Maryland income tax, by filing status
Tax year 2026
Tax on a $75,000 salary
$3,199
4.27% of pay, single filer
Against other states
15 of 51
1 takes the most
Top rate
6.5%
on the highest incomes only
Tax-free first
$3,350
of income, single filer
What filing status changes in Maryland
- Maryland widens its bands for married couples, but not all the way to double. Some of the 10 bands stretch further than others, so marrying helps — just less than you might expect.
- Maryland treats head of household as its own case, with its own bands. That is not universal — plenty of states just reuse the single table.
- Maryland shelters your first $3,350 from tax when you file alone. Filing together doubles it, to $6,700.
- Maryland's joint schedule widens relative to single without doubling uniformly across its 10 bands. The result is a partial marriage penalty concentrated wherever the widening falls short, typically toward the about 6.5% top rate. This shape is the most common of the three nationally and the hardest to reason about from a rate table.
- Maryland maintains an independent head-of-household schedule. Roughly a third of income-taxing states do; the remainder apply the single schedule to head-of-household filers, so the two groups diverge in how much the status is actually worth.
- Standard deduction in Maryland: $3,350 single, $6,700 joint. The precise doubling matters more to low earners than to high ones, since a fixed-dollar shelter is a larger share of a smaller income — which is where a shortfall in doubling would bite hardest.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$3,199
- Yours$58,394
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax4.27% | $3,199 |
| Yours77.86% | $58,394 |
Your next $1,000
A $75,000 salary
| Federal, on the next dollar | 22% |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare | 7.65% |
| State, on the next dollar | 4.75% |
| Taken from the next $1,000 | $344 |
Rates shown are federal, Social Security and Medicare, and state. Any local tax is inside the kept amount.
How this state ranks, at this income
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Maryland | $58,394 |
|---|---|
| Rank once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | 43rd of 51 |
| Most take-home at this income | South Dakota · $61,593 |
| Best once prices are leveled | South Dakota |
State income tax only — no city or county income tax is applied to any state here.
Your two tax rates
A $75,000 salary
- Next dollar34.4%
- All your pay22.14%
| On the next dollar | 34.4% |
|---|---|
| Across all your pay | 22.14% |
| The gap | 12.26% |
| Tax this year | $16,606 |
The outer ring shows tax on your next dollar. The inner ring shows tax as a share of all your pay.
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
Maryland's ladder
A $75,000 salary
| Rungs in this state | 11 |
|---|---|
| Top rate begins | $1,006,550 |
Measured on gross pay, so any state standard deduction shows as a 0% first rung.
What filing status is worth
A $75,000 salary
| Single | $58,394 |
|---|---|
| Married filing jointly | $61,735 |
| Married filing separately | $58,394 |
| Head of household | $60,475 |
What each status computes to at this income. Which one you may use depends on your household.
The part never taxed
A $75,000 salary
- Never taxed$16,100
- Taxable$58,900
| Share of your pay | 21.47% |
|---|---|
| Taxable after it | $58,900 |
Federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare start at the first dollar you earn.
The tax with a ceiling
A $75,000 salary
| Wage base | $184,500 |
|---|---|
| Social Security rate | 6.2% |
| Medicare surtax begins | $200,000 |
Social Security stops at the wage base. Medicare does not, and gains a surtax higher up.
What no income tax costs instead
A $75,000 salary
- Income
- Sales
- Property
| Income tax saved | $3,199 |
|---|---|
| Sales and property added | $0 |
| States with none | 9 |
Against the average of the states with no income tax. Stated assumptions: 30% spent taxably, a $300,000 home.
Tax brackets — Single, Married filing separately
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $1,000 | 2% |
| $1,000 – $2,000 | 3% |
| $2,000 – $3,000 | 4% |
| $3,000 – $100,000 | 4.75% |
| $100,000 – $125,000 | 5% |
| $125,000 – $150,000 | 5.25% |
| $150,000 – $250,000 | 5.5% |
| $250,000 – $500,000 | 5.75% |
| $500,000 – $1,000,000 | 6.25% |
| Over $1,000,000 | 6.5% |
Tax brackets — Married filing jointly, Head of household
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $1,000 | 2% |
| $1,000 – $2,000 | 3% |
| $2,000 – $3,000 | 4% |
| $3,000 – $150,000 | 4.75% |
| $150,000 – $175,000 | 5% |
| $175,000 – $225,000 | 5.25% |
| $225,000 – $300,000 | 5.5% |
| $300,000 – $600,000 | 5.75% |
| $600,000 – $1,200,000 | 6.25% |
| Over $1,200,000 | 6.5% |
What you'd actually owe, by filing status
Same gross income, four filing statuses. The gap between columns is entirely Maryland's own schedule and deduction — federal tax and FICA are not included here.
| Gross income | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household | Married filing separately |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $2,011 | $1,700 | $1,852 | $2,011 |
| $75,000 | $3,199 | $2,888 | $3,040 | $3,199 |
| $100,000 | $4,386 | $4,075 | $4,227 | $4,386 |
Questions people ask
If I earn more, does the higher rate apply to everything?
Income is taxed band by band, never all at once. about 6.5% is what the last slice pays; about 4.27% is what the whole actually loses.
Is there an amount this state does not tax at all?
The schedule does not start at the first dollar. $3,350 is sheltered for a single filer before any rate applies.
Can filing together cost us more than filing apart?
Possibly. Joint bands are wider than single ones but less than twice as wide, so two comparable earners can hit a higher rate together than either would alone.
Does the tax-free allowance double when we file together?
It does. A joint return gets $6,700 against $3,350 for one person — exactly twice, so the allowance itself neither rewards nor penalizes marrying, whatever the brackets above it do.
Is there a different schedule if I am not single or married?
More than two schedules exist here. The status on the return picks the thresholds, and they are not simply scaled versions of each other.
How do this state's marginal rates apply across income?
Maryland applies each marginal rate only to income within its bracket. The top marginal rate is about 6.5%; measured effective liability at this project's representative income is about 4.27%. Crossing a threshold cannot reduce net income.
Where does state income tax liability begin here?
Liability commences above $3,350 for a single filer, comprising the standard deduction and any zero-rate opening bracket. Filers below that threshold owe no state income tax, though a return may still be required.
Does this schedule create a marriage penalty?
Joint thresholds in Maryland exceed single thresholds but by less than a factor of two, producing a marriage penalty for couples with comparable incomes. The penalty is zero where one spouse has little income and rises with the symmetry of the two incomes.
How does the standard deduction scale for joint filers here?
The standard deduction doubles exactly for joint filers — $3,350 to $6,700 — so the deduction component is marriage-neutral. Bracket thresholds scale independently and may not be.
Which filing statuses carry their own schedule here?
Maryland publishes distinct bracket schedules for filing statuses beyond single and married-filing-jointly. Thresholds are set independently rather than derived by scaling, so status selection materially changes liability and cannot be approximated from the single schedule.