Updates and corrections
What changed on this site, when, and why. Tax figures move on a predictable calendar and occasionally we get something wrong — both are recorded here rather than edited away.
A tax calculator with no change history is asking for trust it has not earned. This page is the audit trail: rate changes as the agencies publish them, new tools and pages as they go live, and corrections when a figure on this site turned out to be wrong. The method those figures feed into is documented on the methodology page and the documents they come from are listed on the sources page.
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Gambling tax, property tax credit and the IL-1040 guide
The gambling tax calculator makes explicit the rule most sites omit: Illinois taxes every dollar won and allows no deduction for losses, so a losing year can still produce a state tax bill. Also added: the property tax credit calculator with its AGI cliff, and a line-by-line Form IL-1040 guide.
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State employee, SERS and teacher pay guides
Three pages for Illinois public sector workers: state employee pay dates and the semi-monthly calendar, a SERS pension calculator covering both tiers including the Tier 2 pensionable salary cap, and teacher salary and TRS with the statutory minimum salary schedule.
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Employer cost and 1099 vs W-2 calculators
The employer cost calculator loads a wage with employer FICA, FUTA, IDES contributions and workers compensation. The 1099 versus W-2 calculator solves the same question from the other side — the contract rate that genuinely matches a salary. Plus a guide to Illinois Secure Choice and its per-employee penalties.
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Overtime, tipped wage and minimum wage pages
The overtime calculator computes the FLSA regular rate properly, folding in nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials — the most common source of Illinois overtime underpayment. The tipped wage calculator covers Illinois, Chicago and Cook County rates and the tipped overtime rate employers routinely get wrong. Both explain why the federal tips and overtime deductions save nothing in Illinois. Also added: Illinois minimum wage 2026.
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Methodology, sources and editorial policy published
Three reference pages now document how the site works: the calculation method step by step through IRS Publication 15-T Worksheet 1A and Booklet IL-700-T, every primary source mapped to the figure it supplies, and the editorial standards covering sourcing, independence and corrections. Every page also now carries a visible review date.
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Site launched with 14 calculators and 35 pages
Initial release. Fourteen working tools at launch — paycheck, hourly, salary, bonus, withholding checkup, Illinois income tax, refund, sales tax, vehicle tax, self-employment, estimated payments, unemployment, garnishment and the Chicago landing tool — all running on tax year 2026 figures with 2025 and 2024 selectable.
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Chicago combined sales tax rises to 10.50%
The Northeastern Illinois Transit Authority increase took effect, moving Chicago's combined state, county, city and transit rate from 10.25% to 10.50%. Many calculators still quote the old figure. The sales tax calculator and every article table that mentions the Chicago rate were updated the day it took effect.
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Chicago and Cook County minimum wages adjusted
The Chicago and Cook County minimum wage ordinances index each July. The current local floors are reflected in the hourly paycheck calculator and the Chicago page; the Illinois state minimum remains $15.00 an hour after completing its scheduled increases in January 2025.
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Grocery tax: state 1% removed, local 1% permitted
Illinois eliminated its 1% state tax on groceries and simultaneously authorized municipalities to impose a 1% local grocery tax in its place. For shoppers in a municipality that adopted the local tax, the shelf price is unchanged and only the recipient of the money differs. The sales tax calculator now attributes the grocery rate to the local share rather than the state share, which is the detail most competing tools have wrong.
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Tax year 2026 figures took effect
Federal brackets and the standard deduction moved with the annual inflation adjustment, the Social Security wage base rose, and the Illinois personal exemption increased to $2,925. Illinois's income tax rate is unchanged at 4.95% — it has not moved since July 2017. Every calculator switched to 2026 as the default year and the whole engine was re-tested against Publication 15-T worked examples.
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IDES unemployment figures for 2026 loaded
The Illinois Department of Employment Security published next year's taxable wage base, employer contribution rate range and weekly benefit maximums. The unemployment benefits calculator and the employer figures on the payroll taxes guide were updated together.
The change calendar
Most of what appears above is not a surprise — payroll figures move on a schedule, and knowing that schedule is half of staying current:
| When | What changes | Who publishes it |
|---|---|---|
| October | Federal brackets, standard deduction, Social Security wage base | IRS, Social Security Administration |
| December | Publication 15-T, Booklet IL-700-T, Illinois personal exemption, IDES rates and wage base | IRS, Illinois Department of Revenue, IDES |
| 1 January | New federal and Illinois figures take effect; state minimum wage adjusts; sales tax rate changes | All of the above |
| 1 July | Second annual sales tax rate change; Chicago and Cook County minimum wages adjust | Illinois Department of Revenue, local ordinances |
| Spring | Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for the previous May | Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Any time | Legislation, court rulings, agency guidance | Illinois General Assembly, Congress, agencies |
Because every calculator reads its rates from one shared data file, a change on any of those dates updates every tool and every static table inside our articles at once. That is a deliberate design choice, and the reasoning behind it is on the methodology page.
Spotted something wrong?
If a figure here does not match your pay stub or the published table it claims to come from, that is worth reporting. Send the page, the figure and what you believe it should be. We check it against the source document, fix it the same day if it is wrong, and it appears above with the date. Before you write, it is worth checking the calculator comparison guide — most stub mismatches turn out to be a pre-tax deduction or a W-4 entry rather than an error in the arithmetic.