Virginia's income tax has four brackets, and the last of them arrives almost immediately. The 5.75% top rate begins at $17,000 of taxable income — a threshold that has not moved in decades and is not indexed for inflation.
The practical result is that Virginia is a 5.75% flat tax for anyone earning a professional salary, and it becomes more so every year as inflation pushes more income past a line that stands still.
On $85,000 a single filer pays $4,073 and takes home $64,554.
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; Virginia's brackets, deduction, exemption and retirement rules come from this site's own sourced 50-state dataset, citing Va. Code Title 58.1 and the Department of Taxation's Form 760 instructions. Every dollar figure is computed by the same engine the site's calculators use, on a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Property tax, including the vehicle personal property tax, is discussed qualitatively.
1. What Virginia 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 |
| Virginia income tax | −$4,073 |
| Take-home | $64,554 |
Across incomes, single filer:
| Salary | Virginia tax | Effective VA rate | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $911 | 3.04% | $24,374 |
| $45,000 | $1,773 | 3.94% | $36,565 |
| $60,000 | $2,636 | 4.39% | $47,754 |
| $85,000 | $4,073 | 4.79% | $64,554 |
| $120,000 | $6,086 | 5.07% | $87,164 |
| $175,000 | $9,248 | 5.28% | $121,631 |
Virginia takes more than every other Southern state at $85,000 — more than Georgia's $3,493, North Carolina's $2,883, South Carolina's $3,320, Alabama's $3,985 and Kentucky's $2,857.
That is not where most people place Virginia, and it is worth stating plainly.
Run your own salary against Virginia's brackets2. The brackets, and the year they stopped moving
| Taxable income above | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 | 2.0% |
| $3,000 | 3.0% |
| $5,000 | 5.0% |
| $17,000 | 5.75% |
Those thresholds are identical for every filing status. Single, married filing jointly, head of household, married filing separately — all four use the same $3,000, $5,000 and $17,000.
And they are not indexed for inflation. Virginia's rate schedule has stood at these figures for decades, which means every year of wage growth pushes a larger share of every Virginian's income into the 5.75% bracket without any legislative act.
What that does in practice
For a single filer on $85,000: $9,680 sheltered — an $8,750 standard deduction plus a $930 personal exemption — leaving $75,320 taxable. Of that, $3,000 is at 2%, $2,000 at 3%, $12,000 at 5%, and $58,320 at 5.75%.
Seventy-seven percent of taxable income is taxed at the top rate, and the three lower brackets between them are worth $258 relative to a flat 5.75% on the whole amount.
The lower brackets cover $17,000 of taxable income and produce $720 of tax. That is the entire graduated portion of Virginia's income tax.
A worked illustration of the freeze. When $17,000 was set as the top-bracket threshold, it represented a considerably larger share of a typical salary than it does now. A worker whose pay has merely kept pace with inflation since then has seen an increasing fraction of it taxed at 5.75% — an automatic tax increase that nobody voted for and that appears nowhere in the rate table.
3. Filing jointly
| Salary | Single VA tax | Joint VA tax | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $911 | $402 | $509 |
| $45,000 | $1,773 | $1,217 | $556 |
| $60,000 | $2,636 | $2,079 | $557 |
| $85,000 | $4,073 | $3,517 | $556 |
| $120,000 | $6,086 | $5,529 | $557 |
| $175,000 | $9,248 | $8,692 | $556 |
A flat $556 at almost every income, and it comes entirely from the doubled standard deduction and the second personal exemption — because the brackets do not widen at all.
That is unusual and it is a real marriage penalty at higher incomes. In Minnesota a couple's joint benefit at $85,000 is $1,264; in Maine $1,535; in New Jersey $1,414. Virginia's $556 is the arithmetic of a state that doubles its deduction and nothing else.
Two spouses each earning $60,000 face exactly the same bracket thresholds as two single people earning $60,000. The only saving is the doubled $8,750 deduction, and only if one of them is not already using it.
One more consequence of the freeze. Because the bracket thresholds do not move, Virginia's income tax gets quietly heavier every year in real terms — and because the standard deduction and the $930 personal exemption are also fixed figures, the same is true of the shelter. A Virginian whose salary merely keeps pace with inflation pays a slightly higher effective rate every year without any change in the law.
That is worth naming because it is invisible. A rate cut is a headline; a threshold that stands still is not. Virginia has legislated increases to its standard deduction periodically to offset some of the drift, but the bracket thresholds themselves have not moved.
4. 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 | $1,241.43 |
| Biweekly (26) | $3,269.23 | $2,482.85 |
| Semi-monthly (24) | $3,541.67 | $2,689.75 |
| Monthly (12) | $7,083.33 | $5,379.51 |
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 $4,966 a year.
Form VA-4 is Virginia's withholding exemption certificate, and it asks for a count of personal exemptions. Because the exemption is only $930, the difference between claiming one and claiming none is $53 a year — Virginia's VA-4 moves less money than almost any equivalent form in the country.
