Maryland stacks 8 marginal bands topping out at 5.75%, and a $75,000 single filer stops in the 4.75% band — $3,175 of state tax against $54,463 of take-home pay. Enter your own figures to walk them through the same schedule.
Federal tax, FICA, Maryland state tax & 401(k) — prefilled for Maryland
📈 Live: US inflation is currently 3.4% (CPI, August 2026) — rising prices erode the buying power of your take-home pay, so weigh it when comparing salaries or job offers across states.
Maryland takes $3,175 out of a $75,000 salary, leaving $54,463 against $57,639 in no-wage-tax Texas. The doughnut shows how the rest of that gross divides.
Maryland $54,463 vs Texas $57,639
Maryland: take-home, federal, state & FICA
Calculation parameters: Single filer, standard state deduction ($3,350), zero additional withholdings, $75,000 annual salary, 24 pay periods. The local tax models the 3.30% maximum rate applied in Montgomery County. Models use 2026 tax tables sourced from the Comptroller of Maryland.
The Comptroller of Maryland operates one of the most granulated progressive income tax systems in the country. For 2026, the state utilizes ten distinct income brackets, scaling from a low of 2.0% on the first $1,000 of taxable income up to a top marginal rate of 6.5% for individual earners making over $1,000,000.
Because the state's standard deduction for single filers is locked at a relatively low $3,350 for the 2026 tax year (after a proposed legislative increase to $4,100 failed), a single earner grossing $75,000 pays the bulk of their tax in the 4.75% bracket. The state calculates both state and county tax burdens against this $71,650 taxable base. Employees must submit Maryland Form MW507 to their employer to declare their withholding exemptions.
What fundamentally separates Maryland payroll from neighboring states is the mandatory county "piggyback" tax. Every single county in Maryland—plus the independent City of Baltimore—levies a localized flat percentage tax on your Maryland taxable income.
This tax depends entirely on your county of residence, not where you physically work. The 2026 rates range from a floor of 2.25% in Somerset and Worcester counties to a ceiling of 3.30% in Baltimore City, Montgomery, Dorchester, and Kent counties. If you relocate from Worcester to Montgomery County, your annual tax bill automatically increases by over $750 on a $75,000 salary, simply by crossing county lines. Employers are legally obligated to withhold this county tax simultaneously with your state tax.
Maryland passed the Time to Care Act to establish a statewide Paid Family and Medical Leave (FAMLI) program. While the state initially planned to begin collecting the 0.90% payroll premium (split between employer and employee) earlier, the Maryland Department of Labor has officially delayed the start of payroll withholding.
For the entirety of calendar year 2026, the FAMLI employee deduction remains strictly at $0.00. Mandatory payroll deductions of up to 0.45% of an employee's wages will not commence until January 1, 2027.
8 marginal single-filer bands for 2025, running from 2% to 5.75% and applied to income after the $2,550 standard deduction. A $75,000 earner reaches band 4 of 8; only income above $250,000 ever meets the top rate.
| Taxable income (single) | Marginal rate |
|---|---|
| $0 to $1,000 | 2% |
| $1,000 to $2,000 | 3% |
| $2,000 to $3,000 | 4% |
| $3,000 to $100,000 | 4.75% |
| $100,000 to $125,000 | 5% |
| $125,000 to $150,000 | 5.25% |
| $150,000 to $250,000 | 5.5% |
| $250,000 and up | 5.75% |
Annual take-home at six salary points for a single filer deferring 6% into a 401(k). Watch the MD column accelerate from $1,612 to $9,210 as income climbs through Maryland's 8 bands.
| Gross salary | Federal tax | MD state tax | FICA | Take-home /yr | Take-home /mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $2,474 | $1,612 | $3,060 | $30,454 | $2,538 |
| $60,000 | $4,730 | $2,505 | $4,590 | $44,575 | $3,715 |
| $80,000 | $8,158 | $3,398 | $6,120 | $57,524 | $4,794 |
| $100,000 | $12,294 | $4,291 | $7,650 | $69,765 | $5,814 |
| $150,000 | $23,087 | $6,654 | $11,475 | $99,784 | $8,315 |
| $200,000 | $34,367 | $9,210 | $14,339 | $130,084 | $10,840 |
| Metric | Maryland | No-tax state (TX) |
|---|---|---|
| State income tax (per year) | $3,175 | $0 |
| Federal income tax | $7,124 | $7,124 |
| Social Security + Medicare | $5,738 | $5,738 |
| Annual take-home pay | $54,463 | $57,639 |
| Effective total tax rate | 21.4% | 17.1% |
That $3,175 a year — about $265 a month — is what Maryland's income tax costs against a state that charges none. On this salary it ranks 13th of 51 by state income tax paid, just behind District of Columbia at 4.28%.
Take-home pay is gross salary minus five separate withholdings, each with its own rule and its own base. Two are federal and fixed nationwide, two are FICA payroll taxes with their own ceilings, and one is set by Maryland. Maryland uses a progressive schedule of 8 brackets topping out at 5.75%. On $110,000 the state collects $4,740 — an effective 4.31% of gross, not the headline 5.75%, because only the slice of income sitting inside each bracket is taxed at that bracket's rate. What stands out in Maryland is granularity rather than severity: 8 separate brackets, several of them only a few thousand dollars wide, so the schedule behaves almost like a smooth curve. A raise pushes you across bracket boundaries frequently but each crossing costs very little, since the step between adjacent rates is small. At $110,000 the marginal rate is 5%. Note also that the 401(k) contribution comes out before federal income tax is computed but not before Social Security and Medicare — a detail that trips up most hand calculations.
Take-home = Gross − 401(k) − Federal income tax − Social Security − Medicare − State taxFederal = brackets applied to (gross − 401(k) − $15,000 standard deduction)State income tax = sum over brackets of (income in bracket × bracket rate), up to 5.75%where:
Assumptions: Single filer, standard deduction, 6% traditional 401(k), no other pre-tax benefits, credits or local income tax. Health premiums, HSA contributions and city taxes (where they exist) would each change the result. 2026 federal figures.
ReferenceIRS Tax Withholding Estimator
Rather than a round number, this example uses the salary Maryland's own housing costs imply: a median-priced $420,000 home carries a $2,565 monthly payment, and the 28% front-end ratio lenders underwrite to puts that within reach at about $110,000 a year. Here is where that salary actually goes for a single filer contributing 6% to a traditional 401(k).
Result$75,883 a year — $6,324 a month, $2,919 per biweekly cheque
Total tax burden is $27,517, an effective 25% of gross — of which Maryland takes 4.31%. The $6,600 401(k) deferral is not a tax; it is still your money.
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