New Hampshire is often listed as a state that "recently eliminated" its income tax, which misdescribes what happened twice over. It never taxed wages. What it taxed was interest and dividends, and that tax has not been reduced or phased down — the entire statutory chapter has been repealed.
RSA chapter 77 now returns a single line: "Chapter 77 Repealed - Entire Chapter was repealed." The Title V table of contents says the same. As of January 1, 2025, there is nothing left of it.
A single filer earning $85,000 in New Hampshire takes home $68,628.
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; New Hampshire's position comes from this site's own sourced 50-state dataset, which cites RSA chapter 77 and the Department of Revenue Administration's Technical Information Release TIR 2025-001. Every dollar figure is computed by the same engine the site's calculators use, on a single filer taking the federal standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Property tax is discussed qualitatively — it varies enormously by town.
1. What New Hampshire takes from a paycheck: nothing
| Amount on $85,000 | |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | $85,000 |
| Federal income tax | −$9,870 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | −$5,270 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | −$1,233 |
| New Hampshire income tax | $0 |
| Take-home | $68,628 |
Across incomes:
| Salary | NH tax | Take-home |
|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $0 | $25,285 |
| $45,000 | $0 | $38,338 |
| $60,000 | $0 | $50,390 |
| $85,000 | $0 | $68,628 |
| $120,000 | $0 | $93,250 |
| $175,000 | $0 | $130,879 |
2. Filing jointly
The single-filer figures above are the ones most often quoted. Here is the same salary as a married couple's sole income, filing jointly:
| Salary | Single take-home | Joint take-home | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $38,338 | $40,278 | +$1,940 |
| $85,000 | $68,628 | $72,658 | +$4,030 |
| $120,000 | $93,250 | $100,780 | +$7,530 |
| $175,000 | $130,879 | $140,773 | +$9,894 |
All of that difference is federal. In a state with graduated brackets, part of the joint-filing benefit comes from the state widening its own brackets for married couples — Oregon and Minnesota both do. In New Hampshire there is no state layer to widen, so the entire gap is the federal standard deduction doubling and the federal brackets widening.
That has one consequence worth naming: the joint-filing benefit is the same dollar amount in New Hampshire as in every other no-income-tax state, and smaller than in most taxing states. If you are comparing a move on the strength of filing jointly, the comparison is federal-versus-federal plus whatever the other state adds.
As a share of gross, the total tax rate:
| Salary | Single | Joint |
|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | 14.81% | 10.49% |
| $85,000 | 19.26% | 14.52% |
| $120,000 | 22.29% | 16.02% |
| $175,000 | 25.21% | 19.56% |
These are effective rates, not marginal ones — the share of the whole salary that leaves, not the rate charged on the last dollar. The two get confused constantly, and the effective rate is the one that tells you what you can spend.
3. What the paycheck actually looks like
Annual figures are useful for comparison and useless for budgeting. On $85,000 as a single filer in New Hampshire:
| Pay schedule | Gross per cheque | Net per cheque |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly (52) | $1,634.62 | $1,319.76 |
| Biweekly (26) | $3,269.23 | $2,639.52 |
| Semi-monthly (24) | $3,541.67 | $2,859.48 |
| Monthly (12) | $7,083.33 | $5,718.96 |
Biweekly and semi-monthly are not the same thing, and the difference catches people out. Biweekly is 26 cheques a year — every other Friday — so two months in the year contain three paydays. Semi-monthly is 24 cheques, on fixed dates such as the 15th and the last day, so every month contains exactly two.
The annual total is identical. The monthly cash flow is not. A biweekly earner budgeting on "two paycheques a month" is under-counting by two cheques a year, which on $85,000 is $5,279 that arrives in two windfall months and is easy to spend without noticing.
Three more things a real pay stub adds that the table above does not:
Health insurance premiums, if taken pre-tax under a Section 125 plan, come off before tax and reduce FICA wages as well. A $400-a-month premium is $4,800 a year that never appears as taxable income.
Retirement deferrals reduce federal taxable income but not FICA wages, so the saving is your federal rate only.
Withholding is an estimate, not the tax. Your employer withholds based on the W-4 you filed. Over-withholding produces a refund; under-withholding produces a bill. Neither changes what you actually owe, which is what the figures above show.
Because New Hampshire withholds nothing at state level, your pay stub has one fewer line than most Americans' and one fewer thing to get wrong. What pays for that is property tax, at effective rates among the highest in the country.
4. What the Interest and Dividends Tax was, and what it was not
Until the end of 2024, New Hampshire levied a tax on interest and dividend income above an exemption threshold. It is the reason so many "states with no income tax" lists carried an asterisk beside New Hampshire.
Three things it never did:
It never touched wages. Salary, hourly pay, bonuses, commissions — none of it was within the tax's scope. Someone earning $85,000 entirely from employment paid nothing under it even at its peak.
It never touched Social Security. Benefits were outside its scope entirely, so the retirees most often warned about it were frequently unaffected.
