TENNESSEE PAYCHECK CALCULATOR

Tennessee’s paycheck math is about as simple as it gets in the United States. Wages and salaries have never been subject to state income tax in Tennessee, a status the state has held throughout its history. What did exist for decades was the Hall Income Tax, a separate levy on dividend and interest income only, named after the state senator who introduced it back in 1929. Tennessee’s legislature voted to phase that out gradually, cutting the rate by one percentage point a year starting in 2017, until it hit zero on January 1, 2021. Today, no form of personal income, wages, investment gains, retirement distributions, or anything else, is taxed at the state level in Tennessee, putting it among just nine states with no individual income tax at all.

What actually lands on a Tennessee paystub reflects that simplicity: federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare, the same three deductions that apply nationwide, and nothing state-specific on top. No state withholding line, no local income tax anywhere in the state. The trade-off shows up somewhere else entirely: Tennessee’s combined sales tax rate is among the highest in the country, close to 9.6% once local additions stack on the 7% state rate. If you’re weighing Tennessee against a state with an income tax, the paycheck difference is significant: compare it against the North Carolina paycheck calculator or Georgia paycheck calculator to see how much a flat state tax changes take-home pay.

Federal Tax on a $70,000 Salary: The Worked Example

Here’s exactly how the calculator above lands on the federal number for a single filer earning $70,000 in 2026. Since Tennessee has no state tax to layer on top, this federal figure is effectively the whole income tax story.

Step	Detail	Amount
Gross salary	Starting point	$70,000
Minus standard deduction	Single filer, 2026	-$16,100
Federal taxable income		$53,900
10% bracket	$0 – $12,400	$1,240
12% bracket	$12,400 – $50,400	$4,560
22% bracket	$50,400 – $53,900	$770
Total federal tax	Effective rate: 9.4% of gross	$6,570

Add Social Security and Medicare on top of that and the tax picture is complete. There’s no fifth line where a state bracket gets applied, and no sixth line for a local tax either.

Tennessee vs Other No-Tax and Nearby States at $70,000 (Single)

Figures below use each state’s own 2026 rate structure, same $70,000 gross salary, single filer, before local taxes or credits.

State	Income Tax Type	State Tax Owed	Estimated Net Pay
Tennessee	No income tax	$0	$58,075
Florida	No income tax	$0	$58,075
Texas	No income tax	$0	$58,075
North Carolina	Flat 3.99%	$2,284	$55,791
Georgia	Flat 4.99%	~$2,894	~$55,181

Georgia’s figure is a rough estimate carried over from an earlier comparison, so treat it as directional. Every zero-income-tax state lands at the exact same net pay figure here, since the federal and FICA math is identical everywhere in the country; the real differences between no-tax states show up in sales tax, property tax, and cost of living, not in the paycheck itself.

Where Your Paycheck Money Actually Goes

Picture that same $70,000 salary landing as a biweekly paycheck of $2,692.31 before anything is taken out. Here’s the order things get pulled, and there are only three lines, about as short as this list gets anywhere in the country. Federal income tax comes off first, working out to roughly $252.69 per biweekly check based on the annual $6,570 figure above. Social Security takes 6.2% of every check up until year-to-date wages hit the 2026 wage base of $184,500; on $2,692.31, that’s $166.92 gone. Medicare takes 1.45% with no cap at all, which is $39.04 on this check. That’s the entire list, no state tax line ever appears. Add those three deductions together and about $458.65 disappears from the $2,692.31 gross, leaving a net paycheck of roughly $2,233.66 every two weeks, or $58,075 across the full year.

The Hall Income Tax: Tennessee’s Last Income Tax, Gone Since 2021

Tennessee’s reputation as a no-income-tax state is sometimes described with an asterisk, because for most of the state’s history, one narrow tax did exist: the Hall Income Tax, a levy specifically on dividend and interest income, named after the state senator who introduced it in 1929. It never touched wages or salaries, those were always untaxed, but investors and retirees living on dividend-paying stocks or bond interest did owe Tennessee tax on that income.

Year	Hall Income Tax Rate
2016 and earlier	6%
2017	5%
2018	4%
2019	3%
2020	2%
2021 and after	0% (fully repealed)

Tennessee’s legislature voted to phase the Hall Tax down by one percentage point every year starting in 2017, and it hit zero on January 1, 2021. Since that date, Tennessee has been completely income-tax-free on every category of personal income, wages, dividends, interest, capital gains, and retirement distributions alike, a status that puts it among just nine states nationwide with no individual income tax at all: Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, and New Hampshire.

Tennessee’s Tax Burden vs National Averages

Tax Type	Tennessee	National Picture
Income tax	None, on any type of personal income	Forty-one states tax wage income in some form
Sales tax (avg. combined)	9.55%-9.61%	Among the highest combined rates in the country
Property tax (effective rate)	0.52%	Below the national average
Estate / inheritance tax	None	Matches most states

Tennessee’s trade-off is about as clean as any no-tax state makes: instead of an income tax, the state leans hard on sales tax, close to 46.7% of all state and local tax revenue in Tennessee comes from general sales taxes, the single largest share of any major revenue source. Groceries get a partial break, taxed at a reduced 4% state rate rather than the full 7%, but general merchandise, restaurant meals, and most other purchases face the full combined rate, among the highest in the nation. Property taxes stay comfortably below the national average, which helps homeowners even as renters and shoppers feel the sales tax burden more directly.

Retirees in Tennessee

Tennessee is a genuinely strong option for retirees purely on the tax side. Social Security benefits are completely untaxed, since there’s no state income tax to apply to them in the first place. Pensions, 401(k) and IRA distributions, and any other retirement income face the same zero rate. This is a real change from Tennessee’s pre-2021 status, when the Hall Income Tax specifically targeted the dividend and interest income that many retirees rely on; that gap is now fully closed. The trade-off worth weighing is Tennessee’s high combined sales tax rate, which affects a retiree on a fixed income more directly than it affects a high earner, so the real value of Tennessee’s tax-free status depends significantly on individual spending habits and how much of a household budget goes toward taxable purchases.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tennessee’s paycheck math has always been simple for wage earners, and since 2021 that simplicity extends to every other type of income too. The real complexity in Tennessee’s tax picture lives entirely outside the paycheck, in a sales tax rate that runs among the highest in the nation and quietly claws back some of what the missing income tax saves. For anyone moving to Tennessee purely for the tax picture, spending habits matter as much as the paycheck itself.

Figures on this page are estimates for tax year 2026 based on published federal rates as of August 2026. They do not account for every credit, deduction, or local circumstance. Verify current figures with the Tennessee Department of Revenue or a tax professional before filing.