Maryland Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

Maryland withholds income tax in two layers, and the Comptroller of Maryland’s employer withholding guide sets out how. The employer starts with your wages for the year, subtracts a $3,400 standard deduction, subtracts $3,200 for every exemption claimed on Form MW507, the state’s withholding certificate, and applies a percentage to what is left. The first layer is the state rate, which rises from 4.75% to 6.5% as taxable pay grows. The second is your local rate, set by the county where you live or by Baltimore City, from 2.25% to 3.30%. Both are taken from the same taxable wages and withheld together.

The calculator applies five 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.
• Maryland income tax: your wages after any 401(k) contribution, minus $3,400 and the exemptions ($3,200 each), run through the state rates of 4.75%, 5.00%, 5.25%, 5.50%, 5.75%, 6.25% and 6.5%. A single filer reaches 5.00% above $100,000 of taxable wages; a married filer or head of household above $150,000.
• Local income tax: the same taxable wages times the rate for the county or Baltimore City you pick. We show it as its own line, labeled with the place and the rate.

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 Maryland, the Comptroller of Maryland’s Employer Withholding Guide, effective January 2026, with its ten local rate tables; Form MW507 for the exemptions; the Comptroller’s February 2026 memorandum for the rate in each county and Baltimore City, checked against the Department of Legislative Services; and the Maryland Department of Labor. Our full sourcing is on the methodology page.

The guide has ten local tables for 24 places. Maryland tells employers to use the table whose rate “equals or slightly exceeds” the county’s actual rate, so a few counties are withheld at a slightly higher rate than they charge. The county table below shows both. Carroll County, at 3.03%, is withheld at 3.05%, which on $68,400 of taxable wages is $13.68 a year more than the actual rate would give.

Which county we start with, and why it matters. There is no single Maryland local rate, so we have to assume a place until you pick yours. We start with Montgomery County at 3.20%, the rate 12 of the 24 jurisdictions charge. A different county changes your take-home pay: on $75,000, a single filer keeps $56,805 in Worcester County and $56,086 in Dorchester County, a gap of $718.20 a year before rounding the two take-home figures. Unless we say otherwise, the figures on this page, including the headline figure at the top, use Montgomery County.

Withholding is an estimate, not your final bill. The figure here is what an employer withholds from each paycheck using the Comptroller’s method. Your actual Maryland income tax is figured on your return, so what you owe or get back when you file can differ.

What the calculator deliberately leaves out: a different number of exemptions than the one it assumes, dependents, age 65 or older, blindness, itemized deductions, an extra amount withheld per paycheck, multiple jobs, bonuses and other lump sum payments, the exemption for residents of DC, Virginia and West Virginia who work here, nonresident rates, wages under $5,000 a year (the guide says not to withhold on them, so the calculator shows $0 of Maryland tax there), Maryland residents who work in Delaware, and health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions.

Maryland local income tax rates and what they cost on $75,000

The second column is each place’s actual 2026 rate from the Comptroller’s memorandum of February 4, 2026, which the Department of Legislative Services table repeats. The third is the table rate the withholding method uses, found by looking up $68,400 of taxable wages (a single filer with one exemption) in the Comptroller’s ten tables. The fourth is the local tax on those wages, and the fifth is what that filer keeps after every deduction on this page. The state tax is the same $3,249.00 everywhere.

What Form MW507 and the standard deduction subtract from your wages

The Comptroller’s method uses one standard deduction, $3,400, for every filer, then $3,200 for each exemption you claim on Form MW507. For a single filer with one exemption on $75,000, that is $75,000 − $3,400 − $3,200 = $68,400, which is then taxed at 4.75% for the state, $3,249.00, and 3.20% for Montgomery County, $2,188.80.

Above $100,000 of adjusted gross income ($150,000 if you file jointly or as head of household), the form sends you to a worksheet because the value of an exemption shrinks. This is the table on page 2 of the 2026 form:

The worksheet then divides the total by $3,200 and says to “drop any fraction,” so a half-value exemption counts as none. For the filers this calculator assumes, here is how many whole exemptions that leaves, using your pay after any 401(k) as a stand-in for adjusted gross income:

Maryland hourly paycheck: what your rate is worth after tax

Why we ask for your hours instead of assuming 2,080

Many 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 schedule, not every hourly job. If you work 32 hours a week, 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 is $20 an hour after taxes in Maryland?

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $41,600 a year gross. After federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, Maryland withholding and Montgomery County withholding, that leaves about $32,823 a year, or $2,735.26 a month. Your real hourly rate — what an hour of work actually puts in your bank account — is $15.78. Maryland’s share is $1,662.50 of state income tax withholding plus $1,120.00 of local income tax for the year.

What are $25 and $30 an hour after taxes in Maryland?

