reduce federal AGI, and because Illinois starts from federal AGI they reduce Illinois income by the same amount.
Filing status, the IL-W-4 and withholding
Illinois withholding runs on Form IL-W-4, not the federal W-4. The employer multiplies the number of allowances on Line 1 by $2,925, subtracts that from the pay period's wages, and applies 4.95%. Filing status does not enter the formula at all — Illinois counts people, not brackets.
That has a practical consequence for a married couple. A joint Illinois return claims one allowance for each spouse, so the allowance doubles to $5,850 and the couple keeps $289.58 of tax across the year that a single filer on the same income would not. Above that, each dependent adds another $2,925. The IL-W-4 also has a Line 2 for allowances tied to credits, each worth $1,000, and a Line 3 for extra withholding; neither is modelled here because neither appears on a routine paycheck.
Remote work is where Illinois paychecks get complicated. Illinois taxes residents on all income, wherever earned, and non-residents only on income with an Illinois source. For a remote employee living in another state and working for a Chicago employer, the question is whether the work is Illinois-sourced, and the answer depends on the other state as much as on Illinois.
Four neighbours have reciprocal agreements with Illinois: Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin. If you live in one of those and commute into Illinois, your employer should not withhold Illinois tax at all, and your home state's tax applies instead. Indiana has no such agreement, which is why an Indiana resident working in Illinois sees Illinois withholding on the stub and files an Illinois non-resident return in April. Illinois residents working in a reciprocal state are taxed by Illinois and not by the state where they work.
Moving in or out of Illinois mid-year produces a part-year return. Only wages earned while resident are taxed on everything; wages earned while a non-resident are taxed only if Illinois-sourced. The withholding on the stub is not the final answer in either direction — it is a deposit against a return that reconciles the two periods.
Assumptions and sources
Ruleset 2026.1, verified 2026-10-29. Federal brackets and the standard deduction come from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (§4.01 and §4.14). Social Security and Medicare rates, the $184,500 wage base and the 0.9% additional Medicare threshold come from IRS Publication 15 (2026), Circular E. The Child Tax Credit amounts are the 2026 figures published by the IRS.
The Illinois rate is 35 ILCS 5/201, the base is 35 ILCS 5/203, and the $2,925 allowance is 35 ILCS 5/204 as adjusted for inflation. The 2026 allowance figure appears in the Department of Revenue's Booklet IL-700-T (R-12/25), effective 1 January 2026, and matches the Tax Foundation's 2026 state table. The reciprocal-state list comes from Publication 130.
Not modelled: IL-W-4 Line 2 allowances, additional withholding requested on Line 3, the extra allowance for filers 65 and over, the Illinois property tax credit, wage garnishments, union dues, post-tax deductions, itemised deductions, the Earned Income Tax Credit, bonuses withheld at supplemental rates, and mid-year pay changes. Figures are estimates, not a filing.
- Illinois Constitution, Article IX, Section 3 — income tax "shall be at a non-graduated rate"
- Illinois Department of Revenue — 4.95% individual income tax rate
- 35 ILCS 5/203 — base income defined as federal adjusted gross income, as modified
- 35 ILCS 5/204 — standard exemption, $2,050 plus cost-of-living adjustment
- Booklet IL-700-T (2026) — withholding tables and the $2,925 allowance
- IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 — 2026 federal brackets and standard deduction
- IRS Publication 15 (2026) — FICA rates and wage base
Frequently asked questions
Does Illinois have a flat income tax?
Yes. Illinois taxes individual income at a single 4.95% rate under 35 ILCS 5/201, in force since 1 July 2017 and unchanged since. There are no brackets, and every filing status pays the same rate — what changes with filing status is how many $2,925 allowances you claim, not the rate.
What is taken out of an Illinois paycheck?
Four things: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Illinois income tax, plus any pre-tax benefits you elected. On $52,000 paid bi-weekly, $10,467.21 comes out across the year — $4,060 federal income tax, $3,224 Social Security, $754 Medicare and $2,429.21 to Illinois. That leaves $41,532.79, or $1,597.41 per $2,000 check.
How much is a $100,000 salary in Illinois after tax?
$2,860.57 per bi-weekly check, or $74,374.79 across the year, for a single filer with no dependents and no pre-tax deductions. Illinois takes $184.82 per check, federal income tax $506.54, Social Security $238.46 and Medicare $55.77.
Why is my Illinois tax higher than 4.95% of my salary, or lower?
Lower, always. The $2,925 allowance is subtracted before the rate is applied, so the effective rate is below 4.95%: 4.67% on $52,000, 4.81% on $100,000, 4.90% on $300,000. It approaches 4.95% as income rises but never reaches it, because a fixed allowance never disappears.
Does Illinois have a standard deduction?
No. Illinois has a standard exemption of $2,925 per person, which is a different thing: it is a fixed allowance claimed per person rather than a deduction sized to your income. Illinois base income starts from federal adjusted gross income, which is calculated before the federal standard deduction, so the federal $16,100 never carries over.
What is the $2,925 Illinois exemption worth?
$144.79 a year per person, because 4.95% of $2,925 is $144.79. A married couple filing jointly claims two, worth $289.58, and each dependent adds another $144.79. Unlike Oregon's exemption credit, the Illinois allowance never phases out at higher income.
Does filing status change Illinois withholding?
Not the rate. Illinois withholding is 4.95% of wages after allowances, and allowances are counted per person: one for a single filer, two on a joint return, plus one per dependent. A couple earning $150,000 jointly pays $7,135.43, which is 4.95% of $144,150.
Does Illinois have disability insurance or paid family leave?
No disability insurance — Illinois has never run an SDI programme. Paid leave exists but is employer-funded: the Paid Leave for All Workers Act gives up to 40 hours a year, accrued at one hour per 40 worked, and the employer pays for it. Nothing is withheld from the employee, so there is no second state line on an Illinois stub.
Do Illinois cities or counties charge local income tax?
No. Illinois has no municipal or county income tax anywhere in the state, Chicago included. Localities raise revenue through property tax and sales tax instead, neither of which touches a paycheck.
I live in a neighbouring state and work in Illinois. Do I owe Illinois tax?
It depends on the state. Illinois has reciprocal agreements with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin, so residents of those states working in Illinois are not subject to Illinois withholding. Indiana has no agreement, so an Indiana resident working in Illinois does see Illinois withholding and files an Illinois non-resident return.
Other states
6 states are modeled so far, and a state only gets a link once its own rate schedule and worked examples are on the page. The remaining 44 return a federal-only estimate, labelled as such.
- Texas No state income tax
- California State tax + SDI
- Virginia State income tax
- Oregon State tax + paid leave
- Florida No state income tax
- All states Hub