Bonus Tax Calculator
What a bonus actually deposits: federal withholding at the flat supplemental rate, plus Social Security and Medicare — with the wage-base cap handled correctly if you tell it your year-to-date pay.
Bonus withholding
Example: $10,000 bonus, 2026 → about $7,035 after withholding.
The example bonus, dissected
A $10,000 bonus in 2026, paid separately from wages, with no year-to-date wages entered: federal withholding takes 22% ($2,200.00), Social Security 6.2% ($620.00), and Medicare 1.45% ($145.00) — $2,965.00 withheld in all, depositing about $7,035. The figures are identical for a single filer, a married couple filing jointly, or a head of household, because the percentage method never asks for filing status (more on that below). Remember the distinction: this is what is withheld, not your final tax. When you file, the bonus is ordinary income like the rest of your wages, and the flat rate is only a payroll convention for collecting tax in advance; whether it collected too much or too little depends on the bracket your income actually reaches — the mechanism our guide How Tax Brackets Actually Work walks through with computed figures. Every number on this page is computed at build time by the same tested engine as the calculator above, so the prose cannot drift from the tool.
What the formula does, input by input
The engine's bonus function takes three inputs — the bonus amount, the tax year, and optional year-to-date wages — and returns three withholding lines, their total, and the net. Each line is a separate rule, and each rule looks at a different part of your year:
- Federal withholding. The part of the bonus up to $1,000,000 is withheld at the flat supplemental rate of 22%; any part above that line is withheld at 37% instead — the rate the methodology page calls the top rate. Nothing else enters this line: no filing status, no W-4 entries, no deductions. It is a fixed share of the bonus, which is exactly why it can miss your real marginal rate in either direction.
- Social Security. 6.2% applies only to the part of the bonus that still fits under the year's wage base of $184,500. The engine computes the room left — the wage base minus your year-to-date wages, floored at zero — and taxes the smaller of the bonus and that room. With the year-to-date field blank the room is the whole wage base, so the Social Security line is at its maximum.
- Medicare. 1.45% applies to the entire bonus with no cap. On top of that, the 0.9% additional Medicare surtax applies to the part of the bonus that lifts year-to-date wages plus bonus past $200,000, the wage threshold at which withholding for the surtax begins. Below that line the surtax is zero.
The net bonus is the bonus minus the sum of the three lines. The tax-year selector chooses which row of the site's data file supplies the rates, the wage base, and the thresholds; when a new year is published it is added there, and this page, its examples, and the calculator update together. Year-to-date wages are optional because for most bonuses they change nothing: if your pay so far plus the bonus stays under both the wage base and the surtax threshold, the blank field and the exact figure produce identical results. They matter near the top of the wage scale, which is what two of the examples below are built to show.
Three more bonuses, run through the engine
The headline example sits comfortably under every threshold, so it exercises only the flat rate and the basic FICA rates. The three that follow — all 2026, all for a single filer, though no line would change for another status — each cross one of the lines the formula watches for:
| Bonus | Year-to-date wages | Federal | Social Security | Medicare | Total withheld | Net bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | none entered | $2,200.00 | $620.00 | $145.00 | $2,965.00 | $7,035.00 |
| $15,000 | $179,500 | $3,300.00 | $310.00 | $217.50 | $3,827.50 | $11,172.50 |
| $20,000 | $195,000 | $4,400.00 | $0.00 | $425.00 | $4,825.00 | $15,175.00 |
| $1,200,000 | none entered | $294,000.00 | $11,439.00 | $26,400.00 | $331,839.00 | $868,161.00 |
Wage base straddled. A $15,000 bonus paid after $179,500 of year-to-date wages — $5,000 short of the $184,500 wage base. Federal withholding is unchanged in character: 22% of the whole bonus, $3,300.00. Social Security, though, has only $5,000 of room left, so 6.2% applies to that slice alone ($310.00) and the remaining $10,000 of the bonus escapes it entirely. Medicare has no cap — 1.45% on all $15,000 is $217.50 — and the surtax stays at zero because $194,500 is under the $200,000 threshold. Net: $11,172.50. This is the case the calculator flags with its wage-base note. Leave the year-to-date field blank here and the engine withholds Social Security on the full bonus, $930.00 instead of $310.00, understating the net by $620.00.
