Virginia technically has four brackets, but the top one begins at $17,000 of taxable income. For anyone earning a normal salary, Virginia is a flat 5.75% state in everything but name.
| Gross pay | — |
| Federal income tax | — |
| Social Security6.2% up to $184,500 | — |
| Medicare1.45%, no cap | — |
| State income tax | — |
| 401(k) contribution | — |
| Health and HSA | — |
Useful if you are comparing a job that pays monthly against one that pays every two weeks, or working out what a raise is worth per paycheck.
| Pay schedule | Gross | Take-home |
|---|
Virginia's rate schedule is 2% on the first $3,000, 3% to $5,000, 5% to $17,000, and 5.75% on everything above. Those thresholds were set in 1990 and have never been indexed to inflation.
Thirty-five years of price growth have made the lower bands almost decorative. A worker earning $17,000 today is in roughly the same real position as someone earning $6,000 when the brackets were written. The practical consequence is that essentially every full-time worker in Virginia pays 5.75% on the overwhelming majority of their taxable income.
This is the single most important thing to understand about Virginia tax, and it is why Virginia compares poorly against neighbouring North Carolina at 3.99% flat despite the two states appearing similar on a map of top rates.
Virginia's standard deduction is $8,750 for a single filer and $17,500 for a couple, with a personal exemption of $930 each including dependents.
That deduction was raised substantially in recent years and is doing most of the work of keeping Virginia's effective rate down. At $60,000 a single filer is taxed on roughly $50,320, giving an effective state rate near 4.6% rather than the nominal 5.75%.
Northern Virginia sends an enormous number of workers into the District of Columbia every day, and reciprocity makes that simple: Virginia has agreements with DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.
If you live in Virginia and work in DC or Maryland, you pay Virginia income tax only. You do not file in the other jurisdiction, and your employer should withhold Virginia tax. This is far cleaner than the New York and New Jersey arrangement, where you file in both.
The reverse is also true. A Maryland resident working in Virginia pays Maryland, which given Maryland's county income taxes is usually the more expensive outcome.
No Virginia county or independent city levies an income tax. Combined with reciprocity, this makes Virginia's tax picture unusually simple to reason about compared with Maryland across the river, where every county adds its own rate on top.
Because the top 5.75% rate begins at $17,000 of taxable income and the thresholds have not been adjusted since 1990. Almost all of a normal salary falls in the top band.
Virginia only. The two have a reciprocity agreement, so you file one return and your employer withholds Virginia tax.
No county or city levies one.
No. Virginia also offers an age deduction for older taxpayers, subject to an income-based reduction.