Can I calculate my pre-tax income from my post-tax amount using a formula?

There isn't a simple universal formula because taxes have progressive brackets and there are so many factors that affect your final tax bill. But you can work backwards with reasonable accuracy if you know your tax situation. First, make a list of all your deductions - federal income tax, state tax, Social Security (6.2% up to the wage base limit), Medicare (1.45% with additional 0.9% for higher incomes), retirement contributions, health insurance, etc. Then work backwards by dividing your post-tax amount by (1 minus your effective tax rate). For example, if your effective combined withholding rate is about 25%, and you want $75,000 after tax, you'd calculate: $75,000 ÷ (1 - 0.25) = $100,000 pre-tax income. But this is just an approximation because of the progressive tax brackets.

I was in your exact situation last year trying to figure out what salary I needed to negotiate to hit my budget goals. I discovered this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that basically solved this problem for me. You can input your desired after-tax income, and it works backwards to tell you the pre-tax amount. What I found most useful was that it accounts for all the complications like tax brackets, standard vs itemized deductions, and even state taxes. It gave me a really clear picture of what salary I needed to target instead of just guessing.

I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and I'm actually impressed. I was skeptical since I've been burned by "free" tax tools before that just try to upsell you, but this one genuinely solved my problem. I was freelancing and trying to figure out how much I needed to charge clients to end up with my target income after self-employment taxes. The reverse calculation feature saved me hours of trial and error with tax bracket math. It even helped me optimize my SEP IRA contributions to lower my tax burden while still hitting my post-tax income goals.

If you're getting frustrated with the IRS website or phone lines while trying to get tax questions answered for your calculations, I'd recommend trying Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent days trying to get through to the IRS to ask about some specific deductions that would affect my pre-tax/post-tax calculations. Claimyr basically holds your place in the IRS phone queue and calls you when an agent is about to pick up. Saved me from wasting hours listening to hold music. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c After getting accurate info from the IRS, my calculations were much more precise than just guessing at my effective tax rate.

I need to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After calling the IRS myself multiple times and getting nowhere (literally 3+ hour waits before disconnections), I broke down and tried it. Got through to an actual IRS person in under an hour while I was working on other things. The agent clarified exactly how to calculate backwards from net to gross income for my situation (which involves some rental income and self-employment). Having the right information made the calculation much more accurate than just guessing at tax rates.

Excel has been my go-to for this. I created a spreadsheet that accounts for all tax brackets, deductions, etc and then used Goal Seek to solve for the pre-tax income. You basically set up all your tax calculations in the spreadsheet, then tell Goal Seek "make this cell (post-tax income) equal X by changing this cell (pre-tax income)". Not super simple to set up the first time, but once you have it, you can reuse it every year with updated tax brackets.

i tried a simple way - just take last years w2 and calculate the percentage that was taken out. then use that to work backwards. like if they took 22% total from all taxes and stuff, and you want $50k after tax, you need to make around $64,100 before tax. ($50k ÷ 0.78 = $64,102.56). worked close enough for me for planning

Has anybody tried using the IRS withholding calculator and just running it multiple times with different incomes until you hit your target take-home pay? Seems tedious but might be more accurate than estimating.

I've been dealing with this same issue for years as someone who switched from salary to contract work. The most reliable approach I've found is using a combination of methods for accuracy. First, I use the IRS withholding calculator as a baseline - it's actually pretty good once you get the hang of it. Then I cross-reference with one of those reverse calculators (like the ADP one someone mentioned) to see if I'm in the ballpark. The key thing I learned is that you really need to account for ALL deductions, not just taxes. Health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, even things like parking or transit benefits can significantly impact your take-home. I keep a spreadsheet with all my deductions from last year's pay stub and adjust for any changes I expect. One trick that's helped me: if you're employed (not self-employed), your HR department might be able to run scenarios for you using their payroll system. I asked mine "what would my take-home be if I made $X?" for a few different amounts, which gave me the data points to work backwards more accurately.

This is such a practical question! I've been in the same boat trying to plan my finances. One thing I'd add to all the great suggestions here is to consider using the IRS's own tax withholding estimator (https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator) but in reverse - you can input different gross income amounts until you find one that gets you close to your desired take-home. Also, don't forget about state taxes if you're in a state that has them - they can really throw off your calculations if you're only thinking federal. And if you're planning for next year, make sure to check if there are any tax bracket changes or standard deduction adjustments for the upcoming tax year. For a quick and dirty estimate, I usually take my desired net income and divide by 0.75 (assuming roughly 25% total withholdings), then fine-tune from there. It's not perfect but gets you in the right neighborhood to start with.