2026 · Virginia · 5.75% top rate
Virginia Paycheck Calculator
Virginia takes a smaller share of a paycheck than most states with an income tax, but it does so with a schedule that has not moved since 1990. This paycheck calculator for Virginia applies the four rates, the $8,750 standard deduction and the $930 exemption, and shows each line separately.
Your Virginia paycheck, period by period
A Virginia salary is quoted as an annual number and paid in pieces. A $52,000 salary 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 never changes; the size of each deposit does, and so does the amount withheld from it. That is what a Virginia paycheck calculator has to get right: an annual liability split into however many checks your employer actually writes.
Withholding is calculated per pay period, so the schedule decides how much comes out of each check. The table below runs one salary through all four schedules using the 2026 federal brackets, the Social Security wage base of $184,500, the 1.45% Medicare rate and Virginia's own four-bracket schedule. Switch the frequency in the form above and the whole ticket recalculates.
| Pay frequency | Gross per check | Net per check | Net per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $1,000.00 | $803.58 | $41,786 |
| Bi-weekly | $2,000.00 | $1,607.16 | $41,786 |
| Semi-monthly | $2,166.67 | $1,741.09 | $41,786 |
| Monthly | $4,333.33 | $3,482.18 | $41,786 |
What comes out of a Virginia paycheck in 2026
Five things reduce a Virginia paycheck: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, Virginia income tax and any pre-tax benefits you elected. Each is calculated on a different base, which is why two people with the same salary can take home different amounts.
Federal income tax
Federal income tax is progressive: each slice of taxable income is taxed at its own rate, so moving into a higher bracket never raises the rate on money you already earned. For a single filer in 2026 the bands are 10% up 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. Married couples filing jointly get bands exactly twice as wide until the top bracket.
Taxable income is not your salary. It is salary minus pre-tax deductions minus the standard deduction, which is $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly, $16,100 for married filing separately and $24,150 for head of household in 2026. A single Virginian earning $52,000 therefore has $35,900 of taxable income and pays $4,060 of federal income tax — 7.8% of the salary on average, even though the last dollar earned sits in the 12% bracket.
Withholding is not the same as the tax you owe in April. Employers project each paycheck out to a full year, apply the standard deduction and the brackets, then divide the result by the number of pay periods. Steady income and an accurate W-4 keep the two numbers close. A second job, freelance income or a working spouse usually pushes the estimate under, because each employer applies a full standard deduction independently.
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 every dollar above it is exempt, so the maximum employee contribution is $11,439. Someone earning $52,000 pays $3,224 across the year; someone earning $250,000 pays the maximum and nothing more.
Almost nothing lowers this base. A 401(k) contribution does not reduce it, and a health premium taken through a Section 125 plan does not reduce it either. That is why Social Security is usually the second-largest line on a Virginia paycheck, ahead of the state tax.
Medicare
Medicare takes 1.45% of gross wages with no ceiling at all. High earners pay an additional 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for a single filer, $250,000 for a married couple filing jointly and $125,000 for married filing separately. That extra 0.9% is employee-only; there is no employer match on it, and it is applied employer by employer rather than per household, so two spouses earning $180,000 each will not see it withheld until they file.
Virginia income tax
Virginia taxes wages on a four-bracket schedule: 2% on the first $3,000 of Virginia taxable income, 3% on the next $2,000, 5% on the next $12,000 and 5.75% above $17,000. Because the top band starts so low, almost anyone with a full-time salary pays 5.75% on the last dollar earned, and the effective rate is decided mostly by how much of the salary the standard deduction and exemptions remove.
Virginia taxable income starts from federal adjusted gross income, which means a traditional 401(k) contribution, an HSA contribution and a Section 125 health premium all reduce it. That is different from California, which ignores the federal HSA exclusion, and it means a Virginian's state tax falls by the same percentage as the contribution.
On a $52,000 salary the state line comes to $83.69 per bi-weekly check, or $2,175.90 across the year — an effective Virginia rate of 4.18% on the whole salary, against a marginal rate of 5.75%.
Pre-tax deductions
Anything routed into a 401(k), an HSA or a Section 125 health premium comes out before income tax is calculated, so each dollar contributed costs less than a dollar of take-home pay. A 6% 401(k) contribution on a $60,000 salary moves $3,600 a year into the account and reduces federal income tax by roughly $430 for a single filer in the 12% bracket, plus another $207 of Virginia tax, so the real cost to take-home pay is closer to $2,960.
How Virginia income tax is calculated
Virginia uses a graduated schedule with four rates. The bands are narrow at the bottom and stop at $17,000, which is the detail that surprises people: a $200,000 salary and a $30,000 salary both pay 5.75% on their last dollar of Virginia taxable income. What separates them is the amount of income that survives the deductions.
| Taxable income | Rate | Tax on the first dollar of the band |
|---|---|---|
| $0 – $3,000 | 2.00% | $0.00 |
| $3,000 – $5,000 | 3.00% | $60.00 |
| $5,000 – $17,000 | 5.00% | $120.00 |
| Above $17,000 | 5.75% | $720.00 |
Two deductions sit between gross pay and the rate table. The first is the Virginia standard deduction, which is $8,750 for a single filer and $17,500 for a married couple filing jointly for tax year 2026 — one half of those amounts for a married person filing separately. Virginia has no separate head-of-household status, so a head of household is treated as single for this purpose.
