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

It depends on the filing status on your MW-4, on the line 2 box for a joint filer, and on any extra amount you add on line 3, which this page does not ask for. The status picks one of three columns, and a marked line 2 sends a joint filer to the single one. The first stretch of the year's pay in each is charged nothing and the rest in bands, so two people on the same wage but different statuses can see quite different Montana lines.

What is the Montana state income tax rate?

Montana withholds on a short graduated schedule whose rates are the same in every column. What the filing status changes is how much pay goes untaxed and where the top rate begins, both further up for a joint filer than for a single employee, with head of household in between.

Should I check line 2 on the Montana MW-4?

Only if you are married filing jointly, you both work and your pay is similar. The box halves the deduction and the brackets on each job, which comes out about right when the two wages match. Where one spouse earns much more, or either of you has more than one job, the form says to leave it, mark the joint status and complete its Multiple Jobs Worksheet.

What happens if I don't fill out a Montana MW-4?

Your employer withholds as if you had marked single on line 1a, and the same goes for a form that is incomplete or unsigned. For a married employee that means at least as much withheld as the joint column would take, and more once the pay passes the untaxed band of the single one. The calculator opens on single for this reason; switch the status to see the figure your own form would give.

Are there withholding allowances in Montana?

No. Since the state changed its income tax in 2024 the MW-4 asks for a filing status and an optional extra amount, and the factors the employer guide lists for the amount withheld do not include allowances. The department suggests that anyone who has not filed a new MW-4 since 2023 do so, because an old one may leave too little withheld.

Do I pay Montana tax if I live in North Dakota?

Not on wages earned in Montana. The two states have a reciprocity agreement, and a North Dakota resident claims the exemption on line 5 of the MW-4, after which the employer withholds no Montana tax. Residence is not asked here, so the figure above is Montana's withholding for someone without that claim.

Montana paycheck calculator

Montana's MW-4 asks for the federal filing status and little else, and the status sets both the standard deduction and the brackets. The deduction is built into the tables rather than subtracted beside them, so the first band of every column is charged nothing. There are no allowances to claim. A married couple who both work and earn about the same can mark line 2, which halves the deduction and the brackets on each job, and the state reads that couple from the same table as a single employee.

Take-home pay

$1,625.85

per bi-weekly (26 per year) period

Gross pay: $2,000.00
Federal Income Tax: −$156.15
Social Security: −$124.00
Medicare: −$29.00
MT State Income Tax: −$65.00
Net pay: $1,625.85

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

How Montana withholding is worked out

An employee who hands in no MW-4, or one left incomplete or unsigned, is withheld as single, and the calculator opens on that status. The line 2 box here matters only under married filing jointly: ticked, it moves the figure onto the single tables, and under any other status it changes nothing. The MW-4 keeps line 2 for spouses with similar pay and one job each. A couple with more jobs, or whose pay differs a lot, marks the joint status instead and puts the extra amount from the form's Multiple Jobs Worksheet on line 3, and that extra amount is not entered on this page. Montana's guide exempts retirement plan deferrals to the extent they stay out of federal adjusted gross income, so a 401(k) deferral comes off the wage first; it says nothing of a cafeteria plan, which this calculator takes off the way federal withholding does.

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.

Wages are annualised before the schedule is read, so the figures below are annual.

A married employee who marks the box for a couple who both work reads the single column instead. Montana withholds by its single tables when line 2 is marked, for a couple who both work and earn similar amounts. Its instructions (page 3) say not to mark it "if you or your spouse have multiple jobs, or if one spouse earns significantly more than the other": mark box 1b instead.

Single
Annual wages	Tax on the lower figure	Rate on the rest
$0.00 to $16,100.00	$0.00	0%
$16,100.00 to $63,600.00	$0.00	4.7%
$63,600.00 and up	$2,233.00	5.65%

Married filing jointly
Annual wages	Tax on the lower figure	Rate on the rest
$0.00 to $32,200.00	$0.00	0%
$32,200.00 to $127,200.00	$0.00	4.7%
$127,200.00 and up	$4,465.00	5.65%

Head of household
Annual wages	Tax on the lower figure	Rate on the rest
$0.00 to $24,150.00	$0.00	0%
$24,150.00 to $95,400.00	$0.00	4.7%
$95,400.00 and up	$3,349.00	5.65%

Montana withholds whole dollars: the amount for each pay period is taken to the nearest dollar.

Montana sources

Frequently asked questions

What Montana law asks of a pay stub

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

Montana pay stub requirements