Texas Pay Stub Generator: Create Accurate Texas Pay Stubs

Texas does not have its own wage statement law equivalent to California Labor Code 226, but federal law requires that employees be informed of the gross-to-net calculation on their wages. Most Texas employers follow standard payroll practice and provide the full itemized breakdown on each pay stub.

A complete Texas pay stub will show gross wages, then the federal deduction block: federal income tax withheld, Social Security tax at 6.2% up to the annual wage base, and Medicare at 1.45% (plus the 0.9% surcharge on wages above $200,000 for single filers). Because Texas has no state income tax, there is no state tax line and no state disability insurance line.

• Gross wages for the pay period
• Federal income tax withheld (based on W-4 elections)
• Social Security: 6.2% on wages up to the annual wage base
• Medicare: 1.45% (plus 0.9% over $200,000 for single filers)
• No Texas state income tax
• No Texas SDI or state disability insurance
• Net pay (gross wages minus federal taxes)

Texas has no individual state income tax and has not had one since statehood. The Texas Constitution includes a provision making it difficult to introduce one. This means that for every dollar of wages earned in Texas, only federal income tax is withheld on the income tax side. An employee earning $60,000 per year in Texas keeps more of each paycheck than a counterpart in California or New York earning the same gross salary.

Some neighboring states do have income taxes, and employees who live in one state but work in another may owe tax in their state of residence even if their employer is in Texas. If that applies to you, consult a tax professional about whether your home state requires withholding or quarterly estimated payments.

While employees in Texas pay no state income tax, Texas employers are still subject to Texas Unemployment Insurance administered by the Texas Workforce Commission. The SUTA taxable wage base in Texas is $9,000 per employee per year. The employer SUTA rate varies based on the employer's experience rating, but this is an employer-side cost and does not appear on the employee's pay stub.

Employers must also match the employee's Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) contributions, and pay federal unemployment tax (FUTA) on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages. None of these employer-side taxes appear on the employee's pay stub.

Creating a Texas pay stub is straightforward because you only need to calculate federal taxes. Enter the employee's gross wages, their W-4 filing status and any extra withholding they elected, and the pay frequency. The generator applies the current federal income tax withholding tables (IRS Publication 15-T), Social Security at 6.2%, and Medicare at 1.45%, and produces the net pay.

Swift Paystubs handles the federal calculations automatically and knows that Texas has no state income tax, so the state tax line is correctly omitted rather than shown as zero. The result is a clean pay stub that accurately reflects what a Texas payroll system would produce.