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

For most people the state part is one rate on the pay that survives the exemptions and the payroll-tax deduction. An employer may also take a paid family and medical leave contribution, at a share it chooses within the state's ceiling, and that line is listed below with its ceiling. Enter a wage above for the income tax lines, state and federal, worked out together.

Is Massachusetts a heavily taxed state?

On wages, its withholding is simpler than its reputation. Almost every paycheck is charged at the same single rate, the higher rate begins only on income far beyond a typical salary, and the exemptions and the payroll-tax deduction come off first. Whether that is heavy depends on what it is compared with; the calculator above gives the actual figure on your own wage.

Why is the first exemption on Form M-4 worth more than the others?

Because Circular M, the state's withholding guide, values the first exemption claimed at a much larger fixed sum than every one after it. Claiming none therefore loses that sum and, with it, the low-wage floor below which Massachusetts withholds nothing at all.

What is the paid family and medical leave line on a Massachusetts pay stub?

The employee's share of the contribution that funds the state's paid leave programme. Massachusetts sets the most that may be taken from wages and lets each employer decide how much of it to pass on, even differently for different groups of staff, so the line can differ between two people on identical pay.

Massachusetts paycheck calculator

Massachusetts charges one rate on nearly every paycheck and a higher one only on income past a very high threshold. Before the rate is applied, the annualised pay loses a larger sum for the first exemption on Form M-4 than for each one after it, and a capped deduction for the Social Security and Medicare already taken from the same wages.

Take-home pay

$1,594.70

per bi-weekly (26 per year) period

Gross pay: $2,000.00
Federal Income Tax: −$156.15
Social Security: −$124.00
Medicare: −$29.00
MA State Income Tax: −$96.15
Net pay: $1,594.70

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

How Massachusetts withholding is worked out

Two smaller rules move the figure at the edges. Nothing is withheld from a low annual wage, but only for an employee who has claimed at least one exemption, so the floor vanishes for anybody claiming none. And head of household earns a small fixed credit off the tax, which is the only place filing status enters the calculation at all. Beside the income tax there is a second state line, the employee's share of paid family and medical leave, which the state caps but leaves the employer to set, so two people at different firms can see different amounts for it on the same pay. The blindness credit on the form is not applied here.

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.

Massachusetts charges the same rates whatever the filing status, but the status still changes the amounts given below the table. Wages are annualised first, so the figures below are annual.

Every filing status
Annual wages	Tax on the lower figure	Rate on the rest
$0.00 to $1,107,750.00	$0.00	5%
$1,107,750.00 and up	$55,387.50	9%

Exemption per allowance

The first allowance: $4,400.00

Each further allowance: $1,000.00

Taken off the income before the schedule.

Credit by filing status

Single: $0.00

Married filing jointly: $0.00

Head of household: $120.00

Taken off the tax, not off the income.

Payroll taxes taken off the income

7.65% of wages, up to $2,000.00 a year

Stands for the Social Security and Medicare withheld, and comes off before the schedule.

Withholds nothing below

Single: $8,000.00

Married filing jointly: $8,000.00

Head of household: $8,000.00

Only for an employee who claims at least one allowance.

Massachusetts' blindness credit is not applied here, so a blind employee has less Massachusetts tax withheld than this line shows.

Circular M Rev. 12/25. An exemption is worth $4,400 for the first and $1,000 for each further one, FICA and Medicare come off the base up to $2,000, and head of household gets $120 a year. The blindness credit is not modelled: the form has nowhere to claim it.

Withheld beside the income tax

MA Paid Family and Medical Leave — up to 0.46%, if your employer withholds it: Massachusetts employers withhold the employee's share of the paid family and medical leave contribution. The employer chooses how much of it to pass on, up to 0.46 per cent of eligible wages, and the state allows it to apply different percentages to different groups of employees, so two people at one employer can be charged differently. The state sets the ceiling and the employer decides how much of it to take, so this calculator leaves the line out. The generator carries it once you say what your employer withholds.

Massachusetts sources

Frequently asked questions

What Massachusetts law asks of a pay stub

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

Massachusetts pay stub requirements