Why we built it
The gap we noticed
Michigan is one of the few states where cities levy their own income taxes on top of the state\u2019s. If you live or work in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing or any of the 24 taxing cities, a national calculator quietly leaves out a real line from your paycheck — sometimes 2.4% of your wages, as in Detroit. The difference is hundreds of dollars a year, and it is simply not shown.
What this site does differently
This calculator models all four layers of a Michigan paycheck — federal, FICA, Michigan\u2019s flat 4.25%, and the city income tax — on the correct base for each, the same way your employer\u2019s payroll software does. You set the city and whether you\u2019re a resident or a commuter, and the calculator applies the exact resident or non-resident rate. Every rate and threshold lives in one data file, so the math is consistent across every page.
Transparent math
We don\u2019t hide the formulas. The methodology page documents every base and source, and the engine that performs the calculations is a simple, deterministic function. If you can multiply a wage by a rate, you can check our work — that\u2019s by design.
Privacy by construction
All calculations run in your browser. Your salary, city and filing status are never sent to a server, stored, or shared. There is no account, no login, and no tracking of what you type into the calculator.
Who maintains it
This is an independent, non-commercial project. It is not affiliated with the State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Treasury, or the IRS, and it is not tax, legal, or financial advice. The figures are verified against primary sources and updated when the tax rules change.