NC Bonus Tax Calculator 2026: What You Keep From a Bonus

This NC bonus tax calculator shows what comes off a bonus in North Carolina in 2026 and what you keep. Paid on its own, a bonus can have a flat 22% federal income tax and a flat 4.09% North Carolina income tax withheld, plus 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare (IRS Publication 15; Form NC-30). Added to a regular paycheck, the tax is worked out on the two together.

A bonus is supplemental pay

For tax purposes a bonus is “supplemental wages”: pay that is not your regular wages. The IRS puts commissions, overtime pay, severance, awards, prizes, back pay, reported tips and retroactive raises in the same group (Publication 15, section 7), and North Carolina’s Form NC-30 sends employers to that publication. NC-30 spells out two cases: vacation pay paid on top of regular wages, and tips reported by an employee who also gets regular wages, are both treated as supplemental wages.

NC bonus tax rates for a bonus paid on its own

When a bonus is paid on its own, or shown apart on the same check, your employer may withhold North Carolina income tax at a flat 4.09% (Form NC-30, section 12) and federal income tax at a flat 22%, with “no other percentage allowed” (Publication 15). NC-30 sets no higher North Carolina rate for very large bonuses. On the federal side, once your supplemental pay for the calendar year passes $1 million, the part above it must have 37% withheld, whatever your W-4 (the federal withholding form) says (Publication 15).

Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) come off too, whichever method is used (Publication 15). For a $5,000 bonus paid on its own, the flat rates come to $1,100 federal income tax, $310 Social Security, $72.50 Medicare and $204.50 North Carolina income tax, which leaves $3,313. That is 33.74% of the bonus withheld in all, as long as your pay for the year stays under the $184,500 Social Security limit.

A bonus added to your paycheck: the aggregate method

With the aggregate method, your employer adds the bonus to your regular pay for the period, works out the tax as if the total were one paycheck, subtracts the tax already taken from the regular pay and takes the rest from the bonus. Publication 15 and NC-30 both describe it this way, and a bonus paid with your wages without its own amount shown is taxed as one payment.

Payroll treats that bigger check as if you were paid it every pay period of the year (Publication 15-T), so the federal tax on the bonus can come out below or above 22%. A small bonus on modest pay can fall in the 12% part of the IRS table; a large one can reach the 24% part or higher. For North Carolina the two methods come within about a dollar of each other once your regular pay is above what NC-30 takes off for the standard deduction and your allowances, because North Carolina withholds one rate on everything above that.

To try it, choose “Added to a paycheck” in the calculator. It starts from the regular check of a $60,000 salary paid every two weeks, single, which on its own has these amounts withheld:

Example: a salary of $60,000 a year, paid every two weeks, single on the W-4 and NC-4, no other entries. Each check: gross pay $2,307.69, federal income tax $193.08, Social Security $143.08, Medicare $33.46, North Carolina income tax $74.00. Take-home pay: $1,864.07 (80.8% of gross), $48,465.82 for the year.

The tax on the bonus is then the tax on the bonus and that check together, less what the check alone would have had withheld. Change the check to your own gross pay to see yours.

When your employer must use the aggregate method

The flat federal rate is only open to an employer that withheld income tax from your regular wages this year or last year; otherwise it must use the aggregate method (Publication 15). North Carolina’s rule is similar: if no income tax was withheld from your regular wages, the employer must use the aggregate method for North Carolina tax (Form NC-30).

Why a bonus can feel over-taxed

A bonus can feel over-taxed because four taxes come off it at once, about a third of a bonus paid on its own, and because the 22% withheld can be more than your real tax on it. Withholding is a payment toward your tax for the year, not the final amount: your federal and North Carolina returns work out the tax on the year’s total income and count everything withheld against it. For a single person in 2026, taxable income (income after deductions) from $12,400 to $50,400 is taxed at 12% (Revenue Procedure 2025-32), so if yours stays in that band, 22% withheld from a bonus is more than the tax on it, and the extra counts toward a refund. In the 24% bracket or above, 22% is less than the tax, and you may owe. North Carolina withholds 4.09% against a 3.99% tax rate (NC-30), so a little extra is held back there too.

Social Security, Medicare and large bonuses

Social Security stops once your pay for the year reaches $184,500, so a bonus paid after that has none taken (Publication 15). Medicare has no limit, and on pay above $200,000 in the year your employer adds 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax, whatever your filing status. In the IRS’s own example, a worker paid $180,000 by November 30 gets a $50,000 bonus on December 1, and the 0.9% applies to $30,000 of it (IRS questions and answers on Additional Medicare Tax). Enter your pay so far this year in the calculator to see both. For a bonus paid in 2027, the Social Security limit rises to $192,300 (Social Security Administration).

North Carolina law also lets an employer pay bonus wages as rarely as once a year, if it says so in advance (G.S. 95-25.6); the payday laws guide covers when pay is due. For tax on overtime in a regular paycheck, use the hourly paycheck calculator.

The calculator uses the 2026 withholding rates in Publication 15 (22%, and 37% above $1 million) and Form NC-30 (4.09%), with Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%. Figures checked October 29, 2026. Its answer is an estimate of what will be withheld, not tax or legal advice.

Questions people ask

Why is my bonus taxed at 22%?

Because 22% is the flat federal rate the IRS lets employers withhold from a bonus paid on its own (Publication 15). It is withholding, not your tax rate: your return works out the real tax on the year’s income, and the 22% counts toward it.

How much tax is taken out of a $10,000 bonus in NC?

Paid on its own, a $10,000 bonus has $2,200 federal income tax (22%), $620 Social Security (6.2%), $145 Medicare (1.45%) and $409 North Carolina income tax (4.09%) withheld, which leaves $6,626, if your pay for the year stays under $184,500 (Publication 15; Form NC-30).

Added to a regular paycheck instead, the federal part depends on the size of that check: choose “Added to a paycheck” in the calculator to see it.

Does North Carolina tax bonuses differently from regular pay?

No. On your North Carolina return a bonus is taxed at the same 3.99% rate as the rest of your income (NC Department of Revenue). Only the withholding differs: a flat 4.09%, or the aggregate method (Form NC-30).

Will a bonus push me into a higher tax bracket?

Only the part of your taxable income above a bracket’s top is taxed at the higher rate. For a single person in 2026, taxable income from $12,400 to $50,400 is taxed at 12% and from $50,400 to $105,700 at 22% (Revenue Procedure 2025-32). North Carolina has one rate, 3.99%, so there is no higher North Carolina bracket to move into (NC Department of Revenue).

Can I lower the tax on my bonus?

Nothing on your W-4 or NC-4 changes the flat rates, but if your 401(k) plan lets you put part of a bonus in, that part has no federal or North Carolina income tax withheld, up to the 2026 limit of $24,500 for the year (Publication 15; IRS Notice 2025-67; Form NC-30). Social Security and Medicare still apply to it.

Whichever method your employer uses, the tax you owe for the year is settled on your return; the method only changes how much is taken now.

Are commissions taxed like a bonus?

Yes. The IRS counts commissions as supplemental wages, like bonuses, so your employer may withhold a flat 22% federal tax or use the aggregate method (Publication 15). For North Carolina it is a flat 4.09% or the aggregate method (Form NC-30).

Updated October 29, 2026