calculate paycheck

CLIENTS PLEASE DO NOT CALCULATE HERE. Login to your account so the paycheck will be recorded in your database.

This calculation form will deduct the employee's portion of employment taxes from their gross wages and give you a printable remittance advice (pay stub) for your worker's net pay. It will also estimate your tax liability so you can know how much you will owe federal and California for your own estimated income tax purposes.
Year 2004 tax rates are now in use on this page.
Note that this calculator can take into account maximums for certain taxes such as social security and SDI only if you enter Prior Year-to-Date Gross.

There is informative material below this form which you may wish to read before calculating the paycheck.

Choose whether to deduct income taxes or not, and if you do so, enter the pay period and filing status and number of allowances.

Enter the worker's gross pay for the period, and date of payment, then submit to calculate and produce a pay stub.

Deducting income taxes from household employees is optional, depending upon agreement between the employer and employee. We recommend deducting income taxes for long-term employees who will owe taxes for the year. If you choose to deduct income taxes, select the three options below before clicking on the Submit button, otherwise uncheck the box.

Check box to deduct income taxes:

Status: Single Married Allowances: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Payroll Period: weekly biweekly semimonthly monthly quarterly semiannual annual daily

Use numerals and decimals only, please, except for the date.
Date of payment: 01/01/2004 01/02/2004 01/03/2004 01/04/2004 01/05/2004 01/06/2004 01/07/2004 01/08/2004 01/09/2004 01/10/2004 01/11/2004 01/12/2004 01/13/2004 01/14/2004 01/15/2004 01/16/2004 01/17/2004 01/18/2004 01/19/2004 01/20/2004 01/21/2004 01/22/2004 01/23/2004 01/24/2004 01/25/2004 01/26/2004 01/27/2004 01/28/2004 01/29/2004 01/30/2004 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 02/02/2004 02/03/2004 02/04/2004 02/05/2004 02/06/2004 02/07/2004 02/08/2004 02/09/2004 02/10/2004 02/11/2004 02/12/2004 02/13/2004 02/14/2004 02/15/2004 02/16/2004 02/17/2004 02/18/2004 02/19/2004 02/20/2004 02/21/2004 02/22/2004 02/23/2004 02/24/2004 02/25/2004 02/26/2004 02/27/2004 02/28/2004 02/29/2004 03/01/2004 03/02/2004 03/03/2004 03/04/2004 03/05/2004 03/06/2004 03/07/2004 03/08/2004 03/09/2004 03/10/2004 03/11/2004 03/12/2004 03/13/2004 03/14/2004 03/15/2004 03/16/2004 03/17/2004 03/18/2004 03/19/2004 03/20/2004 03/21/2004 03/22/2004 03/23/2004 03/24/2004 03/25/2004 03/26/2004 03/27/2004 03/28/2004 03/29/2004 03/30/2004 03/31/2004 04/01/2004 04/02/2004 04/03/2004 04/04/2004 04/05/2004 04/06/2004 04/07/2004 04/08/2004 04/09/2004 04/10/2004 04/11/2004 04/12/2004 04/13/2004 04/14/2004 04/15/2004 04/16/2004 04/17/2004 04/18/2004 04/19/2004 04/20/2004 04/21/2004 04/22/2004 04/23/2004 04/24/2004 04/25/2004 04/26/2004 04/27/2004 04/28/2004 04/29/2004 04/30/2004 05/01/2004 