MINNESOTA PAYCHECK CALCULATOR

4 brackets: 5.35% to 9.85%, the highest top rate in the Midwest Social Security taxed, but mostly exempt below $86K to $110K AGI

Minnesota’s 9.85% top income tax rate is the highest in the Midwest and the fourth highest in the country, trailing only California, Hawaii, and New York. If you’ve been comparing notes with friends in Wisconsin or Iowa, don’t expect your paycheck to land in the same place. What softens it a little: a fairly generous standard deduction, zero local or city income tax anywhere in the state, and a Social Security subtraction that shields most retirees from state tax on their benefits entirely.

A Minnesota paycheck runs through federal withholding, Social Security, and Medicare, plus Minnesota’s own state income tax on top, there’s no separate state disability tax or paid family leave payroll deduction built into 2026 withholding for most employers yet. If you’re weighing an offer here against one in a neighboring state, take a look at the Wisconsin paycheck calculator, the Iowa paycheck calculator, the North Dakota paycheck calculator, or the South Dakota paycheck calculator, which has no income tax at all.

Every Deduction on a Minnesota Paycheck

• Federal income tax: Based on the 2026 IRS brackets, 10% to 37%, after the $16,100 single / $32,200 joint standard deduction.
• Minnesota state income tax: Four brackets, 5.35% to 9.85%, applied after Minnesota’s own standard deduction ($15,300 single, $30,600 married filing jointly, $23,000 head of household for 2026).
• Social Security: 6.2% of gross wages up to $184,500 for 2026. Withholding stops for the rest of the year once you cross that number.
• Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, no cap, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly).
• No local income tax: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and every other Minnesota city or county rides on the statewide rate. Nobody pays extra for their zip code.
• Pre-tax deductions (optional): 401(k) contributions, traditional IRA, HSA, and employer health premiums reduce taxable wages before any of the above taxes are calculated.

Minnesota’s 2026 Tax Brackets by Filing Status

Minnesota adjusts its brackets for inflation every year, and 2026 brought a 2.369% bump across the board. Here’s where each rate applies, straight from the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Single Filers

Rate	Taxable Income
5.35%	$0 to $33,310
6.80%	$33,311 to $109,430
7.85%	$109,431 to $203,150
9.85%	$203,151 and up

Married Filing Jointly

Rate	Taxable Income
5.35%	$0 to $48,700
6.80%	$48,701 to $193,480
7.85%	$193,481 to $337,930
9.85%	$337,931 and up

Head of Household

Rate	Taxable Income
5.35%	$0 to $41,010
6.80%	$41,011 to $164,800
7.85%	$164,801 to $270,060
9.85%	$270,061 and up

Married filing separately gets exactly half of the joint brackets and half the joint standard deduction. The standard deduction itself does a lot of work bringing taxable income down before any of these rates apply: $15,300 single, $30,600 married jointly, $23,000 head of household for 2026.

Minnesota vs. Its Neighbors: $70,000, Single Filer

Here’s how Minnesota compares to the states people actually cross-shop it against, all at $70,000 in gross salary for a single filer, 2026 rates.

State	State Tax Owed	Est. Net Pay*
Minnesota	~$3,237	~$54,838
Wisconsin	~$3,250	~$54,825
Iowa (flat 3.8%)	~$2,048	~$56,027
North Dakota	~$700	~$57,375
South Dakota	$0	~$58,075

*Net pay is after federal tax, state tax, Social Security, and Medicare, before pre-tax deductions. Wisconsin’s figure is approximate: its standard deduction phases out on a sliding scale that wasn’t fully documented across available sources at this income level, so treat it as a close estimate. North Dakota’s figure uses its confirmed 2.5% top rate but provisional 2026 bracket thresholds, since the state hadn’t published final inflation-adjusted cutoffs at the time of this research, confirm against the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner before publishing.