$25 an hour is $52,000 gross and about $40,353 after tax, a real rate of $19.40. $30 an hour is $62,400 gross and about $47,882 after tax, a real rate of $23.02. State and local income tax together are $3,609.30 a year at $25 an hour, and $4,436.10 at $30.

Overtime and bonuses

The calculator multiplies your rate by the hours you enter and adds no overtime premium, and it does not model bonuses. The Comptroller’s guide says a lump sum annual bonus is withheld at the highest state rate, 6.5%, plus the highest local rate for the county of residence, so a bonus is taxed harder than regular pay. If you work variable hours, enter the average number of hours you expect to work each week.

Maryland take-home pay by hourly rate

Single filer with one exemption in Montgomery County, 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 other than Maryland local income tax — any other tax that may apply to you. This calculator does add one local line for Maryland, the local income tax, at the rate for the county or Baltimore City you choose above. The only other local line on this site is on the Indiana calculator. Our methodology page names the local taxes it leaves out.
• 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 Maryland

Two income taxes come out of the same wages

Maryland’s withholding combines the state rate and your local rate. In Montgomery County they add up to 7.95% of taxable wages up to $100,000 for a single filer, so on $75,000 the state tax is $3,249.00 and the local tax is $2,188.80. The guide tells employers to report the two together as one amount on the W-2, so a pay stub may show them as one line, called state tax.

The state rate starts at 4.75% for withholding

Maryland’s income tax scale starts with rates of 2%, 3% and 4% on the first $3,000 of taxable income, but the Comptroller’s guide says withholding schedules are made “without considering the tax rates in effect that are less than 4.75%.” So 4.75% applies from the first taxable dollar to $100,000 of taxable wages, or $150,000 for a married filer or head of household, and then the rate climbs to 5.00%, 5.25%, 5.50%, 5.75%, 6.25% and, above $1,000,000 ($1,200,000 jointly), 6.5%. On $250,000 the state tax is $12,625.50.

Your county is the one on Form MW507

The guide says to use the rate for the area where the employee lives, and the Comptroller’s memorandum says the county of residence on your Form MW507 decides the local portion. If you move to another county, send your employer a new form. There are 23 counties plus Baltimore City, which is not a county but is withheld like one.

The guide rounds a few counties up

Withholding tables exist for ten local rates only. Carroll and Charles counties charge 3.03% and are withheld at 3.05%; Cecil charges 2.74% and uses 2.75%; Harford charges 3.06% and uses 3.10%; Washington charges 2.95% and uses 3.00%. The difference is small, but workers in those counties have slightly more withheld than the county’s rate would give. Withholding is settled against your actual tax when you file.

Anne Arundel and Frederick have graduated local rates

Anne Arundel County’s local rate is 2.70% on the first $50,000 of taxable income for a single filer, 2.94% up to $400,000 and 3.20% above, with higher breakpoints for joint filers. Frederick County’s steps are 2.25%, 2.75%, 2.96% and 3.20%. The Comptroller’s guide does not say which table employers should use for them. We apply the table that equals or slightly exceeds the rate for your taxable income to all of it, as the guide’s tables do, which gives a single filer on $75,000 in Anne Arundel $2,052.00 of local tax at 3.00%. That is our choice, not a rule the guide spells out.

Your exemptions fade out above $100,000

A single filer between $100,001 and $125,000 of income has an exemption worth $1,600, and the worksheet on Form MW507 drops fractions, so the number of exemptions is zero. Married filers keep two exemptions up to $150,000, one up to $175,000 and none above. That is a cliff: a single filer who earns $100,001 instead of $100,000 has about $254.48 more withheld for Maryland state and local tax together.

No paid leave deduction yet, but one is scheduled for 2027

Maryland’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program has a contribution of 0.9% of wages up to the Social Security wage cap. The Department of Labor says employees pay up to half, 0.45%, and that employers start deducting it in January 2027. Nothing is deducted for it in 2026, so this calculator takes none. When it starts, $75,000 of pay would carry up to $337.50 a year.

We found no employee deduction for unemployment insurance

The Maryland Department of Labor describes unemployment taxes as paid by employers, and nothing we read describes an employee deduction for unemployment insurance or a state disability insurance premium, so the calculator takes no state payroll program deduction in 2026.

Your 401(k) lowers your Maryland wages

The withholding guide starts from “total wages (before any deductions)” and does not discuss employee 401(k) contributions. The federal tax on this page already treats a traditional 401(k) contribution as reducing taxable pay, so we apply the same treatment to the state and local tax; it is a modeling choice, not a rule the guide spells out. On $75,000 with 6% going in, Maryland state and local withholding together fall by $357.75 a year. Enter 0 if your contribution is a Roth.

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. On $250,000, Social Security and Medicare take $15,514.00 in all.

