I am currently applying for jobs in a variety of U.S. cities, and I'm trying to estimate what my net monthly salary will be based on different gross yearly salaries. I have a draft budget in a spreadsheet, and I basically want to be able to "turn the dial" the gross annual salary and see what effect this will have on the overall budget.
MonthlyNet = ((AnnualGross / 12) - MonthlyPreTaxDeductions) * (1.0 - TaxRate)
I'm having a really hard time estimating what my total federal + state + local income tax will be (the TaxRate
term in this formula). I've consulted charts of federal and state tax brackets, which are a bit dense for the layman. I've also tried out a handful of online income tax calculators, including one from the IRS, but got different answers from each one. It's not critical that I get this is super accurate, but the answers I'm getting range from 8% (which seems low) to 30% (which seems high). The extremes of that range make a huge difference in terms of what we can afford.
In the past, I've always waited until I got my first paycheck or two to see what my actual net income is and adjusted my budget accordingly, but for my pending career change I need a better idea of what I'm getting into financially.
For a given city or state, how can I estimate my combined federal and state income tax rate?