Missouri Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

The Missouri Department of Revenue publishes a withholding formula, and this calculator follows it. Your pay is converted to a yearly amount. The standard deduction comes off ($16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for a married filer whose spouse does not work), the rest is taxed through a table of rates from 0% to 4.7%, and the yearly result is divided by the number of pay periods. The table is the same for every filing status; what changes is the deduction.

The calculator applies these 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.
• Missouri income tax: your wages after any 401(k) contribution, minus the Missouri standard deduction for your status, taxed through the table.

This calculator has no other Missouri line. We looked for a state payroll deduction on your check and found none.

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 Missouri, the Department of Revenue’s Employer’s Tax Guide, the Revisor of Missouri’s statutes, and the City of St. Louis and City of Kansas City pages on their earnings taxes. Our full sourcing is on the methodology page.

How current the source is. The guide’s formula page is titled “2026 Missouri Withholding Tax Formula,” and the guide’s page header reads “Revised 03-2026.” The Department’s site refused our automated requests on October 20, 2026, so we read the copy the Internet Archive saved on August 8, 2026, and the Sources section links to that copy. We did not compare it with earlier years and make no claim about what changed. The federal figures, Social Security wage base and Medicare thresholds are the 2026 ones.

How we checked the formula against the printed table. Next to the formula, the Department prints a percentage table with seven breakpoints for each pay period: daily, weekly, every two weeks, twice a month, monthly and yearly. We rebuilt all 42 from the yearly $1,348 step width, divided by the number of pay periods and rounded to the dollar, and every one matched. The Department’s own worked example, a married filer with a working spouse and $35,000 of pay, prints $707.81 of yearly tax, because it adds a rounded $263 for the first seven steps. Exact arithmetic gives $262.86 for those steps and $707.67 in total, 14 cents less. This calculator uses the exact figure.

Withholding is an estimate, not your final bill. The figure here is what an employer takes from each check using the Department’s formula. Your actual Missouri 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: the Kansas City and St. Louis earnings taxes, a spouse who works, the extra or reduced withholding lines on Form MO W-4, bonuses, rounding each check to the whole dollar, and health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions.

Missouri’s eight steps and the income they apply to

These are the steps in the Department’s yearly percentage table. They apply to your taxable income, which is your yearly pay after the standard deduction, not to your pay itself. For a single filer on $75,000, taxable income is $75,000 − $16,100 = $58,900. Only the first $9,436 of it is taxed below 4.7%, so for any taxable income above $9,436, 4.7% is the rate on every extra dollar. For a single filer, that point is reached at $25,536 of yearly pay.

The Department prints the same table for each pay period, with the breakpoints scaled to the period. The first step ends at $1,348 a year and the last at $9,436; the table below shows where they fall on each kind of paycheck. The employer applies them to taxable pay for that check, after subtracting the standard deduction divided by the number of periods.

The standard deduction: what changes with your Missouri W-4

Missouri has no separate table for each filing status and no personal exemptions or allowances in the formula. It has three boxes on line 1 of Form MO W-4, and each box sets the standard deduction. The Department says the box for a married filer whose spouse does not work “is not a separate filing status.” This is how the calculator maps its three choices.

The deduction comes off your pay before the table, so each extra $1,000 of deduction is worth $47.00 a year to anyone above the $9,436 step. A married couple where both spouses work takes $16,100 on each spouse’s paycheck, the same as two single filers. If only one spouse works and checks the second box, the $32,200 deduction applies to that one paycheck.

The Kansas City and St. Louis earnings taxes

Kansas City and St. Louis each levy their own tax on pay. Both charge 1%, employers can withhold both, and neither is part of the state formula this calculator follows.

Who pays in each city

Kansas City’s guide for employers outside the city, which may withhold the tax voluntarily, says that once they register they must withhold the one percent on all wages of city residents, and on the part of a nonresident’s pay earned in the city. The St. Louis Collector of Revenue says the tax is collected from residents of the city, wherever their employer is, and from employees of businesses located or performing work in the city, wherever they live. The Collector’s page for employers adds that every employer with employees working in the city must withhold it.

What it does to your take-home pay

On $75,000 the tax is $750.00 a year, or $62.50 a month, which would bring a single filer’s take-home pay from $59,005 to about $58,255. This calculator does not add it, because it cannot know where you live or where you work. We found no other Missouri city that charges one in the pages we read, which is not proof that none exists.

Why a 401(k) lowers it

Kansas City says taxable earnings are gross pay less contributions to cafeteria plans and qualified deferred compensation plans, and the St. Louis list of non-taxable items includes deferred compensation such as 401(k) contributions. With 6% of $75,000 going into a 401(k), the base shrinks to $70,500 and the tax to $705.00.

The St. Louis payroll expense tax is the employer’s

St. Louis also charges employers a 0.5% payroll expense tax on wages earned in the city. The Collector says the employer pays it, so it does not come out of your check.

