Salary Calculator Arkansas

This salary calculator for Arkansas works out your 2026 take-home pay after federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arkansas state income tax. It uses the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s own 2026 withholding formula, with the new 3.7% top rate, and it covers the two things most calculators skip: the Texarkana border city exemption and the low-income tax rates on the AR4EC.

About the Salary Calculator Arkansas

Arkansas cut its top income tax rate again for 2026, from 3.9% to 3.7%. Some calculators on the first page of results still quote 3.9%. The Salary Calculator Arkansas follows the DFA’s 2026 formula line by line, including the parts that move a paycheck by a few dollars:

• The 2026 formula, exactly. The $2,470 standard deduction, the $50 midrange lookup, every bracket row including the 29-row phase-in of the top rate, rounding to the dollar, and the $29 credit per exemption.
• Your AR4EC. Exemptions from line 3 and extra withholding from line 4.
• Texarkana. If you live inside the city limits of Texarkana, Arkansas, or of Texarkana, Texas and work in Texarkana, Arkansas, it shows the exemption and what it saves.
• The low-income rates. If your income is in one of the AR4EC line 5 ranges, it tells you, because ticking that box lowers your withholding.
• Federal, the 2026 way. The IRS percentage method for the 2026 Form W-4, plus the new deductions for tips, overtime and over-65s.
• The working. The Arkansas formula with your numbers in it, step by step.

The Salary Calculator Arkansas runs in your browser. Your salary and tax details aren’t sent anywhere or saved.

How to use the Salary Calculator Arkansas

1. Enter your pay. Your yearly salary, or switch to Hourly and enter your rate, regular hours and overtime hours a week. Then pick how often you’re paid.
2. Copy your federal W-4. Your filing status, any dependent credits from Step 3, and the Step 4 extras if you used them.
3. Add your AR4EC. The total exemptions on line 3, any extra withholding on line 4, and whether the Texarkana exemption applies.
4. Add deductions if you have them. A 401(k) percentage, pre-tax health benefits, and after-tax deductions.

The result updates as you type: take-home pay a paycheck and a year, every line that comes out, and the working.

A worked example

A single filer earning $60,000 a year, paid every two weeks, with one exemption on the AR4EC and no other deductions. These are the Salary Calculator Arkansas’s defaults.

1. Gross pay: $60,000 ÷ 26 = $2,307.69 a paycheck.
2. Arkansas taxable income: $60,000 less the $2,470 standard deduction = $57,530.
3. Midrange lookup: below $100,001 the DFA reads its table at the middle of each $100 band, so the tax is figured on $57,550.
4. Gross tax: $57,550 × 3.7% − $367.16 = $1,762.19, rounded to $1,762.
5. Credit: one exemption at $29 leaves $1,733 for the year.
6. Per paycheck: $1,733 ÷ 26 = $66.65.

Add $193.08 of federal income tax, $143.08 of Social Security and $33.46 of Medicare, and the take-home pay is $1,871.42 a paycheck, or $48,657 a year.

The DFA’s own formula document has a worked example too: $2,127 a month with two exemptions gives $438 of tax for the year, or $36.50 a month. The Salary Calculator Arkansas gives exactly the same figure.

How Arkansas state tax is withheld in 2026

The DFA’s “Withholding Tax Formula Method”, effective January 1, 2026, has six steps.

1. Multiply your pay per paycheck by the number of paychecks in a year.
2. Subtract the $2,470 standard deduction. Below $100,001, round the result to the middle of its $100 band ($23,054 becomes $23,050).
3. Apply the bracket below and round the tax to the nearest dollar.
4. Multiply your AR4EC exemptions by $29.
5. Subtract the credits from the tax.
6. Divide by the number of paychecks.

The “minus” column is what makes the rate effectively lower. On $60,000 Arkansas takes $1,733, about 2.9% of the salary, not 3.7%. The rows between $94,701 and $97,600 shrink that adjustment step by step, so higher earners pay closer to the full 3.7%.

Your AR4EC, line by line

The AR4EC is Arkansas’s own withholding form. If you never filed one, your employer has to withhold as if you claimed no exemptions at all, which costs you $29 a year for each exemption you’re entitled to.

• Line 1: 1 exemption if you claim yourself, 2 if you claim yourself and your spouse, 2 as head of household.
• Line 2: 1 for each dependent.
• Line 3: the total. That’s the number the Salary Calculator Arkansas asks for. Each one is a $29 credit.
• Line 4: extra withholding each paycheck, if you want it.
• Line 5: the low-income tax rates, if you qualify.

A married couple on $80,000 with two children claims four exemptions. Arkansas withholds $2,386 for the year: $77,550 × 3.7% − $367.16 = $2,502, less 4 × $29.

The Texarkana border city exemption

Arkansas law (Ark. Code Ann. 26-52-604) has a special rule for the twin city of Texarkana:

• Living inside the city limits of Texarkana, Arkansas: you owe no Arkansas income tax on any of your income, wherever you earn it.
• Living inside the city limits of Texarkana, Texas: your wages from a Texarkana, Arkansas business are exempt. Pay from anywhere else in Arkansas is taxed as normal. Texas has no state income tax of its own.

