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

It depends on where your pay sits against the shrinking standard deduction as much as on the schedule. Wisconsin reads its figure after that deduction and your exemptions. Give your wage and filing status and the calculator finds how much of the deduction is still left at that pay, then lists the state line with the federal deductions taken from the same check.

Why is Wisconsin state income tax so high?

For a paycheck in the middle of the income range, the phase-out is a large part of the answer. As pay rises the standard deduction shrinks, so more income is exposed to the schedule at the same time as the rate on it climbs, and the two effects stack. Lower down, the full deduction still shelters a bigger share of the pay.

Does filing status change Wisconsin withholding?

Only through the deduction. The schedule is one table for every status, but a married employee starts with a larger standard deduction than a single one and begins to lose it at a higher income, while head of household is treated as single. Two people on the same pay with different statuses can therefore see different Wisconsin figures.

Do 401(k) and health insurance deductions lower Wisconsin withholding?

Yes, both. Wisconsin defines the wages it withholds on by reference to federal adjusted gross income, and its statutes add neither a 401(k) deferral nor a cafeteria plan premium back, so both reduce the Wisconsin line as they reduce the federal one.

Wisconsin paycheck calculator

The unusual part of Wisconsin withholding is the standard deduction: it differs by filing status and shrinks as pay rises, until past a certain level of annual pay it is gone entirely. A small fixed sum for each exemption claimed on the state's withholding certificate then comes off, and what remains is read against a graduated schedule every employee shares.

Take-home pay

$1,601.97

per bi-weekly (26 per year) period

Gross pay: $2,000.00
Federal Income Tax: −$156.15
Social Security: −$124.00
Medicare: −$29.00
WI State Income Tax: −$88.88
Net pay: $1,601.97

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

How Wisconsin withholding is worked out

The shrinking deduction is the part that surprises people comparing two paychecks. A lower earner keeps all of it, a middle earner keeps a part that gets smaller with every extra dollar, and a higher earner keeps none, so a raise in that middle range lifts the Wisconsin line by more than the schedule's rate alone would suggest. Head of household gets the single filer's deduction rather than a figure of its own. The wages all this is charged on follow federal adjusted gross income, and the state's statutes add nothing back for a 401(k) deferral or a cafeteria plan, so both lower Wisconsin withholding as they lower the federal line.

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.

Wisconsin 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 $12,760.00	$0.00	3.54%
$12,760.00 to $25,520.00	$451.70	4.65%
$25,520.00 to $280,950.00	$1,045.04	5.3%
$280,950.00 and up	$14,582.83	7.65%

Annual standard deduction

Single: $6,702.00, shrinking evenly to nothing between $17,780.00 and $73,630.00 of annual wages

Married filing jointly: $9,461.00, shrinking evenly to nothing between $25,727.00 and $73,032.00 of annual wages

Head of household: $6,702.00, shrinking evenly to nothing between $17,780.00 and $73,630.00 of annual wages

Exemption per allowance

$400.00

Taken off the income before the schedule.

Wisconsin defines its own wages and then subtracts whatever its own chapter does not tax. Wis. Stat. 71.63(6) makes wages "all remuneration ... minus the amount of remuneration not subject to tax under this chapter", and 71.01(13) makes Wisconsin adjusted gross income "federal adjusted gross income, with the modifications prescribed in s. 71.05 (6) to (12), (19), (20), (25), (25m), and (26)". Chapter 71 was read whole, as the chapter PDF rather than the paginated pages, and none of those modifications names a cafeteria plan, section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code or a 401(k): a pre-tax deferral or premium is outside federal adjusted gross income and nothing adds it back. Publication W-166 only hedges, "laws generally conform to the federal Internal Revenue Code", so the statutes carry this and not the guide.

Wisconsin sources

Frequently asked questions

What Wisconsin law asks of a pay stub

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

Wisconsin pay stub requirements