Missouri 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. In Missouri your hours also matter because of the deduction: a single filer earning $17,448 or less a year has nothing withheld.

What is $20 an hour after taxes in Missouri?

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $41,600 a year gross. After federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and Missouri income tax withholding, that leaves about $34,588 a year, or $2,882.31 a month. Your real hourly rate — what an hour of work actually puts in your bank account — is $16.63. Missouri’s share is $1,017.87 of income tax withholding for the year.

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

$25 an hour is $52,000 gross and about $42,455 after tax, a real rate of $20.41. $30 an hour is $62,400 gross and about $50,323 after tax, a real rate of $24.19. Missouri income tax withholding is $1,506.67 a year at $25 an hour, and $1,995.47 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 Department’s guide says that when overtime or other supplemental pay is paid together with regular wages, the formula is applied to the whole payment. When it is paid separately, the employer may withhold a flat 4.7% of it instead, or add it to the regular wages, apply the formula and subtract the tax already withheld. If you work variable hours, enter the average number of hours you expect to work each week.

Missouri take-home pay by hourly rate

Single filer, 40 hours a week (2,080 hours a year), with no city earnings tax.

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).
• Kansas City and St. Louis earnings taxes — each city taxes pay at 1%. Kansas City’s guide for employers outside the city, which may withhold the tax voluntarily, says that once they register they must withhold the one percent on all wages of city residents, and on the part of a nonresident’s pay earned in the city. The St. Louis Collector of Revenue says every employer with employees working in the city must withhold it, and that the tax reaches residents wherever their employer is. This calculator adds no local line for Missouri, because it cannot know where you live or work. If one of these taxes applies to you, your take-home pay is about 1% of your pay lower than the figure shown. We found no other local income tax on wages in the documents we read. The only local income tax lines on this site are on the Indiana and Maryland calculators.
• 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 Missouri

The first $1,348 of taxable income is not taxed

The table starts at 0% for the first $1,348. With the $16,100 standard deduction, a single filer’s yearly pay has to pass $17,448 before the table charges anything. At $17,000, Missouri withholds $0.00; at $30,000, it withholds $472.67 a year.

The table tops out at $9,436 of taxable income

The eight steps form a graduated table, but it is a short one. The first $9,436 of taxable income produces $262.86 of tax. Compared with taxing all of it at 4.7%, the lower steps save $180.63 a year. Past $9,436, each extra dollar is taxed at 4.7%, whether your pay is $75,000 or $250,000. For most workers, Missouri withholding behaves like a flat 4.7% on pay above the deduction, less a fixed $180.63.

The standard deduction depends on one box

A single filer’s taxable income is pay minus $16,100. A married filer who checks the “spouse does not work” box gets $32,200, which is why Missouri withholds $1,830.97 from that filer on $75,000 and $2,587.67 from a single one. Taxable income for the married filer is $42,800.

Head of household has its own deduction

The formula lists $24,150 for head of household, halfway between the single and the married figures. On $75,000, taxable income is $50,850 and Missouri withholds $2,209.32. The federal tax is lower for a head of household ($5,748.00 on $75,000), so take-home pay is $61,305.

No allowances, no dependents, no exemptions

Form MO W-4 has four lines: a filing status, extra withholding, reduced withholding and an exempt box. It has no allowances and no place for dependents. Line 3 lets an employee who expects a refund direct the employer to withhold only a fixed amount per pay period, and line 2 adds a fixed amount. This calculator does not model either line.

Your employer rounds each check to the whole dollar

The Department tells employers to round what they withhold to the nearest whole dollar, 49 cents down and 50 cents up. On $75,000, the yearly figure of $2,587.67 is $215.64 a month, which is withheld as $216, and $99.53 on a biweekly check, which is withheld as $100. This calculator does not round, so a real check can differ from its figure by up to 50 cents, and over a year the difference can reach about $13 on biweekly pay.

Missouri has no reciprocity agreements

The Department’s guide states that Missouri does not have a reciprocity agreement with any other state. If you live in one state and work in another, withholding can involve two states. This calculator assumes you live and work in Missouri.

Unemployment insurance is your employer’s cost

Missouri law (RSMo section 288.090) says unemployment contributions “shall not be deducted in whole or in part from the wages of individuals in employment.” We did not find a state disability insurance or paid leave program run through payroll in the documents we read. That is a statement about what we read, not a guarantee that nothing else exists, and your pay stub is the final word.

Your 401(k) lowers your Missouri wages in this calculator

The guide treats wages the way federal withholding does and refers to Publication 15 for gross taxable income, so this calculator starts from pay after a traditional 401(k) contribution, as it does for every state on this site. On $75,000 with 6% going in, Missouri income tax withholding falls by $211.50 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 total.

Common mistakes

Forgetting the standard deduction

Applying the table to the full $75,000 instead of $58,900 overstates Missouri withholding by $756.70: $3,344.37 instead of $2,587.67.

