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Massachusetts Paycheck Calculator (2026)

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

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Massachusetts publishes additional personal exemptions for filers aged 65 or over and for blind filers. The calculator has no input for either, so it does not apply them and slightly overstates the state tax for those filers.

Quick answer

Massachusetts publishes its personal exemption by filing status rather than per person: $4,400 single, $6,800 head of household, $8,800 joint, plus $1,000 for each dependent. At $85,000 single, the flat 5% rate leaves a state bill of $4,030 and take-home of $64,207.

Most states that grant a personal exemption count heads: an amount for you, the same again for a spouse, the same for each dependent. Massachusetts does not work that way, and the difference is a live trap. It publishes one figure per filing status, $4,400 for a single or separately-filing taxpayer, $6,800 for a head of household, $8,800 on a joint return, and that joint figure is the couple's, whole. It already accounts for the spouse. Nobody adds a second $4,400 on top of it, and an estimate that does hands a married couple relief they are not owed. Dependents are the one thing Massachusetts counts individually, at $1,000 each, well below what an adult claims, which is why a couple with two dependents shields $10,800 rather than four equal shares. Against the flat 5% rate, a single filer's exemption is worth about $220 a year. The Millionaire Surtax sits above all of it, adding to the rate on personal income beyond the state's indexed seven-figure threshold and lifting the all-in top marginal rate to 9%; at this salary it never enters the calculation. Paid Family and Medical Leave takes a small capped employee share each period, shown as Massachusetts PFML. No Massachusetts city or town levies a local income tax. At $85,000 single, federal income tax lands at $9,870, state income tax at $4,030, FICA at $6,503, and take-home at $64,207, an effective total rate of 24.46%.

Massachusetts state tax breakdown

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

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+5%

Major Massachusetts metros

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

BostonMassachusetts metro context

vs. baseline ($85,000 single filer)

A $85,000 salary in Massachusetts takes home approximately $4,400 less than the same salary in a no-income-tax state like Texas or Florida.

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Massachusetts 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), Massachusetts'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.

Massachusetts paycheck FAQ

How much Massachusetts state tax do you owe on $85,000?
About $4,030 for a single filer, an effective state rate of 4.74%. The $4,400 personal exemption comes off first, and the flat 5% rate then applies to the remainder, so marginal and headline rates are the same figure. PFML adds a small per-paycheck contribution on top, already included in the take-home estimate above.
Is the Massachusetts joint exemption simply the single figure doubled?
It lands on the same number by a different route, and the route is what trips people up. Massachusetts publishes $8,800 for a joint return as one whole figure that already includes the spouse. It is not $4,400 for you, plus $4,400 claimed separately for a spouse, and a calculator that adds a spouse amount on top of the published figure has counted the spouse twice.
How does Massachusetts treat dependents?
Separately, and far more modestly than adults. Each dependent adds $1,000 to the exemption, against the $4,400 a single taxpayer claims for themselves, so dependents are the one place Massachusetts does count heads. A joint couple with two dependents claims $10,800 in total: the published joint figure, plus $1,000 apiece. Massachusetts grants further exemptions for age and for blindness, which this calculator leaves out because it does not ask for either, so affected filers owe a little less than shown.
Does Boston or any other Massachusetts city tax wages?
No Massachusetts city, town, or county imposes a local income tax on wages. Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, and Springfield residents all see the same state line on their pay stubs, $4,030 for a $85,000 single filer, plus PFML. Local government revenue runs on property tax and state aid rather than a payroll layer.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Massachusetts?
Joint filers take home about $68,457, roughly $4,250 more than a single filer. Massachusetts charges one rate to everybody, so filing status shows up in the exemption and nowhere else: $8,800 joint, $6,800 for a head of household, $4,400 single or separate. Head of Household clears about $67,249. Separate filers claim the single amount, which is why filing separately never doubles a couple's relief.
How does Massachusetts compare to New Hampshire at $85,000?
New Hampshire does not tax wage income at all, so the gap at the MA/NH border is real money: a Massachusetts resident at $85,000 keeps roughly $4,421 less than a New Hampshire counterpart on the same gross. Federal tax and FICA are identical between the two, and the whole difference is Massachusetts state tax plus PFML.

Take-home at common salaries for Massachusetts

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

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

See also

Start from the full US take-home calculatorMassachusetts vs New Hampshire: side-by-side paycheck comparisonNew York take-home, for comparisonHow the same salary lands in VermontCompare to the Connecticut paycheck calculatorRhode Island take-home, for comparisonWork out per-paycheck pay from an hourly rate in MassachusettsMassachusetts bonus and supplemental wage withholdingSet dependents and multiple jobs on a Massachusetts W-4Compare 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 Massachusetts 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