Federal Employee Advisor Match

Federal Employee Net Pay Calculator (2026)

How much of your GS salary actually reaches your bank account? Federal employees face a unique stack of paycheck deductions: a mandatory FERS or CSRS retirement contribution that most private-sector workers don't have, pre-tax TSP savings, an FEHB health premium that reduces your taxable wages, and the standard federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. This calculator shows your complete biweekly take-home breakdown for 2026.

2026 values this calculator uses.
  • Federal tax brackets & standard deduction ($16,100 single / $32,200 MFJ): IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-321
  • Social Security wage base: $184,500 — SS withholding stops once your year-to-date wages reach this amount2
  • FERS retirement contribution: post-tax — does NOT reduce your taxable wages for federal income tax (this is why you get an exclusion ratio in retirement)3
  • FEHB premium (premium conversion): pre-tax under § 125 — excluded from federal income tax AND Social Security/Medicare wages4
  • TSP traditional contributions: pre-tax for federal income tax only — still included in Social Security and Medicare wages
Use the annual rate of basic pay + locality pay from your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) or most recent SF-50. A GS-13 Step 5 in the Washington-Baltimore area earns approximately $127,000/yr in 2026; GS-13 Step 5 Rest of U.S. approximately $109,000/yr.
Check Box 30 "Retirement Plan" on your SF-50. Most employees hired since 2014 are FERS-FRAE. If you transferred after a break in service, verify your tier — new hires of FERS-FRAE seniority.
Traditional (pre-tax) TSP — reduces federal income tax withholding but not Social Security/Medicare. Minimum 5% to capture full FERS agency match. 2026 IRS limit: $24,500 (catch-up: +$8,000 at age 50–59/64+; +$11,250 at age 60–63).
Enter your biweekly FEHB employee premium from your LES or pay stub. FEHB is pre-tax — it reduces your federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare wages. Leave 0 if waiving coverage. Compare FEHB plans →
Determines the 2026 standard deduction and bracket thresholds. This calculator assumes the standard deduction. If you itemize, your actual withholding will be lower — adjust your W-4 accordingly.
Used to determine TSP catch-up eligibility and flag Social Security wage base exposure for high earners.

Understanding your federal paycheck deductions

FERS retirement contribution: the post-tax deduction most employees misunderstand

Your FERS retirement contribution is taken from your gross pay — but it does not reduce your federal taxable wages. Unlike a 401(k) contribution, it is not pre-tax for income tax purposes. You pay full federal income tax on the dollars you contribute to FERS.

This matters in two ways: (1) your biweekly withholding is calculated on your full gross pay (minus TSP and FEHB, but not minus FERS), and (2) when you retire, you recover those after-tax contributions tax-free through the IRS Simplified Method exclusion ratio, which is why the federal retirement tax estimator shows part of your annuity as tax-free.

FERS tierHiredContribution rateAnnual cost on $100K salary
Original FERSBefore Jan 1, 20130.8%$800/yr
FERS-RAECalendar year 20133.1%$3,100/yr
FERS-FRAEJan 1, 2014 or later4.4%$4,400/yr
CSRS / CSRS OffsetBefore 19847.0%$7,000/yr

A GS-13 Step 5 in the Rest of U.S. earning $109,000/yr in 2026 pays $3,924/yr in FERS-FRAE contributions — $3,924 more per year than an Original FERS colleague in the same job. The additional contribution buys the same FERS pension (the annuity formula is identical across tiers). Congress raised the rates to reduce the unfunded liability cost to the government.3

TSP traditional vs. Roth: the take-home difference

Traditional TSP contributions reduce your federal income tax withholding — so they cost less out of pocket than the stated contribution amount. A GS-14 in the 22% bracket contributing $500/biweekly to traditional TSP saves about $110 in withholding, making the effective out-of-pocket cost $390.

Roth TSP contributions have no withholding reduction — you contribute from after-tax pay. They don't appear in this calculator's default model. If you split traditional/Roth, enter only your traditional percentage here; add your Roth contribution manually to the gross-to-net math.

The agency match works on total TSP contributions — traditional or Roth. The FERS agency match (dollar-for-dollar on the first 3%, 50¢/dollar on the next 2%) applies to all employee contributions up to 5%, regardless of traditional/Roth split. But the agency's match always goes into the traditional side. See the TSP Contribution Calculator to model the full agency match scenario.

FEHB premium conversion: the triple tax savings

Active federal employees pay FEHB premiums through "premium conversion" — a § 125 cafeteria plan arrangement. This means your FEHB premium is excluded from:

A federal employee paying $300/biweekly for FEHB family coverage saves approximately $3,600 in federal income tax + $480 in SS/Medicare withholding per year — a combined ~$4,080/yr compared to buying the same coverage with after-tax dollars. This premium conversion benefit ends when you retire — OPM deducts FEHB from your annuity on a post-tax basis.4

Social Security wage base and the mid-year windfall

Social Security withholding (6.2%) stops once your cumulative wages in the calendar year reach the $184,500 wage base.2 For a GS-15 earning $195,000/yr, this happens around September — producing several paychecks with no SS deduction. This calculator shows the annualized SS cost and flags when the cap applies.

Why your actual withholding may differ

This calculator applies the standard deduction and assumes a straightforward W-4 with no adjustments. Your actual withholding may differ if you:

For a precise paycheck estimate, match the inputs to your actual LES. The IRS withholding estimator at IRS.gov uses your current-year income and W-4 settings for a more precise result.

Sources

  1. IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 — 2026 inflation-adjusted amounts including standard deductions and tax bracket thresholds
  2. SSA.gov — 2026 Social Security Fact Sheet (OASDI wage base $184,500)
  3. OPM.gov — FERS Plan Description (contribution rates by tier: 0.8%, 3.1%, 4.4%)
  4. OPM.gov — FEHB Premium Conversion (§ 125 exclusion from federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare wages)

Tax brackets and standard deduction verified against IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. SS wage base per SSA 2026 COLA announcement. FERS contribution rates per 5 U.S.C. §§ 8422(a), 8422(b), 8422(c) as amended by FERS Act of 2012. Values current as of June 2026.

Related calculators & guides

Your paycheck is the foundation — retirement is the goal

Understanding where every dollar goes today is only half the picture. The bigger questions — when to retire, how to maximize your FERS annuity, what to do with $400K in TSP, how to manage FEHB in retirement — require modeling your entire benefit picture together. A federal-benefits specialist has seen hundreds of FERS retirements and knows where the math surprises employees.

FederalEmployeeAdvisorMatch connects you with fee-only advisors who specialize in FERS, TSP, and federal retirement benefits — no commission, no product sales.

FederalEmployeeAdvisorMatch is a referral service, not a licensed advisory firm. We may receive compensation from professionals in our network. Content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice.