West Virginia Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

West Virginia’s withholding method has no standard deduction step. The West Virginia Tax Division prints a percentage table for each pay period. Each one takes a set amount off the paycheck for every exemption you claimed on Form IT-104, and then reads the tax off a schedule with five rates. The yearly table takes $2,000 off for each exemption, and this calculator follows it: it works on your yearly pay and divides the result by your pay periods. The tax is figured the same way for every filing status; what changes with your status is how many exemptions you have.

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.
• West Virginia income tax: your wages after any 401(k) contribution, minus the exemption amount for your status ($2,000 single, $4,000 married), taxed at 2.11%, 2.81%, 3.16%, 4.22% and 4.58%.

This calculator has no other West Virginia 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 West Virginia, the West Virginia Tax Division’s March 2026 withholding tables (Form IT-100.2A), its Form IT-104, its 2026 rate cut page and its withholding help page, and WorkForce West Virginia’s claimant handbook. Our full sourcing is on the methodology page.

How we checked the formula against the printed tables. The Tax Division prints twelve tables: two sets, one for two earners or two jobs and one for one earner and one job, each with five rates and each covering weekly, biweekly, twice-a-month, monthly, yearly and daily pay. We rebuilt the two yearly tables from this calculator’s figures and matched every threshold, rate and base amount to the document, with no differences. The other ten tables round their thresholds to the whole dollar, and the largest gap we measured between a printed table and the formula was under three cents per pay period. The Tax Division also rounds each paycheck’s withholding to the whole dollar and this calculator does not, so a pay stub can differ from the result here by up to 50 cents a pay period for this reason alone.

Withholding is an estimate, not your final bill. The figure here is what an employer takes from each check using the Tax Division’s method. Your actual West Virginia 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: dependents, the box on line 5 of Form IT-104, extra withholding, exemption from withholding for residents of neighboring states, bonuses, city service fees, and health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions.

West Virginia’s five rates and the base they apply to

These are the tiers in the Tax Division’s 2026 withholding tables. They apply to your yearly pay after the exemption is subtracted, not to your pay itself. For a single filer on $75,000, that amount is $75,000 − $2,000 = $73,000. Only the first $45,000 of it is taxed below 4.58%, so for any base above $45,000, 4.58% is the rate on every extra dollar. The Tax Division prints two sets of tiers with the same rates. The first, built for two earners or two jobs, is the default. The second, for one earner and one job, has wider tiers.

Exemptions: the number that sets your withholding

On Form IT-104 you claim one exemption for yourself, one for your spouse if you are married and the spouse is not claimed on another certificate, and one for each dependent you expect to claim on your return. Each exemption takes $2,000 off your yearly pay in the tables. The form we read is the March 2023 revision (“Rev. 03/2023” in its header). This is how the calculator counts them.

With one exemption, a single filer has nothing withheld on yearly pay up to $2,000, and a married filer with two exemptions has nothing withheld up to $4,000. The calculator does not ask about dependents. Each one you would add lowers the base by $2,000, which is worth about $91.60 a year of West Virginia withholding at 4.58%.

The line 5 box: what it changes

The Tax Division prints two sets of percentage tables. The first is labeled “Two earner/two or more jobs” and covers married filing jointly with both spouses working, or one person earning wages from two jobs. The second is labeled “Optional one earner/one job” and covers single, head of household, or married with a nonemployed spouse. Form IT-104 says the revised tables should give a more accurate amount for a married couple who both work or for someone with two or more jobs. It gives some employees a way out: if you are single, a head of household, or married with a spouse who does not work, and you are paid by only one job, you can check the box on line 5 to have tax withheld at a lower rate. Your employer then uses the one-earner tables. Without the box, we take the two-earner tables to apply, because the one-earner tables are labeled optional and the form offers the lower rate only to those who check the box. One page in the Tax Division’s help section calls the optional tables “Two Earner”, the opposite of the labels on the tables and on the form, so we followed the tables and the form.

This calculator uses the default table for every filing status, because that is what an employer applies unless the box is checked. If you checked it, the result here overstates your West Virginia withholding by the amount in the last column.

West Virginia 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 West Virginia?

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $41,600 a year gross. After federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and West Virginia income tax withholding, that leaves about $34,371 a year, or $2,864.22 a month. Your real hourly rate — what an hour of work actually puts in your bank account — is $16.52. West Virginia’s share is $1,235.00 of income tax withholding for the year.

