Paycheck calculators · South Carolina · Tax year 2026

South Carolina Paycheck Calculator: 2026 Take-Home Pay, Estimated

South Carolina withholds by a formula rather than a table lookup: your wages, minus a $5,000 personal allowance for each allowance on your SC W-4, minus a standard deduction of 10 percent of wages up to $7,500, are taxed at 0 percent up to $3,640, 3 percent up to $18,230, and 6 percent above that. One warning belongs up front for 2026: South Carolina rewrote its income tax this year, and the tax on your 2026 return is figured differently from the withholding on your 2026 paychecks. Both structures are set out below. Enter your pay 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 South Carolina numbers

South Carolina paycheck figures, from the South Carolina Department of Revenue
Withholding formula	Form WH-1603F, Formula for Computing South Carolina 2026 Withholding Tax (Rev. 11/4/25), South Carolina Department of Revenue
Personal allowance	$5,000 per allowance claimed on the SC W-4; $0 if you claim zero allowances
Standard deduction	10 percent of gross wages, up to $7,500, and only when at least one allowance is claimed; $0 at zero allowances
Brackets	0 percent to $3,640 of taxable wages; 3 percent to $18,230; 6 percent above $18,230. One schedule for every filing status.
The 2026 return changed	Act 110 of 2026 replaced the return computation with two rates, 1.99 percent and 5.21 percent, on South Carolina taxable income figured from federal adjusted gross income, with a new state deduction in place of the federal ones (SCDOR Information Letter #26-20). The withholding formula above has not been adjusted to match, so 2026 withholding and 2026 tax will not line up for many workers.
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)

The withholding brackets (yearly taxable wages, after allowances and the standard deduction)

Over	But not over	Tax	Plus rate on the excess
$0	$3,640	$0	0%
$3,640	$18,230	$0	3%
$18,230	and over	$437.70	6%

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.

South Carolina allowances (Form SC W-4) Personal allowances you claim on Form SC W-4

Each allowance is worth $5,000 in the withholding formula, and claiming at least one allowance is also what turns on the standard deduction of 10 percent of wages, up to $7,500. Claiming zero allowances gives you neither, which is how the Department of Revenue formula is written.

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.

South Carolina tax follows the Department of Revenue's published withholding formula, Form WH-1603F (Rev. 11/4/25): wages are annualized, the $5,000 allowance is subtracted for each allowance claimed, the standard deduction of 10 percent of wages up to $7,500 is subtracted when at least one allowance is claimed, and the 0, 3, and 6 percent schedule is applied to the rest. The formula is the same for every filing status; your status above drives the federal module only. The Department's own worked example, $39,000 of wages with three allowances, comes out at $549.90 of withholding for the year under this formula.

Why your 2026 return will not match. Act 110 of 2026, signed on March 30, 2026, rebuilt the South Carolina return for tax year 2026: two rates, 1.99 percent on taxable income up to $29,999 and 5.21 percent above that (figured as 5.21 percent of taxable income minus $966), on taxable income that starts from federal adjusted gross income. The federal standard deduction, the itemized deductions, and the new federal deductions for seniors, tips, the overtime premium, car loan interest, and charitable contributions do not reduce South Carolina taxable income; a new South Carolina Income Adjusted Deduction ($15,000 filing single, $22,500 as head of household, $30,000 filing jointly, phasing out as income rises) applies instead. Information Letter #26-20 says the Department will adjust the withholding tables to reflect the change, but the formula published for 2026 wages is still the one above, so this calculator withholds by it, as your employer's payroll does, and does not estimate your 2026 South Carolina return.

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.

Sources

South Carolina Department of Revenue: Form WH-1603F, Formula for Computing South Carolina 2026 Withholding Tax (Rev. 11/4/25). The $5,000 allowance, the 10 percent standard deduction capped at $7,500, the brackets, and the worked example. Checked November 4, 2026.
South Carolina Department of Revenue: Information Letter #26-20, Individual Income Tax Reform, August 31, 2026. The Act 110 return structure for tax year 2026 and the statement that withholding tables will be adjusted. 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.