Arkansas Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

Arkansas is a five-bracket state on paper, but the detail worth knowing before you trust any number about it is that the 2026 AR1000ES prints its rate schedule as a series of segments with their own base tax amount, not a simple set of continuous percentages. Most segments chain together cleanly — each one picks up where the last left off — but one does not: between $94,701 and $97,800.99 of taxable income, a second table adds roughly $14 of tax for every $100 of income, a marginal rate near 14% hidden inside what looks, everywhere else, like a flat 3.9% bracket. Treating the whole schedule as one continuous set of brackets - which is how most calculators are built - misses that bridge entirely, and the resulting error does not go away once you are past it: it understates tax by $329 at $100,000 of taxable income and at every income above that.

The calculator applies four deductions, in this order:

• Federal income tax. Your gross pay minus the federal standard deduction for your filing status, run through the 2026 federal brackets.
• Social Security at 6.2% of gross wages, up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500.
• Medicare at 1.45% of all wages, with no cap, plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000.
• Arkansas income tax: pay after any 401(k) deferral, minus a flat $2470 standard deduction ($4940 filing jointly), run through the AR1000ES rate schedule, minus a $29 tax credit ($58 filing jointly or head of household).

Rates come from the agencies that set them: the IRS for the federal brackets, the standard deduction and FICA, cross-checked against the Social Security Administration for the wage base; and for the state layer, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s 2026 AR1000ES Estimated Tax Declaration Vouchers and Instructions, which prints the “TAX RATE SCHEDULE”, the bridge table, the standard deduction and the tax credit all in one document, read on September 12, 2026. Our full sourcing, including why a third-party legal database rather than the state legislature’s own site is cited for the local-tax statute, is on the methodology page.

One check worth stating, because it is what makes these figures trustworthy: the base tax amounts the AR1000ES prints for most segments chain together exactly — $608 (at $26,400) plus 3.9% of $10,000 more is $998, landing on the next segment’s published base one step later, all the way to $2,308 at $70,000. The one place this document does not chain smoothly is the $94,701–$97,800.99 bridge, and we did not smooth it out: this calculator reproduces all 31 of its rows exactly rather than approximating a curve through them.

What the calculator deliberately does not do: it does not model the Married Filing Separately status, count dependents ($29 each, per the AR1000ES), add the extra $29 credit for filers 65 or older, blind or deaf, or account for health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions.

Arkansas hourly paycheck: what your rate is worth after tax

Why we ask your hours instead of assuming 2,080

Most hourly calculators multiply your rate by 2,080 and call it a year. That is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which describes a full-time salaried schedule rather than most hourly work. If you are on 32 hours, or 45 with overtime, the assumed figure is wrong before any tax is applied. The calculator above asks for your hours and uses them.

What $20 an hour comes to in Arkansas

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $41,600 a year gross. After federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arkansas’s income tax, that leaves about $34,531 a year, or $2,877.54 a month. Your real hourly rate — what an hour of work actually puts in your account — is $16.60. Arkansas’s share of it is $1,075.07 for the year, well below the $94,701 bridge table.

What $25 and $30 an hour come to

$25 an hour is $52,000 gross and about $42,481 after tax, a real rate of $20.42. $30 an hour is $62,400 gross and about $50,432 after tax, a real rate of $24.25.

Overtime, tips and shift differentials

Arkansas taxes overtime, tips and shift differentials the same as the rest of your pay, through the same rate schedule. Extra hours raise your annual income, which can push part of your pay into a higher bracket — and for a narrow slice of high earners, into the $94,701–$97,800.99 bridge table.

Arkansas take-home pay by hourly rate

Single filer, 40 hours a week (2,080 hours a year), 2026 rates.

