Iowa Paycheck Calculator 2026
This Iowa paycheck calculator shows what actually lands in your bank account each pay period in 2026. Enter your gross salary and the tool applies 2026 federal brackets, Social Security and Medicare, and Iowa withholding, then splits the result across weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and monthly pay schedules. Iowa uses a flat personal income tax of 3.80% applied to taxable income after a state standard deduction of $2,210.
Iowa Paycheck Calculator
Your salary before any deductions.
How Iowa payroll withholding works
Every Iowa paycheck is reduced in the same order: pre-tax deductions first (401(k), HSA, employer health premiums), then federal income tax on what remains, then FICA on your full gross, then Iowa state withholding.
FICA is fixed nationwide in 2026: 6.2% Social Security on the first $184,500 of wages and 1.45% Medicare on everything, with an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax above $200,000. Only the state layer changes when you move, which is why two workers earning the same salary in Iowa and Illinois see different deposits.
Iowa has no separate city or county income tax, so the state figure above is the full sub-federal income tax you pay.
Pay frequency in Iowa
Most insurance employers around Des Moines run biweekly payroll (26 checks a year), while public-sector and salaried office roles often use semi-monthly (24 checks). Biweekly means two months each year contain three paychecks — a useful budgeting quirk if your rent is around $1,100.
Switching frequency does not change your annual tax; it only changes how withholding is spread. If your employer withholds per-period using annualized tables, a three-paycheck month can look artificially light on tax.
Budgeting a Des Moines paycheck
Cost of living in Iowa sits 10% below the national average (index 90), median household income is $71,433, and a one-bedroom apartment in Des Moines rents for roughly $1,100 a month.
Iowa accelerated its tax reform: from 9 brackets and a 8.53% top rate in 2022, it now has a single 3.8% flat rate as of 2025.
Local and payroll taxes Iowa adds on top
Iowa adds no state-mandated employee payroll deduction beyond FICA, so nothing extra is taken from your gross pay at the state level.
Iowa has no separate city or county income tax, so the state figure above is the full sub-federal income tax you pay.
Payroll systems apply these local layers automatically, so check a real Iowa pay stub against the estimate above: a missing local tax line is the usual reason a paycheck comes in lower than a state-only calculator suggests.
Working across a state line from Iowa
Iowa holds income-tax reciprocity agreements with Illinois. If you commute between them, your wages are taxed only by your state of residence — file the exemption certificate with your employer so the wrong state is not withheld from every paycheck.
Remote and hybrid work complicates this further: most states tax income where the work is physically performed, so a Des Moines resident spending part of the year at a client site in Illinois may owe a nonresident return there. Keep a day-count log if you split time between states.
The rest of your Iowa tax bill
Iowa charges a 6% state sales tax, homeowners pay an average effective property tax of 1.5% of market value, and the minimum wage in force during 2026 is $7.25 an hour.
Local option sales tax of 1% applies in most jurisdictions.
Income tax is only one part of a state's take. Iowa recovers revenue through sales and property tax as well, which is why headline income tax rates alone are a poor guide to how far a salary really goes. Iowa fully exempts retirement income for filers 55 and older, including pensions and IRA distributions.
Iowa vs Illinois on the same salary
On a $75,000 salary, a single filer keeps about $58,826 a year in Iowa against roughly $57,880 in Illinois — a difference of $946, or $79 a month.
Effective combined rates are 21.6% in Iowa and 22.8% in Illinois. Set that gap against living costs: index 90 here versus 93 there, with property tax at 1.5% and 2.07% respectively.
Iowa income tax brackets 2026 (single filer)
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 and up | 3.80% |