New Jersey Income Tax Calculator - New Jersey State Income Tax Explained
Use this New Jersey income tax calculator to see your annual state gross income tax under the progressive brackets, then your take-home pay after federal income tax, FICA, and New Jersey employee SUI and SDI/FLI deductions.
New Jersey Income Tax Calculator
Results
What Is the New Jersey Income Tax Calculator?
The New Jersey income tax calculator estimates what you keep from a year of earned income after New Jersey state tax, federal income tax, and payroll deductions. New Jersey levies its own Gross Income Tax on a progressive scale, so the state number here is real rather than zero.
- • Estimate annual New Jersey state tax: See the NJ gross income tax your wages owe under the progressive brackets from 1.4% to 10.75%.
- • Plan take-home pay: Subtract federal income tax and FICA to see the net amount left each year.
- • Compare filing statuses: Switch between single and married to see how New Jersey's wider married brackets change the result.
- • Check payroll deductions: Account for the New Jersey employee SUI and TDI/FLI amounts that come out of every paycheck.
New Jersey does not follow the federal adjusted gross income base or the federal standard deduction for its own tax. Instead, the state computes its Gross Income Tax on gross income, which is why this New Jersey income tax calculator applies the NJ brackets directly to your gross pay.
Social Security benefits are not taxed by New Jersey, and the state has no local or city income tax, so the state line reflects only the statewide gross income tax plus the flat employee payroll contributions.
Once you have the annual state tax, the New Jersey Paycheck Calculator breaks the same pay into per-period take-home amounts after federal withholding.
How the New Jersey Income Tax Calculator Works
The calculator layers four separate taxes on your gross income: New Jersey's progressive gross income tax, the federal income tax, FICA, and the New Jersey employee SUI and TDI/FLI payroll deductions.
- Gross income: Total annual wages before any tax or pre-tax deduction. New Jersey taxes this base, not your federal AGI.
- New Jersey gross income tax: Progressive state tax on gross income with rates from 1.4% to 10.75% and wider brackets for married filers.
- Federal income tax: IRS brackets applied to gross income minus the standard deduction for your filing status.
- FICA: Employee Social Security at 6.2% up to the wage base plus Medicare at 1.45% on all wages, with an extra 0.9% above the Medicare threshold.
- NJ SUI and TDI/FLI: Flat New Jersey employee payroll contributions for state unemployment and temporary disability or family leave insurance.
Because New Jersey and the federal government use different bases, the same gross pay produces two different taxable amounts, and this New Jersey income tax calculator keeps both layers separate in the output.
Worked example
Gross income = $80,000; single; 2026; no extra withholding.
NJ gross income tax: $20,000 at 1.4% = $280, $15,000 at 1.75% = $262.50, $5,000 at 3.5% = $175, $35,000 at 5.525% = $1,933.75, $5,000 at 6.37% = $318.50, total about $2,970. Federal: ($80,000 - $16,100) = $63,900 taxed near $8,972. FICA: $4,960 Social Security + $1,160 Medicare. NJ SUI $184, TDI/FLI $312.
Total tax and deductions about $18,558, so take-home pay is about $61,442.
The New Jersey state portion is about $2,970, or roughly 3.7% of gross income, while federal tax is the largest single piece.
According to New Jersey Division of Taxation, the state's Gross Income Tax is a progressive tax on gross income with rates from 1.4% to 10.75% and does not use the federal standard deduction or adjusted gross income base.
Because the federal layer is the largest piece, the Federal Income Tax Calculator gives a fuller view of brackets, deductions, and credits.
Key Concepts Behind the New Jersey Gross Income Tax
Four ideas explain how the New Jersey number is built and where it differs from federal tax.
Progressive gross income tax
New Jersey taxes gross income on a scale that rises from 1.4% on the first dollars to 10.75% above one million dollars, with intermediate rates of 1.75%, 3.5%, 5.525%, 6.37%, and 8.97%.
Married brackets are wider
New Jersey roughly doubles each bracket width for married couples filing jointly, so a two-earner household reaches the higher rates at a higher income than a single filer.
Social Security is exempt
New Jersey does not tax Social Security retirement benefits, and the state also does not tax the principal forms of most retirement income the same way wages are taxed.
No local income tax
New Jersey has no city or local income tax, so the only state-level income tax is the statewide gross income tax plus the flat employee SUI and TDI/FLI payroll contributions.
The flat employee payroll contributions are easy to overlook. The 0.425% SUI and 0.39% TDI/FLI rates apply up to their own wage bases of $43,300 and $165,400, which is why they stop growing for higher earners.
Reading the output line by line, the federal income tax is usually the largest piece, followed by the New Jersey gross income tax, then FICA, then the small NJ payroll contributions.
Because the goal of this estimate is take-home pay, the Gross to Net Calculator shows the same gross-to-net step for a general paycheck.
How to Use This Calculator
Use a recent pay stub, offer letter, or last year's W-2 for the gross income figure.
- 1 Enter annual gross income: Put your total wages before tax and pre-tax deductions in the gross income field.
- 2 Pick your filing status: Choose single or married filing jointly to set the New Jersey and federal bracket widths.
- 3 Choose the tax year: Select 2025 or 2026 to set the federal standard deduction and the Social Security wage base.
- 4 Add extra state withholding: Enter any extra annual New Jersey withholding from your NJ-W4 if you want the estimate to reflect it.
