Free paycheck check · no account
Three checks physicians rarely see run on their own stub: when the Social Security tax stops, whether the Additional Medicare surtax will surprise you at filing, and whether your retirement deferral is on pace. Nothing you enter is stored or shared.
The pre-tax gross at the top of the stub, not the deposit.
Optional — your 401(k)/403(b) employee contribution on the stub.
Add your per-paycheck gross above to run the checks.
Deterministic math on the numbers you typed, against the 2026 wage base and statutory thresholds. Education, not advice — payroll systems vary, so confirm anything surprising with your payroll office or CPA.
The math above is the short version. Your Paycheck Decoded — from the paycheck & lifestyle curriculum — covers the decisions behind it. Free to read.
Create a free account to keep your numbers between visits.
Figures use 2026 rules (IRS, HHS, and federal loan program values) · reviewed August 2026.
Because the 6.2% Social Security tax applies only up to an annual wage base. Once your cumulative wages for the year cross that base, the tax stops for the rest of the year and your per-check deposit rises by exactly that 6.2%. Most attending physicians cross the base sometime in the second half of the year, which is why the "December raise" appears — and why it disappears again with the first January paycheck, when the meter resets.
A 0.9% surtax on Medicare wages above a threshold set by filing status. The trap is in the withholding rule: an employer only withholds the surtax on its own wages to you above $200,000, regardless of your filing status or household income. A dual-physician couple where each spouse earns under $200,000 can owe the surtax on their combined income while neither employer withholds a dollar of it — the bill then arrives as a balance due at tax filing unless extra withholding or estimated payments cover it.
A pre-tax 401(k)/403(b) contribution is excluded from your taxable income now and taxed when withdrawn in retirement; a Roth contribution is taxed now and withdrawn tax-free later. Both come out of the same paycheck and both count against the same annual employee deferral limit — the choice changes when the tax is paid, not how much you may contribute. For high earners the arithmetic usually favors pre-tax during peak earning years, but the right answer depends on current versus expected future tax rates.
The same salary produces different deposits because everything between gross and net varies by person: pay frequency changes the per-check amounts, retirement elections and their pre-tax/Roth split change taxable wages, benefit premiums differ by plan and family size, state and local taxes differ by address, and W-4 settings change federal withholding. Comparing deposits tells you almost nothing; comparing stubs line by line tells you everything.