NC Income Tax Calculator 2026: Your State Tax and Refund

This NC income tax calculator works out the North Carolina income tax on your 2026 return and compares it with the tax already withheld from your pay, so you can see your refund or what you still owe. North Carolina taxes income at one flat rate, 3.99% for 2026 (NC Department of Revenue), after its own standard or itemized deductions and its child deduction.

How the NC income tax calculator works out your state tax

It follows the state return in five steps:

1. Start from your federal adjusted gross income (AGI), the figure on your federal return (G.S. 105-153.4).
2. Take off the NC standard deduction or your NC itemized deductions (G.S. 105-153.5).
3. Take off the NC child deduction for each child under 17 who qualifies you for the federal child tax credit.
4. Multiply what is left, your North Carolina taxable income, by 3.99% (NCDOR).
5. Compare that tax with the North Carolina tax withheld during the year: more withheld means a refund, less means you owe the difference.

Step 1: your federal adjusted gross income

North Carolina taxable income is your federal AGI “as modified” by state law (G.S. 105-153.4). The state follows the federal tax code as it stood on a fixed date, which Session Law 2026-31 moved to July 5, 2025; the NC Department of Revenue calls this static conformity (NCDOR). Enter your AGI as it is on the federal return. If it includes taxable Social Security benefits or qualifying military retirement pay, which North Carolina does not tax (see below), put that part in the calculator’s box for North Carolina deductions from federal AGI: the child deduction is worked out on federal AGI before them.

Step 2: the NC standard deduction or NC itemized deductions

The 2026 NC standard deduction is $12,750 for single filers and married people filing separately, $19,125 for head of household, and $25,500 for married filing jointly or a surviving spouse (G.S. 105-153.5). There is no extra amount at age 65 or for blindness, and a married person filing separately gets $0 if the spouse itemizes (2025 D-401 instructions). These amounts do not rise when the federal standard deduction does (NCDOR).

North Carolina itemized deductions are a short list (G.S. 105-153.5): mortgage interest and real estate property tax, together capped at $20,000 (for a married couple, $20,000 for both spouses combined); charitable gifts and medical and dental costs, in the amounts federal law allows; and repayment of income you were taxed on in an earlier year. The 2026 budget law added gambling losses, as allowed federally, from tax year 2025 (Session Law 2026-41). You take either the standard deduction or your itemized total, normally whichever is larger.

Step 3: the NC child deduction

For each child under 17 at the end of the year who qualifies you for the federal child tax credit, North Carolina allows a deduction of up to $3,000 (G.S. 105-153.5; Form NC-4). It falls by $500 at each step up in federal AGI:

• Single or married filing separately: $3,000 per child up to $20,000 of AGI, then $500 less for each further $10,000, and nothing over $70,000.
• Head of household: $3,000 up to $30,000, then $500 less for each further $15,000, and nothing over $105,000.
• Married filing jointly or surviving spouse: $3,000 up to $40,000, then $500 less for each further $20,000, and nothing over $140,000.

So a married couple filing jointly with an AGI of $90,000 and two children under 17 deducts $1,500 for each child, $3,000 in all.

Step 4: the 3.99% tax, then your NC tax refund or balance due

The tax is 3.99% of your North Carolina taxable income (NCDOR). Employers withhold at 4.09%, the 3.99% rate plus 0.1% (Form NC-30), so on the same pay the withholding comes to a little more than the tax. Take a $50,000 salary paid every two weeks to a single person, worked out by the paycheck calculator’s rules:

Example: a salary of $50,000 a year, paid every two weeks, single on the W-4 and NC-4, no other entries. Each check: gross pay $1,923.08, federal income tax $146.92, Social Security $119.23, Medicare $27.88, North Carolina income tax $59.00. Take-home pay: $1,570.05 (81.6% of gross), $40,821.30 for the year.

Twenty-six of those North Carolina amounts add up to a little more than the tax of about $1,486 on $50,000 (worked out in the questions below), so the difference comes back as a refund if nothing else changes.

