Use this Illinois paycheck calculator to see your 2026 take-home pay after the 4.95% flat Illinois income tax, federal tax, and FICA. Enter your salary and filing status, then click Calculate.
Educational tool, not tax advice. SavingsClub is not a licensed tax professional. For your exact withholding, check your W-4, IL-W-4, and pay stub.
Enter your salary, filing status, and pay frequency above, then click Calculate to see your Illinois take-home pay, the 4.95% state tax, and your net per paycheck.
Illinois keeps payroll math simple by charging one flat rate. The Illinois paycheck calculator above starts with your gross salary, subtracts federal income tax and FICA the same way every state does, and then applies the Illinois flat income tax of 4.95 percent to your income after the state personal exemption. There are no state tax brackets to climb, so a person earning 40,000 dollars and a person earning 400,000 dollars pay the same 4.95 percent rate on their Illinois net income.
Worked example. A single filer earning 75,000 dollars in 2026 owes about 7,670 dollars in federal income tax, 4,650 dollars in Social Security, and 1,088 dollars in Medicare. For Illinois, subtract the 2,925 dollar personal exemption and apply 4.95 percent, which is about 3,568 dollars in state tax. That leaves a take-home of roughly 58,024 dollars a year, or about 2,232 dollars in each biweekly paycheck. For comparison, the same salary in our Texas paycheck calculator keeps about 3,568 dollars more, because Texas has no state income tax.
Illinois has taxed income at a flat 4.95 percent since 2017, and the state constitution requires a single flat rate. Voters rejected a 2020 ballot measure that would have allowed graduated brackets, so the flat rate is likely to stay. Instead of a standard deduction, Illinois gives a personal exemption allowance, which is 2,925 dollars per person for 2026, up from 2,850 dollars in 2025. That exemption comes off your income before the 4.95 percent rate applies. High earners lose it entirely: if your adjusted gross income is above 250,000 dollars for a single filer or 500,000 dollars for joint filers, the exemption drops to zero.
Federal income tax. Based on the 2026 IRS brackets and your filing status. See the full brackets in our federal income tax rate calculator.
Illinois state tax. A flat 4.95 percent of your income after the personal exemption. There is no local or city income tax anywhere in Illinois, so working in Chicago does not add a city paycheck tax.
Social Security. 6.2 percent of wages up to the 2026 wage base of 184,500 dollars.
Medicare. 1.45 percent of all wages, plus an extra 0.9 percent on wages above 200,000 dollars for single filers or 250,000 dollars for joint filers.
Here is the honest tradeoff. On the income side, Illinois is unusually kind: it does not tax distributions from 401(k) plans, IRAs, or pensions, and it does not tax Social Security benefits. That is rare and valuable if you are planning retirement, and you can model that growth in our retirement calculator or Roth IRA calculator. On the other side, Illinois has some of the highest property taxes in the country, so if you own a home, a large share of the money you keep on income tax goes back out on your property tax bill. Factor that into any move or home purchase with our mortgage calculator.
A pre-tax 401(k) is the strongest lever, and in Illinois it works twice: because Illinois starts from your federal adjusted gross income, every pre-tax dollar lowers both your federal tax and your 4.95 percent state tax. An HSA does the same if you have a high-deductible health plan. Add a 401(k) percentage in the calculator above to see the effect. Then route the difference into a plan with our budget planner and an emergency fund before anything else.
Illinois has a flat income tax rate of 4.95 percent for 2026. Everyone pays the same rate no matter how much they earn, because the Illinois constitution requires a flat rate. The rate has been 4.95 percent since 2017, and a 2020 ballot measure to allow graduated rates was rejected by voters.
Yes. Illinois is one of a handful of states with a flat income tax. Every resident pays 4.95 percent of net income, with no graduated brackets. This differs from the federal system and from states like California, where higher earners pay higher rates.
The 2026 Illinois personal exemption allowance is 2,925 dollars per person, up from 2,850 dollars in 2025. It reduces your Illinois taxable income before the 4.95 percent rate applies. The exemption disappears entirely if your adjusted gross income is above 250,000 dollars for single filers or 500,000 dollars for joint filers.
No. Illinois does not allow any city or county to levy a local income tax on wages. Whether you work in Chicago, Springfield, or Naperville, your paycheck is only subject to the 4.95 percent state tax plus federal tax and FICA. There is no separate Chicago paycheck tax.
For a single filer earning 75,000 dollars in 2026, about 7,670 dollars goes to federal income tax, 3,568 dollars to Illinois state tax, 4,650 dollars to Social Security, and 1,088 dollars to Medicare. That leaves a take-home of roughly 58,024 dollars a year, or about 2,232 dollars per biweekly paycheck.
No. Illinois does not tax distributions from 401(k) plans, IRAs, or pensions, and it does not tax Social Security benefits. This makes Illinois unusually friendly to retirees on the income tax side, even though its property taxes are among the highest in the country.
On a 75,000 dollar salary, an Illinois worker pays about 3,568 dollars in state income tax that a Texas worker does not, so the Texan keeps roughly that much more each year. However, Illinois has high property taxes, so the full comparison depends on whether you own a home and how much you spend.
Start with your gross pay and subtract federal income tax based on the 2026 brackets, Social Security at 6.2 percent up to 184,500 dollars, and Medicare at 1.45 percent. For Illinois, subtract the 2,925 dollar personal exemption from your income and multiply what remains by 4.95 percent. Subtract any pre-tax 401(k). What is left is your take-home pay.