Tax withholding percentage calculator
The IRS provides worksheets and a tax withholding calculator to walk you through the process, which is basically like completing a pretend tax return. If you’re married and filing jointly, for example, and your taxable income is around $81,900 for the 2020 tax year, that puts you in the 22% tax bracket. If you want to keep your withholding approximately the same as last year, use last year's federal Form W-2, or your last pay stub, to calculate which withholding percentage to elect. For example, if box 1 of federal Form W-2 shows $40,000 in wages and box 17 shows $1,000 in state income tax withheld, divide box 17 by box 1 to determine your percentage (1,000 / 40,000 = .025 or 2.5%).