It never touched retirement account distributions in the ordinary case. Withdrawals from an IRA or 401(k) are not interest or dividends received by the individual.
Who it did touch: someone with a substantial taxable brokerage account generating interest and dividends outside a retirement wrapper, above the exemption. That is a real category of person — often a retiree living on investment income — but a much narrower one than the phrase "income tax" suggests.
The repeal is complete
The controlling guidance is TIR 2025-001, Interest and Dividends Tax Repealed Effective January 1, 2025, from the Department of Revenue Administration.
The repeal was enacted by 2021 legislation with a delayed effective date, and the rate stepped down over the intervening years before reaching zero. The chapter itself is now repealed, which is a stronger statement than a rate of zero — there is no dormant statutory machinery to be reactivated by setting a rate.
As of tax year 2026 there is no New Hampshire tax on any form of individual income.
5. No local income tax either
No New Hampshire municipality, county or school district levies a personal income tax. The complete Title V (Taxation) chapter list contains no municipal income tax enabling statute, and the Department of Revenue Administration's own account of local-level taxes names only the property tax and a small number of specific levies.
A New Hampshire take-home figure needs no local asterisk — which is worth saying, because New Hampshire's local governments are unusually powerful in other respects. Town meeting government sets budgets directly, and towns vary enormously in what they spend. All of that runs through property tax, not income.
6. What the zero is worth
| Compared with | Their tax on $85,000 | NH keeps you |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $6,864 | +$6,864 |
| Maine | $4,128 | +$4,128 |
| Massachusetts | $4,030 | +$4,030 |
| Vermont | $4,005 | +$4,005 |
| New York | $3,993 | +$3,993 |
| Connecticut | $3,925 | +$3,925 |
| Rhode Island | $2,571 | +$2,571 |
Massachusetts is the comparison that actually gets made, because the border is short, the commute is real for tens of thousands of people, and southern New Hampshire's housing market is priced partly off Boston salaries.
$4,030 a year is about $336 a month. It scales:
| Salary | vs. Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| $45,000 | $2,030 |
| $85,000 | $4,030 |
| $175,000 | $8,530 |
Massachusetts applies a flat rate to most income with a surtax above a high threshold, so the gap widens roughly proportionally rather than accelerating sharply until that threshold.
7. The part that costs you: property tax
New Hampshire is one of only two states with neither a broad individual income tax nor a general sales tax (Alaska is the other, and Alaska has oil).
That leaves property tax carrying nearly the entire load, and it shows. New Hampshire's effective property tax rate is among the highest in the United States — routinely in the top three by effective rate on owner-occupied housing.
This is the single most important thing to understand about the state's tax structure, and it is why the comparison against Massachusetts is not one-sided.
Working the arithmetic
The income tax saving against Massachusetts at $85,000 is $4,030 a year.
If a New Hampshire property tax bill runs several thousand dollars a year higher than the Massachusetts bill on a comparable home — which it often does, because the effective rates differ substantially — the income tax saving can be consumed entirely.
Whether it is depends on:
- Which town. New Hampshire towns vary widely in rate. A town with a large commercial base or a low school budget can be dramatically cheaper than a neighbouring one.
- Home value. Property tax scales with assessed value; income tax scales with income. Someone with a high income and a modest home does best in New Hampshire. Someone with a modest income and an expensive home does worst.
- Whether you own at all. A renter does not pay property tax directly, though it is embedded in rent. For a renter, New Hampshire's structure is straightforwardly favourable.
The general pattern: New Hampshire's structure favours high earners, renters, and people in modest homes. It disfavours retirees on fixed incomes living in appreciated houses — which is the recurring political tension in the state, and the reason property tax relief programmes exist.
No sales tax is a real, everyday saving
The absence of a general sales tax is genuine and it compounds against Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont, all of which levy one. For a household spending $40,000 a year on taxable goods, a mid-single-digit sales tax rate is a four-figure annual difference.
It is also why New Hampshire's border retail and liquor businesses do the volume they do.
8. The federal share
| Amount | Share of gross | |
|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax | $9,870 | 11.61% |
| FICA | $6,503 | 7.65% |
| NH income tax | $0 | 0% |
| Total | $16,373 | 19.26% |
FICA still starts at the first dollar
Someone earning $12,000 in New Hampshire owes no federal income tax and still pays $918 in Social Security and Medicare. In a state with no income tax and no sales tax, that $918 plus the property tax embedded in their rent may be nearly the whole of what they pay.
9. Retirees
With RSA 77 repealed, New Hampshire now taxes no retirement income of any kind — Social Security, pensions, 401(k) and IRA distributions, and (since 2025) interest and dividends alike. There is no estate or inheritance tax.
That is a genuine improvement for one specific group: retirees living on taxable investment income. Someone drawing $60,000 a year from a taxable brokerage account was previously within scope of the I&D tax and now is not.
But the property tax question dominates. A retiree in a house that has appreciated for thirty years faces a property tax bill scaled to today's value on an income scaled to their savings. New Hampshire's high effective rates make this the state's characteristic retirement problem, and it is the reverse of the usual picture where no-income-tax states are unambiguously retiree-friendly.