Taxing everything at the top rate

The 4.7% rate applies only to taxable income above $9,436. Applying it to all of $58,900 gives $2,768.30, which overstates withholding by $180.63.

Checking the wrong box when your spouse works

A married filer whose spouse also works should not use the $32,200 deduction. At $75,000, checking “spouse does not work” anyway lowers withholding from $2,587.67 to $1,830.97, which is $756.70 too little withheld over a year. The shortfall shows up as a balance due when you file.

Leaving out the Kansas City or St. Louis earnings tax

If you live or work in one of those cities, the city tax is about 1% of your pay on top of everything above, which is $750.00 on $75,000. This calculator’s result does not include it.

Expecting round numbers on every check

Missouri withholding on a paycheck is a whole-dollar amount. A yearly figure divided by 12 or 26 will rarely land on one, so each stub can differ from this calculator by up to 50 cents, and over a year the difference can reach about $13 on biweekly pay.

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 box you checked on your Form MO W-4 may differ from the one 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 Missouri in 2026, with no retirement contribution, under the Department’s formula:

• 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
• Missouri taxable income: $75,000 − $16,100 standard deduction = $58,900
• Tax on the first $9,436: $1,348 × 2% = $26.96, $1,348 × 2.5% = $33.70, $1,348 × 3% = $40.44, $1,348 × 3.5% = $47.18, $1,348 × 4% = $53.92, $1,348 × 4.5% = $60.66, which makes $262.86
• Tax on the other $49,464: $49,464 × 4.7% = $2,324.81
• Missouri income tax withholding: $262.86 + $2,324.81 = $2,587.67 a year, $215.64 on a monthly paycheck or $99.53 on a biweekly one
• Total withheld: $15,995.17
• Take-home pay: $59,004.83 a year, or $4,917.07 a month
• Effective tax rate: 21.3%

Frequently asked questions

Compare with other states

The same $75,000 salary, single filer, 2026 rates. Missouri borders eight states: Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. We have a calculator for all eight. Missouri is shown with its income tax withholding and no city earnings tax, as the other rows leave out their own local taxes. Tennessee’s page explains that the state taxes no wages.

The table rounds take-home pay to the dollar; the differences in this paragraph use the exact amounts. Compared with a Missouri worker on the same salary, an Iowa worker keeps $271.67 more, an Illinois worker keeps $980.04 less, a Kentucky worker keeps $80.27 more, a Tennessee worker keeps $2,587.67 more, an Arkansas worker keeps $210.00 more, an Oklahoma worker keeps $241.83 less, a Kansas worker keeps $797.65 less, and a Nebraska worker keeps $54.71 more. A worker who lives in one of those states and commutes into Missouri, or the reverse, is a different case that this calculator does not model: it assumes a Missouri resident working in Missouri.

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 Missouri 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

• Missouri Department of Revenue — Employer’s Tax Guide, Form-4282 (revised March 2026; PDF, Internet Archive snapshot of August 8, 2026) — the 2026 Missouri withholding formula (a $16,100 standard deduction, $32,200 for a married filer whose spouse does not work, $24,150 for head of household), the annual percentage table from 0% to 4.7%, the whole-dollar rounding rule and the statement that Missouri has no reciprocity agreement with any other state; the department’s own site refuses automated requests, so we link the archived copy.
• Revisor of Missouri — RSMo section 288.090, Contributions required — the rule that unemployment contributions shall not be deducted in whole or in part from the wages of individuals in employment.
• City of St. Louis Collector of Revenue — Earnings Tax — the one percent earnings tax collected from residents of the city and from people who work in the city.
• City of St. Louis Collector of Revenue — Employer Withholding and Payroll Expense Tax Information — the 1% tax on wages of employees living or working in the city, and the employer’s duty to withhold it.
• City of St. Louis Collector of Revenue — Taxable and Non-Taxable Items — the list of items the city earnings tax does and does not reach, which includes deferred compensation such as 401(k) contributions among the non-taxable items.
• City of Kansas City, Missouri — Tax Guide for Non-Resident Businesses (Internet Archive snapshot of June 9, 2026) — the one percent earnings tax that an employer registered with the city withholds on all wages of city residents and on the part of a nonresident’s pay earned in the city, in a guide for employers outside the city; the city’s own site refuses automated requests, so we link the archived copy.
• 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 20, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Iowa paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the north, with a flat 3.8% after a $13,000 deduction.
• Illinois paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the east, with a flat 4.95%.
• Kentucky paycheck calculator — the neighbor across the Mississippi River, with a flat 3.5% and local occupational taxes.
• Tennessee paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the southeast, which taxes no wages.
• Arkansas paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the south.
• Oklahoma paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the southwest.
• Kansas paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the west, with rates of 5.2% and 5.58% after a $9,160 allowance.
• Nebraska paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the northwest.
• $75,000 take-home pay in every state we publish — where Missouri ranks on one salary.
• 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.