State Tax Comparison 2026

Largest featured $100k gap: Hawaii vs Texas — Texas ahead by about $7,514/year on our single-filer model.

Another large corridor: California vs Texas, where Texas keeps about $6,386 more at $100k.

Nine states have no wage income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Tax Foundation 2026 notes Washington taxes capital gains only; eight others levy no individual income tax at all.

Employee FICA does not change when you move states: 6.2% Social Security (wage base $184,500 in 2026) + 1.45% Medicare (IRS Topic 751).

Take-home ladders exclude sales tax, property tax, and cost of living — those appear as context after the paycheck.

This hub lists 40 comparison pages (one per state pair) across 40 featured corridors, plus a picker for any two states.

$100k scoreboard

Headline annual take-home gap for a single filer with the standard deduction.

Income ladder

Take-home from $50k to $500k so progressive brackets show how the gap scales.

Sales & property

Context metrics after you get paid — not subtracted from the take-home ladder.

COL & jobs

Cost-of-living index and unemployment so a paycheck win isn’t mistaken for affordability.

Federal income tax

Same national brackets everywhere on our standard single-filer model.

State income tax

Brackets and credits differ widely—this is what drives most take-home gaps here.

Employee FICA

Social Security 6.2% (wage base $184,500 in 2026) + Medicare 1.45%.

After the paycheck

Sales tax, property tax, and COL affect spending and housing, not the ladder itself.

Each pair runs the same gross salary through federal income tax, employee FICA, and each state’s income tax for 2026. The winner is the state with higher modeled take-home — not the lowest sales tax or cheapest housing.

Assumptions stay fixed so pairs stay comparable: single filer, standard deduction, no dependents, and no city wage tax unless a pair page notes otherwise.

Example: at $100,000 gross, Hawaii vs Texas leaves Texas about $7,514 ahead on this model ($71,666 vs $79,180).

IRS Topic 751 sets employee Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%. For 2026, Social Security applies only up to $184,500 of wages; Medicare has no wage base.

Additional Medicare tax of 0.9% can apply to wages above $200,000 (employer withholding starts at that threshold regardless of filing status).

Because FICA is federal, the take-home gap between two states is driven mainly by state income tax rules (and any modeled state payroll premiums), not by Social Security or Medicare rates.

The nine no-wage-income-tax states on this hub are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Per Tax Foundation’s 2026 state income tax rates, eight levy no individual income tax at all; Washington taxes capital gains income only — not wages — so it still shows $0 state wage tax on our ladders.

A move into a no-wage-tax state can widen take-home on our ladder while raising sales tax, property tax, or housing costs. Read the metric duel on each pair page before treating a paycheck win as a full budget win.

We currently feature 30 corridors that pit a wage-tax state against a no-wage-tax state — those usually show the clearest paycheck differences.

Every pair includes take-home at $50,000, $75,000, $100,000, $150,000, $200,000, $500,000. Progressive states often widen or shrink the gap as brackets kick in.

Sales tax, property tax, cost-of-living index, median income, and unemployment on pair pages are context after you get paid — they are not subtracted from the take-home ladder.

For city COL and equivalent salary, use the relocation salary calculator. For filing status, dependents, or itemized deductions, use the US paycheck calculator.