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Illinois Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Enter your annual salary below to see your Illinois take-home pay after federal, state, FICA, and any local taxes for 2026.

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Quick answer

Illinois taxes wages at a flat 4.95% and shields $2,925 per person before the rate applies. That allowance has a hard edge: above $250,000 of income it is disallowed in full, not reduced. At $85,000 single, the state bill is $4,063 and take-home is $64,565.

A flat 4.95% rate applies to Illinois wage income at every level, fixed by the constitutional flat-rate requirement voters reaffirmed at the ballot in 2020. There are no brackets to manage, no surtax, and no city or county wage tax anywhere in the state, Chicago included. What Illinois does have is a personal exemption of $2,925 per person, claimed alike by the taxpayer, a spouse, and each dependent, subtracted before the rate. A family of four shields $11,700, and for a single filer at $85,000 the allowance is worth about $145 a year. Then it ends, and it ends abruptly. Cross $250,000 of income as a single filer, or $500,000 on a joint return, and the exemption is not trimmed, tapered or pro-rated: the entire allowance is disallowed. One dollar decides it. A filer at exactly $250,000 keeps every cent of the exemption for the whole household; a filer a dollar above keeps none of it, and neither does their spouse or any of their dependents. Very few state provisions turn that sharply, and a calculator treating the allowance as a smooth phase-out will be wrong on both sides of the line. Illinois runs no disability-insurance program funded by employee payroll. At $85,000 single, federal income tax lands at $9,870, state income tax at $4,063, FICA at $6,503, and take-home at $64,565, an effective total rate of 24.04%.

Illinois state tax breakdown

Single-filer state income tax brackets used by the calculator for 2026.

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+4.95%

Major Illinois metros

These metros do not levy a separate city income tax; paycheck math runs the Illinois state schedule above. Each metro page adds city-specific context (cost of living, major employers, commute patterns) on top of the state calculator.

ChicagoIllinois metro context

vs. baseline ($85,000 single filer)

A $85,000 salary in Illinois takes home approximately $4,100 less than the same salary in a no-income-tax state like Texas or Florida.

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Illinois take-home pay using 2026 federal brackets after the standard deduction, FICA contributions (Social Security at the federal rate up to the annual wage base, Medicare on all wages, plus the Additional Medicare Tax above the filing-status threshold), Illinois's state income tax schedule above, and any local income tax or state-administered payroll program (SDI, PFML, FAMLI) when you select a city or county. For states with no broad-based personal income tax, the state line is zero. It excludes employer-side payroll taxes, custom W-4 elections, supplemental-wage handling for bonuses or equity vesting, and income from sources other than W-2 wages.

Illinois paycheck FAQ

How much Illinois state income tax do you owe on $85,000?
About $4,063 for a single filer, an effective state rate of 4.78%. Illinois subtracts the $2,925 personal exemption and applies its flat 4.95% rate to the rest, so the marginal rate matches the headline at every income. That flatness is constitutional rather than a policy choice, which is why no bracket planning applies here.
What is the Illinois personal exemption?
An allowance of $2,925 per person, taken before the flat rate. The taxpayer claims one, a spouse claims one, and each dependent claims one, all at the same amount, so a family of four shields $11,700. Illinois indexes the figure upward in most years. At $85,000 single it is worth about $145 against the 4.95% rate.
What happens to the Illinois exemption at high incomes?
It vanishes in a single step. Above $250,000 of income for a single filer, or $500,000 on a joint return, the exemption allowance is disallowed outright. Nothing is pro-rated and nothing tapers off. One dollar of income on the wrong side of that line costs the household every exemption it claims, dependents included, so it is a cliff rather than a phase-out. A pre-tax deferral that pulls income back under the line restores the allowance whole, which makes the last dollars before the edge unusually worth sheltering.
Does Chicago tax wages?
No. Chicago levies no personal income tax on wage earnings, and neither does any other Illinois city. The state's flat 4.95% is the only income-tax line on an Illinois pay stub, and Cook County adds nothing to it. Local government revenue comes from property tax and a layered sales-tax structure instead.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Illinois?
Joint filers take home about $68,740, roughly $4,175 more than a single filer. The flat rate is neutral across statuses, so on the state side only the head count moves: a couple claims $5,850 against a single filer's $2,925, and the cliff sits at $500,000 rather than $250,000. Head of Household clears about $67,487, claiming the single exemption and the single cliff.
How does Illinois compare to neighboring Indiana at $85,000?
Indiana charges a lower flat state rate than Illinois's 4.95% but adds a county income tax to every resident, so the answer depends on the county. State-side, an Indiana resident at $85,000 keeps roughly $1,585 more per year. A high-rate county narrows that; a low-rate one widens it. Wisconsin, to the north, runs a progressive schedule topping out above either.

Take-home at common salaries for Illinois

Dedicated salary-anchor pages with a federal-state-FICA breakdown, vs-baseline callouts, and a calculator pre-set to that salary and Illinois.

$50,000 after taxesin Illinois$75,000 after taxesin Illinois$100,000 after taxesin Illinois$150,000 after taxesin Illinois$200,000 after taxesin Illinois$250,000 after taxesin Illinois$60,000 after taxesin Illinois$120,000 after taxesin Illinois

See also

Run the full US paycheck calculatorIllinois vs Indiana: side-by-side paycheck comparisonKentucky take-home, for comparisonCompare to the Iowa paycheck calculatorCompare to the Michigan paycheck calculatorMissouri take-home, for comparisonPaid hourly in Illinois? Check the per-check numberCheck whether your Illinois withholding is too highIllinois self-employed take-home, both FICA halvesCompare paycheck taxes between two locationsWhat the terms on your pay stub meanHow these estimates are built, line by line

Reviewed

How This Page Is Reviewed

The Illinois paycheck page is reviewed against primary federal and state sources before each major tax-year update. Source links below are the references used to validate brackets, wage bases, and supported local taxes.

Reviewed by

PaycheckCalc Research Desk

Last reviewed

2026-07-12