New York Payroll & Paycheck Tax Calculator
The Big Apple doesn’t have to take a big bite of your payroll day. Simplify the process of withholding in New York State. Get accurate, easy-to-understand withholding info for you and your employees. Our user-friendly calculator was made for both salaried and hourly employees, so no matter how you make your New York business run, you can get payroll done faster.
New York Payroll Tax Steps
New York employers have progressive state income taxes. And yes, that does mean payroll here is more complicated. Between city-level withholdings, state agency registrations, and calculating state-level withholding, it’s easy to miss something. That’s why using a payroll calculator helps cut through the confusion and make sure payroll is accurate from the start. But withholding’s just one piece of the puzzle, so here’s what else you need to know to run payroll in the Empire State, step by step.
Fingercheck and any related entities do not offer tax, accounting, or legal advice. This content is designed for informational purposes only and should not be considered a source of tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is recommended that you consult your tax, legal, and accounting advisors before undertaking any related activities or transactions.
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How much tax is taken out of a paycheck in New York?
Every New York paycheck has federal income tax, Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), and New York State income tax withheld, with state tax ranging from 3.9% to 10.9% depending on income. If the employee lives in New York City or Yonkers, a local tax gets layered on top of the state tax. Nonresidents who commute into NYC for work owe no city tax at all, since it’s a residency-based tax, not a workplace-based one.
Because the exact figure depends on income, filing status, and where the employee lives, use the calculator above for your precise number.
How much more is taken out of a paycheck for someone working in NYC?
It depends on where they live, not where they work. A New York City resident owes a separate city income tax of 3.078% to 3.876% on top of state tax, layered the same way state tax layers on top of federal. Someone who lives outside the city but commutes in, from New Jersey or Long Island, for example, owes zero NYC tax on that income, no matter how much they earn there.
New York payroll facts at a glance (2026)
New York’s payroll math has more moving parts than almost any other state, and a few of those parts changed for 2026. Here’s the full 2026 picture, and the pieces, the city and state split, the transit tax, and the weekly pay rule, that trip up employers most often.
New York payroll tax rates and thresholds for 2026
The table above shows single-filer brackets. Married couples filing jointly use wider thresholds, roughly double through the middle brackets, before converging with the single-filer amounts at the top end.
How New York’s state income tax brackets work
New York’s income tax is progressive, so only the income inside each bracket is taxed at that bracket’s rate. The bottom five brackets were cut by 0.1 percentage point for tax year 2026 under a rate reduction in last year’s state budget, with a further cut scheduled for 2027. The top three brackets, which apply only above roughly $1.08 million of taxable income, were extended through 2032 instead of expiring as originally scheduled.
New York State income tax brackets for 2026 (single filers)
How NYC and Yonkers local taxes work
New York City residents pay a separate city income tax on top of the state tax. Nonresidents who commute into the city for work owe no NYC tax at all, regardless of how much they earn there. NYC’s rates didn’t change for 2026, confirmed directly on tax.ny.gov.
New York City resident income tax brackets (single filers)
Yonkers calculates its local tax differently from NYC. Instead of its own income bracket schedule, Yonkers residents pay a surcharge equal to 16.75% of their New York State tax liability, calculated after the state tax is figured, not as a separate percentage of wages. Nonresidents who work in Yonkers but live elsewhere pay a flat 0.50% earnings tax on the wages they earn there. Both are confirmed in the state’s Publication NYS-50-T-Y withholding tables.
Tipped minimum wage by region and industry, 2026
New York tipped minimum wage rates for 2026
What’s new for New York employers in 2026
- Weekly pay damages amendment (effective May 9, 2025, still shaping enforcement in 2026): manual workers who are paid in full on a regular schedule at least twice a month no longer expose their employer to automatic 100% liquidated damages for a first violation of the weekly-pay rule, only lost interest, with liquidated damages reserved for a second violation after formal notice. Signed into law as Part U of the 2025-2026 budget bill, this followed a wave of class actions and directly affects construction, field services, and other industries with manual-worker classifications.
- NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act expansion, effective February 22, 2026: NYC employers must frontload at least 32 hours of unpaid ESSTA leave on top of existing paid accrual, and the law now formally codifies the 20-hour paid prenatal leave bank at the city level.
- Statewide Paid Prenatal Leave, in effect since January 1, 2025, still catching employers unaware: a standalone 20-hour paid leave bank, separate from regular NY paid sick leave, available to all private-sector employees, full and part time, including overtime-exempt roles, from their first day of employment, with no minimum hours-worked requirement.
- Unemployment insurance wage base jump: the SUI taxable wage base rose sharply to $17,600 for 2026 under a budget reform that pegs the wage base to 18% of the state average annual wage, indexed annually starting in 2027, a real cost increase for employers even where contribution rates hold steady.
Worked example: $90,000 salary, single filer, living and working in NYC (2026)
Here’s how a $90,000 salary breaks down for a single New York City resident in 2026, using the standard deduction and no pre-tax deductions.
$90,000 single filer, NYC resident: 2026 tax breakdown
This example assumes the 2026 standard deductions ($16,100 federal, $8,000 New York) and no pre-tax deductions. A resident with the same salary living outside NYC, in Buffalo or Rochester for example, would skip the $3,053.49 NYC line and take home roughly that much more. Use the calculator above for a figure specific to your own filing status and deductions.