The second is the personal exemption, $930 for each exemption claimed: one for the filer, one more for a spouse on a joint return, and one for each dependent. A single filer with no dependents therefore subtracts $9,680 before the rate table applies; a married couple with two children subtracts $17,500 plus four exemptions, or $21,220.
Worked through on a $52,000 salary: $52,000 minus $8,750 minus $930 leaves $42,320 of Virginia taxable income. That is in the top band, so the tax is $720 plus 5.75% of the $25,320 above $17,000, which is $1,455.90 — a total of $2,175.90 for the year, or $83.69 per bi-weekly check.
One structural point worth knowing before you rely on the number: the higher standard deduction is scheduled to expire after tax year 2026. Under current law it reverts to $3,000 for a single filer and $6,000 for a joint return in 2027 unless the General Assembly extends it, and bills to remove the sunset were filed in the 2026 session without passing. This page models 2026 only.
Put next to its neighbours, the number is easy to read. On a $100,000 salary paid bi-weekly, Virginia withholds $189.84 of state income tax per check, Texas withholds nothing and California withholds $219.68 plus $50.00 of SDI. Virginia sits in the middle: a real tax, but one that costs about $4,936 a year where California costs $7,011.
Virginia has no disability insurance, no paid family leave premium and no local income tax, so there is no second state-level line on the stub the way California has SDI. What Virginia does collect outside the paycheck is personal property tax on vehicles and a 5.3% state sales tax plus regional add-ons, neither of which touches a pay stub.
Virginia take-home pay by salary
The table below applies one set of assumptions — single filer, bi-weekly pay, no dependents, no pre-tax deductions — so the rows are directly comparable down the column. The last four rows convert an hourly rate at 40 hours a week into the annual salary it represents.
The effective rate column shows where Virginia's schedule flattens out. Because the top band begins at $17,000 of taxable income, the state rate climbs quickly and then barely moves: 4.2% on $52,000, 4.9% on $100,000, 5.3% on $200,000 and 5.5% on $300,000, never reaching the 5.75% headline rate. The combined effective rate in the same column, which includes federal tax and FICA, keeps climbing because the federal brackets are far wider.
Read the "net per year" column as the amount that actually reaches a bank account across twelve months. The gap between it and the salary column is federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Virginia income tax, and nothing else. The effective rate column includes all four, so it rises faster than the Virginia rate alone.
| Annual pay | Gross per check | Net per check | Net per year | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $1,538.46 | $1,262.85 | $32,834 | 17.9% |
| $50,000 | $1,923.08 | $1,549.77 | $40,294 | 19.4% |
| $60,000 | $2,307.69 | $1,836.70 | $47,754 | 20.4% |
| $75,000 | $2,884.62 | $2,234.39 | $58,094 | 22.5% |
| $100,000 | $3,846.15 | $2,855.54 | $74,244 | 25.8% |
| $125,000 | $4,807.69 | $3,474.23 | $90,330 | 27.7% |
| $150,000 | $5,769.23 | $4,076.16 | $105,980 | 29.3% |
| $200,000 | $7,692.31 | $5,316.97 | $138,241 | 30.9% |
| $250,000 | $9,615.38 | $6,523.89 | $169,621 | 32.2% |
| $300,000 | $11,538.46 | $7,643.88 | $198,741 | 33.8% |
| $15/hr × 40h ($31,200/yr) | $1,200.00 | $1,010.36 | $26,269 | 15.8% |
| $20/hr × 40h ($41,600/yr) | $1,600.00 | $1,308.76 | $34,028 | 18.2% |
| $25/hr × 40h ($52,000/yr) | $2,000.00 | $1,607.16 | $41,786 | 19.6% |
| $30/hr × 40h ($62,400/yr) | $2,400.00 | $1,905.56 | $49,544 | 20.6% |
How to use the Virginia paycheck calculator
- Choose salary or hourly. Hourly adds a field for hours per week.
- Enter the amount and pick how often you are paid.
- Pick a filing status. Virginia has no head-of-household status, so head of household is treated as single for state tax.
- Add children or other dependents if you claim any — each one is worth a $930 Virginia exemption.
- Add pre-tax deductions if you contribute to a 401(k), an HSA or a health plan through payroll.
- Read the net pay line. The result updates as you type; there is nothing to submit.
Filing status, the VA-4 and withholding
Virginia asks for filing status on the VA-4, the state withholding certificate, and the answer changes the standard deduction rather than the bracket widths. A joint return gets $17,500 instead of $8,750, and one extra $930 exemption for the spouse. The rate schedule itself is identical for every status, which is the opposite of how the federal brackets work and the opposite of how most states structure a joint return.
The practical effect is that a married couple in Virginia gets a modest state marriage bonus: two earners filing jointly are taxed on the combined total with a doubled deduction, but the bands do not widen, so a high-earning couple reaches the 5.75% band sooner than two single filers with the same combined income would. On a single $52,000 salary the difference between single and joint is $21.41 per bi-weekly check, because the larger deduction removes income from the 5.75% band.
