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The selected profile controls limit room, catch-up treatment, and match availability.
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The two profiles use different base and age-50 catch-up amounts.
Published endpoints are modeled with straight-line planning interpolation; verify the IRS worksheet before filing.
Choose the status expected for tax year 2026.
Used only for contribution-limit and catch-up rules.
years
Run separate scenarios when eligible compensation and MAGI differ materially.
$
Any amount above remaining room is excluded from tax-benefit and match calculations.
$
Year-to-date employee dollars reduce remaining room.
$
Compensation still caps the allowed amount.
$
Enter zero only when the wage test does not apply to this scenario.
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Include only deductions and adjustments already known before this modeled contribution.
$
Applied only to the deductible or pre-tax amount.
%
The calculator does not determine every eligibility fact.
Choose the closest formula and verify payroll timing separately.
For example, 50% means fifty cents of employer match per eligible dollar.
%
For example, 6% limits matched employee dollars to six percent of compensation.
% of pay
Use the actual remaining payroll count for the modeled contribution.
periods
This is a sensitivity horizon, not a forecast period guarantee.
years
Set 0% for a contribution-only scenario without modeled growth.
%
The neutral default is 0%; verify jurisdiction rules before adding a rate.
%
The neutral default adds no payroll-tax savings.
The neutral 100% default keeps the full modeled match value.
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Income Tax Calculator Estimate income tax with current tables for four jurisdictions or a custom table and compare bracket slices with an added-income scenario.
Effective Tax Rate Calculator Calculate effective tax rates from current bracket presets or completed totals with clear income bases, included taxes, and extra-income comparisons.
Paycheck Calculator Estimate 2026 U.S. take-home pay for hourly or salaried work with federal income tax, FICA and deductions plus user-entered local withholding.
Payroll Proration Calculator Calculate partial-period gross pay by calendar or workday policy, then compare fixed and custom denominators with final rounding.

The cash-flow cost of a retirement contribution can differ sharply from the amount deposited. A pre-tax contribution may reduce current income tax, an employer match may add money, and a credit may lower tax directly. Roth and after-tax contributions usually provide no current deduction, yet they can still serve a different retirement-tax purpose.

Before estimating savings, the contribution must fit the applicable limit. Account type, age, compensation, year-to-date contributions, filing status, workplace-plan coverage, modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), and the 2026 Roth catch-up wage rule can all reduce the amount that receives the expected treatment. Employer match and vesting rules then add a separate plan-specific result.

TreatmentPossible current effectImportant limit
Pre-tax workplace contributionMay reduce federal taxable income.Ordinary elective deferrals generally still count as Social Security and Medicare wages.
Deductible traditional IRAMay reduce federal taxable income.Workplace coverage and MAGI can phase out the deduction.
Roth contributionNo current income-tax deduction in this model.Roth IRA eligibility and workplace catch-up treatment have separate rules.
After-tax non-Roth contributionNo current income-tax deduction in this model.Basis, conversion, and plan-administration consequences are outside the estimate.

A tax deduction and the Saver's Credit are not interchangeable. A deduction reduces taxable income, so its value depends on the tax rates crossed by the deductible dollars. A credit reduces tax directly, but eligibility depends on facts beyond income alone. The employer match is neither one; it follows the plan document and payroll timing.

Long-term projections add another assumption: that the same employee contribution, vested match, and saved tax benefit recur each year and earn one constant annual return. That is useful for comparing scenarios, not for predicting investment performance or future tax law.

This is a 2026 U.S. federal planning subject with financial and tax consequences. Verify the final contribution, deduction, credit, payroll treatment, and match against current IRS guidance, the plan document, payroll records, and qualified advice.

How to Use This Tool:

Model one account and tax treatment at a time, using 2026 values and the income measure required by that rule.

