About

Take-Home Almanac answers one question precisely: what does an American job actually leave you after tax?

Official sources publish gross wages. Every other calculator asks you to type a number. Almost nobody puts the two together and tells you that the median registered nurse in Texas earns a specific amount and keeps a specific amount of it. That gap is the entire reason this exists.

How it works

There is no lookup table of pre-computed answers. Every figure on this site is calculated at build time by an open tax engine that applies published IRS and state revenue department rates. When a rate changes, one file changes and every page on the site is correct again. You can read exactly what the engine does on the methodology page.

How it is funded

There is no advertising on this site and there never will be. Ad clutter is precisely what makes the incumbent paycheck calculators unpleasant, and running ads would mean optimising for pageviews instead of for answering the question quickly. If this ever earns money it will be through relevant affiliate links, clearly marked, on pages where they genuinely help.

What it will never do

• Require an account or an email address.
• Store your salary. Figures are bucketed in your browser before anything is sent.
• Show display advertising.
• Publish a number it cannot trace to an official source.

Independence and limits

This is an independent project, not a tax preparer, and nothing here is tax advice. The figures are annual tax liability computed on wage income with the standard deduction — they do not model dependents, itemised deductions, pre-tax contributions, or local income taxes. Where a figure is approximate, the page says so rather than hiding it.

Questions or corrections: get in touch. Corrections are published in the changelog with a date.