The short answer
There is no special tax rate for H-1B holders. Once you are a resident alien for tax purposes, which most H-1B holders are after their first calendar year, you pay exactly what a US citizen with the same salary would pay in the same state.
That still leaves a wide range. A single H-1B holder earning $120,000 in 2026 pays:
- 22.3% of salary in Texas, Florida, Washington or another state without income tax, taking home $93,250
- about 27% in New York (outside NYC), Illinois or New Jersey, taking home around $87,000
- 29.4% in California, taking home $84,760
- 30.8% in New York City, taking home $82,994
The figure people usually call the “H-1B tax percentage” is made up of three separate taxes. The rest of this guide goes through each one, shows the number for every state, and covers the situations that push it up or down.
- Federal income tax
- Social Security + Medicare
- State tax (incl. CA SDI)
- City tax
- Take-home
The three taxes on an H-1B salary
Every H-1B paycheck has the same three layers taken out:
- Federal income tax. Progressive brackets from 10% to 37%. This is the largest piece and the one that changes most with salary.
- Social Security and Medicare (FICA). A flat 7.65% on most salaries. H-1B holders pay it from day one.
- State income tax, and sometimes city tax. Anywhere from zero to more than 10% of salary depending on where you live.
The first two are the same everywhere in the country. The third is the reason two people on identical H-1B offers can end up with take-home pay that differs by $10,000 a year.
Federal income tax: brackets for 2026
Federal tax is not charged on your whole salary. You first subtract the standard deduction, which is $16,100 for a single filer in 2026 ($32,200 if married filing jointly). What remains is your taxable income, and it is taxed in slices:
| Taxable income (single, 2026) | Rate on that slice |
|---|---|
| $0 to $12,400 | 10% |
| $12,400 to $50,400 | 12% |
| $50,400 to $105,700 | 22% |
| $105,700 to $201,775 | 24% |
| $201,775 to $256,225 | 32% |
| $256,225 to $640,600 | 35% |
| Over $640,600 | 37% |
Married couples filing jointly get brackets exactly twice as wide, except for the top two (35% and 37%).
A worked example at $120,000
- Salary $120,000 minus the $16,100 standard deduction leaves $103,900 of taxable income.
- The first $12,400 is taxed at 10%: $1,240.
- The next $38,000 (up to $50,400) is taxed at 12%: $4,560.
- The remaining $53,500 is taxed at 22%: $11,770.
- Total federal income tax: $17,570.
That is the 22% bracket, but $17,570 is only 14.6% of the $120,000 salary. This gap between your bracket and your actual percentage is where most of the confusion comes from.
Bracket vs. percentage
Your bracket (also called the marginal rate) is the rate on your next dollar. It tells you how much of a raise you keep. Your effective rate is total tax divided by salary. It tells you what share of your pay goes to tax overall.
A practical example: a $10,000 raise on a $120,000 salary adds $10,000 at the 22% federal rate plus 7.65% FICA. In Texas you keep $6,871 of it. In California, with state tax and SDI added, you keep $5,811. In New York (outside NYC) you keep $6,281. Moving into a higher bracket never reduces your take-home, because only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at the higher rate.
Social Security and Medicare: 7.65%, with no H-1B exemption
FICA is two payroll taxes withheld from every paycheck:
- Social Security: 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 for 2026. The most anyone pays is $11,439.
- Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000.
Your employer pays a matching 7.65% on top. It does not come out of your pay, but it is part of what the job costs them.
H-1B holders pay FICA in full from their first paycheck, whether they are a resident or a nonresident alien for income tax. This is a real difference from student visas: F-1 students on OPT and J-1 researchers are exempt during their first years in the US, which is why someone moving from OPT to H-1B sees their paycheck drop even when the salary stays the same. Our F-1 OPT guide explains that side.
Two things are worth knowing about this money:
- It is not refunded when you leave the US. A refund is only available when FICA was withheld by mistake, such as from an F-1 student who was exempt.
- You may still collect it later. US Social Security benefits require 40 credits, which is roughly 10 years of work. If you leave sooner, some countries have a totalization agreement with the US that lets you combine work periods from both countries. India, the largest source of H-1B workers, does not have one in force.
