How a West Virginia paycheck works
West Virginia's income tax is a five-rate graduated schedule, and its withholding is unusually simple: the only thing subtracted before the rates apply is a flat amount for each exemption claimed on the state certificate. There is no standard deduction and no credit. What makes the state distinctive is that it prints two schedules and defaults every employee to the higher one.
Federal income tax withholding
Federal withholding annualises the wage, subtracts the standard deduction for the filing status on Form W-4 Step 1, applies the graduated schedule for that status, and deducts the dependent credit from Step 3. This page models a W-4 with Steps 2 and 4 blank: one job, no spouse income, no other income, no extra withholding.
Social Security and Medicare
Social Security takes a flat rate on wages up to an annual ceiling that moves each year. Medicare applies to every dollar, and above a fixed threshold the employer withholds the Additional Medicare tax on the excess.
Two tables, and why the default is the higher one
The state publishes a two-earner schedule and a one-earner schedule. The two-earner schedule is deliberately set at a higher rate so that couples who both work, and people holding more than one job, are not left short at the end of the year. It is the default for everyone, whatever their filing status: unlike most states, filing status alone changes nothing here.
The lower schedule is an election, not an entitlement. An employee who is single, head of household, or married to a spouse who does not work, and who holds only one job, may check a box on the state exemption certificate to be withheld at the lower rate. This calculator offers that election as a choice, because the gap between the two schedules is wide enough to matter across an ordinary salary.
Exemptions
Each exemption is worth a flat amount off the annual wage. The certificate allows one for the employee, one for a spouse not claimed on another certificate, and one for each dependant. Exemptions are not withdrawn as income rises, so they are worth the same in cash terms at every salary, and less in proportion as the salary grows.
A rate cut that was backdated
Every rate was cut for this tax year. The legislation passed partway through the year but applies from the start of it, and the state issued updated withholding tables to match. Those are the tables used here, and because the cut is backdated they govern the year as a whole. The annual return is worked out at these rates whatever any individual payslip showed.
Local income tax
No West Virginia city taxes wages as a percentage. Several of the larger ones instead charge a city service fee, a flat sum per pay period deducted by the employer from anyone who works within the city limits. It does not vary with earnings and is not included in the figure on this page.
What the employer pays on top
The employer matches Social Security and Medicare and pays federal unemployment tax at its net rate. State unemployment insurance is an employer contribution at an experience-rated percentage on a state wage base. There is no employee-side state levy: no disability insurance, no paid leave premium.
What this calculator assumes
The figure models a salaried employee paid evenly across the year with a standard Form W-4 and state exemption certificate, and no pre-tax deductions. It leaves out:
- Pre-tax contributions such as a 401(k), health premiums, HSA or flexible spending accounts.
- Extra withholding requested on either certificate, and the W-4 Step 2 and Step 4 adjustments.
- Bonuses and other supplemental wages, which may be withheld differently.
- Municipal city service fees, and employer-side state unemployment insurance.
- The exemption from state withholding for residents of neighbouring states who file a certificate of nonresidence.
Withholding versus your final tax bill
Withholding is a prepayment. The federal and state returns replace these assumptions with your real situation: itemised deductions, other income, and credits payroll knows nothing about. Because the default table is set high on purpose, a single-earner household that never made the election is the most likely to see a refund.