Maryland Paycheck Calculator

Maryland's state income tax uses graduated brackets running from 2% up to 6.5% at the very top. The lower bands are narrow — the 2%, 3% and 4% rates apply only to the first few thousand dollars — so most full-time workers reach the 4.75% band quickly and the effective state rate clusters in a fairly tight range. Two high-income bands sit above the long-standing 5.75% rate, taking 6.25% on income over $500,000 and 6.5% over $1 million.

What makes Maryland distinctive is the county piggyback tax. Every county and Baltimore City levies a local income tax as a percentage of Maryland taxable income, and it is withheld alongside the state tax on the same form. Rates run from around 2.25% in the lowest counties to 3.20% in several of the largest, including Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard and Baltimore County and City.

The combined effect is that a Montgomery County resident earning $100,000 faces a combined state and local marginal rate approaching 9%. Any estimate that uses only the state rate will overstate their take-home pay by thousands of dollars a year.

The county rate follows your residence, not your workplace — so moving across a county line inside Maryland can change your paycheck even if your job does not.

Maryland allows a standard deduction calculated as a percentage of adjusted gross income within a floor and a cap, which means it is small relative to the federal standard deduction and does not scale much with income. Maryland also provides personal exemptions per taxpayer and dependent, which phase down and eventually out at higher incomes.

Because Maryland taxable income drives both the state and the county tax, anything that reduces it saves you tax twice over. Pre-tax 401(k) contributions and Section 125 health premiums both reduce Maryland taxable income, so their effective value in Maryland is higher than in a state without a local piggyback tax.

Maryland does not tax Social Security benefits. It offers a pension exclusion for retirees meeting age or disability conditions, and additional relief for military retirement income.

A very large share of Maryland residents work in Washington, DC or Northern Virginia, and reciprocity rules make this simpler than it might be.

Maryland has reciprocal agreements with the District of Columbia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. If you live in Maryland and work in any of them, that jurisdiction does not tax your wages — you pay Maryland state and county tax only, and you file a single resident return. DC in particular does not tax non-residents at all.

The reverse also holds: a Virginia resident working in Maryland pays Virginia, not Maryland. If your employer is withholding for the wrong state, you need to file the appropriate exemption certificate to fix it, and you may need to claim a refund for what was withheld incorrectly.

One caveat: reciprocity covers wages, not other income. Rental income from a property in another state, or self-employment income earned there, may still create a filing obligation in that state.