Either way, you give your employer Form AR4EC(TX) and you still file an Arkansas return, with Form AR-TX showing the exempt wages. Rural routes and nearby towns don’t qualify, even with a Texarkana address. Pick the right option in the Salary Calculator Arkansas and the Arkansas line drops to zero, apart from any extra withholding you’ve asked for.

The low-income tax rates

Line 5 of the AR4EC lets lower earners have tax withheld from separate low-income tables, which take less than the regular formula. You qualify if your total income from all sources is in these ranges:

The DFA publishes the low-income rates only as 22 pages of lookup tables, not as a formula, so the Salary Calculator Arkansas doesn’t try to copy them. When your income falls in one of these ranges it tells you, and says that ticking line 5 would mean less tax withheld than the estimate shows.

Arkansas take-home pay by salary

Single, paid every two weeks, one AR4EC exemption, no other deductions, 2026:

Your own figure depends on your W-4, your AR4EC and your deductions, so put your numbers into the Salary Calculator Arkansas rather than reading across.

401(k), health insurance and Arkansas tax

Arkansas follows the federal treatment of most pre-tax deductions. The DFA’s employer instructions list 401(k), 403(b), 457, SEP and SIMPLE contributions and section 125 cafeteria plans as excluded from wages. So both lower your Arkansas tax as well as your federal tax.

Putting 5% of a $60,000 salary into a traditional 401(k) takes $3,000 out of taxable wages. Arkansas withholding falls from $1,733 to $1,622 for the year, and federal tax falls too. Take-home pay drops by less than the $115.38 a paycheck you’re saving: it goes from $1,871.42 to $1,774.16. A Roth 401(k) is after-tax and doesn’t lower either.

Bonuses, overtime and tips

• Bonuses and commissions paid with regular wages are withheld at a flat 3.7% for Arkansas, under the DFA’s supplemental wage rule. That can be more than you end up owing; the difference comes back when you file.
• Overtime is ordinary wages for Arkansas withholding. For federal tax, the 2026 deduction for the extra half of time-and-a-half can lower your withholding if you claim it on your W-4. Switch to Hourly and add overtime hours to see what it’s worth.
• Tips of $20 or more a month are wages for Arkansas withholding. The federal 2026 tips deduction works the same way as overtime.

Arkansas’s 2026 withholding formula has no line for the federal tips and overtime deductions, so they don’t change the Arkansas figure.

Who the Salary Calculator Arkansas is for

• Job hunters comparing an Arkansas offer with one elsewhere. Texas has no state income tax, so a Texarkana commuter sees the difference clearly.
• Anyone starting a job who wants to check their first paycheck.
• Employees filling in an AR4EC who want to see what each exemption, or line 4, does.
• Lower earners who may be over-withheld without line 5 ticked.

Common mistakes

• Using the 2025 rate. The top rate is 3.7% for 2026. Calculators still on 3.9% overstate Arkansas tax.
• Never filing an AR4EC. Without one, your employer withholds as if you have no exemptions.
• Multiplying salary by 3.7%. The standard deduction, the bracket adjustment and the credits all come off first. On $60,000 the real figure is $1,733, not $2,220.
• Assuming a Texarkana address is enough. Only addresses inside the city limits qualify.
• Missing line 5. If your income is in the low-income range, ticking it gives you the money in your paycheck now instead of in a refund.
• Forgetting a second job. Each employer takes the standard deduction and your credits again. Add extra withholding on line 4 or claim fewer exemptions.

How the Salary Calculator Arkansas works

1. Gross pay per paycheck from your salary, or from your hourly rate, hours and overtime at time-and-a-half.
2. Pre-tax deductions come out first. 401(k) and section 125 benefits lower federal and Arkansas wages; section 125 benefits also lower Social Security and Medicare.
3. Federal income tax from the IRS 2026 percentage method for a 2026 Form W-4, shared with every FreeToolBank paycheck calculator.
4. Social Security at 6.2% up to the 2026 wage base, and Medicare at 1.45%, plus 0.9% over $200,000.
5. Arkansas tax from the DFA’s 2026 formula, every row of the bracket table included.
6. Checks for the Texarkana exemption and the low-income ranges.

Before it went live, the Arkansas part was checked against the DFA’s own worked example ($36.50 a month) and against every row of the DFA’s printed 2026 bi-weekly withholding table, 6,475 figures in all. It agrees with all of them to within 2 cents a paycheck. The printed table appears not to round the annual tax to the dollar, which the formula does.

What this can’t tell you

• Your exact paycheck. Payroll systems round differently and track year-to-date pay. Expect your stub to be within a few cents to a few dollars.
• Your tax bill. Withholding is an estimate of tax. Your Arkansas return settles it, with credits and deductions the withholding formula doesn’t know about.
• The low-income tables. The calculator tells you when they apply but uses the regular formula.
• Work in more than one state. Nonresidents are taxed on the share of pay earned in Arkansas, by working days. Enter only that share.

Working across the border? Our Paycheck Calculator Texas covers the Texas side, where there’s no state income tax. Planning a big purchase on an Arkansas salary? Try the home loan calculator or the monthly car payment calculator.