Paycheck calculators · Illinois · Tax year 2026

Illinois Paycheck Calculator: 2026 Take-Home Pay, Estimated

Illinois withholds a flat 4.95 percent of your pay after your exemption allowances: $2,925 for each basic allowance on Form IL-W-4, and $1,000 for each additional allowance. Enter your pay and your allowances below and this calculator estimates your 2026 take-home pay, federal tax and FICA included, with an optional view of the new 2026 tips and overtime deductions.

Last reviewed: November 4, 2026.

The 2026 Illinois numbers

Illinois paycheck figures for 2026, from state sources
State income tax rate	Flat 4.95 percent (Illinois Department of Revenue, Booklet IL-700-T for 2026)
How it is figured	Subtract exemptions from wages, then multiply by 4.95 percent, in the Department's own words
Basic exemption allowance	$2,925 for 2026, for each allowance on IL-W-4 Line 1, up from $2,850 in 2025
Additional allowance	$1,000 each, for the age 65 or older and blindness allowances on IL-W-4 Line 2
Income limit on the exemption	The exemption allowance is not available if federal adjusted gross income is over $250,000, or $500,000 on a joint return. The estimate applies the allowances you enter; if your income is over the limit, actual Illinois tax will be higher
Federal withholding	IRS Publication 15-T for 2026, Worksheet 1A percentage method
Social Security and Medicare	6.2 percent up to $184,500 of wages; 1.45 percent on all wages; an extra 0.9 percent Medicare withholding over $200,000 (IRS Topic No. 751; Social Security Administration)

Checked against IRS sources · Reviewed November 4, 2026

The paycheck calculator

Your pay

Salary Hourly

Yearly salary before tax (dollars)

How often are you paid? Filing status

Married filing separately uses the single table in Publication 15-T, so choose Single for a withholding estimate on that status.

Your Form W-4 (optional)

The Step 2 box is checked on my Form W-4 (multiple jobs or a working spouse)

Other income, Step 4(a) (yearly dollars, optional) Dependents amount, Step 3 (yearly dollars, optional) Deductions, Step 4(b) (yearly dollars, optional) Extra withholding, Step 4(c) (dollars per paycheck, optional)

These four entries copy what is on the Form W-4 you gave your employer. Leave them blank if your W-4 has none of them, which is the common case.

Tips and overtime (optional, new for 2026) Tips you expect to receive this year (dollars, optional) Overtime premium you expect this year (dollars, optional)

The premium is only the extra half of time-and-a-half, not your full overtime pay. Both amounts are wages: they are taxed like the rest of your pay in the estimate, and the results also show what the new 2026 deductions for tips and the overtime premium could be worth on your return.

Illinois allowances (Form IL-W-4) Basic allowances, Line 1

One for yourself, plus one for a spouse you claim as a dependent and one for each dependent you will claim.

Additional allowances, Line 2

One for each age 65 or older or blindness box checked on the IL-W-4 worksheet.

Estimate only. This tool gives a general estimate based on the figures you entered and the published IRS rules cited on this page. It is not tax advice, it is not a tax return, and it cannot be relied on to avoid any tax penalty. Tax law and IRS guidance change. Confirm your figures against the current IRS instructions for the form you file, or ask a qualified tax professional.

Nothing you enter is sent anywhere. The calculation runs in your browser.

How this estimate is calculated

Federal income tax follows Worksheet 1A of IRS Publication 15-T for 2026, the worksheet employer payroll systems use for the automated percentage method. Your pay is annualized, your Form W-4 entries are applied, including the adjustment that applies when the Step 2 box is not checked ($12,900 on a joint return, $8,600 otherwise), and the 2026 percentage method table for your filing status gives the withholding. This calculator assumes a current Form W-4, the version in use since 2020.

Social Security and Medicare (FICA) are withheld at 6.2 percent of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, and 1.45 percent of all wages for Medicare, with an extra 0.9 percent Medicare withholding on wages over $200,000 in the year, as IRS Topic No. 751 sets out. Tips count as wages for FICA.

Illinois tax follows Booklet IL-700-T for 2026 from the Department of Revenue: the exemption allowances you enter are subtracted from your yearly wages and the rest is taxed at the flat 4.95 percent rate. Illinois uses its own Form IL-W-4 for these allowances, separate from your federal Form W-4, and if no IL-W-4 is on file an employer withholds on your whole pay with no exemptions.

the saving lands on the return, not the paycheck

Tips and overtime: the 2026 difference

Most paycheck calculators stop at withholding. This one also shows the new 2026 deduction context, because tax year 2026 is the first year tips and the overtime premium carry deductions of their own: tips up to $25,000 per return, and the overtime premium up to $12,500, or $25,000 on a joint return, claimed on the new Schedule 1-A. Both phase out from $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income, or $300,000 on a joint return.

Two cautions belong with that panel. First, the deductions are worked out on your tax return, not in your paycheck: the saving normally arrives at filing time, unless you adjust your Form W-4 so withholding reflects the deductions during the year, which the 2026 Form W-4 allows. Second, for 2026 the IRS states in Fact Sheet FS-2026-13 that the deductions are generally limited to the amounts your employer separately reports on your W-2, in Box 12 with code TP for tips and code TT for the overtime premium. The tips deduction calculator and the overtime deduction calculator work through those rules in full.

no 401(k) assumed here, on purpose

What this estimate does not include

Pre-tax deductions from your pay, such as 401(k) or 403(b) contributions and health insurance premiums. Those reduce the wages most taxes are figured on, and they depend on elections only you and your employer know, so no honest estimate can assume them.
Bonuses, commissions, and irregular pay. Payroll annualizes each check as if it repeated all year, so a one-off payment is usually withheld at a higher effective rate than this estimate shows for steady pay.
Credits and return-level items. Withholding is an advance payment. Your actual tax is settled on your return, where credits, other income, and deductions all enter.
Any local tax other than the one you select or enter on this page.

PlainStub also runs paycheck calculators for Pennsylvania, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina, and Virginia, each built on that state's own published 2026 figures.

Comparing a salary with hourly work?

If you are weighing a salaried offer against hourly work, or the other way round, the Illinois salary to hourly calculator converts either figure into the other at your hours per week, and estimates the take-home pay on the converted pay using the same figures as this page.

Sources

Illinois Department of Revenue, tax.illinois.gov: 2026 IL-700-T, Illinois Withholding Tax Tables, effective January 1, 2026. The 4.95 percent rate, the method of subtracting exemptions before applying the rate, and the $2,925 exemption allowance. Checked November 4, 2026.
Illinois Department of Revenue: Form IL-W-4 and Informational Bulletin FY 2026-15. Basic allowances on Line 1, the $1,000 additional allowances on Line 2, and the exemption income limits. Checked November 4, 2026.
IRS, Publication 15-T, Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods, 2026 edition. Worksheet 1A and the 2026 percentage method tables. Checked November 4, 2026.
IRS, Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates; Social Security Administration, Contribution and Benefit Base for 2026 ($184,500). Checked November 4, 2026.

Last reviewed: November 4, 2026.