Employers and employees can preview estimated tax withholdings and calculate take-home pay, outside of Gusto, by using the tools below:
Use the dropdowns below to learn more about a topic.
The short answer
Gross pay – Pre-tax deductions – Taxes + Reimbursements = Net pay
The long answer
Head to our blog for more info on each of the steps below.
Q: How do I read the paystub?
A: Our blog can walk you through reading a paystub. Employees can view their paystubs in Gusto.
Q: Why did I get taxed the amount I did?
A: There are several factors that go into tax calculations—we can’t give a specific answer in an article, but generally speaking:
Q: I got a payday email but haven't received my money yet, what's going on?
A: It depends on how your employer processed your payment (direct deposit or check):
Verify how your payment was processed (direct deposit or check) by viewing your paystub Gusto, and then, either:
If there's still a payment issue, you can try the payment troubleshooting tips in this article.
Q: What if the paycheck is wrong?
A: Employees should reach out to their employers so they can review the payroll—employers can either contact us with additional questions, or try to adjust the payroll themselves if wages were incorrectly entered.
Maryland (MD) county taxes are paid and filed together with state income tax, in one lump sum. For this reason, when payroll is run, we’ll automatically add the county-specific tax amount (based on an employee’s home address) in with the state income tax amount.
If you’re comparing the income tax from a Gusto paystub, to another provider’s, Gusto’s withholding may look higher (because the previous provider separated county taxes). Take a look at your combined withholdings from previous providers before comparing to your Gusto paystub.
Additional resource
Employees (and employers) can get tax estimates and find the current year’s tax rates by using the agency’s estimated payment and withholding calculators.
Massachusetts (MA) employees’ withholding amounts often change (increase) mid-year, even when their pay remains the same—this is a result of the “annual maximum” in Massachusetts’s withholding instructions.
The $2000 “annual maximum” for FICA
When an employee exceeds $2,000 in FICA taxes (social security and medicare) during the calendar year, they can no longer subtract their FICA amount from wages prior to calculating their MA income withholding tax.
This results in increased state income tax, and decreased net pay.
For more detail about the MA income tax calculation, we use the percentage method (detailed on page 12) to calculate the tax.
If you work in New York (NY) and live in New Jersey (NJ), you typically pay NY income taxes as a non-resident, and pay NJ income taxes as a resident.
Some NJ employees, who are used to seeing NY income tax, may see higher NJ income tax show up unexpectedly. This is typically a result of a large pay amount that requires withholding at the NJ supplemental tax rate of 21.3% (rather than a lower NY rate).
When calculating Oklahoma withholding using the percentage method (what Gusto uses), the tax amount must be rounded to the nearest whole dollar.