How the percentage rises with salary
Because federal brackets climb, your tax percentage rises as you earn more. FICA works the other way at the top: once you pass the $184,500 Social Security wage base, that 6.2% stops, so FICA becomes a smaller share of a large salary.
| Salary | Income tax | FICA | Total | Top bracket | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $60,000 | 8.4% | 7.7% | 16.0% | 12% | $50,390 |
| $80,000 | 11.0% | 7.7% | 18.6% | 22% | $65,110 |
| $100,000 | 13.2% | 7.7% | 20.8% | 22% | $79,180 |
| $120,000 | 14.6% | 7.7% | 22.3% | 22% | $93,250 |
| $150,000 | 16.5% | 7.7% | 24.1% | 24% | $113,791 |
| $180,000 | 17.7% | 7.7% | 25.4% | 24% | $134,296 |
| $220,000 | 19.0% | 6.7% | 25.7% | 32% | $163,487 |
| $280,000 | 21.8% | 5.8% | 27.6% | 35% | $202,647 |
| $350,000 | 24.5% | 5.1% | 29.6% | 35% | $246,502 |
| $500,000 | 27.6% | 4.3% | 31.9% | 35% | $340,477 |
In a state with no income tax, total tax goes from 16% at $60,000 to 22.3% at $120,000 and 25.7% at $220,000. The jump to the 32% bracket happens at about $218,000 in salary, but the Social Security cap kicks in at almost the same point, so the total percentage barely moves between $180,000 and $220,000.
State tax: the part that depends on where you live
States fall into three groups:
- No income tax on wages: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Your total is the federal number and nothing else.
- Flat tax: one rate on all income, from 2.5% in Arizona to around 5% in Illinois, Massachusetts and Georgia. Pennsylvania is 3.07%.
- Graduated brackets: California, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii, DC and others. These can be cheap at lower salaries and expensive at higher ones. New Jersey, for example, costs less than Illinois at $80,000 and more at $180,000.
State tax is based on where you live, not on your visa. If you live and work in one state for the whole year, you are a resident there for state tax, even in a year when you are a nonresident alien for federal tax.
Federal income tax + Social Security + Medicare + state tax, as a share of gross salary. Single filer, resident alien. Use Ctrl/⌘+F to find your state.
Includes each state's 2026 brackets, standard deduction, personal exemptions and credits. * Some 2026 figures for this state (a mid-year law change or a deduction amount) come from secondary sources and are pending the state's final 2026 forms. City and county taxes (NYC, Philadelphia, Ohio cities, Maryland counties) are not included here. See verification for the source and status of every state.
Taxes the state table does not show
A few extra charges depend on your city or employer rather than the state as a whole:
- City and county income tax. New York City adds 3.078% to 3.876% for residents. Yonkers adds a surcharge on state tax. Philadelphia’s wage tax is roughly 3.7% for residents, and most other Pennsylvania towns charge 1% to 2%. Many Ohio cities charge 1% to 2.5%, and every Maryland county adds roughly 2.25% to 3.3%. Our calculator pages let you add these with the locality dropdown.
- California SDI. California takes 1.3% of all wages for state disability insurance, with no cap. It is included in the California figures above.
- Small payroll programs. States including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington run disability or paid-leave programs funded by payroll deductions, usually well under 1% of pay. Washington’s long-term care program (WA Cares) charges 0.58%, but since January 1, 2026 holders of non-immigrant work visas, including H-1B, are exempt automatically. If a WA Cares deduction still shows on your paystub, ask payroll to remove it.
What pushes your percentage up or down
Your first year as a nonresident alien
If your H-1B starts on October 1 and you were not in the US earlier that year, you will not pass the substantial presence test for that calendar year. You file as a nonresident alien, which means no standard deduction and no joint filing.
At $120,000 in Texas that raises your tax from 22.3% to 25.5% and costs $3,828 for the year. FICA is unchanged. See the full first-year nonresident calculation for Texas at $120k, or read our guide to when H-1B holders become resident aliens, which covers the elections that can reduce the cost.
Being married
A resident-alien H-1B holder can file jointly with their spouse. Joint filing doubles the standard deduction and widens the lower brackets. If your spouse has little or no income, for example while waiting on an H-4 EAD, the saving is large.
