Michigan's flat 4.25% is paired with a $5,900 exemption for every person on the return, which makes the effective rate noticeably lower than the headline for larger households.
| Gross pay | — |
| Federal income tax | — |
| Social Security6.2% up to $184,500 | — |
| Medicare1.45%, no cap | — |
| State income tax | — |
| 401(k) contribution | — |
| Health and HSA | — |
Useful if you are comparing a job that pays monthly against one that pays every two weeks, or working out what a raise is worth per paycheck.
| Pay schedule | Gross | Take-home |
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Michigan has no standard deduction. What it has instead is a personal exemption of $5,900 per person — for you, for a spouse, and for each dependent.
For a single filer that removes $5,900 from taxable income. For a married couple with two children it removes $23,600, which at 4.25% is worth about $1,003 of tax. That is a meaningfully different proposition from Illinois, whose comparable exemption is $2,925, or Pennsylvania, which offers nothing at all.
The practical effect is that Michigan's flat tax is gentler on families than most flat systems, and its effective rate rises toward 4.25% only as income grows large relative to the exemptions.
Michigan law contains a revenue trigger that automatically reduces the income tax rate when state revenues exceed a set threshold. That trigger fired for tax year 2023, temporarily cutting the rate to 4.05%.
The reduction was subsequently determined to apply to that single year only, and the rate reverted to 4.25% for 2024 and has remained there since. If you find guidance quoting 4.05%, it is describing 2023 and is out of date.
More than twenty Michigan cities levy their own income tax, Detroit being the largest. Detroit charges residents roughly 2.4% and non-residents who work in the city about half that. Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw and others operate similar systems at lower rates.
This calculator shows state tax only. If you live or work in one of those cities, add the municipal rate. For a Detroit resident that is more than half again on top of the state figure, which is not a detail you want to discover from your first paycheck.
Michigan is in the middle of restoring a broad retirement income exemption that had been narrowed in 2011. The rollback phases in over several years, progressively exempting more pension and retirement account income from state tax depending on the taxpayer's age and birth year.
Because eligibility depends on when you were born and which phase-in year applies, retirees should check the current year's rules rather than assume. The direction is clearly toward broader exemption.
4.25%. The 4.05% figure applied to tax year 2023 only, following an automatic revenue trigger, and the rate reverted the following year.
No, the figure shown is state tax only. Detroit levies roughly 2.4% on residents and about half that on non-residents working in the city.
$5,900 per person on the return, including each dependent. Michigan has no standard deduction, so this is the whole allowance.
Less each year. A broad retirement income exemption is being phased back in, with eligibility depending on age and birth year, so check the rules for the current tax year.