A bigger refund can come from deductions your withholding did not count: the $25,500 joint standard deduction when only one spouse works, since withholding takes off $12,750 for each job (G.S. 105-153.5; NC-30), the child deduction if you claimed no allowances for your children on your NC-4 (the state withholding form), or itemized deductions. You can owe if you had income with no North Carolina tax withheld, such as interest, or two jobs that each took off the $12,750. The NC-4 guide shows how to change your allowances or add an extra amount.

Income North Carolina does not tax

North Carolina does not tax Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits: they are deducted from federal AGI on the state return (G.S. 105-153.5; D-401 instructions). Military retirement pay is deducted too if the retiree served at least 20 years in the uniformed services or was medically retired under 10 U.S.C. Chapter 61, and so are Survivor Benefit Plan payments to such a retiree’s beneficiary. No city or county in North Carolina may tax income (G.S. 105-247).

Federal deductions North Carolina does not follow

The new federal deductions for tips, overtime, car-loan interest and seniors do not lower North Carolina tax. The NC Department of Revenue’s answer for 2025 returns is that they “do not affect North Carolina taxable income,” because they are taken after AGI (NCDOR). In July 2026 North Carolina moved its tax-code date to July 5, 2025, but neither that law nor the 2026 budget added these deductions (S.L. 2026-31; S.L. 2026-41), and NCDOR has not yet published its 2026 return instructions. So the calculator leaves them out. Because they come after AGI, the AGI you enter already includes that pay.

2027 and the November 3, 2026 vote

The rate falls to 3.49% for 2027, 2028 and 2029 under the 2026 budget law (S.L. 2026-41), then to 3.24% for 2030 to 2032 and 2.99% after that; the legislature’s fiscal note says these cuts do not depend on revenue triggers (Fiscal Note, Senate Bill 257). On November 3, 2026, voters decide on a constitutional amendment that would keep the income tax rate from going above 3.5% from tax year 2027 (S.L. 2026-4); every scheduled rate is already below that. The NC income tax rate guide has the full story.

This North Carolina state tax calculator uses the 2026 rate of 3.99%, the standard and child deductions in G.S. 105-153.5 and the withholding rules in Form NC-30, for a full-year North Carolina resident. Figures checked October 29, 2026. Its answer is an estimate, not tax or legal advice.

Questions people ask

How much is NC state income tax on $50,000?

About $1,486 for 2026 if you are single, take the standard deduction and have no children: $50,000 of federal AGI less the $12,750 standard deduction leaves $37,250, and 3.99% of that is about $1,486 (G.S. 105-153.5; NCDOR).

For a married couple filing jointly, the $25,500 deduction leaves $24,500, and the tax is about $978 (G.S. 105-153.5). Children under 17 lower it further.

Why did I get a North Carolina tax refund?

Because North Carolina withholding is built to take a little more than the tax: it uses 4.09%, the 3.99% rate plus 0.1% (Form NC-30). A bigger refund can mean a deduction your withholding did not count, such as the $25,500 joint standard deduction when only one spouse works, or the child deduction without NC-4 allowances (G.S. 105-153.5).

Does North Carolina tax Social Security benefits?

No. Social Security benefits are deducted from your federal AGI on the North Carolina return, so they are not taxed (G.S. 105-153.5). The D-401 instructions say these benefits “are not subject to state income tax.”

What is the NC standard deduction for 2026?

$12,750 for single filers and married people filing separately, $19,125 for head of household, and $25,500 for married filing jointly or a surviving spouse (G.S. 105-153.5). There is no extra amount for age 65 or blindness (D-401 instructions).

Does North Carolina tax military retirement pay?

Not if the retiree served at least 20 years in the uniformed services or was medically retired under 10 U.S.C. Chapter 61: that retirement pay is deducted on the North Carolina return (G.S. 105-153.5). Retirement pay that meets neither test is taxed like other income.

Do I pay NC income tax if I live in another state and work in NC?

Yes, on the North Carolina share of your income. A nonresident works out North Carolina taxable income and multiplies it by the share of gross income that came from North Carolina (G.S. 105-153.4), and your employer withholds North Carolina tax from pay for work done here (Form NC-30).

NC-30 says any relief from double withholding must come from your home state. This calculator is for full-year residents.

Updated October 29, 2026