What are Washington's income tax rates for 2026?
Washington has no state income tax on wages. Washington has no wage income tax, but employees pay the WA Cares long-term-care premium and their share of Paid Family & Medical Leave.
Washington income tax brackets (single filer)
| Taxable income | Rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| All income | 0% | No state income tax on wages |
| WA Cares LTC (0.58%) | 0.58% | Employee payroll premium |
| WA Paid Leave (employee share ≈0.81%) | 0.81% | Employee payroll premium |
How to read this table
- WA Paid Leave (employee share ≈0.81%) sits at the top of the table (0.81%) — employee payroll premium. If your situation looks like this row, plan against the upper half of the range rather than the midpoint.
- All income anchors the bottom (0%) — no state income tax on wages. Treat this as the conservative case you should still be profitable at.
Context
Washington has no wage income tax, but employees pay the WA Cares long-term-care premium and their share of Paid Family & Medical Leave. Standard deduction / exemptions used here: $0 single. Married couples generally use doubled thresholds. City and county income taxes, where they exist, come on top.
What moves this number
Filing status and W-4 settings
Married filing jointly roughly doubles bracket widths and the standard deduction, so the same salary withholds very differently by status. Dependents, second jobs, and extra-withholding entries on the W-4 move every paycheck.
State and local taxes
Nine states levy no wage income tax while top marginal rates elsewhere exceed 10%, and cities like New York add their own layer. The same salary can differ by hundreds of dollars per month purely on location.
Pre-tax benefits
Traditional 401(k), HSA, and health premiums come out before income tax, shrinking both taxable income and the withholding on each check — a raise in contributions costs less take-home than the headline amount.
Methodology
Brackets from the state revenue department's 2025–2026 published schedules; effective rate computed with no pre-tax deductions or credits.
Assumptions and caveats
- Figures use current-year federal brackets and standard deductions; your actual withholding depends on your W-4 and state.
- Estimates exclude credits (Child Tax Credit, EITC), which can materially change the final number.
- This is educational arithmetic, not tax advice — confirm decisions with a tax professional.
- This page was last reviewed on 2026-10-02. Ranges are updated as new data lands, so re-check before using them in a contract or a plan.
- Use these numbers as a starting range, not a guarantee — your own historical data always beats a benchmark.
Frequently asked questions
What are Washington's income tax rates for 2026?
Washington has no state income tax on wages. Washington has no wage income tax, but employees pay the WA Cares long-term-care premium and their share of Paid Family & Medical Leave.
Which option pays the most in the washington income tax brackets (single filer) table?
WA Paid Leave (employee share ≈0.81%), at 0.81% (Employee payroll premium). That row represents the strongest case in this dataset, so use it as an upper bound rather than an expectation.
What is a realistic low-end figure?
All income at 0% (No state income tax on wages). Plan your costs so the low end still works, then treat anything above it as upside.
Where do these numbers come from?
Brackets from the state revenue department's 2025–2026 published schedules; effective rate computed with no pre-tax deductions or credits.
How can I estimate my own number instead of using a benchmark?
Use the $75k after taxes in Washington on RevenueLab — it takes your own inputs and returns a figure specific to your setup, which is always more accurate than a published range.
Model your own numbers
Related reading
More answers in this category
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- How do you calculate net pay from gross pay?
- What percentage of a paycheck goes to taxes?
- How do you calculate FICA taxes on a paycheck?
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Last updated 2026-10-02.