Withholding is an estimate, not the tax. Over-withholding produces a refund; under-withholding a bill.
5. No local income tax — and the car tax
No Virginia county, city or town levies a tax on personal income or earnings. Form 760 has no local income tax line and no local schedule.
Worth stating explicitly because of who Virginia borders. Maryland levies a local income tax in every single county and in Baltimore City, at rates from 2.25% to 3.20%. Kentucky and West Virginia have local occupational taxes or service fees. A reader comparing a Northern Virginia offer against a Maryland one must add Maryland's county tax and add nothing to Virginia's.
That comparison is the single most useful thing on this page for the Washington metro, and it substantially closes what looks like a Virginia disadvantage on the state figure alone.
What Virginia localities levy instead
Real property tax, at rates set by the county or city.
Personal property tax on vehicles — the famous "car tax." Virginia localities assess your car annually and bill you for it, separately from your registration. Rates and assessment methods vary by locality, and Virginia operates a state-funded relief programme that reduces the bill on qualifying vehicles, though it does not eliminate it.
For someone moving from a state without a vehicle property tax, this is a genuine recurring cost that no income tax comparison captures, and it arrives as a bill in the post rather than folded into a registration fee.
A local sales tax option layered on the state rate.
And the BPOL tax — a business, professional and occupational licence tax on gross receipts, which reaches self-employed people and small businesses. It is a gross receipts levy, not an income tax, so it is charged on revenue rather than profit — which means a business can owe it in a year it loses money. Anyone self-employed in Virginia should know which locality's BPOL rules apply to them.
6. Retirement: no pension exclusion, and an age deduction instead
Social Security is fully exempt, with no income threshold, no phase-out and no age condition. Va. Code 58.1-322.02(3) subtracts benefits received under Title II of the Social Security Act.
And there is a second-order benefit worth knowing. Virginia's age deduction phases out against "adjusted federal adjusted gross income" — which is federal AGI minus those Social Security benefits. So Social Security is not merely untaxed; it also does not count against the phase-out of the age deduction. That is a genuinely favourable interaction and it is easy to miss.
Private pensions are fully taxable. Public pensions are fully taxable too.
Virginia has no general pension exclusion and no carve-out for the Virginia Retirement System, federal pensions, or other states' pensions. A retired Virginia teacher and a retired private-sector employee are taxed identically on the same pension income.
401(k), 403(b) and traditional IRA distributions are fully taxable as well.
The age deduction is what exists instead
Va. Code 58.1-322.03(5) allows a deduction of up to $12,000 for filers aged 65 and over — and it is a general age deduction rather than a retirement-income exclusion. It applies to any income: a 70-year-old's wages, interest, pension or 401(k) withdrawal alike.
It is income-limited, phasing out against adjusted federal AGI as described above.
Military retirement gets a separate partial exclusion, capped at $40,000.
| Source | Virginia treatment |
|---|---|
| Social Security | Exempt in full |
| Military retirement | $40,000 exclusion |
| Public pension (VRS, federal, other states) | Fully taxed |
| Private pension | Fully taxed |
| 401(k), 403(b), traditional IRA | Fully taxed |
| Any income, at 65+ | General $12,000 age deduction, income-limited |
| Retirement income, single, 65+ | Virginia tax |
|---|---|
| $40,000 all Social Security | $0 |
| $40,000 all 401(k) withdrawals | About $796 |
| $70,000 — $30,000 SS + $40,000 401(k) | About $796 |
For a public-sector retiree Virginia is among the less generous states, because it gives them nothing their private-sector neighbour does not also get. That is unusual — most states favour their own retired employees, and Virginia's symmetry runs the unfavourable way.
7. What Virginia charges besides income tax
Virginia's state income tax is the visible half. The local half is levied on things rather than on income, and for a household it can be larger.
Real property tax. Rates are set by each county or city, and Virginia's effective rates on owner-occupied housing sit around the national middle — though Northern Virginia's high property values mean the bills there are among the largest in the state regardless of the rate.
The vehicle personal property tax. Virginia localities assess your car annually and bill you. This is the item that most surprises people moving in from a state without one, because it arrives as a separate bill rather than folded into a registration fee, and it recurs every year for as long as you own the car.
Virginia operates a state-funded Personal Property Tax Relief programme that reduces the bill on qualifying vehicles below a value threshold. It does not eliminate it, and the share of relief has varied over time as the appropriation has been spread across a growing vehicle fleet.
A local sales tax option on top of the state rate, with a higher combined rate in some regions where additional regional transportation levies apply. Virginia taxes groceries at a reduced rate rather than exempting them, with the local portion continuing to apply.
And the BPOL tax on gross receipts, described in the previous section, which reaches businesses and the self-employed.
Taken together, Virginia's overall burden is middling — a relatively expensive income tax offset by moderate property tax and a moderate sales tax, with the vehicle tax as the item nobody expects.
