Massachusetts Paycheck Calculator

Five lines come out of a Massachusetts paycheck: federal income tax, Social Security (6.2% up to $184,500), Medicare (1.45%), Massachusetts state withholding, and your share of Paid Family and Medical Leave. No Massachusetts city or town taxes wages. Anything else on your stub is your own election: 401(k), health premiums, HSA, and similar benefits.

Circular M starts by subtracting the Social Security and Medicare tax withheld from your pay, up to $2,000 a year. It then subtracts the exemption from your Form M-4: $4,400 when you claim one exemption, $3,400 plus $1,000 per exemption when you claim more, and $0 when you claim none. The remainder is taxed at 5%, and at 9% on any portion of annualized wages above $1,107,750, the 2026 threshold for the 4% surtax. This calculator values married filing jointly at five exemptions, $8,400, and adds $1,000 per dependent.

Massachusetts has no standard deduction. If your annual wages are under $8,000 and you claim at least one exemption, nothing is withheld for the state. Circular M also allows $120 a year off the tax for head of household and $110 per blind exemption; this calculator leaves those two out, so a head of household stub will show slightly less Massachusetts tax than the figure here.

Paid Family and Medical Leave costs 0.88% of wages in 2026 at employers with 25 or more covered workers and 0.46% at smaller ones; the employee share is 0.46% either way (0.28% medical, 0.18% family), on wages up to the $184,500 Social Security wage base, unchanged from 2025. Bonuses paid separately are withheld at a flat 5%, or 9% on the part that pushes annualized pay over $1,107,750, and this site's bonus calculator applies 5% for Massachusetts. The state has no reciprocity agreements.