Dependents matter less at the state level than at the federal one. Virginia gives $930 per dependent as a deduction, not a credit, so the saving depends on your marginal rate: $53.48 a year per child at 5.75%, against $2,200 per child for the federal Child Tax Credit before phase-out. The calculator applies both, and they appear on separate lines.
If you are 65 or older, Virginia offers an age deduction of up to $12,000 per taxpayer, phased out above $50,000 of income for a single filer and $75,000 for a joint return. This calculator does not model it, so a retiree's Virginia line will be overstated here. The same applies to itemized deductions: if you itemize federally, Virginia makes you itemize too, and the standard deduction disappears.
Reciprocity is the other thing to check before trusting the state line. Virginia has agreements with the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky: a Virginia resident who works in one of those places pays income tax to Virginia only, and files a nonresident return nowhere. This page assumes Virginia residence and Virginia work. If you commute into DC or Maryland, your actual Virginia withholding should still be right, but any withholding that state took from you is recoverable rather than additional.
Assumptions and sources
Ruleset 2026.1, verified 2026-10-28. 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. Virginia's four rates come from Code of Virginia §58.1-320; the $8,750 and $17,500 standard deduction and the $930 exemption come from §58.1-322.03, and Virginia Tax's 2026 legislative summary confirms both figures apply to tax year 2026.
Virginia income tax is withheld with the formula published in the Virginia Employer Withholding Tables: annualized gross pay minus the standard deduction and $930 per exemption, run through the four rates, divided by the number of pay periods. The published tables are labelled approximate and say to use the formula for exact amounts, so this calculator implements the formula.
Not modeled: the age deduction for taxpayers 65 and older, itemized deductions, the Virginia Earned Income Tax Credit, reciprocity credits, wage garnishments, union dues and post-tax deductions. Figures are estimates, not a filing.
- Code of Virginia §58.1-320 — the four rates
- Code of Virginia §58.1-322.03 — standard deduction and exemptions
- Virginia Tax, New Virginia Tax Laws — 2026 figures
- Virginia Employer Withholding Tables — withholding formula
Frequently asked questions
Does Virginia have a state income tax?
Yes. Virginia taxes individual income on a graduated schedule with four rates: 2%, 3%, 5% and 5.75%. The top rate applies to Virginia taxable income above $17,000, so nearly every full-time salary pays 5.75% on the last dollar earned.
What are the Virginia income tax brackets for 2026?
Two percent on the first $3,000 of Virginia taxable income, 3% from $3,000 to $5,000, 5% from $5,000 to $17,000 and 5.75% above $17,000. The schedule has not changed since 1990 and is not indexed for inflation, so the same bands have applied for more than three decades.
How much is taken out of a paycheck in Virginia?
On a $52,000 salary paid bi-weekly, about $393 comes out of a $2,000 check: $156.15 of federal income tax, $124.00 of Social Security, $29.00 of Medicare and $83.69 of Virginia income tax. That leaves $1,607.16, or 80.4 cents of every dollar.
What is the Virginia standard deduction for 2026?
$8,750 for a single filer and $17,500 for a married couple filing jointly, with half those amounts for a married person filing separately. It applies to tax year 2026 only: under current law the amounts revert to $3,000 and $6,000 in 2027 unless the General Assembly extends them.
Is Virginia income tax flat or graduated?
Graduated, but it behaves almost like a flat tax. Because the top band starts at $17,000 of taxable income, anyone earning a normal full-time salary pays 5.75% at the margin, and the effective rate settles between 4% and 5.5% depending on salary.
Does Virginia have disability insurance or paid family leave?
No. Virginia has no employee-paid disability insurance and no payroll premium for paid family leave, so there is no second state-level deduction on a Virginia stub the way there is in California, New York or Washington.
Do Virginia cities or counties charge local income tax?
No. Virginia has no local income tax at any level of government. Localities do collect personal property tax on vehicles and add to the state sales tax, but neither appears on a paycheck.
How does filing jointly change Virginia tax?
A joint return doubles the standard deduction to $17,500 and adds one $930 exemption for the spouse, but the four rate bands stay exactly the same. Two earners filing jointly therefore reach the 5.75% band sooner than two single filers with the same combined income.
I live in Virginia and work in DC or Maryland — who taxes my wages?
Virginia, not the other jurisdiction. Virginia has reciprocal agreements with the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky, so a Virginia resident working in one of those places pays only Virginia income tax and files a nonresident return nowhere.
Does a 401(k) contribution reduce Virginia income tax?
Yes. Virginia taxable income starts from federal adjusted gross income, so a traditional 401(k) contribution, an HSA contribution and a Section 125 health premium all reduce state tax as well as federal tax. A 6% contribution on a $60,000 salary saves about $207 of Virginia tax for a single filer.
Other states
5 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 45 return a federal-only estimate, labelled as such.
- Texas No state income tax
- California State tax + SDI
- Oregon State tax + paid leave
- Florida No state income tax
- All states Hub