Check the elderly exemption and any low-and-moderate-income property tax relief available in your town before assuming the headline zero is the whole answer.
10. Cross-border work, which matters here more than almost anywhere
New Hampshire's economy is entangled with Massachusetts', and the tax consequences of that are not intuitive.
If you live in New Hampshire and physically work in Massachusetts, Massachusetts taxes that income as nonresident source income. You do not escape it by sleeping in Nashua. New Hampshire offers no credit to offset it, because New Hampshire levies nothing to credit against — so you bear the Massachusetts tax in full.
If you live in New Hampshire and work remotely for a Massachusetts employer, the answer depends on how the work is sourced, and this has been actively litigated. Massachusetts drew significant attention for its treatment of remote workers during and after the pandemic period. The general principle is that income is sourced where the work is performed, but employers' withholding practices and states' sourcing rules do not always line up.
If your employer is withholding Massachusetts tax while you work entirely from a New Hampshire desk, that is worth examining rather than accepting. It may be correct; it may be a withholding default nobody updated.
This is one of the genuinely common situations where a licensed professional earns their fee. The amounts are large and they repeat every year.
11. What you can still control
Every lever is federal.
Pre-tax deferrals save your federal rate only. A $10,000 traditional 401(k) contribution saves an $85,000 earner $2,200 federally. In Massachusetts the same deferral would save about $500 more.
HSA contributions through payroll cut FICA as well as federal income tax, and that 7.65% saving does not depend on a state income tax existing — so it is a larger share of the total benefit here than in a taxing state.
Roth versus traditional loses one of its arguments. There is no state rate to deduct against now and none to pay later.
And one specific to New Hampshire: with the I&D tax repealed, there is no longer any state-level reason to prefer tax-efficient investments in a taxable account over dividend-paying ones. That was a real consideration for New Hampshire investors before 2025 and it is gone.
12. Moving to New Hampshire
Do the property tax arithmetic before the income tax arithmetic. Look up the actual mill rate for the specific town, apply it to the assessed value of the specific house, and compare that against your current bill. Then subtract the income tax saving. The answer is frequently smaller than expected and occasionally negative.
No sales tax is a reliable everyday saving that does not depend on which town you land in.
If you will still work in Massachusetts, most of the income tax saving does not materialise — Massachusetts taxes the income at source.
Establish residency properly if you are moving mid-year: driver's licence, voter registration, where your permanent home actually is.
Frequently asked questions
Does New Hampshire have a state income tax? No. It has never taxed wages, and its Interest and Dividends Tax was repealed effective January 1, 2025 — RSA chapter 77 now reads "Repealed - Entire Chapter." There is no New Hampshire tax on any form of individual income for 2026.
What is take-home pay on $85,000 in New Hampshire? $68,628 for a single filer taking the standard deduction, after $9,870 federal income tax and $6,503 FICA.
Did the Interest and Dividends Tax ever apply to my salary? No. It applied to interest and dividend income above an exemption, not to wages, and not to Social Security. Most people who worried about it were never within its scope.
How much does New Hampshire save me against Massachusetts? $4,030 a year at $85,000, $8,530 at $175,000 — but only if you actually work in New Hampshire. Massachusetts taxes income earned by nonresidents working within the state, and New Hampshire has no tax to credit it against.
What does New Hampshire charge instead? Property tax, at effective rates among the highest in the country. New Hampshire is one of only two states with neither an income tax nor a general sales tax, so property tax carries nearly the whole load.
Does the property tax cancel out the income tax saving? It can. It depends on the town's rate, your home's value, and whether you own at all. High earners in modest homes and renters do best; retirees in appreciated houses on fixed incomes do worst.
Does New Hampshire tax retirement income? No — Social Security, pensions, and 401(k) or IRA distributions are all untaxed, and since 2025 so is investment income. There is no estate or inheritance tax. Property tax remains the retirement concern.
I live in New Hampshire and work remotely for a Massachusetts employer — what do I owe? It depends on how the income is sourced and this has been contested. The general principle is that income is taxed where the work is performed, but withholding practices vary. If Massachusetts tax is being withheld while you work entirely from New Hampshire, get professional advice rather than assuming it is correct.
What to do next
New Hampshire's paycheck answer is a clean zero. The state's real tax story is property tax, and it is town-specific in a way no statewide figure captures.
- New Hampshire take-home pay calculator — your salary with every federal deduction shown separately.
- Your Paycheck in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states on one salary.
- New Hampshire mortgage calculator — where the property tax line does most of the work.
- New Hampshire rent affordability — the renter's case is the cleanest one in the state.
- 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 taking the federal standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Federal figures come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration; New Hampshire's position from this site's sourced 50-state dataset, citing RSA chapter 77 and NH Department of Revenue Administration TIR 2025-001. Property tax is discussed qualitatively and varies by town. This is general education and not tax advice; for cross-border work with Massachusetts in particular, consult a licensed tax professional.