8. Where Virginia ranks
At $85,000, Virginia's $4,073 is thirty-sixth of the 41 income-tax states — in the top sixth by amount taken.
| State | Tax on $85,000 |
|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $4,030 |
| Illinois | $4,063 |
| Virginia | $4,073 |
| Maine | $4,128 |
| Minnesota | $4,257 |
Against its neighbours:
| Salary | VA | MD (state only) | NC | WV | KY | TN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $911 | $1,059 | $688 | $727 | $932 | $0 |
| $45,000 | $1,773 | $1,772 | $1,287 | $1,233 | $1,457 | $0 |
| $85,000 | $4,073 | $3,672 | $2,883 | $3,004 | $2,857 | $0 |
| $175,000 | $9,248 | $8,448 | $6,474 | $7,126 | $6,007 | $0 |
Virginia is the most expensive of the group at $85,000 on the state figure — and the Maryland column is misleading on its own.
Add Maryland's county tax. Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies a local income tax at 2.25% to 3.20%. At $85,000 that adds roughly $2,000 to $2,800 to Maryland's state figure, taking a Maryland resident well past a Virginian.
So the Washington metro comparison runs Virginia's way once the local layer is counted, even though the state figure runs the other way. That is the whole point of this site's insistence on local taxes, and Virginia against Maryland is the clearest illustration of it in the country.
North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky are all cheaper than Virginia at $85,000, and Tennessee takes nothing.
9. What you can control
Pre-tax deferrals save 5.75% at state level for essentially anyone above $26,680 of salary. A $10,000 traditional 401(k) contribution saves an $85,000 earner $2,200 federally plus $575 in Virginia tax.
And because 5.75% is the marginal rate at almost every income, that saving is the same for a $40,000 earner as for a $400,000 one. Virginia's frozen brackets make it effectively flat, which makes the deferral decision unusually simple.
But read section 6. That money is fully taxable in Virginia when it comes out, subject only to the general $12,000 age deduction from 65. The deferral defers rather than avoids the state tax, which strengthens the Roth case relative to Georgia or Illinois.
HSA contributions through payroll cut federal tax, Virginia tax and FICA. On $4,400 that is roughly $968 federal, $253 Virginia and $337 FICA — about $1,558, or 35% of the amount contributed.
Capital gains get no state preference. Virginia taxes them as ordinary income, which in practice means 5.75% for almost everyone, since the top bracket starts at $17,000 of taxable income.
And if you are self-employed, find out your locality's BPOL treatment before assuming Virginia's absence of a local income tax means no local levy reaches you.
Frequently asked questions
What is Virginia's income tax rate? Four brackets: 2% to $3,000 of taxable income, 3% to $5,000, 5% to $17,000, and 5.75% above that. The thresholds are identical for every filing status and are not indexed for inflation.
What is take-home pay on $85,000 in Virginia? $64,554 for a single filer taking the standard deduction, after $9,870 federal income tax, $6,503 FICA and $4,073 Virginia income tax.
Why is Virginia's top bracket so low? Because the thresholds have not been changed in decades and are not indexed. The 5.75% rate begins at $17,000 of taxable income, which means most Virginians with a full-time job pay it on the majority of their income.
How much is the joint filing benefit in Virginia? $556 a year at almost every income. Virginia's bracket thresholds are the same for every filing status, so the only thing that doubles is the standard deduction and the personal exemption.
Can a Virginia county or city tax my income? No. But localities levy a personal property tax on vehicles — the "car tax" — plus real property tax, a local sales tax option, and a BPOL gross receipts tax on businesses and the self-employed.
Does Virginia tax Social Security? No, and it does more than exempt it: Social Security is also subtracted from the measure used to phase out the age deduction, so it does not count against that either.
Does Virginia tax my pension or 401(k)? Yes — private and public pensions alike, with no exclusion for the Virginia Retirement System or federal pensions. What older filers get is a general $12,000 age deduction from 65, income-limited, which applies to any income rather than to retirement income specifically. Military retirement has a separate $40,000 exclusion.
Is Virginia cheaper than Maryland? On the state figure, no — Virginia takes $4,073 at $85,000 against Maryland's $3,672. But every Maryland county levies a local income tax at 2.25% to 3.20%, which adds roughly $2,000 to $2,800 at that salary. Once that is counted, Virginia is clearly cheaper.
What to do next
Virginia's frozen brackets make it a flat 5.75% for most working people, and its retirement rules are among the less generous in the region. The Maryland comparison is the one worth running properly.
- Virginia take-home pay calculator — your salary with every deduction shown separately.
- Take-Home Pay in Maryland — where the county tax changes the answer.
- Your Paycheck in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states on one salary.
- Take-Home Pay in West Virginia — cheaper, and next door.
- 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 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; Virginia's brackets, deduction, exemption, age deduction and retirement rules from this site's sourced 50-state dataset, citing Va. Code Title 58.1 and the Virginia Department of Taxation. The vehicle personal property tax, BPOL tax and real property tax are discussed qualitatively rather than computed. This is general education and not tax advice; consult a licensed tax professional for your own situation.