05/02/2004 05/03/2004 05/04/2004 05/05/2004 05/06/2004 05/07/2004 05/08/2004 05/09/2004 05/10/2004 05/11/2004 05/12/2004 05/13/2004 05/14/2004 05/15/2004 05/16/2004 05/17/2004 05/18/2004 05/19/2004 05/20/2004 05/21/2004 05/22/2004 05/23/2004 05/24/2004 05/25/2004 05/26/2004 05/27/2004 05/28/2004 05/29/2004 05/30/2004 05/31/2004 06/01/2004 06/02/2004 06/03/2004 06/04/2004 06/05/2004 06/06/2004 06/07/2004 06/08/2004 06/09/2004 06/10/2004 06/11/2004 06/12/2004 06/13/2004 06/14/2004 06/15/2004 06/16/2004 06/17/2004 06/18/2004 06/19/2004 06/20/2004 06/21/2004 06/22/2004 06/23/2004 06/24/2004 06/25/2004 06/26/2004 06/27/2004 06/28/2004 06/29/2004 06/30/2004 07/01/2004 07/02/2004 07/03/2004 07/04/2004 07/05/2004 07/06/2004 07/07/2004 07/08/2004 07/09/2004 07/10/2004 07/11/2004 07/12/2004 07/13/2004 07/14/2004 07/15/2004 07/16/2004 07/17/2004 07/18/2004 07/19/2004 07/20/2004 07/21/2004 07/22/2004 07/23/2004 07/24/2004 07/25/2004 07/26/2004 07/27/2004 07/28/2004 07/29/2004 07/30/2004 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 08/02/2004 08/03/2004 08/04/2004 08/05/2004 08/06/2004 08/07/2004 08/08/2004 08/09/2004 08/10/2004 08/11/2004 08/12/2004 08/13/2004 08/14/2004 08/15/2004 08/16/2004 08/17/2004 08/18/2004 08/19/2004 08/20/2004 08/21/2004 08/22/2004 08/23/2004 08/24/2004 08/25/2004 08/26/2004 08/27/2004 08/28/2004 08/29/2004 08/30/2004 08/31/2004 09/01/2004 09/02/2004 09/03/2004 09/04/2004 09/05/2004 09/06/2004 09/07/2004 09/08/2004 09/09/2004 09/10/2004 09/11/2004 09/12/2004 09/13/2004 09/14/2004 09/15/2004 09/16/2004 09/17/2004 09/18/2004 09/19/2004 09/20/2004 09/21/2004 09/22/2004 09/23/2004 09/24/2004 09/25/2004 09/26/2004 09/27/2004 09/28/2004 09/29/2004 09/30/2004 10/01/2004 10/02/2004 10/03/2004 10/04/2004 10/05/2004 10/06/2004 10/07/2004 10/08/2004 10/09/2004 10/10/2004 10/11/2004 10/12/2004 10/13/2004 10/14/2004 10/15/2004 10/16/2004 10/17/2004 10/18/2004 10/19/2004 10/20/2004 10/21/2004 10/22/2004 10/23/2004 10/24/2004 10/25/2004 10/26/2004 10/27/2004 10/28/2004 10/29/2004 10/30/2004 10/31/2004 11/01/2004 11/02/2004 11/03/2004 11/04/2004 11/05/2004 11/06/2004 11/07/2004 11/08/2004 11/09/2004 11/10/2004 11/11/2004 11/12/2004 11/13/2004 11/14/2004 11/15/2004 11/16/2004 11/17/2004 11/18/2004 11/19/2004 11/20/2004 11/21/2004 11/22/2004 11/23/2004 11/24/2004 11/25/2004 11/26/2004 11/27/2004 11/28/2004 11/29/2004 11/30/2004 12/01/2004 12/02/2004 12/03/2004 12/04/2004 12/05/2004 12/06/2004 12/07/2004 12/08/2004 12/09/2004 12/10/2004 12/11/2004 12/12/2004 12/13/2004 12/14/2004 12/15/2004 12/16/2004 12/17/2004 12/18/2004 12/19/2004 12/20/2004 12/21/2004 12/22/2004 12/23/2004 12/24/2004 12/25/2004 12/26/2004 12/27/2004 12/28/2004 12/29/2004 12/30/2004 12/31/2004
Gross:
Prior Year-to-Date Gross:   (optional)
Regular Hours:            (optional)
Overtime (1.5) Hours:   (optional)
Hourly Wage:               (optional)

Select: Federal Only Federal and California

 determining gross pay

If you already know how much gross pay you want to pay your worker, skip this section.

