Article — New York Tax Calculator
New York tax calculator: state, NYC, and Yonkers
The New York tax calculator on this page applies the 2025 tax year New York state income tax brackets (4% to 10.90% across nine brackets), the optional NYC city income tax (3.078% to 3.876%), and the 16.75% Yonkers resident surcharge that Yonkers taxpayers pay on top of state tax. Rates and bracket thresholds come from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the NYC Department of Finance. Single, married filing jointly, and head of household filing statuses are supported.
New York is one of a handful of U.S. states where residents of certain cities pay a separate local income tax in addition to the state tax. The combined burden on a NYC resident is among the highest in the country, particularly for high earners who reach the top brackets. For the 2025 tax year, returns are filed in early 2026.
New York tax brackets for 2025
New York state uses a progressive nine-bracket schedule. For the 2025 tax year, a single filer pays 4% on the first $8,500 of taxable income, climbing to 10.90% on income above $25 million. Married filing jointly thresholds are roughly twice as wide; head of household sits between the two.
$0 - $8,500 4.00%$8,500 - $11,700 4.50%$11,700 - $13,900 5.25%$13,900 - $80,650 5.50%$80,650 - $215,400 6.00%$215,400 - $1,077,550 6.85%$1,077,550 - $5,000,000 9.65%$5,000,000 - $25,000,000 10.30%Above $25,000,000 10.90%The schedule has been stable since 2021, when the state added the two top brackets at $5 million and $25 million as part of a temporary millionaires' surcharge that has since been extended through 2027. A single filer with $100,000 of New York taxable income pays roughly $5,665 in state tax for the 2025 tax year, an effective state rate of about 5.7% — far below the headline 6% bracket.
New York City income tax
Residents of the five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island — pay a separate NYC personal income tax administered by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance on behalf of the city. The 2025 bracket schedule starts at 3.078% and tops out at 3.876% above $50,000 single (or $90,000 married filing jointly).
Non-residents who work in NYC do not pay city income tax. They pay New York state non-resident tax on wages sourced to New York and then claim a credit on their home-state return. The exemption for non-resident NYC commuters has held since 1999, when the city repealed the non-resident earnings tax.
The NYC personal income tax dates back to 1966, when the city introduced it to help close a budget gap after a transit strike. The original top rate was 2%; it has since climbed to 3.876% on income above $50,000 for single filers. The city collects roughly $16 billion a year from the tax as of the 2025 fiscal year.
Yonkers and the New York tax surcharge
Yonkers, the fourth-largest city in New York and adjacent to the Bronx, imposes its own personal income tax for residents. The mechanic is unusual: instead of a separate bracket schedule, Yonkers charges 16.75% of the taxpayer's New York state income tax bill. That makes the effective rate on income vary with where the taxpayer sits in the state brackets.
A single Yonkers resident with $100,000 of New York taxable income in 2025 pays about $5,665 of state tax and roughly $948 of Yonkers surcharge — on top of state, that is about 0.95% of gross income. The headline 16.75% figure is the surcharge on state tax, not on income, which is a frequent source of confusion in online forums.
New York tax deductions and exemptions
New York lets every filer choose between a standard deduction and itemising. The 2025 standard deduction is $8,000 for single filers, $16,050 for married filing jointly, and $11,200 for head of household. Itemising allows mortgage interest, state and local taxes (subject to the same $10,000 federal cap), charitable gifts, and several other deductions; in practice most filers take the standard amount.
- Social Security = fully exempt from New York state and NYC tax
- Government pensions = fully exempt from state, city, and Yonkers tax
- Other retirement income = up to $20,000 exclusion for taxpayers 59½ or older
- Public-employee 414(h) contributions = excluded from state and city wages
- NY 529 plan contributions = up to $5,000 deductible single / $10,000 joint
- Itemiser's SALT cap = $10,000 on federal return only; New York reverses the cap at the state level
Worked New York tax examples
Example 1 — single NYC resident, $100,000 (2025). After the $8,000 standard deduction, taxable income is $92,000. State tax across the brackets is roughly $5,343. NYC tax across the four city brackets is roughly $3,400. Total NY tax: about $8,743, or an effective rate of 8.7%.
Example 2 — married Yonkers resident, $150,000 (2025). After the $16,050 standard deduction, taxable income is $133,950. State tax is roughly $7,094. Yonkers surcharge: 16.75% × $7,094 = $1,188. Total NY tax: about $8,282, or an effective rate of 5.5%.
Example 3 — single Buffalo resident, $75,000 (2025). Taxable income is $67,000. State tax across the brackets is roughly $3,604. No city or Yonkers tax. Effective state rate: 4.8%. Buffalo and the rest of upstate New York have no local income tax.
New York tax vs other state tax
New York combined state and city tax is the highest single-state burden in the U.S. for residents of the five boroughs. California's 13.3% top state rate exceeds New York's 10.90% on paper, but California has no city-level income tax to add on top. New Jersey, the cross-river commuter alternative, has a 10.75% top state rate but lower effective rates for most middle-income earners.
Compare effective rates, not top brackets, when judging where to live. A NYC resident at $200,000 of income pays roughly 7% state plus 3.7% city — about 10.7% effective. A Texas or Florida resident at the same income pays zero state tax, while a New Jersey resident pays about 5.5%.
Common New York tax mistakes
The most common mistake is confusing the marginal and effective New York tax rate. Headlines about “the 10.90% top rate” describe the rate on the last dollar above $25 million, not the rate on the average earner. Effective rates run several points lower because progressive brackets do their work.
The second mistake is missing the Yonkers surcharge mechanic. Filers see the 16.75% number, panic, and run their income against it. The 16.75% is applied to state tax owed, not to gross income, so the real impact for a typical Yonkers earner is closer to 1% of income.
The third mistake is treating NYC tax as automatic for anyone who works in the city. NYC personal income tax applies only to residents of the five boroughs. Commuters from New Jersey, Connecticut, or anywhere else owe New York state non-resident tax on city-sourced wages but no NYC tax.
New York treats anyone who maintains a permanent place of abode in the state and spends more than 183 days in New York as a statutory resident, even if they claim domicile elsewhere. Statutory residents owe NY tax on all income, not just New York source income. The rule continues to catch high earners moving between Florida and Manhattan, and remains a heavily audited area in 2025.