How to See How Much Taxes Are Taken Out
Understand the tax deductions taken from your pay. This guide explains how to find the exact amounts withheld and the factors you control to manage them.
Employers are required to deduct and remit taxes from employee compensation to federal, state, and local governments. These deductions are a part of the payroll process, ensuring that tax obligations are met throughout the year. Understanding where to find and interpret these figures is a direct way to see how much of your earnings are allocated to taxes.
Reading Your Pay Stub for Tax Information
The most immediate and frequent way to see how much tax is taken from your earnings is by reviewing your pay stub. Your pay stub provides a detailed breakdown of your gross pay, deductions, and net pay for each pay period. The section labeled “Taxes” or “Deductions” contains the specific line items for each type of tax withheld by your employer.
A primary deduction you will see is for federal income tax. This amount is calculated based on your earnings and the information you provided on your Form W-4. Alongside federal tax, you will see withholdings for state and, in some areas, local income taxes, as each jurisdiction sets its own tax rates and rules.
Your pay stub also details your contributions under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). FICA is composed of two separate taxes: Social Security and Medicare. For 2025, the Social Security tax is 6.2% of your wages up to an annual income limit of $176,100. The Medicare tax is 1.45% of all your wages, with no income cap. If your income exceeds $200,000 ($250,000 for joint filers), you will see an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% withheld on earnings above that threshold.
Reviewing Your Annual Form W-2
At the end of each year, your employer provides a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, which summarizes your total earnings and all taxes withheld throughout the calendar year. This document is the record of your annual tax payments made through payroll deductions and is essential for filing your income tax return. It consolidates the information from every pay stub you received during the year.
To find your total federal income tax withheld for the year, you will look at Box 2 of the Form W-2. The total Social Security tax withheld is located in Box 4, and the total Medicare tax withheld is in Box 6. These boxes show your share of FICA taxes paid over the entire year.
For state and local taxes, you will refer to the bottom portion of the form. Box 17 shows the total amount of state income tax withheld, and Box 19 displays the total for local income taxes. These figures are what you will use to report withholdings on your respective state and local tax returns.
Factors That Determine Your Tax Withholding
The amount of income tax withheld from your paycheck is determined by the information you provide to your employer on Form W-4, the Employee’s Withholding Certificate. This form acts as a set of instructions for your employer’s payroll system. The choices you make on this form directly impact the size of your paycheck and whether you receive a tax refund or owe money when you file your annual return.
Information on the Form W-4 includes your filing status, such as Single, Married Filing Jointly, or Head of Household. Your selected status corresponds to different tax brackets and standard deduction amounts. If you have more than one job or your spouse also works, Step 2 of the form allows you to account for this, which helps prevent under-withholding.
You can also adjust your withholding for dependents and other deductions. In Step 3, you can claim dependents, which reduces the amount of tax withheld by factoring in credits like the Child Tax Credit. Step 4 provides fields to account for other income that might not have withholding or to include other deductions you expect to claim on your tax return.
How to Adjust Your Tax Withholding
If you find that too much or too little tax is being withheld from your pay, you can change it at any time by submitting a new Form W-4 to your employer. You are not required to wait for a specific time of year or a major life event to make an adjustment.
To initiate a change, you will need to obtain a blank Form W-4. Most employers provide access to this form through their human resources department or an online employee self-service portal. The most current version of the form can also be downloaded from the IRS website.
After you have filled out the new Form W-4 with your updated information, you must submit it to your company’s payroll or HR department. The change does not take effect immediately. Employers need one or two pay cycles to process the new form and update their payroll system.