Payroll tools and source-backed guidance
Virginia Paycheck Calculator
Work out Virginia take-home pay from gross, pay frequency, filing status and pre-tax deductions. Federal and FICA are estimated for you; enter the VA...
Estimate pay before Virginia state and local withholding, then enter the amount from current official state guidance.
Virginia 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. Virginia withholding is included here only when you enter it for the same pay period, and the annual record of what was actually withheld is the W-2 data your employer files with Form VA-6, not this estimate. This calculator is an estimate workspace, not a payroll filing service. Verify every assumption with current official instructions.
What the Virginia withholding field expects from you
Virginia wages carry a state income tax the employer has to deduct and withhold, and this workspace does not work that amount out. What it works out is the federal side, with Social Security and Medicare, from the gross figure, the pay frequency and the federal filing status you pick. Virginia does not key its withholding to that status: the state amount follows the exemptions an employee claims on Form VA-4, and where the employer never received one, withholding proceeds on the basis of zero exemptions. Nothing here reads that form, so the state field holds a number you copy from an official worksheet or a Virginia pay record for the same period. Left blank, the total is pay with no Virginia tax subtracted yet.
Two things this estimate has no way of knowing
Two limits are worth naming. The workspace never asks for hours: it starts from a gross amount for one period, so overtime and any premium pay must already be inside the figure you type, and nothing here can rebuild that figure from a rate. It also has no memory of the year. What the state actually receives is the annual summary of Virginia tax withheld that your employer files on Form VA-6, with the W-2 data submitted electronically alongside it; an estimate assembled from typed numbers carries no such standing. Treat the result as arithmetic on your own inputs, and settle any disagreement from the statement your employer issues when it pays you.
Frequently asked questions
Does choosing married filing jointly change the Virginia amount?
No. The status you choose drives the federal estimate, and the Virginia box keeps whatever you type into it. Virginia sets its withholding from the exemptions claimed on Form VA-4 rather than from a federal status, and an employer that never received a VA-4 withholds on the basis of zero exemptions. If the state figure on your pay record looks higher than you expected, a missing or outdated VA-4 is one thing worth raising with payroll.
The estimate and my Virginia pay statement disagree. Which one is wrong?
Work from the statement. It comes out of the payroll system that actually paid you, while this page only does arithmetic on numbers you typed, so most gaps trace back to a deduction you never entered or a gross figure covering a different span of time. Re-enter the statement's numbers and compare again. If the real problem is wages you were never paid rather than a modelling gap, that belongs with the Payment of Wage Unit at the Department of Labor and Industry.