- 5 Read the take-home result: Compare the New Jersey state tax with the federal and payroll lines to see what changed your net pay.
A single filer earning $80,000 in 2026 owes about $2,970 in New Jersey gross income tax, about $8,972 in federal income tax, $6,120 in FICA, and $496 in NJ SUI and TDI/FLI, leaving roughly $61,442 in take-home pay.
If your starting point is an hourly rate or a monthly figure, the Annual Salary Calculator can turn it into the annual gross this calculator expects.
Benefits of Running the New Jersey Income Tax Estimate
The estimate is useful because New Jersey's progressive tax makes the state line move with income in a way a flat-rate estimate would hide.
- • Shows the real NJ tax: You see the actual New Jersey gross income tax under the progressive brackets rather than a flat-rate guess.
- • Frames take-home pay: Separating the NJ, federal, and payroll layers shows exactly what reduces your net pay.
- • Compares filing statuses: Switching to married shows how the wider NJ brackets change the state tax at the same gross income.
- • Captures NJ payroll deductions: The SUI and TDI/FLI lines show the flat employee contributions that come out of every New Jersey paycheck.
- • Sets up planning: With the state line known, you can focus planning on federal brackets, deductions, and withholding.
The biggest benefit is clarity about where the money goes. Once the New Jersey gross income tax is shown separately, this New Jersey income tax calculator spends the rest of the page on the federal and payroll layer you still control through filing status and withholding.
Since New Jersey taxes gross income rather than federal AGI, the Adjusted Gross Income Calculator shows the adjusted gross income base the federal layer actually uses.
Factors That Affect Your Result
The formula has several moving parts, and a few limits change the take-home number at the edges.
Filing status
New Jersey roughly doubles the bracket widths for married filers, so the same gross income reaches the higher state rates later than it does for a single filer.
Gross income base
Because New Jersey taxes gross income rather than federal AGI, pre-tax deductions lower your federal tax but not your New Jersey gross income tax.
Federal standard deduction
The federal layer depends on the standard deduction for your filing status and tax year, which changes federal taxable income.
Social Security wage base
Social Security tax stops at the annual wage base, while Medicare continues on all wages, so high earners see a slightly lower blended FICA rate and an extra 0.9% Medicare tax above the threshold.
NJ payroll wage bases
The NJ SUI and TDI/FLI contributions stop growing once gross income passes their wage bases of $43,300 and $165,400.
- • This calculator estimates federal income tax with simplified IRS brackets and a flat standard deduction; it is not a filed return or tax software.
- • New Jersey property, sales, and other taxes are not included, so the result is not a total New Jersey tax bill.
- • The estimate uses current published rates and wage bases; specific credits, itemized deductions, and local quirks are not modeled.
High earners should note the Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% above the income threshold, which slightly lowers take-home pay for very high incomes.
Because New Jersey taxes gross income, itemized deductions that matter for federal tax do not reduce the New Jersey gross income tax the same way.
According to Internal Revenue Service, the employee Social Security tax rate is 6.2% up to the annual wage base and the Medicare rate is 1.45%, with an additional 0.9% Medicare tax above the income threshold.
According to New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, New Jersey employees pay a State Unemployment (SUI) rate and a Temporary Disability / Family Leave (TDI/FLI) rate through payroll deductions with annual wage bases.
Because New Jersey adds employee SUI and TDI/FLI, the Payroll Tax Calculator explains how payroll taxes like FICA work alongside that model.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the New Jersey income tax brackets?
A: New Jersey's Gross Income Tax is progressive. For single filers the rates are 1.4% on the first $20,000, then 1.75%, 3.5%, 5.525%, 6.37%, 8.97%, and 10.75% on income above $1 million. Married couples filing jointly get roughly double the bracket widths. New Jersey applies these brackets to gross income rather than to federal adjusted gross income.
Q: Does New Jersey tax Social Security benefits?
A: No. New Jersey does not tax Social Security retirement benefits at the state level, and it has no local income tax, so the only state income tax on most retirees is the gross income tax on other taxable income. Federal tax treatment of Social Security still follows IRS rules.
Q: How is New Jersey gross income tax different from federal income tax?
A: New Jersey computes its own gross income tax on gross income using its progressive brackets and does not use the federal standard deduction or adjusted gross income base. The federal income tax instead applies IRS brackets to gross income minus the federal standard deduction. The same wages therefore produce two different taxable amounts.
Q: What are New Jersey SUI, SDI, and FLI payroll taxes?
A: On top of the gross income tax, New Jersey employees pay a State Unemployment (SUI) contribution of 0.425% up to a $43,300 wage base and a Temporary Disability / Family Leave (TDI/FLI) contribution of 0.39% up to a $165,400 wage base. These are flat-rate payroll deductions that come out of every paycheck.
Q: Does New Jersey have local or city income tax?
A: No. New Jersey has no city or local income tax, so the only statewide income tax is the gross income tax plus the flat employee SUI and TDI/FLI payroll contributions. Your state income tax bill does not vary by city or town.
Q: How much take-home pay do I keep in New Jersey?
A: It depends on your gross income, filing status, and the federal layer. A single filer earning $80,000 in 2026 owes about $2,970 in New Jersey gross income tax, about $8,972 in federal income tax, $6,120 in FICA, and about $496 in NJ SUI and TDI/FLI, leaving roughly $61,442 in take-home pay.