How much tax is taken out of my paycheck in Arizona?

For the state part, as much as you told your employer to take. Arizona applies the percentage you elected on Form A-4 to your taxable wages, plus any extra flat amount you asked for, or nothing at all if you elected to have none withheld. The federal income tax and the payroll taxes on the same check follow rules of their own. Trying each rate here shows what every choice leaves in your pocket.

Which Arizona withholding rate should I choose on Form A-4?

The one that brings what is withheld over the year closest to what you expect to owe on your return. A higher choice means a smaller paycheck and a likelier refund, a lower one the reverse. Pick the next percentage in the AZ withholding rate field and the take-home moves by what one step along the list costs each paycheck.

What happens if I never filled out an Arizona A-4?

Your employer withholds at the default the form names for that case, which sits in the middle of the list. It is applied to the whole of your taxable wages exactly as an elected rate would be, so filing the form only changes the outcome if you choose a different percentage.

Can I have no Arizona tax withheld at all?

Yes, if you expect to owe none. Box 2 of Form A-4 is a separate election for exactly that case; in the AZ withholding rate field it is the zero choice, marked withhold nothing. An employee who claims it and does end up owing Arizona tax pays all of it with the return instead.

Arizona paycheck calculator

In Arizona the employee, not a table, decides the withholding rate. Form A-4 lists a handful of percentages, the employee ticks one, and the employer applies it to taxable wages with no deduction, no allowance and no adjustment for how often the pay arrives. Anyone who never files the form is withheld at the rate the form itself names as the default.

Take-home pay

$1,650.85

per bi-weekly (26 per year) period

Gross pay: $2,000.00
Federal Income Tax: −$156.15
Social Security: −$124.00
Medicare: −$29.00
AZ State Income Tax: −$40.00
Net pay: $1,650.85

Carries these figures into a full Arizona pay stub you can preview and download.

How Arizona withholding is worked out

There is no schedule to read below, because Arizona publishes neither a withholding formula nor withholding tables, and a bracket table on this page would describe something the state does not do. What the A-4 offers instead is three choices: one of the listed percentages, an election to have nothing withheld for someone who expects to owe no Arizona tax, and an extra flat sum per paycheck on top of the chosen rate. The calculator asks for the same three, so the state line above is the form you would file, worked out exactly. Whether the rate you picked was the right one is settled on the return.

These are withholding figures: what an employer takes out of one paycheck, which is not the same calculation as the one on an annual return.

Arizona publishes no rate of its own. The employee elects one on the state's form (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%), and 2% is withheld from anyone who has filed none.

Arizona Form A-4 for 2026, ADOR 10121 (25). The state publishes no withholding formula and no withholding tables: the employee elects one of the percentages in box 1 of the A-4, and it is applied to gross taxable wages with no deduction, no allowance and no dependence on the pay frequency. Box 2 is a separate election to have nothing withheld, open to an employee who expects no Arizona tax. An employee who has filed no A-4 is withheld at 2.0%, which the form states in those words. The A-4 also takes an extra flat amount per pay period, and that amount is added on top of the elected percentage.

Arizona sources

https://azdor.gov/sites/default/files/document/FORMS_WITHHOLDING_2026_A-4_f.pdf

Frequently asked questions

What Arizona law asks of a pay stub

Whether a stub is required, how it may be delivered, and the minimum wage and pay frequency rules.

Arizona pay stub requirements