What this calculator does not cover

This tool models federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and the payroll programs your state actually runs — nothing more. It deliberately leaves out:

• Itemized deductions and federal tax credits — the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits. The engine always applies the standard deduction; there is no itemizing path.
• A second job, self-employment income or 1099 pay. Every dollar you enter is treated as one employer’s W-2 wages, taxed at the employee share of Social Security and Medicare — not the self-employment tax a 1099 worker actually owes.
• Pre-tax benefits other than the 401(k) field — health insurance premiums, an HSA or FSA, commuter benefits. The only amount taken out before tax is the percentage you enter for a 401(k).
• Local taxes — city income tax, county tax, or a school-district tax. Where a state levies one, our methodology page says so by name; this calculator does not add that line, with two exceptions: the Indiana and Maryland calculators add the local income tax for the county you choose.
• Overtime premiums. An hourly rate is multiplied by the hours you enter; it does not add a time-and-a-half rate for hours worked past 40 in a week.
• Wage garnishments or court-ordered deductions — child support, a wage levy. Your result assumes none exist.
• The Additional Medicare Tax, at the single-filer threshold. The 0.9% surtax above $200,000 is applied at that one figure for every filing status, the way an employer actually withholds it — not the higher threshold a married couple filing jointly may end up owing at tax return time.
• Married filing separately, or a qualifying surviving spouse. The calculator only offers single, married filing jointly, and head of household.

None of these are in the estimate. Some of them change what you owe or get back when you file, and a calculator cannot ask for everything they depend on. See why your pay stub will differ for the details.

Key facts that affect your take-home pay in Arkansas

One schedule, every filing status

This is the fact that separates Arkansas from every progressive-tax state on this site. Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Carolina all widen their brackets for a joint return. Arkansas does not: the AR1000ES computes tax on the primary filer’s income and the spouse’s income separately, each against the exact same schedule a single filer uses. Filing jointly changes your standard deduction ($4940 instead of $2470) and your tax credit ($58 instead of $29), not the rates themselves.

A hidden bridge between $94,701 and $97,800.99

Below $94,701, Arkansas taxes every dollar at a flat 3.9% above the third bracket. Above $97,800.99, it does the same. In between, a 31-row table published separately in the AR1000ES adds about $14 of tax for every $100 of income — a marginal rate near 14%, printed nowhere in the ordinary rate schedule. It runs from $3296 of tax at the low end of the bridge to $3713 at the high end. Recomputing Arkansas tax with ordinary continuous brackets, ignoring this table, understates the bill by $329 at $100,000 of taxable income — and that gap does not shrink at higher incomes, because the schedule never returns to where a continuous calculation would put it.

The standard deduction is flat, and modest

Arkansas’s $2470 standard deduction does not slide or step with income the way Wisconsin’s does — it is the same dollar amount whether you earn $20,000 or $200,000. It is also considerably smaller than Nebraska’s $8,850, though Arkansas’s top rate of 3.9% is lower than Nebraska’s 4.55%.

A small credit rides on top of the deduction

After the deduction and the rate schedule, Arkansas subtracts a flat tax credit — $29 for a single filer, $58 filing jointly or as head of household — that does not fade as income rises, unlike some states’ phased-out credits. It is small next to the deduction, but every filer gets it.

No state takes anything until $9,520

Arkansas’s zero-percent bracket plus its $2470 standard deduction and $29 credit mean a single filer owes no Arkansas income tax at all up to about $9,520. Below that, federal tax and FICA still apply.

Your 401(k) contribution does reduce your Arkansas tax

Arkansas taxes income after pre-tax retirement contributions come out, the same base the IRS uses for federal tax. On $75,000 with 6% going into a 401(k), Arkansas tax falls by $175.50 a year.

Social Security stops, Medicare does not

Social Security is withheld at 6.2% until your wages reach $184,500 in 2026, then stops for the rest of the year. Medicare has no ceiling at all: 1.45% on every dollar, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000. This is why take-home pay rises unevenly through the year for high earners — the paycheck after you cross the Social Security wage base is visibly larger.

Common mistakes people make

Assuming Arkansas brackets double for a joint return

They do not. Every other progressive-tax state on this site widens its brackets when you file jointly. Arkansas does not — the schedule is identical, and only the standard deduction and tax credit change. Applying a doubled-bracket assumption to Arkansas, as you would for Wisconsin or Nebraska, understates a joint filer’s tax.

