Federal Withholding Tax Table: Brackets, Methods, and W-4 Effects

Federal withholding tax tables are the IRS-published charts and formulas your employer uses to figure out how much federal income tax to take out of each paycheck. They live in Publication 15-T, which the IRS updates every year for new brackets and inflation adjustments.¹ The number that lands on your paystub depends on two things: which method your employer uses to read the tables, and what you entered on your Form W-4.

What the Tables Actually Calculate

Publication 15-T covers federal income tax withholding only. Social Security, Medicare, and any state income tax are calculated separately and are not part of these tables. Whatever the tables produce is a prepayment toward your annual federal tax bill, not a final settlement. Your true liability is not known until you file your return.

The IRS gives employers two approved ways to run the calculation: the Wage Bracket Method and the Percentage Method. Both should produce very similar results for the same employee. The difference is mostly how the employer prefers to run payroll.

The Wage Bracket Method

The Wage Bracket Method is a lookup chart. Your employer picks the page that matches your pay frequency (weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly) and your filing status, finds the row where your gross wages fall between the “At least” and “But less than” columns, and reads across to get a flat dollar amount.¹ No formulas involved.

The trade-off is coverage. The Wage Bracket tables only reach annualized wages of roughly $100,000.² Above that, the employer has to switch to the Percentage Method. The bracket ranges also round results, so individual paychecks can be slightly off in either direction even though the total generally evens out over a year.

The Percentage Method

Most employers running automated payroll use the Percentage Method because it works at any income level and produces a more precise number. It applies the actual graduated federal tax rates to your annualized wages instead of reading from a rounded bracket.¹

The steps run in a fixed order. Your employer multiplies your gross pay by the number of pay periods in a year to annualize it. Additional income from Step 4(a) of your W-4 is added, and additional deductions from Step 4(b) are subtracted. The formula then subtracts a built-in allowance tied to your filing status. For employees who did not check the Step 2 multiple-jobs box, that allowance is $12,900 for Married Filing Jointly or $8,600 for other statuses.² The result is your Adjusted Annual Wage Amount.

The 2026 tax rates are then applied to that adjusted figure. Any dependent credits you entered in Step 3 are subtracted from the tentative annual tax, the result is divided by the number of pay periods in your year, and any extra withholding you asked for in Step 4(c) is added on top. That final figure is what the payroll system deducts from your paycheck.

How Your W-4 Changes the Number

Your Form W-4 supplies every input the tables need beyond your gross wages.³ Filing status is the biggest lever, because Single, Married Filing Jointly, and Head of Household each pull from a different rate schedule and produce different results at the same income.

Step 3 dependents apply as a dollar-for-dollar annual reduction in the tax figured on your wages. For 2026, each qualifying child under 17 is worth $2,200 and each other dependent is worth $500, phasing out above $200,000 of income for single filers and $400,000 for joint filers.⁴ Step 4(a) tells your employer to withhold as if you earned more than your wages alone. Step 4(b) tells your employer to withhold as if you earned less. Step 4(c) adds a flat dollar amount to every paycheck on top of whatever the tables produced.

You can hand in a new W-4 whenever you want. Marriage, divorce, a new child, or a spouse starting or leaving a job can shift your correct withholding by hundreds of dollars per paycheck, and waiting until the following January means months of the wrong number.

The 2026 Brackets Behind the Tables

The withholding tables are built from the 2026 federal income tax brackets. Only the income that falls inside each bracket is taxed at that bracket’s rate.⁵

10%: Up to $12,400 (Single) or $24,800 (Married Filing Jointly)
12%: $12,401 to $50,400 (Single) or $24,801 to $100,800 (Joint)
22%: $50,401 to $105,700 (Single) or $100,801 to $211,400 (Joint)
24%: $105,701 to $201,775 (Single) or $211,401 to $403,550 (Joint)
32%: $201,776 to $256,225 (Single) or $403,551 to $512,450 (Joint)
35%: $256,226 to $640,600 (Single) or $512,451 to $768,700 (Joint)
37%: Above $640,600 (Single) or above $768,700 (Joint)

The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for Single filers, $32,200 for Married Filing Jointly, and $24,150 for Head of Household.⁵ The withholding tables already build the standard deduction into their math through the filing-status allowance in the Percentage Method formula, which is why you do not subtract it separately.

Adjustments When You Have More Than One Job

Each employer runs the tables as if its paycheck is your only income. If you or your spouse work more than one job at the same time, that means the low brackets get used more than once and too little tax comes out overall.

The W-4 offers two fixes. Checking the Step 2(c) box on both W-4s tells each employer to withhold at a higher rate that assumes a two-job household; the IRS recommends this when the lower-paying job earns more than half of the higher-paying one.⁴ When the pay gap is bigger, the Step 2(b) worksheet produces a more accurate adjustment.

Whichever method you use, fill in Steps 3 and 4(b) only on the W-4 for the highest-paying job. Claiming the same dependent credit at every employer is the fastest way to end up owing money in April.

Claiming Exempt From Withholding

A narrow group of employees can skip federal income tax withholding by writing “Exempt” on the W-4. You qualify only if you owed zero federal income tax last year and expect to owe zero this year. Getting a refund because you overpaid is not the same as owing zero, and it does not qualify you.

Exempt status expires. If you claim it for 2026, you have to submit a new W-4 by February 16, 2027 to keep it in place.⁴ Miss the date and your employer must start withholding as if you filed a W-4 with Single status and no other entries, which is the highest default rate on the tables.

Social Security, Medicare, and State Tax Are Not on These Tables

Publication 15-T does not touch Social Security or Medicare. Social Security tax is a flat 6.2 percent of gross wages up to $184,500 in 2026, after which withholding stops for the rest of the year.⁶ Medicare tax is 1.45 percent of all wages with no cap, and once your wages pass $200,000 in a calendar year your employer must withhold an extra 0.9 percent on everything above that threshold.⁷ None of these amounts are affected by anything on your W-4.

State income tax is also separate. Most states publish their own withholding tables and often use a state-specific version of the W-4. Eight states have no income tax at all. If you moved mid-year or work remotely across a state line, more than one state may have a claim on part of your income, and the state tables handle that on their own terms.

Checking Your Own Withholding

You do not have to work through Publication 15-T yourself to see whether your withholding is on track. The IRS Tax Withholding Estimator at irs.gov walks you through your income, deductions, and credits, then tells you exactly how to fill out your W-4 to hit whatever target you want, whether that is breaking even, a specific refund, or a small balance due.⁸ It generates a pre-filled W-4 you can print and hand to your employer. Running it once a year, and again after any major life change, is the most reliable way to keep your paycheck withholding matched to what you actually owe.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-T – Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-T – Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods
3
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 753, Form W-4, Employees Withholding Certificate
4
Internal Revenue Service. Form W-4 2026 – Employees Withholding Certificate
5
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
6
Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
7
Internal Revenue Service. Additional Medicare Tax
8
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Withholding Estimator