  1. Choose the Retirement account and Tax treatment. For a SIMPLE plan, select the limit type confirmed by the employer; for a manual plan, enter the applicable employee limit.
  2. Enter Filing status, Age at year end, annual compensation or MAGI, the planned contribution, and the amount already contributed in 2026. Run separate scenarios when compensation and MAGI differ materially.
  3. For an IRA, choose the applicable workplace-coverage status. For a workplace pre-tax contribution by someone age 50 or older, enter prior-year wages when the 2026 Roth catch-up wage test applies.
  4. Select the federal method. Use the 2026 bracket method with the standard deduction, supply a known custom deduction base, or enter a manual marginal rate when a separate tax calculation supports it.
  5. Enable the Saver's Credit only after checking its non-income eligibility rules. Choose the employer match formula and enter its custom rate or salary cap only when the plan uses those terms.
  6. Open Advanced for pay periods, projection years, annual return, state or local rate, payroll-tax treatment, and vesting. Leave uncertain optional tax rates at 0 rather than creating unsupported savings.
  7. Review the allowed contribution and warning checks before reading tax savings, paycheck cost, employer match, or projected value. A capped or phased-out amount must not be treated as fully deductible.

Interpreting Results:

Allowed contribution is the amount that remains after the selected limit, compensation cap, year-to-date contribution, and any Roth IRA eligibility reduction. Deductible amount can be lower because Roth, after-tax, forced Roth catch-up, or traditional IRA phaseout treatment removes dollars from the current deduction.

Total tax benefit adds modeled federal, state or local, payroll-tax, and Saver's Credit amounts. Read the components separately. State treatment is user-supplied, payroll-tax savings are optional, and the credit is not the same as reduced withholding during each pay period.

  • Compare Net tax-year cost with available cash flow, not just the gross contribution.
  • Check Match left before lowering a workplace contribution; uncaptured match may outweigh a modest tax difference.
  • Treat Projected value as sensitivity analysis under one repeated-return assumption.
  • Confirm any contribution-cap, IRA-phaseout, forced-Roth, state-rule, or payroll-tax warning before changing a payroll election or filing position.

A larger current tax saving does not establish that pre-tax treatment is better than Roth over a lifetime. Future withdrawal treatment, tax rates, investment choices, liquidity, and estate goals are not resolved by the current-year result.

Technical Details:

The model applies contribution eligibility before tax arithmetic. It finds the statutory limit for the selected profile, adds any age-based catch-up, caps that amount by compensation, subtracts the year-to-date contribution, and limits the planned contribution to the remaining room. Monetary values are rounded to cents at defined calculation steps.

Formula Core:

The current-year equations separate contribution room, deductible treatment, tax benefits, and net cost.

Remaining room=max(0,compensation-capped limit-already contributed) Allowed contribution=min(planned contribution,remaining room) Deductible amount=pre-tax indicator×(allowed contribution-forced Roth catch-up)×IRA deduction fraction Total tax benefit=federal savings+state/local savings+payroll-tax savings+Saver's Credit Net tax-year cost=allowed contribution-total tax benefit

The pre-tax indicator is 1 for pre-tax or deductible traditional treatment and 0 for Roth or after-tax treatment. Under the bracket methods, federal savings equal progressive 2026 federal tax before the deductible amount minus tax after it. The manual method instead multiplies the deductible amount by the entered marginal rate. The bracket calculation can cross rate boundaries, so the benefit need not equal one marginal rate times the entire contribution.

The projection treats each component as a repeated end-of-year payment. When the annual return r is nonzero, the future value of annual payment A over n years is:

FV=A(1+r)n-1r

If r is 0, future value is A multiplied by n. Employee contributions, vested match, and saved tax benefits are projected separately and then added.

Rule Core:

The following 2026 limits are built into the account profiles.

ProfileBase limitCatch-up rule
401(k), 403(b), governmental 457, or TSP$24,500$8,000 at age 50+, replaced by $11,250 at ages 60 through 63.
SIMPLE standard$17,000$4,000 at age 50+, replaced by $5,250 at ages 60 through 63.
SIMPLE applicable higher limit$18,100$3,850 at age 50+, replaced by $5,250 at ages 60 through 63.
IRA$7,500$1,100 at age 50+.
Manual planUser-enteredNo separate catch-up is added.