Recomputing the rate schedule as one continuous curve

Doing that misses the $94,701–$97,800.99 bridge table entirely, and the resulting error, about $329 understated at $100,000 and above, does not fade back out at higher incomes. The published schedule has to be read segment by segment, not smoothed into a formula.

Expecting the calculator to match the paystub to the dollar

It will not, and no calculator can. Your employer withholds using the exemptions and dependents you claimed on Form AR4EC, using withholding tables that are a separate, rounded approximation of the tax you actually owe. Health premiums and other benefit deductions come out first, and a second job changes the federal picture. Read why your pay stub will differ for the rest.

Example calculation

A single filer earning $75,000 in Arkansas in 2026, with no retirement contribution:

• Standard deduction: $2470
• Arkansas taxable income: $75,000 − $2470 = $72,530.00
• Federal income tax: $7,670.00
• Social Security: $75,000 × 6.2% = $4,650.00
• Medicare: $75,000 × 1.45% = $1,087.50
• Arkansas tax on $72,530.00: $2,308.00 + ($72,530.00 − $69,999.99) × 3.9% = $2,406.67, minus the $29 tax credit = $2,377.67
• Total withheld: $15,785.17
• Take-home pay: $59,214.83 a year, or $4,934.57 a month
• Effective tax rate: 21.0%

Frequently asked questions

Compare with other states

The same $75,000 salary, single filer, 2026 rates, state layer only:

• Texas — $61,593 take-home, an effective rate of 17.9%. A Texas worker keeps $2,377.67 more than an Arkansan on the same salary.
• Tennessee — $61,593 take-home, an effective rate of 17.9%. A Tennessee worker keeps $2,377.67 more than an Arkansan on the same salary.
• Nebraska — $59,060 take-home, an effective rate of 21.3%. A Nebraska worker keeps $155.29 less than an Arkansan on the same salary.
• Wisconsin — $58,649 take-home, an effective rate of 21.8%. A Wisconsin worker keeps $565.85 less than an Arkansan on the same salary.

Arkansas borders both Texas and Tennessee, neither of which taxes wage income at all — a worker earning $75,000 keeps $2,377.67 more just south of the Arkansas-Texas line, or crossing east into Tennessee. Against Nebraska, a state that does tax income progressively, Arkansas’s $2,377.67 at this salary is noticeably lower than Nebraska’s $2,532.96 — Arkansas’s 3.9% top rate is nearly a full point below Nebraska’s 4.55%.

Sources

Every figure on this page is read from an official document and dated, not taken from another calculator — the federal ones from the IRS and the Social Security Administration, the Arkansas ones from the state’s own documents below. Each one carries the date we last checked that it still answers. If one of our numbers disagrees with one of theirs, they are right and we have a defect to fix — tell us.

The documents these figures are read from

• Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration — 2026 AR1000ES, Estimated Tax Declaration Vouchers and Instructions (PDF) — the 2026 tax rate schedule, including its $94,701–$97,800.99 bridge table, the $2,470 standard deduction and the $29/$58 tax credit.
• Arkansas Division of Workforce Services — Unemployment Insurance FAQ — the rule that unemployment insurance is an employer-paid tax, not a payroll deduction.
• Arkansas Code § 26-73-103, via FindLaw — the statute that bars a city, county or other local government from levying an income tax.
• IRS — 2026 inflation adjustments (Rev. Proc. 2025-32) — the federal brackets and the $16,100 standard deduction.
• IRS — Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates — the 6.2% and 1.45% rates and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax.
• SSA — Contribution and benefit base — the $184,500 Social Security wage base.

All links checked September 30, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Texas paycheck calculator — a neighboring state with no income tax at all.
• Tennessee paycheck calculator — another neighbor with no income tax.
• Methodology — the exact formula, every 2026 figure with its official source, and what these calculators deliberately do not model.
• Why your pay stub will differ — pre-tax deductions, credits and W-4 settings, and how much difference is normal.