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St. Louis Paycheck Calculator (2026)

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

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The STL Earnings Tax applies to STL residents on wages earned anywhere and to non-residents on wages earned within the city. The state-only Missouri page does not apply the STL E-Tax; selecting St. Louis here adds the city line on top of the state computation.

Missouri's federal-tax-deductibility provision on the state return is capped and not yet wired into the engine; the Missouri state line in this view may slightly overstate state liability for higher earners.

Quick answer

Yes. St. Louis, an independent city legally separate from St. Louis County, levies a 1% Earnings Tax on wages earned within city limits, applied uniformly to residents and non-residents who work there. At $85,000 single, take-home is $64,715 after federal tax, FICA, Missouri's progressive state line, and the STL E-Tax.

St. Louis sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers as an independent city, legally separate from St. Louis County (like Baltimore City). The city levies a 1% Earnings Tax on wages earned within city limits, applied to residents and non-residents who work there. The Gateway Arch, completed in 1965, sits at the heart of Gateway Arch National Park along the Mississippi riverfront. Anheuser-Busch InBev brews at the historic Soulard brewery, the company's American headquarters. Boeing Defense (the former McDonnell Douglas) operates a major plant in North County, and Edward Jones, Express Scripts (now Evernorth), and Centene all anchor the financial-services cluster. Washington University in St. Louis runs a top-tier private campus near Forest Park, which hosted the 1904 World's Fair and remains one of the largest urban parks in the US. Cardinals baseball plays at Busch Stadium. No SDI line appears on the Missouri pay stub. At $85,000 for a single filer, the federal income tax bill is $9,870, Missouri state tax is $3,062, FICA combined is $6,503, and the STL E-Tax line is $850, for take-home of $64,715. Try the calculator above with a different salary or 401(k) contribution to see how the STL stack moves.

$85,000 single filer take-home comparison

St. Louis

$64,700

Missouri (no city tax)

$65,600

Texas (no income tax)

$68,600

St. Louis take-home is -$800 vs the state-only figure and -$3,900 vs the no-income-tax baseline.

St. Louis local tax breakdown

Local bracket schedule applied by the calculator for 2026.

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+1%

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes St. Louis 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), Missouri's state income tax schedule, the St. Louis 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.

St. Louis paycheck FAQ

What is the federal tax bill on $85,000 single in St. Louis?
At $85,000 for a single filer, the federal income tax bill is $9,870, with the top slice in the 22% bracket after the standard deduction. Federal mechanics apply uniformly across all states, so an STL single filer sees the same federal line as a Kansas City or Columbia counterpart at the same gross.
Is St. Louis City the same as St. Louis County?
No. St. Louis City is an independent city, legally separate from the surrounding St. Louis County. The 1% Earnings Tax applies only within city limits; St. Louis County does not levy a county-level income tax. A St. Louis County resident working in the city pays the 1% STL E-Tax at the source on those wages.
Does the STL Earnings Tax apply to self-employment income?
Yes. The 1% STL E-Tax covers self-employment income earned within city limits in addition to wage income. Self-employed workers in the city file directly with the city collector rather than having tax withheld at the source. The same 1% applies to wages and to net self-employment earnings.
How much does a 401(k) contribution save at $85,000 in St. Louis?
At $85,000, traditional 401(k) and HSA contributions shrink federal AGI and Missouri taxable income at 26.7% combined marginal. STL's E-Tax base is gross wages by city ordinance, so the 1% city line generally stays unchanged when an employee defers more. Two of three lines (federal and state) respond to pre-tax dollars; the city line does not.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in St. Louis?
Switching to MFJ moves take-home to $69,502, about $4,787 more the single estimate. Wider federal MFJ brackets and the doubled federal standard deduction drive most of the change. Missouri's brackets apply the same rates to joint filers, and the federal-tax deduction cap also doubles. The STL E-Tax applies per worker across all four filing statuses. Head of Household reaches about $67,637, around $2,922 more than Single, and combined MFS take-home runs about $4,787 less than MFJ.
How does St. Louis compare to Kansas City for paycheck taxes?
St. Louis and Kansas City levy matching 1% Earnings Taxes. The city math is identical on the same gross, since both apply a flat 1% on wages earned in the city. The two are the only Missouri cities with an employee-side wage tax. Both renew voter authorization every five years under Missouri statute.

See also

Run the full Missouri paycheck calculatorCompare to Kansas City, Missouri paycheck calculatorBrowse all city paycheck calculatorsBrowse paycheck calculators by statePaycheck and tax glossaryHow we calculate paycheck taxes

Reviewed

How This Page Is Reviewed

The St. Louis 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