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

$25 an hour is $52,000 gross and about $42,270 after tax, a real rate of $20.32. $30 an hour is $62,400 gross and about $50,150 after tax, a real rate of $24.11. West Virginia income tax withholding is $1,691.88 a year at $25 an hour, and $2,168.20 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 Tax Division’s help page has a section on supplemental withholding, which this calculator does not use; its example still shows a 4.82% rate that does not appear in the 2026 tables, so check any bonus withholding with your employer. If you work variable hours, enter the average number of hours you expect to work each week.

West Virginia 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).
• City service fees — some West Virginia cities charge a flat fee for each week you work inside the city, not a percentage of pay. The City of Wheeling’s regulations tell the employer to withhold the fee from the employee’s paycheck, and a 2017 ordinance of the City of Charleston imposed a city service fee on each employee per calendar week of employment within the city. We did not read a current schedule of these fees or confirm what each city charges in 2026, so this calculator adds none, and if you work in a city that charges one, your actual take-home pay may be lower than the figure shown. We found no percentage-based local income tax on wages in the documents we read. This calculator adds no local line for West Virginia. 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 West Virginia

There is no standard deduction, only the exemption

A single filer’s base is pay minus $2,000, and nothing else comes off before the rates apply. At $30,000, West Virginia withholds $767 a year. A married filer with two exemptions has $4,000 taken off instead, which is why West Virginia withholds $2,653.68 from a married filer on $75,000 and $2,745.28 from a single one.

Only the first $45,000 of the base is taxed below the top rate

The five rates form a graduated schedule. The first $45,000 of the base is taxed at 2.11%, 2.81%, 3.16% and 4.22%, which comes to $1,462.88 in all. Compared with taxing every dollar up to $45,000 at 4.58%, the four lower tiers save a single filer about $598 a year. Past $45,000, each extra dollar of base is taxed at 4.58%, whether your pay is $60,000 or $250,000.

Each exemption takes $2,000 off your pay

One exemption takes $2,000 off your yearly pay before the rates apply, which saves about $91.60 a year in West Virginia tax at 4.58%. On $75,000, the single filer’s one exemption brings the base down to $73,000, and a married filer’s two bring it to $71,000. The calculator’s married result assumes both exemptions are claimed on one certificate.

Head of household gets one exemption, like a single filer

Form IT-104 does not give a head of household a separate exemption or a separate table, so the calculator withholds a head of household the way it does a single filer: $2,745.28 on $75,000. The federal tax is lower for a head of household ($5,748.00 on $75,000), so take-home pay is $60,769.

The 2026 rates come from a 5% cut that reaches back to January 1

The Tax Division says SB 392, signed on March 31, 2026, delivers an across-the-board income tax cut of 5%, retroactive to January 1, 2026. The rates on this page are the cut rates, and the withholding tables dated March 2026 use them. Your return is where the final amount is set.

We found no state payroll deductions

WorkForce West Virginia says the unemployment insurance program is funded through taxes paid by employers, and that no money is deducted from your paycheck to pay for it. We did not find a state disability insurance or paid family leave program run through payroll. That is a statement about what we read, not a guarantee that nothing exists, and your pay stub is the final word.

City service fees are not in the calculator

We found no percentage-based local income tax on wages. We did find that some cities charge a flat city service fee for each week of work in the city. Wheeling’s regulations tell the employer to withhold it from your paycheck, and a 2017 Charleston ordinance imposed it per calendar week of employment within the city. We did not read a current fee schedule or confirm what each city charges in 2026, so we show no amount. If you work in one of these cities, check your pay stub.

Residents of five neighboring states may be exempt

Form IT-104 says that if you live in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia and your only West Virginia income is wages or salaries, you are exempt from West Virginia withholding, and it provides a certification to give your employer. The calculator assumes you live in West Virginia and does not model the exemption.

Your 401(k) lowers your West Virginia wages in this calculator

The Tax Division’s tables do not mention 401(k) contributions, so this is our modeling choice, the same as for federal tax and every other state on this site. On $75,000 with 6% going in, West Virginia income tax withholding falls by $206.10 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 exemption

Applying the rates to the full $75,000 instead of $73,000 overstates West Virginia withholding by $91.60: $2,836.88 instead of $2,745.28.

Taxing the whole base at the top rate

The 4.58% rate applies only to the base above $45,000. Applying it to all of $73,000 gives $3,343.40, which overstates withholding by about $598.

Looking for a married table

We found none. The Tax Division’s percentage tables are labeled by earners and jobs: one set for married filing jointly with both spouses working, or one person with two jobs, and one set for single, head of household, or married with a nonemployed spouse. For a married couple, marital status shows up in the number of exemptions and in which set of tables applies.