For workplace pre-tax contributions, the model treats the catch-up slice as Roth when age is at least 50 and entered prior-year wages exceed $150,000. Traditional IRA deduction and Roth IRA eligibility use straight-line planning interpolation between published phaseout endpoints:

RuleFiling or coverage caseFull-to-zero range
Traditional IRA deductionSingle or head of household, contributor covered$81,000 to $91,000
Traditional IRA deductionMarried filing jointly, contributor covered$129,000 to $149,000
Traditional IRA deductionMarried filing jointly, only spouse covered$242,000 to $252,000
Roth IRA eligibilitySingle or head of household$153,000 to $168,000
Roth IRA eligibilityMarried filing jointly$242,000 to $252,000
Either IRA ruleMarried filing separately$0 to $10,000

The Saver's Credit uses post-deduction AGI and the following 2026 inclusive upper boundaries:

Credit rateMarried filing jointlyHead of householdSingle or married filing separately
50%≤ $48,500≤ $36,375≤ $24,250
20%≤ $52,500≤ $39,375≤ $26,250
10%≤ $80,500≤ $60,375≤ $40,250
0%> $80,500> $60,375> $40,250

The qualified contribution cap is $2,000, or $4,000 for married filing jointly, and bracket-mode credit is limited by modeled federal tax after the contribution. This simplified check does not determine age, dependent, student, distribution, or every other eligibility condition.

The optional payroll-tax path uses 2026 employee Social Security tax at 6.2% through the $184,500 wage base, Medicare tax at 1.45%, and Additional Medicare Tax at 0.9% above $200,000 for single or head-of-household filing, $250,000 for married filing jointly, or $125,000 for married filing separately. Because ordinary workplace deferrals generally do not reduce Social Security or Medicare wages, this path remains off unless the user explicitly selects it.

Employer-match profiles model 100% of employee contributions up to 3% of compensation, 50% up to 6%, or 100% on the first 3% plus 50% on the next 2%. The custom profile applies the entered match percentage up to the entered compensation cap, then the vesting percentage reduces the amount counted in projected value.

For a single filer with $125,000 of income, the $16,100 standard deduction, and an allowed $18,000 pre-tax workplace contribution, modeled federal tax falls from $18,734 to $14,710. Federal savings are $4,024. With 26 pay periods, the contribution is $692.31 per period, the current federal tax shield is $154.77, and the modeled net payroll cost is $537.54 before any state, payroll-tax, or credit amount.

Limitations and Accuracy:

This is an educational 2026 U.S. federal planning estimate, not tax, legal, payroll, benefits, investment, or filing advice.

  • The entered income serves as compensation or MAGI according to the scenario; actual tax forms may use different figures.
  • IRA phaseouts are straight-line planning estimates and do not replace the applicable IRS worksheet.
  • State and local conformity, payroll-tax treatment, match timing, true-up, vesting, eligibility, and plan-specific limits require separate verification.
  • The projection omits market volatility, fees, salary growth, changing limits, future contributions, withdrawals, and future tax rates.
  • Downloaded reports can contain sensitive income, contribution, tax, and employer assumptions; store them accordingly.

Worked Examples:

Traditional IRA in a phaseout range

A covered single filer age 50 with $86,000 of MAGI and an $8,600 traditional IRA contribution is halfway through the modeled $81,000 to $91,000 deduction phaseout. The contribution fits the age-50 IRA limit, but only $4,300 receives current deduction treatment in this planning estimate. The IRS worksheet remains the filing authority.

Contribution room nearly used

An employee under age 50 who has already contributed $23,000 to a workplace plan and tests another $5,000 has $1,500 of remaining 2026 room under the $24,500 base limit. Only $1,500 enters the tax and match calculations; the other $3,500 is flagged as over the selected limit.

References: