Illinois runs two different tax systems and calls them one.
On working income it is among the heavier states. A flat 4.95% applies above a $2,925 exemption, which is small enough that Illinois effectively taxes from the first dollar. At $30,000 the effective rate is already 4.47% — higher than what several states charge at $175,000.
On retirement income it is among the lightest in the country. Social Security, pensions, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs and Roth conversions are all fully exempt. Not capped, not age-gated, not means-tested. Exempt.
On $85,000 a single filer pays $4,063 and takes home $64,565.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Federal figures are tax year 2026, from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration; Illinois's rate, exemption and retirement rules come from this site's own sourced 50-state dataset, citing 35 ILCS 5/201(b) and the Department of Revenue's Booklet IL-700-T and Form IL-1040 instructions. Every dollar figure is computed by the same engine the site's calculators use, on a single filer with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Property tax and sales tax are discussed qualitatively.
1. What Illinois takes
| Amount on $85,000 | |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | $85,000 |
| Federal income tax | −$9,870 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | −$5,270 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | −$1,233 |
| Illinois income tax | −$4,063 |
| Take-home | $64,565 |
Across incomes, single filer:
| Salary | Illinois tax | Effective IL rate | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $1,340 | 4.47% | $23,945 |
| $45,000 | $2,083 | 4.63% | $36,255 |
| $60,000 | $2,825 | 4.71% | $47,565 |
| $85,000 | $4,063 | 4.78% | $64,565 |
| $120,000 | $5,795 | 4.83% | $87,455 |
| $175,000 | $8,518 | 4.87% | $122,361 |
Look at how little that effective rate moves. From $30,000 to $175,000 the salary rises nearly sixfold and the effective rate rises from 4.47% to 4.87% — four tenths of a percentage point.
That is what a flat rate behind a $2,925 exemption looks like. In Georgia, whose rate is nearly identical at 4.99%, the effective rate runs from 2.50% to 4.56% across the same range, because Georgia shelters $15,000 first. The rates differ by four hundredths of a point; the bills at $30,000 differ by 79%.
Run your own salary against Illinois's flat rate2. Flat by constitution, not by choice
Illinois is a single-rate state by constitutional constraint rather than by legislative preference, and the distinction shapes its politics.
Article IX, Section 3(a) of the Illinois Constitution requires that any income tax be imposed at a non-graduated rate. A legislature that wanted brackets could not simply pass them.
The 2020 amendment. Illinois put a constitutional amendment to voters that would have removed the non-graduated requirement and allowed a bracket schedule. It was rejected.
Two consequences follow, and both matter for reading the rate:
The rate is a single visible number. Changing it is a one-line amendment to 35 ILCS 5/201(b) rather than a bracket-table rewrite, which makes it more politically salient and, historically, more volatile. Illinois's rate has moved several times in recent decades.
Relief has to come through the exemption, credits, or exclusions — because it cannot come through the rate structure. That is why the retirement exemption in section 6 is total rather than partial: with no brackets to work with, Illinois's tax policy is expressed almost entirely in what it includes and excludes rather than in how much it charges.
The statutory rate is fixed at 4.95% with no sunset.
3. The $2,925 exemption, and the cliff at the top of it
Illinois's only across-the-board subtraction is the exemption allowance: $2,925 per exemption for tax year 2026, up from $2,850 for 2025.
A joint return claiming two personal exemptions gets $5,850 — that is two exemptions, not a separately legislated joint figure, which is why the numbers double exactly. Dependents add $2,925 each.
An additional $1,000 is allowed for each taxpayer and spouse aged 65 or older, and another $1,000 for each who is blind.
$2,925 is small. The federal standard deduction is $16,100. Georgia allows $15,000, Idaho $16,100, Louisiana $12,875. Illinois shelters less than a fifth of what its flat-rate peers do, which is the whole reason its bill is higher despite a comparable rate.
It is a cliff, not a phase-out
Most states that limit a deduction taper it. Illinois disallows the exemption entirely if federal AGI exceeds $500,000 on a married-filing-jointly return or $250,000 on any other return.
There is no partial amount and no taper. A single filer at $249,999 gets $2,925. One at $250,001 gets nothing.
The amount at stake is $145 — 4.95% of $2,925 — so the cliff is not financially dramatic. It is worth knowing because cliffs behave badly in general and because it is the kind of thing a return preparer notices and a self-preparer does not.
4. Filing jointly
| Salary | Single IL tax | Joint IL tax | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $1,340 | $1,195 | $145 |
| $45,000 | $2,083 | $1,938 | $145 |
| $60,000 | $2,825 | $2,680 | $145 |
| $85,000 | $4,063 | $3,918 | $145 |
| $120,000 | $5,795 | $5,650 | $145 |
| $175,000 | $8,518 | $8,373 | $145 |
$145. That is the entire joint-filing benefit in Illinois, at every income.
It is 4.95% of one extra $2,925 exemption, and there is nothing else that can double — no brackets to widen, no standard deduction to double, because Illinois has neither.
Set that against the range. Hawaii's joint benefit at $85,000 is $1,587; Minnesota's $1,264; Idaho's $986; Georgia's $748; Arkansas's $97. Illinois's $145 is near the bottom.
The practical version: in Illinois, being married changes your state tax bill by about twelve dollars a month. In a state with doubled brackets it can change it by a hundred or more.
5. What the paycheck actually looks like
On $85,000 as a single filer:
| Pay schedule | Gross per cheque | Net per cheque |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly (52) | $1,634.62 | $1,241.63 |
| Biweekly (26) | $3,269.23 | $2,483.26 |
| Semi-monthly (24) | $3,541.67 | $2,690.20 |
| Monthly (12) | $7,083.33 | $5,380.40 |
Biweekly and semi-monthly are not the same thing. Biweekly is 26 cheques — every other Friday — so two months a year carry three paydays. Semi-monthly is 24, on fixed dates, so every month carries exactly two. The annual total is identical; the monthly cash flow is not, and a biweekly earner budgeting on "two cheques a month" is under-counting by $4,967 a year.
Form IL-W-4 asks for allowances, and because the exemption is small the difference between claiming one and claiming none is $145 a year of withholding. In Illinois the W-4 decision barely matters, which is unusual — in Connecticut or Hawaii the equivalent choice moves a great deal more.
Withholding is an estimate, not the tax. Over-withholding produces a refund; under-withholding a bill.
6. Retirement income is fully exempt, and the scope is broader than you think
This is the single most generous feature of Illinois tax law, and it goes considerably further than "Illinois does not tax Social Security."
Social Security is exempt. The federally taxed portion is subtracted in full — no income threshold, no phase-out, no age condition.
And so is essentially everything else:
| Source | Illinois treatment |
|---|---|
| Social Security | Exempt |
| Private pension | Exempt |
| Public pension (state, local, federal) | Exempt |
| Military pension | Exempt |
| 401(k) and 403(b) distributions | Exempt |
| Traditional IRA distributions | Exempt |
| Self-employed retirement plan distributions | Exempt |
| A traditional IRA converted to a Roth | Exempt |
Read the last row again. The amount included in federal income on a Roth conversion is subtractable in Illinois. A conversion that costs federal tax costs no Illinois tax at all.
There is no asymmetry to preserve here. Illinois does not treat a private pension differently from a government or military one, which is unusual — most states favour public pensions, and this dataset records that asymmetry for state after state. Illinois has none.
| Retirement income, single | Illinois tax |
|---|---|
| $40,000 all Social Security | $0 |
| $40,000 all 401(k) withdrawals | $0 |
| $70,000 — $30,000 SS + $40,000 401(k) | $0 |
| $200,000 from a Roth conversion year | $0 |
Set that against Idaho next door, where a $40,000 401(k) withdrawal costs $1,134, or Kansas, where a private-sector 401(k) is fully taxed. Illinois charges nothing on any of it.
The strategic implication is unusual and worth spelling out. For someone who will retire in Illinois, a traditional 401(k) deferral is close to a permanent state tax exemption rather than a deferral: you deduct 4.95% now and pay 0% later. That is the strongest case for traditional over Roth of any state in this series, and it runs in the exact opposite direction from Hawaii's.
If you might retire elsewhere, the calculation reverses. Deferring in Illinois at 4.95% and withdrawing in a state that taxes retirement income means you took a 4.95% deduction and will pay that state's rate. Illinois's exemption follows the state, not the money.
7. No local income tax — which is worth stating here
No Illinois municipality, county or school district levies a tax on personal income. Form IL-1040 has no local income tax line, no locality-of-residence field and no local schedule. This is a confirmed negative rather than an assumption.
It is worth stating explicitly because two of Illinois's neighbours do have them.
Iowa levies school district surtaxes that ride on state income tax liability, so an Iowa figure is incomplete without knowing the district.
Missouri has city earnings taxes in Kansas City and St. Louis, charged on residents and on anyone working in the city.
Kentucky, one more state along the Ohio River, has near-universal local occupational license taxes on wages.
Chicago has none of this. A Chicago resident's state income tax is the same 4.95% as a resident of a small downstate town, which is genuinely unusual for a city of that size — New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City and Baltimore all layer a local tax on top.
An Illinois take-home figure is complete as stated. That is a real advantage for anyone comparing Chicago against those cities: the number you see is the number you pay.
8. Where Illinois ranks — and the tax that is not in this article
At $85,000, Illinois's $4,063 is thirty-fifth of the 41 income-tax states — in the top sixth by amount taken.
| State | Tax on $85,000 |
|---|---|
| Vermont | $4,005 |
| Massachusetts | $4,030 |
| Illinois | $4,063 |
| Virginia | $4,073 |
| Maine | $4,128 |
| Minnesota | $4,257 |
Against its neighbours:
| Salary | IL | WI | IA | MO | IN | KY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $1,340 | $591 | $488 | $473 | $856 | $932 |
| $45,000 | $2,083 | $1,330 | $1,058 | $1,178 | $1,298 | $1,457 |
| $85,000 | $4,063 | $3,537 | $2,578 | $3,058 | $2,478 | $2,857 |
| $175,000 | $8,518 | $8,634 | $5,998 | $7,288 | $5,133 | $6,007 |
Illinois is the most expensive of the six at $30,000, $45,000 and $85,000. Only at $175,000 does Wisconsin overtake it. Indiana and Iowa cost roughly $1,500 less at $85,000 — though Indiana adds a county income tax and Iowa a school district surtax, which closes some of the gap.
The Illinois tax this article does not compute
Property tax. Illinois's effective property tax rate is among the two or three highest in the country, and for a homeowner it is very likely the largest state-and-local tax they pay — larger than the income tax by a considerable margin.
On a $300,000 home in a typical Chicago-area suburb, the annual property tax bill routinely exceeds the $4,063 of income tax in the table above by a factor of two or more. That is the number that decides most Illinois relocation decisions, and no take-home calculator captures it.
Sales tax adds to it. Combined state and local rates in Chicago are among the highest of any major US city. Illinois taxes groceries at a reduced rate rather than exempting them.
The honest summary of Illinois: a moderate flat income tax with a tiny exemption, a complete retirement exemption, very high property tax, and high sales tax in the metro. Ranking it on the income tax line alone gets the state substantially wrong in both directions at once.
9. Illinois Secure Choice
Illinois runs one of the oldest auto-IRA mandates in the country. Employers with five or more employees that have been in business at least two years and do not offer a qualifying retirement plan must enrol staff in Illinois Secure Choice, with a penalty of $250 per employee for non-compliance.
For an employee: you are enrolled by default and may opt out. It is a Roth IRA, so contributions are after tax and do not reduce your Illinois or federal taxable income — the figures in this article are unaffected. IRA contribution and income limits apply.
One Illinois-specific wrinkle worth naming. Because Illinois exempts traditional retirement distributions entirely, the usual state-level argument for a Roth — pay now, withdraw tax-free later — carries no Illinois weight at all. Traditional money already comes out free of Illinois tax. The Roth case in Illinois is federal-only, which is worth understanding before deciding whether to stay in the default.
10. What you can control
Pre-tax deferrals save 4.95% at state level on top of your federal rate. A $10,000 traditional 401(k) contribution saves an $85,000 earner $2,200 federally plus $495 in Illinois tax.
And if you retire in Illinois, that 4.95% is saved permanently rather than deferred — see section 6. That makes Illinois the strongest traditional-over-Roth case of any state in this series.
HSA contributions through payroll cut federal tax, Illinois tax and FICA. On $4,400 that is roughly $968 federal, $218 Illinois and $337 FICA — about $1,523, or 35% of the amount contributed.
Capital gains get no state preference. Illinois taxes them as ordinary income at 4.95% — the Illinois Income Tax Act provides no preferential rate, no holding-period discount and no general exclusion.
Property tax relief is where the real money is for a homeowner. Illinois offers a general homestead exemption, a senior homestead exemption, a senior assessment freeze for qualifying incomes, and a property tax credit on the income tax return. Given the size of the property tax bill relative to the income tax bill, an hour spent on those is worth more than anything on this list.
Frequently asked questions
What is Illinois's income tax rate? A flat 4.95%, fixed in 35 ILCS 5/201(b) with no sunset. Illinois's constitution requires a non-graduated rate, and a 2020 amendment to change that was rejected by voters.
What is take-home pay on $85,000 in Illinois? $64,565 for a single filer, after $9,870 federal income tax, $6,503 FICA and $4,063 Illinois income tax.
Does Illinois have a standard deduction? No. The only across-the-board subtraction is a $2,925 exemption per person, with an extra $1,000 for each filer or spouse aged 65 or over or blind.
Why is my effective Illinois rate so close to 4.95% even on a modest salary? Because the exemption is only $2,925. At $30,000 the effective rate is 4.47%; at $175,000 it is 4.87%. A flat rate with almost nothing sheltered beneath it barely varies.
Does Illinois tax retirement income? No. Social Security, private and public pensions, military pensions, 401(k), 403(b), IRA and self-employed plan distributions are all exempt — including the amount included in income on a traditional-to-Roth conversion.
Can a Chicago or Cook County tax apply to my income? No. No Illinois municipality, county or school district levies a personal income tax. That is unusual for a city of Chicago's size and it is a genuine advantage against New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland or St. Louis.
How much is the joint filing benefit in Illinois? $145 a year at every income — 4.95% of one extra $2,925 exemption. There are no brackets to widen and no standard deduction to double.
Is Illinois a high-tax state? On the income tax line it is above average but not extreme — thirty-fifth of forty-one at $85,000. On property tax it is among the two or three highest in the country, and for most homeowners that bill dwarfs the income tax. Judging Illinois on income tax alone gets it wrong.
What to do next
Illinois's income tax is simple and its property tax is not. If you are working, the property tax on the specific house is the number to run; if you are retiring here, the exemption in section 6 is one of the best in the country.
- Illinois take-home pay calculator — your salary with every deduction shown separately.
- Illinois mortgage calculator — where the property tax line does the real work.
- Your Paycheck in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states on one salary.
- Take-Home Pay in Indiana — the cheaper neighbour, with a county tax Illinois does not have.
- 50/30/20 budget calculator — built on take-home rather than salary.
Every figure on this site is sourced and dated. How we source every number.
Figures in this article are illustrations computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026, on a single filer with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Federal figures come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration; Illinois's rate, exemption, retirement exclusions and Secure Choice mandate from this site's sourced 50-state dataset, citing 35 ILCS 5/201(b) and the Illinois Department of Revenue. Property tax and sales tax are discussed qualitatively rather than computed. This is general education and not tax advice; consult a licensed tax professional for your own situation.