Iowa’s flat 3.8% rate is the standout here. It finished a multi-year phase-down from a top rate of 8.53% just a couple of years ago and now beats every neighbor except the states with no income tax at all. North Dakota and South Dakota round out the low end, which is a big part of why cross-border commuting into Fargo-Moorhead or the Sioux Falls area comes up so often in relocation conversations.

Minnesota Tax Burden: The Full Picture

Tax Type	Minnesota	National Average
Top income tax rate	9.85%	~5.0%
State sales tax	6.875%	~5.1%
Combined sales tax (avg.)	~8.13%	~7.5%
Effective property tax rate	~1.00%	~1.02%
Estate tax	Yes, above $3M (13% to 16%)	Most states: none

Income tax is where Minnesota really stands apart, and it’s not close. But property taxes land almost exactly at the national average, which surprises people who assume a high-tax state runs high across every category. Groceries and clothing are also exempt from sales tax statewide, something several neighbors don’t offer. The estate tax is the other outlier: at $3 million per person with no portability between spouses, it catches far more households than the $15 million federal exemption ever will, worth a conversation with an estate attorney if assets are anywhere near that range.

Retirees and Social Security: The Part Most People Get Wrong

Minnesota is one of only 13 states that still taxes Social Security benefits at all, which surprises a lot of people planning a retirement move here. But “taxes Social Security” and “your Social Security check gets taxed” turn out to be two different things for most retirees.

Under the simplified subtraction method for 2026, a married couple filing jointly with adjusted gross income under $110,780 can subtract 100% of their taxable Social Security benefits from Minnesota income. Single filers and heads of household get the same full subtraction below $86,410. Above those numbers, the subtraction shrinks by 10% for every $4,000 of AGI over the line, phasing out completely at $150,780 for joint filers and $126,410 for single filers.

In practice, a retired couple living mostly on Social Security and a modest pension often pays nothing to Minnesota on their benefits. Where the state does catch up with higher earners: pensions, 401(k) withdrawals, and IRA distributions get no special break here. They’re taxed as ordinary income at the same 5.35% to 9.85% brackets as a paycheck, unlike Iowa, which exempts retirement income entirely for residents 55 and older.

Federal Tax: A Worked Example

Take a single filer earning $70,000 in 2026. Subtract the federal standard deduction of $16,100, and taxable income comes to $53,900. Here’s how that runs through the brackets:

• 10% on the first $12,400 = $1,240
• 12% on $12,400 to $50,400 ($38,000) = $4,560
• 22% on $50,400 to $53,900 ($3,500) = $770

Total federal tax: $6,570, an effective rate of about 9.4% on the full $70,000, even though the marginal bracket is 22%. That gap between marginal and effective rate trips up a lot of people who assume moving into a higher bracket taxes their whole paycheck at that rate. It doesn’t, only the income inside that bracket does.

Special Case: Remote Workers Living in Minnesota

With Target, UnitedHealth Group, Best Buy, and US Bank all headquartered in the Twin Cities metro, plus a growing base of remote workers who live in Minnesota but bill out-of-state clients or work for out-of-state employers, one question comes up constantly: which state actually taxes the income?

Minnesota taxes all income earned by its residents, regardless of where the employer is based. If you live in Minnesota and work remotely for a company in Texas or Florida, your full salary is still Minnesota taxable income. Some states apply a “convenience of the employer” rule that can create double taxation if your employer is based in one of them, New York is the best-known example, so it’s worth checking your employer’s state before assuming a clean split. If you physically split your work time between Minnesota and another state, you may owe tax to both, with a credit from Minnesota for tax paid elsewhere on the same income.

Frequently Asked Questions

Minnesota’s tax code rewards planning more than most. A retiree who keeps AGI under the Social Security thresholds, a family that maxes out pre-tax retirement contributions, or a remote worker who understands exactly where their residency obligations start and stop can all shave real money off what looks like a steep headline rate. The 9.85% top bracket gets the attention, but for most working households the standard deduction and the total absence of local income tax do more to shape the final number on a pay stub than that top rate ever will.