Vermont has a deduction that may or may not be on your pay stub, and the decision is your employer’s rather than yours. Two colleagues on the same salary at the same company can legally see different amounts taken, and Vermont says so in writing.
Setting that aside for a moment, the state income tax is the main event. On a $75,000 salary with one allowance a single filer keeps about $58,907, after $2,685 of Vermont income tax. A married couple filing jointly on that one income pays $1,937.
The child care contribution is optional, for your employer
Since July 2024 Vermont has charged employers a payroll tax of 0.44% on wages, the Child Care Contribution, which funds child care and early education. It is an employer tax, not an employee one. But the Department of Taxes allows part of it to be passed on: an employer may choose to deduct and withhold a maximum of 25 percent of the required contribution, which works out at 0.11% of your wages.
And employers are not required to withhold the same amount from every employee. That is the Department’s own guidance, and it is why this calculator leaves the contribution out entirely rather than guessing. If your employer passes on the maximum, 0.11% of $75,000 is $82.50 a year, about $6.88 a month. If your employer absorbs it, you will never see a line for it at all. Both are correct, and only your payroll team knows which applies to you.
The Health Care Contribution that sits on the same employer return works differently again: that one is paid by employers outright, with nothing recoverable from wages.
Five bands, and the one Vermont detail worth checking on your own stub
| Rate | Single, taxable wages | Married, taxable wages |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing | Up to $3,925 | Up to $11,775 |
| 3.35% | To $54,675 | To $96,475 |
| 6.60% | To $126,775 | To $216,525 |
| 7.60% | To $260,225 | To $323,825 |
| 8.75% | Above $260,225 | Above $323,825 |
The detail to check is the allowance, because Vermont’s is the most valuable in the country. Each one takes $5,400 a year off the wages the table is read against, which at the 6.6% band is worth about $356 a year. For comparison, an exemption is worth $29 a year in Arkansas and $45 in Oklahoma. Claiming one fewer than you are entitled to costs more here than almost anywhere else.
It comes from Form W-4VT, which is a separate form from your federal W-4, so the two numbers can differ and often should. On $75,000, one allowance means $2,685 of Vermont tax and no allowances means $3,042.
Head of household is not in Vermont’s tables at all
Worth being straight about, because it is a gap in the source rather than in the arithmetic. GB-1210 publishes exactly two schedules, headed Single and Married, and head of household appears nowhere in it.
This calculator puts a head of household on the single table, which is the more expensive of the two and the treatment the federal payroll service that implements Vermont withholding also uses. It is the safe reading rather than a quoted rule. If you file as a head of household in Vermont, the number here is a ceiling rather than a certainty, and your employer’s software may be doing the same thing.
What actually comes out of a Vermont paycheck
On that $75,000 salary, with one allowance claimed:
- Federal income tax, about $7,670. What FIT on your pay stub is explains how the figure is reached.
- Social Security and Medicare, $5,738. A flat 7.65% that no form changes. FICA covers what it buys.
- Vermont income tax, $2,685. Most of it at 3.35%, with only the last $14,925 of taxable wages reaching 6.6%.
- Possibly $82.50 of child care contribution, and possibly nothing, as above.
- Whatever you chose. Health premiums, a 401(k), an HSA.
Roughly $4,909 a month is left. Vermont’s local option taxes are add-ons to sales, meals, alcohol and rooms taxes rather than taxes on earnings, so no town in the state takes a slice of your wages, and unemployment insurance is billed to employers rather than withheld. The stub line most likely to be unfamiliar here is the child care contribution, which is small, recent, and easy to mistake for a payroll error.
Comparing a Vermont offer, and the river that does not help
Vermont is cheaper at this salary than the two states most of its competition comes from: Massachusetts takes about $3,775 counting its paid leave premium, and New York about $3,787. Vermont’s $2,685 undercuts both, which is not the reputation the state has.
Then there is New Hampshire, across the Connecticut River, which takes nothing at all. The catch is which side of the river you sleep on rather than which side you work on: Vermont taxes its residents on income earned anywhere, so a Norwich resident commuting to a job in Hanover still owes Vermont on those wages. The move that saves the $2,685 is a change of address, not a change of employer. The take-home pay by state table has all 51 of them side by side.
Vermont paycheck calculator FAQ
About $2,685 a year for a single filer claiming one allowance, or $1,937 for a married couple filing jointly on one income. Claim no allowances and the single figure rises to $3,042, because each Vermont allowance is worth $5,400 off the wages the table is read against.
Four rates above an untaxed band: 3.35%, 6.60%, 7.60% and 8.75%. For a single filer nothing is charged on the first $3,925 of taxable wages, then 3.35% to $54,675, 6.60% to $126,775, 7.60% to $260,225 and 8.75% above that. The married thresholds are wider at every step.
That is your employer decision. The Child Care Contribution is a 0.44% payroll tax on employers, and they may pass on up to a quarter of it, which is 0.11% of your wages, or about $82.50 a year on $75,000. The Department of Taxes does not require employers to withhold the same amount from every employee, so this calculator leaves it out rather than guessing.
Each allowance on Form W-4VT takes $5,400 a year off your wages before the table is read, which is worth about $356 a year at the 6.6% band. That is the most valuable allowance of any state, against $29 in Arkansas and $45 in Oklahoma, so the W-4VT is worth filling in properly.
Roughly $58,907 for the year, or about $4,909 a month, with one allowance claimed. Federal income tax accounts for $7,670 of the gross, Social Security and Medicare for $5,738, and Vermont for $2,685. Anything you elected yourself comes off after those.