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Elizabethtown, Kentucky Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Enter your annual salary below to see your Elizabethtown, Kentucky take-home pay after federal, state, FICA, and city/local taxes for 2026.

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Hardin County may layer a separate county-level OLT on wages earned outside Elizabethtown city limits; that overlay is not modeled. Federal-installation withholding for Fort Knox civilians is also not modeled.

Quick answer

Effectively yes. Elizabethtown, the Hardin County seat near Fort Knox, levies a 1.5% occupational license tax on wages earned within city limits, work-location based. At $85,000 single, take-home is $64,495 after federal tax, FICA, Kentucky's flat state line, and the Elizabethtown OLT.

Elizabethtown sits in Hardin County along the I-65 corridor between Louisville and Nashville, and levies a 1.5% occupational license tax on wages earned within city limits. The OLT applies uniformly to residents and to non-residents who work in the city. Fort Knox, the US Army installation immediately south of Elizabethtown, houses the US Army Human Resources Command, the US Army Cadet Command, and the United States Bullion Depository where the federal gold reserves are stored. The installation has been the primary economic driver in Hardin County for over a century. Hardin Memorial Hospital, the largest regional medical center between Louisville and Bowling Green, anchors local healthcare employment. Elizabethtown Community and Technical College runs the main campus downtown. The city sits 40 miles south of Louisville and 130 miles north of Nashville, making it a logistics waypoint on the I-65 corridor. No SDI line appears on the Kentucky pay stub. A single filer earning $85,000 owes $9,870 in federal income tax, with Kentucky state tax at $2,857, FICA combined at $6,503, and the Elizabethtown OLT line at $1,275, for take-home of $64,495. Use the calculator above to model 401(k) deferrals or compare Elizabethtown against the Louisville Metro line.

$85,000 single filer take-home comparison

Elizabethtown, Kentucky

$64,500

Kentucky (no city tax)

$65,800

Texas (no income tax)

$68,600

Elizabethtown, Kentucky take-home is -$1,300 vs the state-only figure and -$4,100 vs the no-income-tax baseline.

Elizabethtown, Kentucky local tax breakdown

Local bracket schedule applied by the calculator for 2026.

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+1.50%

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Elizabethtown, Kentucky take-home pay using 2026 federal brackets after the standard deduction, FICA contributions (Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare on all wages, plus the Additional Medicare Tax above the filing-status threshold), Kentucky's state income tax schedule, the Elizabethtown, Kentucky local income tax. 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. Per-city resident and non-resident rules are described in the prose above where they differ.

Elizabethtown, Kentucky paycheck FAQ

What is the federal tax bill on $85,000 single in Elizabethtown?
A single filer earning $85,000 owes $9,870 in federal income tax, with the top slice in the 22% bracket after the standard deduction. Federal mechanics work the same in every US state and city, so an Elizabethtown single filer sees the same federal line as a Hopkinsville or Louisville counterpart on the same gross.
How is Elizabethtown's OLT structured?
Elizabethtown's 1.5% OLT applies to wages earned within city limits, withheld at the source by employers regardless of the worker's residence. Hardin County may layer a separate county-level OLT for work outside city limits. At $85,000, the Elizabethtown OLT line resolves to $1,275 on the year.
What about civilian workers at Fort Knox or the Bullion Depository?
Fort Knox sits in Hardin and Bullitt Counties south of Elizabethtown. Civilian wages earned on the post typically follow federal-installation withholding rules; off-base wage earners working in Elizabethtown proper pay the standard Elizabethtown OLT. The United States Bullion Depository's workforce is small and follows similar federal-installation rules.
How much does a 401(k) contribution save at $85,000 in Elizabethtown?
A $85,000 single filer sees a 25.5% combined federal-plus-Kentucky marginal rate, and 401(k) plus HSA deferrals reduce taxable income at that rate. Elizabethtown's OLT applies to gross compensation, which means traditional deferrals reduce only the federal and state portions, not the city OLT.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Elizabethtown?
MFJ at the same gross widens take-home to $68,525, a $4,030 swing more the single estimate. Wider federal MFJ brackets and the doubled federal standard deduction drive most of the change. Kentucky's flat state rate is filing-status-neutral, and the Elizabethtown 1.5% OLT scales per worker across all four filing statuses. Head of Household clears about $67,417, around $2,922 more than Single, and combined MFS take-home runs about $4,030 less than MFJ.
How does Elizabethtown compare to Hopkinsville?
Hopkinsville shares Elizabethtown's 1.5% OLT and a similar small-Kentucky-city tax profile, with Fort Campbell anchoring its local economy as Fort Knox anchors Elizabethtown's. The two produce matching paycheck math at the same income; the divergence is in history, regional geography, and military-installation specifics.

See also

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How This Page Is Reviewed

The Elizabethtown, Kentucky paycheck page is reviewed against primary federal, state, and city 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

2026-06-25