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South Dakota Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Estimate your South Dakota take-home pay after federal income tax and FICA. South Dakota had a state income tax from 1933 to 1943 and repealed it; a 1973 attempt to bring one back failed by a single vote.

How this calculator works

South Dakota has no state tax on wages or personal income today, so your paycheck deductions are federal income tax and FICA only. This calculator takes your gross pay, subtracts any pre-tax 401(k) and health-insurance deductions, computes federal income tax and FICA on what’s left, and divides the year’s total by your number of pay periods to estimate what lands in your account each paycheck.

The formula

grossAnnual        = salary, or hourlyRate × hoursPerWeek × 52
ficaWages          = grossAnnual − pretaxHealth        (401(k) does NOT reduce FICA wages)
fedTaxableWages    = grossAnnual − pretaxHealth − 401(k) contribution
taxableIncome      = max(0, fedTaxableWages − standardDeduction)

FICA   = 6.2% of ficaWages (up to the $184,500 wage base)
     + 1.45% of ficaWages (no cap)
     + 0.9% of ficaWages over $200,000

federalTax = 2026 bracket engine applied to taxableIncome
stateTax   = $0 (South Dakota has had no tax on wages or salary income since its 1943 repeal)

net = grossAnnual − pretaxHealth − 401(k) − FICA − federalTax − stateTax − postTaxDeductions
netPerPaycheck = net / payPeriodsPerYear

Worked example

A single filer earning $60,000/year, paid biweekly, with no 401(k) or extra deductions:

  • FICA: 7.65% × $60,000 = $4,590.00/year ($3,720 Social Security + $870 Medicare)
  • Taxable income: $60,000 − $16,100 standard deduction = $43,900 → federal tax = $5,020.00/year
  • Net pay: $60,000 − $4,590 − $5,020 = $50,390.00/year, or $1,938.08 per biweekly paycheck

This is the same arithmetic as our Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Alaska calculators’ worked examples, since all eight states now have $0 state tax on wages; only the state-specific content differs. South Dakota’s road to $0 is closer to Alaska’s than to Texas’s or Washington’s: the state actually had an income tax, twice over, from 1933 to 1943, and repealed it. A 1973 push to bring it back died by one vote in the state senate, and reinstating one today would still need to clear a constitutional supermajority or statewide-vote requirement. Nothing in the arithmetic above changes because of that history; it only explains why the state-tax line reads $0.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Does South Dakota have a state income tax on wages or salary?

No. South Dakota has had $0 state tax on wages since 1943. The state is not banned from having one by name; it once had an income tax and repealed it, and any new attempt today would need to clear a constitutional supermajority or voter-initiative bar that no proposal has met since.

Did South Dakota always have no income tax?

No. South Dakota enacted a "gross income tax" in 1933 to relieve Depression-era property-tax burdens, replaced it in 1935 with a net income tax modeled on the federal income tax, and repealed that tax by 1943 after it raised only modest revenue. The state has had no income tax since.

Has anyone tried to bring back a South Dakota income tax?

Yes. Governor Richard Kneip made reinstating a state income tax his top fiscal priority in 1973. The proposal was defeated by a single vote in the state senate, and no serious attempt has come as close since. Reviving the idea remains politically difficult in South Dakota to this day.

Could South Dakota's legislature just pass an income tax next session?

Not with a simple majority. Since 1978, and generalized to all new taxes in 1996, Article XI, Section 14 of the South Dakota Constitution requires either a two-thirds vote of both legislative chambers or approval by the people through the initiative process before any new tax, including an income tax, can take effect.

What is FICA?

FICA is the combined 7.65% Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) tax withheld from your paycheck, matched by your employer. Social Security stops once your wages hit the annual wage base ($184,500 for 2026); Medicare has no cap and adds an extra 0.9% above $200,000.

How does contributing to a 401(k) change my take-home pay?

A traditional 401(k) contribution lowers the wages your federal income tax is calculated on, so it shaves a bit off your income tax bill, but it does not reduce your Social Security or Medicare wages, since those are calculated before the 401(k) deduction.

Why doesn't my calculated net pay match what shows up in my actual paycheck?

This calculator estimates your annual tax liability and divides it evenly across your pay periods. Your actual employer withholds federal tax per paycheck using IRS withholding tables, which can differ slightly period-to-period; the two methods land close together but rarely to the exact cent.

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