Payroll tools and source-backed guidance
South Carolina Paycheck Calculator
Work out South Carolina take-home pay from gross, pay frequency, filing status and pre-tax deductions. Federal and FICA are estimated for you; enter the SC...
Estimate pay before South Carolina state and local withholding, then enter the amount from current official state guidance.
South Carolina state withholding is not calculated automatically. Enter the amount for this pay period from an official worksheet or genuine payroll record to include it; leave it blank to see pay before state withholding. You can enter a known local withholding amount separately. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare are estimated here; the South Carolina line is only ever the amount you type in, and no part of this result is a payroll calculation or a check on what was actually withheld. This calculator is an estimate workspace, not a payroll filing service. Verify every assumption with current official instructions.
First question: is a South Carolina line even yours?
Before the amount comes the question of whose tax it is. The Department of Revenue's Withholding Tax Information Guide, WH-105, has employers withhold South Carolina tax from employees earning wages in the state, and addresses the reverse case directly: a South Carolina resident working in another state has that state's tax withheld, but where the other state has no income tax the employer withholds South Carolina tax, because South Carolina is the employee's state of legal residence. This page cannot settle which situation is yours. It asks what you earned, estimates the federal lines, and waits for you on the state one.
The figure the state box is waiting for
South Carolina's individual income tax is imposed on graduated brackets rather than one flat rate, and the Department of Revenue's withholding formula does not work from your paycheck alone: it annualizes the wage for the period, subtracts a personal allowance for each allowance claimed and a standard deduction tied to gross wages, runs the annual brackets, then divides back down to the pay date. Nothing on this page repeats that. Enter the South Carolina amount for the single pay period you are estimating, taken from the state line of a real pay record or worked out from the current formula. Left empty, the result is labelled pay before South Carolina withholding, which is what it is.
Frequently asked questions
Can this tool tell me my South Carolina withholding?
No. It estimates federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare and stops there. The South Carolina figure is not a slice of one paycheck: the Department of Revenue's formula annualizes the wage for the period, subtracts allowances and a standard deduction, applies graduated brackets and divides the result across the year's pay dates. The allowances on your SC W-4 move it as well. A flat percentage applied here would look authoritative and be wrong, so the state box simply subtracts the number you supply.
I live in South Carolina but work in another state. Which state's tax comes out?
The Department of Revenue's guide WH-105 answers this two ways. An employee who works in another state but is a South Carolina resident has taxes withheld for that other state. If that state has no income tax, the employer withholds South Carolina tax instead, since South Carolina is the state of legal residence. Your payroll department applies this, not the calculator, which has one state box and no view of where you work.