Georgia Payroll Taxes and Withholding Guide (2026)

What Makes Georgia Payroll Different

Federal payroll tax is the same in every state. What changes from one state to the next is the second layer: state income tax withholding, employer unemployment taxes, and any local wage taxes. Georgia keeps that second layer simple. It taxes wages at a single flat rate rather than a graduated schedule, it collects no unemployment contribution from employees, and it permits no local income tax on wages anywhere in the state.

What sets Georgia apart from other flat-tax states is the standard deduction built into the withholding math. Pennsylvania applies its flat rate to gross wages, and Illinois subtracts only a small allowance, but Georgia subtracts a full $12,000 or $24,000 standard deduction plus $4,000 per dependent before the rate is applied. That makes the effective Georgia rate noticeably lower than the headline rate at low and moderate incomes. The federal baseline behind all of this is explained in the how payroll taxes work guide.

Employee Withholding Overview in Georgia

A Georgia employee sees fewer lines on a pay stub than a worker in a local-tax or employee-unemployment state. The deductions fall into two groups: federal taxes and Georgia state income tax. There is no employee unemployment line and no local tax line.

The federal lines work identically to any other state. For Social Security, the 2026 wage base is $184,500, after which Social Security stops for the year. Medicare has no cap. What is unique to Georgia is what is missing: no employee unemployment contribution and no local wage tax, leaving only the flat state line on top of the federal taxes, and even that line is reduced by the Georgia standard deduction.

How Is Georgia State Income Tax Withheld?

Georgia individual income tax is a flat rate: 5.09% for 2026. Unlike Pennsylvania's gross-times-rate flat tax, Georgia applies a standard deduction and dependent allowances first, so the state line is not a pure percentage of gross. Employers follow the percentage method in the Georgia Employer's Withholding Tax Guide: subtract the annual standard deduction for the employee's Form G-4 marital status, subtract $4,000 for each dependent, and apply the flat rate to the remainder.

Because the rate is flat, there are no brackets to walk. The federal Form W-4 sets federal withholding, covered in the W-4 withholding explained guide, while Form G-4 sets the Georgia marital status and dependent count. The rate has been falling: it was 5.39% for 2024, dropped to 5.19% for 2025 (a mid-year cut retroactive to January 1, 2025), and is 5.09% for 2026, with the law scheduling further 0.10% annual reductions toward 4.99% if revenue targets are met.

Georgia Withholding Allowances (Form G-4)

Form G-4 is Georgia's version of the federal W-4, and it is the lever a Georgia employee has over state withholding. It sets two things that feed the percentage method.

Marital Status: The Standard Deduction

Your G-4 marital status sets your annual standard deduction: $12,000 for single, head of household, or married filing separately, and $24,000 for a married employee filing jointly whose spouse does not work. Married couples who both work each use the $12,000 amount so the household deduction is not double-counted. This deduction is subtracted from annual wages before the flat rate is applied.

Dependent Allowances

Each dependent you claim on Form G-4 removes another $4,000 from your annual Georgia taxable wages. The separate additional deductions for taxpayers over 65 or blind were eliminated effective January 1, 2024, so the dependent count is now the main variable beyond marital status. Claiming more dependents lowers the Georgia tax withheld each pay period; claiming fewer raises it. If you do not file a Form G-4 at all, the employer withholds as if you are single with zero allowances.

To see how a given status and dependent count change take-home pay, use the Georgia paycheck calculator, which asks for G-4 status and dependents directly and applies the exact percentage method.

Why Georgia Has No Local Wage Tax

This is the layer that catches people moving to Georgia from Ohio, Pennsylvania, or another local-tax state. In those states, a city or school district can levy its own income tax on wages, so two workers with identical pay can take home different amounts based only on where they live and work. Georgia does not permit that. The income tax is reserved to the state, so no Georgia city, county, or school district, including Atlanta and Savannah, levies a local income or earnings tax on wages.

The practical result is that the Georgia line on your pay stub is the same anywhere in the state. There is no Georgia equivalent of an Ohio municipal tax or the Philadelphia Wage Tax, no city codes to look up, and no residency certification form for local tax. An employer running Georgia payroll needs the flat state rate, the employee's G-4 marital status, and the dependent count, and nothing about the specific city changes the withholding.

Employer Payroll Obligations in Georgia

Georgia employers carry the federal employer taxes plus State Unemployment Insurance (SUI). The federal side, covered in the employer payroll tax obligations guide, includes the matching 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare plus Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA). On top of that, Georgia adds the employer SUI contribution to the Georgia Department of Labor. There is no employee unemployment contribution to withhold.

