Methodology
Every dollar figure on SimpleBudgetPlanner traces back to a specific IRS, SSA, or BLS number below. This page exists so you can check our work — and so we can be honest about where the numbers are simplified.
How take-home pay is calculated
The headline take-home number on every page equals:
Take-home pay = Gross salary − Federal income tax − FICA
Specifically, and only:
- Filing status: single, using the standard deduction. No itemized deductions, dependents, or credits are modeled.
- No pre-tax deductions: 401(k)/403(b) contributions, HSA contributions, and health premiums are not subtracted before computing tax.
- Federal income tax uses the 2026 marginal brackets below, applied to (gross − standard deduction).
- FICA is Social Security (6.2% up to the wage base) plus Medicare (1.45%, uncapped, plus an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages over $200,000).
- State income tax is not included in the headline number. Instead, every salary page shows a best-state/worst-state take-home range — see below for how that range is estimated.
2026 federal income tax brackets (single filer)
| Rate | Taxable income range |
|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $12,400 |
| 12% | $12,400 – $50,400 |
| 22% | $50,400 – $105,700 |
| 24% | $105,700 – $201,775 |
| 32% | $201,775 – $256,225 |
| 35% | $256,225 – $640,600 |
| 37% | Over $640,600 |
2026 standard deduction (single filer): $16,100. Source: IRS, Rev. Proc. 2025-32, cross-checked against Tax Foundation’s 2026 federal bracket tables.
FICA (Social Security + Medicare), 2026
| Component | Rate | Wage base / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security | 6.2% | $184,500 wage base |
| Medicare | 1.45% | No wage cap |
| Additional Medicare Tax | 0.9% | On wages over $200,000 (single) |
Social Security and Medicare rates are set by statute and unchanged for 2026. The Social Security wage base rises to $184,500for 2026 per the Social Security Administration’s annual cost-of-living determination. Sources: IRS Topic 751 and SSA 2026 wage base announcement.
State tax: how the best/worst range works
State income tax is genuinely hard to summarize honestly in one number — every state has its own brackets, deductions, and quirks. Rather than pretend to run all 50 states’ exact tax code, we track a small, representative set: states with no wage income tax (0%), a handful of flat-tax states at their published rate, and three progressive states (California, New York, Oregon) approximated with effective-rate anchor points read off their 2026 bracket schedules at several income levels, linearly interpolated in between. This is a simplification built for a directional best-case/worst-case range, not a filing-accurate calculator for any specific state.
Source: Tax Foundation, 2026 State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets.
Realistic budget categories: BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey
The “zero-based / realistic” split in the calculator, and the category dollars on every salary page, are built from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey (the most recent full-year release, published December 2025) — specifically each category’s share of total household expenditure.
| Category | National average share of spending |
|---|---|
| Housing | 33.4% |
| Transportation | 17.0% |
| Food | 12.9% |
| Personal insurance & pensions | 12.5% |
| Healthcare | 7.9% |
| Entertainment | 4.6% |
| Everything else | 11.7% |
Two simplifications worth stating plainly: (1) BLS reports these shares against total expenditure, and this site applies them to estimated monthly take-home payinstead, since that is the number people actually budget against. (2) Housing is the one category we vary by income level, using BLS’s own quintile data (households in the lowest income quintile spend about 41.6% of their budget on housing versus about 29.3% for the highest quintile); every other category is held at the flat national-average share. Full source detail, including the exact BLS release used for the benchmarks page, is on Budget Benchmarks by Income.
What this site is not
SimpleBudgetPlanner is not a tax preparer and does not give financial or legal advice. It does not account for dependents, marital status, itemized deductions, self-employment tax, capital gains, tax credits, or any state-specific deduction or credit. Treat every number as a fast, directionally-correct estimate for a single filer taking the standard deduction — not a substitute for a paystub, a tax return, or a financial advisor.
Last updated . Figures use current IRS and BLS data — see methodology.