PaycheckCalc

City paycheck calculator

Owensboro Paycheck Calculator (2026)

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

Enter your salary to begin

Type above or pick a quick salary to see your 2026 take-home pay instantly.

Data pending verification

Daviess County may layer a separate county-level OLT on wages earned outside Owensboro city limits; that overlay is not modeled by the calculator.

Quick answer

Effectively yes. Owensboro, the third-largest Kentucky city on the Ohio River, levies a 1.78% occupational license tax on wages earned within city limits, work-location based. At $85,000 single, take-home is $64,257 after federal tax, FICA, Kentucky's flat state line, and the Owensboro OLT.

Owensboro is Kentucky's third-largest city, sitting on the Ohio River in Daviess County in the western part of the state, and levies a 1.78% occupational license tax on wages earned within city limits. The OLT applies uniformly to residents and to non-residents who work there. The city is the cultural home of bluegrass music as a genre (distinct from the geographic Bluegrass region of central Kentucky): the International Bluegrass Music Museum sits downtown alongside the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, and ROMP, the annual bluegrass festival, draws regional traffic each summer. Owensboro Barbecue, a regional cuisine centered on slow-smoked mutton served with a vinegar-based dip and burgoo (a thick stew), distinguishes the local food culture from Memphis, Kansas City, Texas, and Carolina barbecue traditions. The Ohio River port handles barge freight, and Brescia University runs a small Catholic liberal-arts campus downtown. No state disability deduction applies in Kentucky. Federal income tax at $85,000 for a single filer comes to $9,870, with Kentucky state tax at $2,857, FICA combined at $6,503, and the Owensboro OLT line at $1,513, for take-home of $64,257. Layer pre-tax contributions or filing status changes into the calculator above to see the Owensboro line respond.

$85,000 single filer take-home comparison

Owensboro

$64,300

Kentucky (no city tax)

$65,800

Texas (no income tax)

$68,600

Owensboro take-home is -$1,500 vs the state-only figure and -$4,400 vs the no-income-tax baseline.

Owensboro local tax breakdown

Local bracket schedule applied by the calculator for 2026.

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+1.78%

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Owensboro 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 Owensboro 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.

Owensboro paycheck FAQ

What is the federal tax bill on $85,000 single in Owensboro?
Federal income tax at $85,000 for a single filer comes to $9,870, with the top slice in the 22% bracket after the standard deduction. Federal mechanics apply identically nationwide, so an Owensboro single filer sees the same federal line as a Bowling Green or Henderson County counterpart on the same gross.
How is Owensboro's OLT structured?
Owensboro's 1.78% OLT applies to wages earned within city limits, withheld at the source by employers regardless of the worker's residence. Daviess County may layer a separate county-level OLT on wages earned outside city limits. At $85,000, the Owensboro OLT line resolves to $1,513 on the year.
What if I commute from Indiana to a job in Owensboro?
An Indiana resident commuting south across the William H. Natcher Bridge to an Owensboro job owes Kentucky state tax plus the Owensboro 1.78% on Kentucky-earned wages. Indiana credits taxes paid to other states against the Indiana state liability. Indiana's county income tax still applies based on the worker's home Indiana county.
How much does a 401(k) contribution save at $85,000 in Owensboro?
Traditional 401(k) and HSA contributions reduce $85,000-base federal and Kentucky taxable income at the combined 25.5% marginal rate. Owensboro's OLT base typically tracks gross wages rather than federal taxable income, so deferrals leave the OLT line largely unchanged while the federal and state lines shrink.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Owensboro?
Two-earner joint households at $85,000 take home $68,287, $4,030 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 Owensboro 1.78% OLT scales per worker across all four filing statuses. Head of Household clears about $67,179, around $2,922 more than Single, and combined two-return MFS take-home lands about $4,030 less than MFJ.
How does Owensboro compare to Henderson County?
Henderson County, 30 miles west along the Ohio River, levies a county-level OLT below Owensboro's 1.78% city OLT. A Henderson County resident at $85,000 keeps more after the OLT line than an Owensboro counterpart on the same gross. Both anchor Western Kentucky river ports with comparable industrial and agricultural footprints.

See also

Run the full Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Louisville paycheck calculatorCompare to Lexington, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Bowling Green, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Covington, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Florence, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Henderson County, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Hopkinsville paycheck calculatorCompare to Frankfort, Kentucky paycheck calculatorCompare to Elizabethtown, Kentucky paycheck calculatorBrowse all city paycheck calculatorsBrowse paycheck calculators by statePaycheck and tax glossaryHow we calculate paycheck taxes

Reviewed

How This Page Is Reviewed

The Owensboro 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