ALASKA PAYCHECK CALCULATOR
Quick answer: on a $70,000 salary in Alaska, filing Single, you take home roughly $58,075 a year, which works out to about $2,234 every two weeks on a biweekly schedule. Only federal tax and FICA come out, nothing state-level.
That does not count the annual Permanent Fund Dividend, a separate payment Alaska residents get just for living there. Scroll down to see how it factors into your federal return.
Alaska is one of the simplest states in the country when it comes to a paycheck, mostly because there is nothing state-level to calculate. Alaska repealed its personal income tax back in 1980 once oil production from the Prudhoe Bay fields started generating enough revenue that the state no longer needed one, and it has stayed that way ever since. There is also no statewide sales tax, which makes Alaska one of only two states, alongside New Hampshire, with neither an individual income tax nor a state-level sales tax. On top of that, Alaska is the only state that pays its residents a dividend simply for living there, funded by investment returns on the Alaska Permanent Fund, the sovereign wealth fund built from decades of oil revenue.
What actually lands on an Alaska paystub reflects all of this. Federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare come out, the same as anywhere else in the country, and then nothing else. No state withholding line, no state disability tax, no paid family leave deduction. Some municipalities, Anchorage among the biggest exceptions, do charge a local sales tax, but that shows up at the register, not on a paycheck. If you are weighing Alaska against a move from a state with an income tax, the difference is stark: compare it against the Washington paycheck calculator, a fellow no-wage-tax state in the Pacific Northwest, or the California paycheck calculator to see just how much a progressive income tax structure changes things.
Alaska Paycheck Calculator
How the Federal Number Was Worked Out
Take the default example above, a single filer earning $70,000 a year with no other adjustments and no PFD included. Here is exactly how the federal piece gets built, step by step, using the 2026 IRS brackets and the $16,100 single standard deduction. Since Alaska has no state tax to layer on top, this federal figure is effectively the whole story.
Step 1. $70,000 gross minus the $16,100 standard deduction leaves $53,900 in taxable income.
Step 2. The first $12,400 is taxed at 10%, which comes to $1,240.
Step 3. The next chunk, from $12,400 to $50,400, is taxed at 12%. That is $38,000 taxed at 12%, or $4,560.
Step 4. The remaining $3,500, from $50,400 up to the $53,900 taxable income figure, is taxed at 22%, adding $770.
Step 5. Add it up: $1,240 + $4,560 + $770 = $6,570 in federal income tax, an effective federal rate of about 9.4% on the full $70,000.
Add Social Security and Medicare on top of that and you have the entire tax picture for an Alaska paycheck. There is no sixth step where a state bracket gets applied.
Alaska vs Other Low-Tax States: Total Tax Burden
Since Alaska, Wyoming, Florida, and South Dakota all charge zero state income tax, comparing paycheck withholding does not tell you much. What actually separates them is the full state and local tax burden, income, sales, and property tax combined, measured as a share of personal income.
| State | Income Tax | Total State & Local Tax Burden | National Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 0% | 5.16% | #2 lowest |
| Wyoming | 0% | 7.50% | #1 lowest |
| Florida | 0% | 6.97% | #3 lowest |
| South Dakota | 0% | 7.37% | #4 lowest |
Alaska actually posts the lowest overall tax burden of any state with a meaningful population outside Wyoming, largely because it has neither an income tax nor a statewide sales tax to fall back on. Instead, state government leans heavily on oil production taxes, royalties, and returns from the Permanent Fund itself, revenue sources that do not show up on an individual’s tax bill at all. The tradeoff, as anyone who has lived there will tell you, is a cost of living that runs well above the national average, particularly for groceries, fuel, and heating in anywhere outside Anchorage.
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 is the order things get pulled, and what is left standing at the end. There are only three lines, which is 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 your year-to-date wages hit the 2026 wage base of $184,500. On $2,692.31, that is $166.92 gone.
Medicare takes 1.45% with no cap at all, which is $39.04 on this check. The extra 0.9% Medicare surtax only kicks in once your total wages for the year pass $200,000 for a single filer, so it does not apply here.
That is 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 $58,075.16 across the full year.
Why Alaska Has No Income Tax: Oil, the Permanent Fund, and the PFD
Alaska used to have a state income tax, but it repealed it in 1980, a few years after oil began flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline from the massive Prudhoe Bay field. With billions in new oil tax and royalty revenue arriving, lawmakers eliminated the individual income tax entirely rather than continue collecting it. That same oil wealth funds the Alaska Permanent Fund, a constitutionally protected sovereign wealth fund that invests a share of the state’s mineral revenue and, since 1982, has paid out a portion of its investment earnings to eligible residents every year as the Permanent Fund Dividend.