Surtax reached, wage base exhausted. A $20,000 bonus after $195,000 of year-to-date wages. Social Security is now $0.00: the wage base was passed before this bonus arrived, so there is no room left at all. Medicare's base line is 1.45% of the whole bonus, $290.00; the surtax applies to the $15,000 that carries year-to-date wages plus bonus past $200,000, adding $135.00 at 0.9%, for a Medicare line of $425.00. Federal withholding is $4,400.00 at the flat rate. Net: $15,175.00. Notice that the two year-to-date effects pull in opposite directions — the wage base lowers withholding, the surtax raises it — which is why a blank year-to-date field is not conservative in any single direction.
Above the high threshold. A $1,200,000 bonus with no earlier wages. The first $1,000,000 is withheld at 22% ($220,000.00); the $200,000 above the line at 37% ($74,000.00) — $294,000.00 of federal withholding in total. Social Security applies only to the first $184,500 ($11,439.00); Medicare applies to all of it, plus the surtax on the part above $200,000, for a Medicare line of $26,400.00. Net: $868,161.00, an overall withholding rate of 27.65%. One limit to read carefully: the engine applies the $1,000,000 line to the bonus you enter, on its own. The rule counts all supplemental wages paid to you during the year, so if earlier bonuses had already crossed it, the higher rate would apply from this bonus's first dollar — the calculator does not track that history.
Withholding is not the tax
The flat rate is a collection convention, not a tax rate on bonuses. When you file, the bonus joins your salary and everything else as ordinary income, the standard deduction comes off, and the brackets apply slice by slice; the withholding already collected is then credited against the tax that results. The gap between the two flows into the return's bottom line together with every other over- or under-withholding of the year. For the simplest case the engine can price the gap exactly. Take the $10,000 headline bonus and give it to two single filers in 2026 with ordinary income only and the $16,100 standard deduction:
| Salary | Taxable income before the bonus | Bracket the bonus lands in | Federal income tax the bonus adds | Withheld at the flat rate | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $33,900 | 12% | $1,200.00 | $2,200.00 | $1,000.00 over-withheld |
| $150,000 | $133,900 | 24% | $2,400.00 | $2,200.00 | $200.00 under-withheld |
At $50,000 the bonus lands in the 12% bracket: the bracket engine says it adds $1,200.00 of federal income tax, yet $2,200.00 was withheld — $1,000.00 more than the bonus's share of the year's tax, which the return gives back or nets against whatever else is owed. At $150,000 the bonus lands in the 24% bracket and adds $2,400.00 against the same $2,200.00 withheld — $200.00 short, which the return collects. FICA is not part of this contrast: Social Security and Medicare are withheld at their statutory rates and are not reconciled through the brackets. The bracket engine models single, married filing jointly, and head of household; the contrast above uses single. For your own year, run salary plus bonus through the Tax Bracket Calculator and compare the marginal rate it reports with the 22% withheld here; the How Tax Brackets Actually Work guide explains why the bracket of the last dollar — not the flat rate — is the price of a bonus, and the guides index collects the rest of the site's explainers.
Reading the output, and three common misreadings
The result box shows the net bonus first, then the three withholding lines and their total, and adds a note when part of the bonus escaped Social Security via the wage base. Three misreadings come up often enough to name:
- "Bonuses are taxed at 22%." They are withheld at 22%. The tax is whatever the brackets produce when the bonus is added to the rest of your income — the contrast above shows the same bonus costing $1,200.00 in one year of income and $2,400.00 in another.
- "The net figure is what the bonus costs me." The net is the estimated deposit from a check that carries only federal withholding and FICA. A real bonus check may also carry state or local withholding, retirement contributions, or benefit premiums, none of which this page models, so the deposit can be smaller than the net shown; and the cost in federal income tax is settled on the return, not by the check.
- "The wage-base note means part of my bonus is tax-free." Only Social Security stops at the wage base. Federal withholding applies to every dollar of the bonus, and so does Medicare, with the surtax on top once the threshold is crossed.
The Copy link button reproduces a result exactly — the bonus, the year-to-date figure, and the tax year ride inside the link, and nothing is sent to a server — which is the simplest way to hand a specific estimate to someone else without retyping it.
