State Comparison Calculator

Enter one salary and two states, and the calculator applies the same federal income tax and FICA to both, then each state's real 2026 income tax brackets and standard deduction, and shows the difference in annual and monthly take-home. Because federal tax is identical in both columns, the gap is entirely the state line: it is zero between two no-tax states and reaches five figures between a no-tax state and California or Oregon at high incomes.

A second line adjusts for cost of living using each state's price index, so you can see whether a higher-tax state with cheaper housing actually leaves you ahead. Mississippi's take-home on $75,000 is lower than Texas's, but its cost index of 83 against Texas's 93 means the Mississippi paycheck buys more.

Below about $60,000 the state gap is usually $1,000 to $3,000 a year and cost of living matters more than tax. Between $100,000 and $200,000 the gap widens to $5,000–$12,000 and relocation starts to be a genuine tax decision, especially for remote workers whose employer does not care where they sit. Above $250,000 a move from California, New Jersey or New York to a no-tax state is worth $20,000 to $40,000 a year, which is why so much of that migration shows up in IRS data.

Two cautions. Several states tax non-residents on work physically performed there, and a few — New York, Delaware, Nebraska, Pennsylvania — apply a convenience-of-the-employer rule that can tax a remote worker who never sets foot in the state. And a move only counts for tax once you have genuinely changed domicile; the high-tax states audit that aggressively.