Arkansas is the only state in this directory whose withholding ignores your filing status completely. Single, married, married filing separately, head of household: the same table, the same $2,470 deduction, the same credit. Marriage does not move an Arkansas paycheck at all.
On a $75,000 salary with one exemption claimed, a single filer keeps about $59,305, after $2,288 of Arkansas income tax. That is 3.05% of the salary, which is low for a state with five tax bands, and it is the same figure for a married colleague on the same pay.
One table for everybody
The formula takes your wages, subtracts a flat $2,470, and runs the result through a single schedule. There is no married table and no head of household table to be on the wrong side of.
| Taxable wages | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 to $5,600 | Nothing |
| $5,600 to $11,200 | 2.00% |
| $11,200 to $16,000 | 3.00% |
| $16,000 to $26,400 | 3.40% |
| $26,400 to $94,700 | 3.70% |
That cuts both ways. Nobody in Arkansas is over-withheld by a married table that assumes one income, which is a real problem in several states. Nobody gets a doubled deduction for being married either.
The exemption is a credit, not an allowance
Most states take a few thousand dollars off your wages for each allowance you claim. Arkansas takes $29 a year off your tax for each exemption on Form AR4EC, which is about $2.42 a month. The state’s own weekly tables show it plainly: the columns for nought through six exemptions step down by 56 cents a week, which is $29 divided by 52.
Because it is a credit rather than a deduction, it is worth exactly the same whatever you earn. In a state with an allowance, a high earner’s allowance is worth more than a low earner’s. Here everyone’s exemption is worth $29, which makes it the smallest lever of any state in this set, and worth knowing before you spend time on the form.
The 13.7% band just above $97,000
This is the part of the Arkansas formula that nobody mentions, and it is the most expensive thing on this page.
Each band in the schedule is printed as a rate minus a fixed adjustment, and the adjustment is what gives you the benefit of the lower bands below. Above $94,700 of taxable wages, Arkansas starts taking that adjustment back: $10 less for every $100 of income, over thirty steps, until it is gone at $97,601.
So the marginal rate in that window is 3.7% plus 10%, or 13.7%. After the $2,470 deduction it sits at roughly $97,200 to $100,100 of salary. Going from $97,000 to $100,000 of pay costs about $388 more Arkansas tax, which is 12.9% of the raise, against 3.7% on either side of the window. The clawback totals $290 and is complete at $97,601, so above that everyone is back on a straight 3.7%.
It is withholding rather than a tax rate, so it comes out in the wash at filing. But if you are negotiating a raise from the high nineties, the paycheck you see afterward will be smaller than you expect, and now you know why.
Two rounding steps, one city that is exempt, and one table we do not use
Three details that explain most of the small discrepancies between a calculator and a real Arkansas pay stub.
- The formula rounds twice. Your taxable income is looked up at the $50 midpoint of a $100 range, so $72,530 is treated as $72,550, and the year’s gross tax is rounded to whole dollars before the credit comes off. Both steps are applied here. Skip either and you land a dollar or two away from what your employer actually withholds.
- Texarkana is exempt. An Arkansas resident living inside the Texarkana city limits pays no Arkansas income tax at all, claimed on Form AR4EC(TX). It is the only local variation in the state, and it removes the tax rather than adding one.
- The low income tables are not modelled. If you qualify on line 5 of your AR4EC, your employer withholds from a separate set of tables that DFA publishes with no formula equivalent. This calculator uses the ordinary formula for everyone, so if you qualify, your real withholding is lower than the figure here.
What actually comes out of an Arkansas paycheck
On that $75,000 salary:
- Federal income tax, about $7,670. More than three times the state figure. What FIT on your pay stub is explains how it is worked out.
- Social Security and Medicare, $5,738. A flat 7.65% that no form changes. FICA covers what it buys.
- Arkansas income tax, $2,288. With one exemption. Claim none and it is $2,317.
- Whatever you chose. Health premiums, a 401(k), an HSA.
That leaves about $4,942 a month. Unemployment insurance is charged to employers by the Division of Workforce Services rather than deducted from wages, Arkansas has no disability or paid family leave contribution, and no Arkansas city taxes wages.
Comparing an Arkansas offer against another state
Arkansas is cheaper than it looks on a rate table. At 3.05% effective on $75,000 it costs less than Missouri next door, which takes about $2,588 on the same salary, and far less than the states with a 5% headline.
The one that catches people out is the Memphis commute. Arkansas taxes its residents on income earned anywhere, so living in West Memphis and working across the bridge does not remove the Arkansas tax. What it removes is the other state’s, because Tennessee has no income tax to charge. Moving your home across the bridge is the version of that move that changes your withholding, not moving your job. The take-home pay by state table has the rest.
Arkansas paycheck calculator FAQ
About $2,288 a year with one exemption claimed, which is 3.05% of the salary. The figure is the same for every filing status, because Arkansas withholding does not use filing status at all.
No. Arkansas runs one schedule, one $2,470 standard deduction and one credit rate for everybody. The only thing that changes your withholding is the number of exemptions you claim on Form AR4EC, and the two jobs box on your W-4 does nothing here either.
The bands run from nothing on the first $5,600 of taxable wages up to 3.70% above $26,400. Arkansas currently serves two 2026 formulas on its own site, one topping out at 3.70% and one at 3.90%. The 3.70% schedule is the one that reproduces the state published withholding tables to the cent, and it is the rate the employer instructions quote.
Twenty-nine dollars a year, or about $2.42 a month. It is a credit taken off the tax rather than an allowance taken off your wages, so it is worth the same at any salary. The state weekly tables show each exemption column stepping down by 56 cents.
About $59,305 a year, or roughly $4,942 a month, after $7,670 of federal income tax, $5,738 of Social Security and Medicare and $2,288 of Arkansas income tax, and before anything you chose to have deducted.