Pay Stub Generator with Real 2026 Tax Math

How TrueStub works

TrueStub builds a pay stub from the payroll numbers you enter — employer and employee details, pay period, income lines, and filing status — and computes every deduction with real 2026 tax tables. Three steps:

1. Enter your payroll details. Add salary, hourly wages, overtime, bonuses, tips, or other income as separate lines. Pick your work state, pay frequency, and filing status. W-4 details like dependent credits and extra withholding are supported, and year-to-date totals accumulate by pay period.
2. Check the live preview. Every keystroke recomputes the stub in your browser — federal tax, state tax, FICA, and any mandatory state deductions appear as separate lines, exactly as they would on a real paycheck.
3. Download the PDF. The watermarked preview is free. When the numbers are right, pay $8.99 for the clean, print-ready PDF with no watermark.

How your taxes are calculated

Most free pay stub generators estimate taxes with a flat percentage. TrueStub runs the actual 2026 math:

• Federal income tax uses the 2026 IRS marginal brackets (10%–37%) with the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly). Bonuses are withheld at the flat 22% supplemental rate, the way payroll systems do it. Dependent credits from your W-4 reduce withholding per period.
• State income tax uses 2026 tables for all 50 states plus DC — graduated brackets where they exist, flat rates where they don't — including mid-year law changes like Georgia's 4.99% flat rate and Utah's 4.45% rate. States with no wage income tax simply show no state tax line.
• FICA is 6.2% Social Security on wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, plus 1.45% Medicare on all wages.
• Mandatory state deductions are added automatically where employees pay them: California SDI (1.3%), New Jersey disability / family leave / unemployment insurance, New York paid family leave and disability, Pennsylvania unemployment insurance, Washington paid family and medical leave, and others. These are the lines most generators miss — and the ones that make a stub look wrong when they're absent.

Everything is an estimate for payroll-record purposes, not tax advice. If your situation involves equity compensation, multi-state withholding, or local taxes, confirm the final numbers with a payroll professional.

Pay frequencies and year-to-date totals

TrueStub supports weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly pay — and annualizes correctly for each. A $2,500 biweekly paycheck means $65,000 a year, so federal and state brackets are applied to the annualized figure and divided back down, exactly how payroll withholding works. That matters because marginal brackets are annual: the same $2,500 means a different withholding rate if you're paid weekly ($130,000 annualized) versus monthly ($30,000 annualized).

Year-to-date totals accumulate from your pay date forward, so the second stub of the year shows doubled YTD figures automatically. If you're recreating a stub mid-year, enter your actual YTD gross and the deduction YTDs scale proportionally. Overtime is paid at 1.5× the hourly rate, and the 2026 federal overtime deduction is something you claim on your tax return — it doesn't change withholding, so TrueStub doesn't touch it.

Why real tax tables matter

A flat 20% "tax estimate" can be off by hundreds of dollars per paycheck — and the error compounds across YTD totals. With real brackets, a $2,500 biweekly paycheck in California shows $81.23 in state tax while the same paycheck in Texas shows $0.00, because the math follows each state's actual 2026 law. That accuracy is the difference between a stub that survives scrutiny and one that falls apart on the second line.

TrueStub is built for records of real earnings: self-employed workers documenting income, small businesses running their own payroll, and household employers paying domestic workers. Enter only true, accurate information — you certify its accuracy before every download, and our Terms prohibit falsified documents.

Browse by state

Each state page explains that state's 2026 tax rules, mandatory deductions, and pay stub requirements, with a worked example computed by the same engine:

• California
• New York
• New Jersey
• Texas
• Florida
• Massachusetts
• Washington
• Pennsylvania

See all 51 states →