New Jersey Paycheck Calculator (2026)

New Jersey's headline 10.75% rate belongs to income above the state's seven-figure threshold and has nothing to do with an ordinary paycheck; at $85,000 the marginal state rate is 6.37%. Underneath the brackets sits a set of exemptions that are modest by regional standards and worth reading carefully, because their arithmetic is not what people assume. You claim $1,000 for yourself. A spouse on a joint return adds another $1,000, bringing a couple to $2,000. Each dependent adds $1,500, which is more than an adult is worth, and that inversion is unusual enough to be worth naming. A head-of-household filer, though, claims $1,000. One exemption, not two. That catches people out, because they compare themselves against a married couple and expect head-of-household status to carry a couple's allowance. It does not, and the reason is plain once said aloud: there is no spouse to claim one for. A single parent raising two children claims $1,000 for themselves plus $1,500 for each child. New Jersey is also unusually rich in employee-side insurance programs, with unemployment, family leave, and temporary disability each withholding a small capped share of wages, listed together as New Jersey TDI, New Jersey FLI, New Jersey UI/WF/SWF. No municipality taxes employee wages; Newark's payroll tax falls on employers. At $85,000 single, federal income tax lands at $9,870, state income tax at $3,225, FICA at $6,503, and take-home at $64,856, an effective total rate of 23.7%.