South Carolina Paycheck Calculator (2026)

South Carolina rewrote its income tax in 2026, and the schedule that replaced the old one has just two rates: 1.99% on taxable income up to $30,000, then 5.21% on the rest. Read those rates alone and the state looks ordinary. What actually sets a South Carolina bill is the South Carolina Income Adjusted Deduction, and it behaves unlike anything in a neighboring state. A single filer begins with $15,000 of it, keeps the full amount up to $40,000 of federal AGI, and then gives it back on a slope: every additional dollar earned destroys 27.27% of a dollar of deduction, until there is none left at $95,000. At $85,000, a single filer is well down that slope and holds $2,730 of the original amount. Most South Carolina wage earners sit somewhere inside the band, which is where a raise costs more than the printed rate implies: the new dollar is taxed, and it also erases part of the shield standing between the old dollars and the 5.21% bracket. One more thing sets this page apart from an actual pay stub. South Carolina's own published withholding tables still run the pre-2026 law, so a South Carolina paycheck is very likely having too much state tax taken out of it. At $85,000 single, federal income tax comes to $9,870, state income tax to $3,320, FICA to $6,503, and take-home to $65,307, an effective total rate of 23.17%. No South Carolina city or county taxes wages.