For 2026 the Georgia SUI taxable wage base is $9,500 per employee, so the employer SUI tax stops once an employee's year-to-date wages pass $9,500. A new employer pays the standard 2.7% entry rate until enough filing history exists, typically two to three years, for the Department of Labor to assign an experience-based rate. Experience-rated employers pay between 0.04% and 8.1% depending on their claims history. These are employer costs and are never deducted from employee pay. The combined cost-to-hire can be modeled with the employer payroll tax calculator.

Georgia Has No Employee Unemployment Deduction

A handful of states, including Pennsylvania, take a small unemployment contribution directly from employee wages. Georgia is not one of them. The entire cost of Georgia unemployment insurance falls on employers through the Georgia Department of Labor, so there is no employee unemployment line on a Georgia pay stub at all.

This matters most for workers who move to Georgia from a state that does deduct employee unemployment and expect to see the same line. In Georgia that line simply does not exist, and its absence is correct, not a payroll error. Georgia also has no state-run disability insurance or paid-family-leave payroll tax deducted from wages, unlike California or New York, so the only mandatory deductions on a Georgia stub are federal taxes and the flat state income tax.

Georgia Supplemental Wage Withholding

Supplemental wages are payments outside regular salary: bonuses, commissions, overtime, sales awards, and back pay. Many states apply a special flat supplemental rate to these payments. Georgia uses its ordinary flat income tax rate.

• Georgia state income tax on supplemental wages: the same flat rate that applies to regular wages (5.09% for 2026).
• Employee unemployment: none, on supplemental wages or regular wages.
• Local wage tax: none, anywhere in Georgia.

Because the state rate is already flat, there is no separate Georgia supplemental schedule to look up. Federal income tax withholding on supplemental wages is a separate calculation set by the IRS, and Social Security and Medicare still apply under their own rules. For the federal supplemental math, use the Bonus Tax Calculator.

Georgia Filing and Payment Frequency

Georgia employers report and remit withheld state income tax through the Georgia Tax Center (GTC), the Department of Revenue's online system. Withholding is deposited on a schedule that depends on the amount the employer withholds, and employers file Form G-7, the withholding return, on a quarterly basis. Annual W-2 and 1099 information is transmitted to the state with Form G-1003. The federal deposit schedule is covered separately in the payroll tax deadlines guide.

State Unemployment Insurance is reported and paid separately from income tax withholding, on a quarterly basis through the Georgia Department of Labor using the employer's tax and wage report. New employees must also be reported to the Georgia new hire directory within 10 days of the hire date. Because Georgia has no local wage tax, there are no separate local filings to manage.

How Take-Home Pay Works in Georgia

The calculation sequence runs from gross pay down to net pay. Because Georgia income tax begins with federal adjusted gross income, the same pre-tax deductions that reduce federal wages also reduce Georgia wages, which keeps the two bases aligned before the Georgia standard deduction is applied.

1. Start with gross wages for the pay period.
2. Subtract federal pre-tax deductions (401(k), Section 125 health premiums) to find taxable wages for both federal and Georgia income tax.
3. Apply federal income tax withholding using the Form W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T.
4. Subtract the per-period share of the Georgia standard deduction and $4,000 per dependent, then apply the flat Georgia rate to the remainder.
5. Subtract Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) on FICA wages (gross less Section 125 medical).
6. The remainder is net pay. There is no employee unemployment line and no local tax line to subtract.

To see exact figures for a specific salary, filing status, dependent count, and pay frequency, use the Georgia paycheck calculator or the general take-home pay calculator for a full pre-tax benefits stack.

What Georgia Employees Should Check on a Pay Stub

• GA state tax line: Confirm Georgia income tax is withheld at the flat rate on wages after your standard deduction and dependent allowances, not on gross with no deduction.
• Dependent count: Verify the G-4 dependent number the employer keyed matches your current Form G-4, since each dependent is worth $4,000 off Georgia taxable wages.
• No local tax line: There should be no Atlanta, Savannah, or city income tax line. If you see one, question it.
• No employee unemployment line: Georgia does not deduct employee unemployment, so there should be no such line.
• FICA: Confirm Social Security at 6.2% (until $184,500 of wages for 2026) and Medicare at 1.45% with no cap.

What Georgia Employers Should Verify Before Running Payroll

• State registration: Confirm active accounts for Georgia withholding (Georgia Tax Center) and State Unemployment Insurance (Department of Labor), and check the annual DOL-626 rate notice.
• G-4 on file: Collect a current Form G-4 from each employee; without one, withhold as single with zero allowances.
• Current rate: Confirm the 2026 flat rate of 5.09% is set in the payroll system; a stale 5.19% or 5.39% rate over-withholds.
• SUI settings: Confirm the $9,500 wage base and the assigned employer contribution rate are set in the payroll system.
• New hire reporting: Report each new worker to the Georgia new hire directory within 10 days.
• No local setup: Confirm no local wage tax is configured; Georgia has none, so any local income line is an error.

Georgia Payroll Quick Facts (2026)

Frequently Asked Questions