Common mistakes

Leaving out the local tax

A calculator that applies only the state rates overstates take-home pay for nearly every Maryland worker. On $75,000 in Montgomery County the local line is $2,188.80; in Dorchester County it is $2,257.20.

Using one local rate for the whole state

Rates run from 2.25% in Worcester County to 3.30% in Dorchester and Kent. A single filer on $75,000 keeps $56,805 in Worcester County and $56,086 in Dorchester.

Subtracting the federal standard deduction

The Maryland withholding method subtracts its own $3,400, not the federal $16,100, so a single filer on $75,000 has $68,400 taxed by Maryland after one exemption, not the $58,900 of federal taxable income.

Assuming your exemptions never change

Exemptions are worth $3,200 each only up to $100,000 of income for a single filer and $150,000 for a married filer or head of household. Above those lines the value shrinks, and the worksheet on Form MW507 can leave you with none.

Expecting the calculator to match the pay stub to the dollar

It will not, and no calculator can. Health insurance premiums and other pre-tax benefit deductions come out before tax and are not modeled here, and the exemptions on your Form MW507 may differ from the ones we assume. Read why your pay stub will differ for the rest.

Example calculation

Amounts are shown to the cent, so adding the rounded lines can differ from the total by a cent.

A single filer earning $75,000 in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2026, claiming one exemption, with no retirement contribution:

• Federal taxable income: $75,000 − federal standard deduction of $16,100 = $58,900
• Federal income tax: $7,670.00
• Social Security: $75,000 × 6.2% = $4,650.00
• Medicare: $75,000 × 1.45% = $1,087.50
• Maryland standard deduction and exemption: $3,400 + 1 × $3,200 = $6,600
• Taxable wages: $75,000 − $6,600 = $68,400
• Maryland income tax: $68,400 × 4.75% = $3,249.00 a year, which is $270.75 on a monthly paycheck or $124.96 on a biweekly one
• Montgomery County income tax: $68,400 × 3.20% = $2,188.80 a year, which is $182.40 on a monthly paycheck
• Total withheld: $18,845.30
• Take-home pay: $56,154.70 a year, or $4,679.56 a month
• Effective tax rate: 25.1%

Frequently asked questions

Compare with other states

The same $75,000 salary, single filer, 2026 rates. Maryland borders Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and the District of Columbia; all four are published. Maryland is shown with one exemption and the Montgomery County income tax included in its state-level deductions.

A Pennsylvania worker keeps $3,082.80 more than a Maryland worker in Montgomery County on the same salary, a Virginia worker keeps $1,939.40 more, a West Virginia worker keeps $2,692.53 more, and a Delaware worker keeps $1,528.80 more. Pennsylvania’s figure leaves out local earned income tax, and Delaware’s leaves out the City of Wilmington wage tax; this calculator models neither.

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 Maryland 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

• Comptroller of Maryland — Maryland Employer Withholding Guide, effective January 2026 (PDF) — the percentage method: the $3,400 standard deduction, the $3,200 value of one exemption, the single and joint rates, and the ten local income tax tables from 2.25% to 3.30%.
• Comptroller of Maryland — Form MW507, Employee’s Maryland Withholding Exemption Certificate, 2026 (PDF) — how many exemptions an employee may claim, and the table that cuts the value of an exemption once adjusted gross income passes $100,000 ($150,000 filing jointly or as head of household).
• Comptroller of Maryland, Central Payroll Bureau — 2026 Maryland State and Local Income Tax Withholding Information (memorandum of February 4, 2026, PDF) — the state rates from 4.75% to 6.5% and the 2026 local income tax rate for each of the 23 counties and Baltimore City, including the graduated rates in Anne Arundel and Frederick.
• Maryland Department of Legislative Services — Local Income Tax Rates in Maryland, calendar year 2026 (PDF) — a second reading of the 2026 local income tax rate for every county and Baltimore City, from the Comptroller and the Department of Legislative Services.
• Maryland Department of Labor — FAMLI, for employees — the Family and Medical Leave Insurance contribution, 0.9% of wages with up to half (0.45%) paid by the employee, deducted starting January 2027, not in 2026.
• Maryland Department of Labor — Unemployment Insurance, Tax Rate — the statement that businesses pay quarterly unemployment taxes, with no deduction from employee wages described.
• 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 October 6, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Delaware paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the east, with rates from 2.2% to 6.6% after a $3,250 standard deduction and a $110 credit for each exemption.
• Pennsylvania paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the north, with a flat 3.07% from the first dollar.
• Virginia paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the south, with four brackets from 2% to 5.75% and no local income tax.
• West Virginia paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the southwest, with five rates from 2.11% to 4.58% after a $2,000 exemption for each person you claim.
• Indiana paycheck calculator — the other state here that adds a county income tax to the state tax, for 92 counties.
• 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.