Checking the line 5 box when your household has two paychecks

The form offers the box only to single filers, heads of household, and married employees whose spouse does not work, and only if you have one job. On $75,000 the box lowers a single filer’s withholding by $199.38. Checking it when the household has other income can leave too little withheld, and you could owe more when you file.

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 IT-104 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 West Virginia in 2026, claiming one exemption and no retirement contribution, on the default tables:

• 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
• West Virginia base: $75,000 − $2,000 exemption = $73,000
• Tax on the base: $7,500 × 2.11% = $158.25, plus $11,250 × 2.81% = $316.13, plus $11,250 × 3.16% = $355.50, plus $15,000 × 4.22% = $633.00, plus ($73,000 − $45,000) × 4.58% = $1,282.40, which makes West Virginia income tax withholding of $2,745.28 a year, $228.77 on a monthly paycheck or $105.59 on a biweekly one
• Total withheld: $16,152.78
• Take-home pay: $58,847.23 a year, or $4,903.94 a month
• Effective tax rate: 21.5%

Frequently asked questions

Compare with other states

The same $75,000 salary, single filer, 2026 rates. West Virginia borders five states, and we have a calculator for every one of them: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky. West Virginia is shown with one exemption and its income tax withholding only. The Maryland row includes Maryland’s local income tax at the Montgomery County rate, and the Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky rows leave out their local taxes, as West Virginia’s row leaves out city service fees.

The table rounds take-home pay to the dollar; the differences in this paragraph use the exact amounts. Compared with a West Virginia worker on the same salary, an Ohio worker keeps $1,126.28 more, a Pennsylvania worker keeps $390.28 more, a Maryland worker keeps $2,692.53 less, a Virginia worker keeps $753.13 less, and a Kentucky worker keeps $237.88 more. A worker who lives in one of those states and commutes into West Virginia is a different case that this calculator does not model: it assumes a West Virginia resident working in West Virginia.

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 West Virginia 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

• West Virginia Tax Division — Form WV IT-100.2A, Tables for Percentage Method of Withholding, March 2026 (PDF) — the 2026 percentage-method tables: $2,000 taken off yearly pay for each exemption claimed, then 2.11%, 2.81%, 3.16%, 4.22% and 4.58%, with one set of tables for two earners or two jobs and one for a single job.
• West Virginia Tax Division — 2026 Income Tax Rate Cut — the statement that SB 392 cut income tax rates by 5% retroactive to January 1, 2026, and the adjusted rate schedule from 2.11% to 4.58%.
• West Virginia Tax Division — Form WV/IT-104, Employee’s Withholding/Exemption Certificate (Rev. 03/2023, PDF) — the rule that you may claim one exemption for yourself plus one for a spouse and each dependent, the line 5 box for a lower withholding rate, and the exemption from West Virginia withholding for residents of five neighboring states.
• West Virginia Tax Division — Withholding Help and General Information — the statement that the withholding tables are based on two-earner/two-job income, that wages subject to federal withholding are subject to West Virginia withholding, and that the result is rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
• WorkForce West Virginia — Claimant Handbook (08.23, PDF) — the statement that the unemployment insurance program is funded through taxes paid by employers and that no money is deducted from your paycheck for it.
• City of Wheeling — City Service Fee Administrative Regulations (PDF) — the rule that an employer withholds the city service fee from the employee’s paycheck.
• City of Charleston — Bill No. 7757, City Service Fee ordinance, adopted September 18, 2017 (PDF) — the city service fee imposed on each employee and self-employed individual per calendar week of employment within the city.
• West Virginia Code — section 8-13-13, Rates, fees and charges for municipal services — the authority for a municipality to impose by ordinance reasonable rates, fees and charges on the users of its services.
• 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.

The agencies that set them

These are the offices that set the figures. We link them so you can start from the source yourself, but an agency’s own summary page is not always current, and we do not claim that these pages carry the 2026 number — several of them do not. Where a rate was read somewhere else, in a statute, a withholding guide or an estimated-tax form, the exact document and the date we read it are on our methodology page.

• West Virginia Tax Division — Withholding Tax Forms (lists IT-100.2.A, IT-100.2.B and IT-104).

All links checked October 13, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Ohio paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the northwest, and one of the five states whose residents may be exempt from West Virginia withholding.
• Pennsylvania paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the north, with a flat 3.07% from the first dollar.
• Maryland paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the northeast, which adds a local income tax.
• Virginia paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the southeast, with four brackets and no local income tax.
• Kentucky paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the southwest, a flat 3.5% after a $3,360 deduction.
• $75,000 take-home pay in every state we publish — where West Virginia 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.