The size of that dividend swings noticeably from year to year depending on fund performance and legislative decisions about how much to distribute. Recent payments illustrate the range:
| Year | PFD Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $3,284 | Included a $662.19 energy relief payment |
| 2024 | $1,702 | Included an energy relief component |
| 2025 | $1,000 | Base dividend only |
| 2026 | $1,200 | $1,000 base dividend plus a $200 energy relief rebate |
The dividend is not taxed by Alaska, since the state has no income tax to apply, but it is fully taxable on a federal return and gets reported on a 1099-MISC each year. A family of four receiving four full dividends can add a meaningful chunk to their federal adjusted gross income, so many residents choose to have federal tax withheld directly from the payment when they apply, rather than face a larger bill the following April.
How Alaska’s Tax Burden Stacks Up
| Tax Type | Alaska | National Picture |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax | None, repealed in 1980 | Forty-one states tax wage income in some form |
| Sales tax | No state-level tax; local rates run about 1% to 7%, averaging roughly 1.82% | National average combined rate runs closer to 7.5% |
| Property tax | Roughly 0.94% effective statewide average, though Anchorage runs closer to 1.17% | National average sits close to 0.9% |
| Estate tax | No state estate or inheritance tax | Most states have no estate tax either |
Property tax is really the one place Alaska looks ordinary rather than exceptional. Because the state has no broad sales or income tax to rely on, local governments and boroughs lean more heavily on property tax to fund schools and services, and rates vary enormously depending on where in the state you live. Some remote census areas charge next to nothing, while Anchorage, home to roughly 40% of the state’s population, runs close to the national average. Combined with no income tax and no state sales tax, though, Alaska still comes out near the very bottom of the country on overall tax burden.
Moving to Alaska and the Permanent Fund Dividend Timeline
Anyone considering a move to Alaska for the tax picture should understand the PFD timeline before counting on it as income. Eligibility requires having lived in Alaska for an entire calendar year, from January 1 through December 31, and intending to remain a resident indefinitely. Someone who arrives partway through a year does not qualify for that year’s dividend at all. Instead, they need to complete their first full qualifying year, then apply during the following January-through-March application window, with payment typically arriving that October. In practice, this means a new arrival usually waits somewhere between 18 and 28 months from move-in day to their first PFD check, depending on exactly when in the year they arrived. Certain absences from the state, military service, medical treatment, and full-time education among them, do not break residency as long as the person maintains their Alaska domicile and intends to return. For remote workers considering Alaska purely as a tax play, it is worth weighing the PFD wait time and the state’s above-average cost of living for groceries, fuel, and housing against the tax savings before treating the move as a straightforward financial win.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Alaska have a state income tax?
No. Alaska has no individual state income tax at all, on wages, retirement income, investment income, or anything else. It repealed its income tax back in 1980 once oil revenue from the Prudhoe Bay fields made it unnecessary, and it remains one of only nine states with no wage income tax today.
Is the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend taxable?
The Permanent Fund Dividend, or PFD, is not taxed by Alaska, since the state has no income tax to begin with. It is, however, fully taxable on your federal return and gets reported on a 1099-MISC. For 2026, the combined dividend and energy relief payment comes to $1,200 per eligible resident.
Does Alaska have a state sales tax?
No statewide sales tax exists in Alaska, making it one of the few states with neither an income tax nor a state-level sales tax. Local governments are allowed to levy their own sales taxes, though, and more than 100 municipalities do, at rates ranging from about 1% to 7%. Anchorage, the state’s largest city, charges no local sales tax at all, while Juneau and Sitka both charge around 5%.
How much am I taxed on a paycheck in Alaska?
With no state income tax, an Alaska paycheck only has federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare taken out. There is no state withholding line at all. For a single filer earning $70,000 a year, that works out to roughly $11,925 in combined federal and FICA tax, leaving about $58,075 in net annual pay.
How does someone qualify for the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend?
You generally need to have lived in Alaska for the full prior calendar year, intend to remain an Alaska resident indefinitely, and not have been disqualified by things like a felony conviction or excessive time spent outside the state without an allowable absence. Someone who moves to Alaska partway through a year typically waits until they have completed a full qualifying year before they can apply, which usually means the first payment lands 18 to 28 months after arrival.
Is Alaska actually a low tax state once everything is counted?
Yes, by most broad measures. The Tax Foundation ranks Alaska 4th out of 50 states on its 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index, and separate research puts Alaska’s total state and local tax burden, income, sales, and property tax combined, at around 5.16% of personal income, the second lowest in the country behind Wyoming. Property taxes are the main exception, running close to the national average in places like Anchorage even though there is no state-level property tax.
Alaska’s paycheck math is about as short as it gets in the United States: federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, and nothing else. The real complexity lives outside the paycheck entirely, in the timing of the Permanent Fund Dividend, the wide swings in property tax between boroughs, and a cost of living that quietly claws back a good chunk of what the missing income tax saves you. For anyone moving north purely for the tax picture, the paycheck is only half the story.