If you want to pay your worker a gross pay amount which is equivalent to a certain amount of net pay without making the election to pay SS/Medicare on the worker's behalf (see below Special Treatment,) use this calculator.

Enter the net wages before clicking on the Submit button. This will gross-up for employment taxes such as social security, medicare, state disability.


Select the year: 2004 2003

Net:       
Select: Federal Only Federal and California

IMPORTANT: Be aware that it is not possible accurately to calculate gross-up for income taxes because income taxes depend upon a whole constellation of factors which are accounted for on an individual worker's own income tax forms.

If your worker is used to being paid under-the-table, you may want to negotiate their gross pay to take into account that their wages will now be reported to the tax authorities. The worker may or may not incur tax expenses as a result of this, depending upon their total situation. Remember that the under-the-table payments have always been illegal, and that all subject wages are supposed to be reported to the tax authorities.

To get an idea of the applicable income taxes, you may want to use the gross-to-net calculator (calculate net paycheck above) on a trial-and-error basis to see how much income tax deduction is generated by a given amount of gross wages. Understand that this will only show what the withholding tables prescribe, not what the worker's actual tax liability will be.

 special treatment option for social security and medicare

The tax regulations currently allow a Household Employer to pay the worker's portion of certain employment taxes (NOT income taxes) specifically social security and medicare, on behalf of the household worker, without incurring additional employment tax liability on those amounts.

The employment taxes paid on the worker's behalf must be added to the worker's wages for income tax and reporting purposes. This does add some complexity to the recordkeeping and calculation, and especially so if you are deducting income taxes for the worker. There is a reduction in total employment taxes paid. You must decide for yourself whether the added complexity is worth the difference in total tax paid.

If for simplicity you choose instead not to use this election, you can use the calculator above simply to adjust the gross wages (i.e. gross-up) to reflect the employment taxes.

Here's one example of how much this optional method would save in overall social security and medicare taxes.

Ignoring all other taxes, if a worker were to earn gross wages of $10,000, the normal Social Security/Medicare calculation method would result in 7.65% being deducted from the $10,000, for a net pay to the worker of $9,235.

The employer on his part would pay a matching 7.65% on $10,000, for a total Social Security/Medicare tax payment of $1,530.

Under the alternate method, which allows the employer to pay the 7.65% tax on behalf of the worker, the worker could receive the same cash payment of $9,235. However, the social security tax calculation on $9,235 is still 7.65% on behalf of the worker, and 7.65% on behalf of the employer, for a total Social Security/Medicare tax of $1,413.

The difference in this case would be an overall savings of $117 in Medicare Social/Security tax paid. Some slight additional savings may or may not be realized on Federal Unemployment Taxes and on certain State employment taxes, depending upon individual circumstances.

An additional difference would be that the worker's reportable wages for income taxation purposes (their W-2) would be $10,000 in the first case, and $9,942 in the second case--a slight additional savings to the worker, but confusing. See the last paragraph below for how HET Online handles this situation.

The savings when paying $40,000 in taxable wages would exceed $400. If the annual wage for any single worker exceeds the social security maximum wage, the savings gradually disappear, so this is not worth doing for any highly-paid worker. You could still elect to do this for other workers earning less than the social security maximum however.

Our clients can choose this alternate treatment if they wish, thus possibly saving them more than the amount of our annual fee. For our clients who choose this option, we split the savings between the employer and employee, so that the $10,000 example above would come out as gross wages of $9,289.36 net pay to the worker, Social Security/Medicare tax of $710.64 paid on behalf of the worker, plus a matching $710.64 paid by the employer. (Note 710.64 + 9,289.36=10,000.00.) This reduces the total savings to $54 for the worker and $54 for the employer, but makes it easier to explain to the worker, and less confusing (though still confusing) when represented on the pay stubs and on the W-2.

 Sign-up