What this calculator leaves out
Scope is federal withholding on one bonus paid separately from regular wages. The following are real and excluded by design rather than modeled badly:
- The aggregate method. An employer may instead combine the bonus with a regular paycheck and withhold on the total; the federal line here would then differ. Only the percentage method is modeled.
- Supplemental-wage history. The $1,000,000 threshold is cumulative for the year; the calculator tests the entered bonus alone.
- State and local withholding — federal scope only, as everywhere on this site.
- Other amounts taken from the bonus check — retirement contributions, benefit premiums, and similar deductions; enter the gross bonus and expect the deposit to reflect whatever else your employer withholds.
- The rest of the year. This page never sees your salary, so it cannot say what the bonus does to your total tax; the Take-Home Pay Calculator prices a full year of wages with the same FICA rules, and the Tax Bracket Calculator prices the income-tax side.
Frequently asked questions
Are bonuses taxed at a higher rate?
No — that is withholding, not tax. Bonuses paid separately from wages are typically WITHHELD at a flat federal supplemental rate, which can be above or below your real marginal rate. At filing time the bonus is just ordinary income; if the flat rate over-withheld, the difference is credited on your return — refunded or netted against whatever else is owed.
What is the supplemental withholding rate?
A flat federal rate on supplemental wages (bonuses, commissions, severance) paid separately from regular pay — 22% for 2026 — with a higher 37% rate applying once supplemental wages for the year pass $1,000,000. FICA (Social Security and Medicare) applies on top, like any wages.
Why does the calculator ask for year-to-date wages?
Social Security stops at an annual wage base ($184,500 for 2026). If your salary has already used up most of it, part of the bonus escapes the 6.2% — and the calculator credits that correctly. Year-to-date wages also determine whether the 0.9% additional Medicare surtax kicks in.
Can I reduce the tax on a bonus?
This calculator models withholding only, so it has no answer to that question beyond one fact: a bonus is ordinary income, and it cannot be taxed at less than ordinary-income rates. The federal income tax the bonus adds is settled by the bracket math on your return (see the reconciliation contrast above), not by the flat withholding rate. Retirement or benefit deductions taken from the check are not modeled, and questions about your own return are for a tax professional.
Does my filing status change the withholding on a bonus?
Not in the percentage method this calculator models. The engine's bonus function takes the bonus, the tax year, and year-to-date wages — there is no filing-status input, which is why the form has no status field. The 22% flat rate, the Social Security wage base, and the Medicare rates are the same for a single filer, a married couple filing jointly, or a head of household. Filing status matters later, when the bonus is reconciled with the rest of your income on the return.
What does the calculator assume if I leave year-to-date wages blank?
It treats them as zero. That gives the bonus the whole $184,500 Social Security wage base to fit under, so the Social Security line is at its maximum, and it finds no 0.9% surtax unless the bonus alone exceeds $200,000. For a bonus that keeps your year under both lines the blank field is exact; above them, the two effects pull in opposite directions — the wage base lowers withholding, the surtax raises it — so entering the real figure is the only way to get the right net.
Does the $1,000,000 threshold apply to each bonus or to the whole year?
To the whole year: the 37% rate applies once your cumulative supplemental wages for the year pass $1,000,000. The calculator tests only the bonus you enter, on its own, so it is exact for a first or only bonus but does not know about earlier supplemental payments — if those had already crossed the line, the higher rate would apply from this bonus's first dollar and the federal line here would be too low.
Is the net bonus figure the same as what the bonus costs me in tax?
No. The net is what the check deposits after federal withholding and FICA; the federal income tax the bonus actually adds is settled on your return by the bracket math, and can be higher or lower than the 22% withheld. On this page the same $10,000 bonus adds $1,200.00 of federal income tax on a $50,000 salary and $2,400.00 on a $150,000 salary (single, 2026, standard deduction) against $2,200.00 withheld either way.
Not tax advice: a withholding estimate for a bonus paid separately from regular wages (the percentage method). Employers may instead use the aggregate method, state withholding is excluded, and the $1,000,000 threshold counts ALL supplemental wages for the year — if earlier bonuses already crossed it, the top rate applies from this bonus's first dollar. Your final tax is settled on your return — consult a tax professional. Values are processed locally in your browser and never transmitted. See the methodology page and the disclaimer.