State Tax Refund Calculator
Compare what you have had withheld with an estimated federal and state liability to see if a refund or a bill is coming.
About State Tax Refund Calculator
State Tax Refund Calculator — estimates whether you are owed a refund or still owe tax. A refund is the gap between what you paid through withholding and what you actually owe - not a reward. This estimator combines federal bracket tax on gross income with a state component at the flat state rate, subtracts the credits and deductions you enter, and compares the result to tax already withheld. A positive difference means a refund; negative means you owe. Real returns start from adjusted gross income, apply deductions before calculating tax, and use filing-status-specific brackets with credit phase-outs. This is a coarse one-line approximation. Federal brackets are the 2024 single-filer schedule from the original pages: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-provides-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2024
Formulas
Refund liability
Total tax = federal bracket tax + (income × state rate) - credits
Refund outcome
Refund = tax withheld - total tax (a negative result is tax owed)
Worked example
With the default values below, State Tax Refund Calculator returns Refund or Amount Owed of $9,004.50. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Stateone of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
- Illinois
- Your state tax rateaccepts 0–60
- Gross incomeminimum 0
- 85,000
- Tax withheld to dateminimum 0
- 11,000
- Credits / deductionsminimum 0
- 2,500
Results
- Refund or Amount Owed
- $9,004.50
- Outcome
- You owe tax.
- Estimated Total Tax
- $20,004.50
- Federal Component
- $18,297.00
- State Component
- $4,207.50
- State rate used
- 4.95% (verified)
- Tax year
- 2026
- Source
- https://tax.illinois.gov/research/taxrates/income.html
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Refund liability
- 3Refund outcome
- 4Refund or Amount Owed= 9,004.50
- 5Outcome= You owe tax.
- 6Estimated Total Tax= 20,004.50
- 7Federal Component= 18,297.00
- 8State Component= 4,207.50
- 9State rate used= 4.95% (verified)
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
- Not a tax filing and not tax advice. Credits are applied as a flat reduction, which no real return does.
- This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Not a tax filing and not tax advice. Credits are applied as a flat reduction, which no real return does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I aim for a big refund?
A large refund means you lent the government money interest-free all year. Many people prefer to withhold closer to their actual liability and keep the cash in their own paychecks, as long as they stay clear of the under-withholding penalty.
Why is my real refund different from this?
A filed return applies deductions before the rate rather than as a credit afterwards, starts from adjusted gross income, uses your real filing status and claims credits with their own phase-outs. This is a one-line approximation of a multi-page calculation.
How do state tax credits differ from deductions in this calculator?
This calculator treats credits as a flat reduction of total tax liability. In reality, state credits can be refundable (paid to you even if you owe no tax) or non-refundable (only reduce tax to zero). Some credits phase out at higher incomes. Enter the net credit value you expect to claim for the closest estimate.
What if I have multiple state tax liabilities?
This calculator models one state at a time. If you earned income in multiple states, you generally file a return in each state and may claim a credit on your resident state return for taxes paid to the other state. Run this calculator separately for each state, then check your resident state's credit rules.
Why does it say the rate is not verified for my state?
Because the figure the old per-state page used could not be matched to a current publication from that state's revenue department, or the state uses a graduated schedule that a single rate cannot represent. Rather than show a number with no provenance, the calculator asks you for the rate from your own notice or return and then uses exactly that.
How do I use my own rate?
Type it into the state rate field. Anything you enter wins over the built-in rate, and the result panel then labels the rate as yours rather than verified. Clearing the field goes back to the verified rate. A rate of 0 counts as blank, so to model a state with no income tax select one that has a verified 0%.
Which tax year does the state rate belong to?
The result panel prints it. Each verified rate is stored with the tax year it was published for and a link to the page it was read from, so you can check it before relying on the figure. Unverified states show neither, because there is nothing to show.