At $150,000 in Texas, a single filer takes home $113,791. A married couple filing jointly on the same single income takes home $123,185, which is $9,394 more, and their total tax drops from 24.1% to 17.9%. See H-1B married filing jointly in Texas at $150k.
Contributing to a 401(k)
Traditional 401(k) contributions come out before federal and state income tax, though not before FICA. The 2026 limit is $24,500 (more if you are 50 or older).
At $120,000 in Texas, contributing the full $24,500 cuts federal income tax from $17,570 to $12,180, a saving of $5,390. Your take-home drops by $19,110, not $24,500, because the government is in effect paying for part of the contribution. In California the same contribution saves $7,987, because state tax falls too.
If you might leave the US, the money is not lost. You can keep the account, roll it over, or withdraw it later. Withdrawals before 59½ usually carry a 10% penalty plus income tax, and if you are a nonresident when you withdraw, the US generally withholds 30% unless a tax treaty lowers it. Whether contributing makes sense depends on your plans, but for many H-1B holders the upfront saving at the 22% or 24% bracket is worth more than the eventual cost.
Where you live
Moving from California to Texas at $120,000 adds about $8,500 a year to your take-home. Moving from New York City to New Jersey adds around $4,800. These gaps are real, but so are rent differences. Our comparison pages put the numbers side by side:
- California vs. Texas at $120k
- California vs. Washington at $120k
- New York vs. New Jersey at $120k
- All H-1B state comparisons
Paycheck withholding vs. what you actually owe
The percentages above are your tax for the year, worked out on your return. What comes out of each paycheck can be different:
- Bonuses and RSUs are usually withheld at a flat 22% federal rate (37% above $1 million), whatever your bracket. At the 24% or 32% bracket that is too little, and people with large RSU vests often owe money in April. Our guide to bonus tax rates by state covers state withholding on bonuses.
- Nonresident employees have an extra amount added to their wages when payroll calculates withholding, under IRS rules for nonresident aliens. It makes up for the standard deduction you cannot claim. If you were treated as a nonresident on payroll but end up a resident for the year, you may get a refund.
- Your W-4 controls the rest. If you or your spouse have a second job, or you expect large RSU income, adding extra withholding in Step 4(c) avoids a bill and possible underpayment penalties.
Is your salary normal for your role?
Tax percentage is only half the picture. H-1B salaries must meet the Department of Labor’s prevailing wage for your occupation and location, and the four wage levels differ a lot. Our H-1B prevailing wage tables show the minimum and typical pay for common roles in each metro, so you can see how your offer compares before working out the tax on it.
What changes for 2027
The tax rates do not change for 2027. The bracket thresholds and standard deduction are adjusted for inflation every year, and early projections put the 2027 increase at about 3%. The IRS usually publishes the official numbers in late October or November.
For the same salary, slightly more of your income will fall into lower brackets, so your percentage will dip a little. For most H-1B salaries the difference is a few hundred dollars a year. We will update the figures on this page once the IRS publishes them.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of my salary goes to tax on an H-1B?
Do H-1B holders pay more tax than US citizens?
What tax bracket is an H-1B holder in?
Do H-1B holders pay Social Security and Medicare?
Which state is best for H-1B taxes?
Why is my paycheck withholding different from these percentages?
Will the H-1B tax percentage change in 2027?
Check your own numbers
Every figure in this article comes from the same engine as our calculator pages. To see your exact breakdown:
- By state: Texas · California · New York · New Jersey · Washington · Illinois · Florida · Georgia · all states
- Any salary, 401(k) amount or filing status: the main calculator
- Background: the H-1B tax guide and how we calculate
Sources
- IRS: Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 tax brackets and standard deduction)
- IRS: Taxation of alien individuals by immigration status: H-1B
- IRS: Publication 519, US Tax Guide for Aliens
- IRS: Publication 15-T, Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods (nonresident alien withholding)
- IRS: 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026
- SSA: Contribution and benefit base ($184,500 for 2026)
- SSA: International programs and totalization agreements
- WA Cares Fund: Exemptions
State rates come from each state’s revenue department; see the verification page for the source and status of every state. Nothing here is tax advice. If you have a dual-status year, income from abroad, or large equity compensation, a preparer who handles nonresident returns is worth paying for.