Virginia Payroll Taxes and Withholding Guide (2026)

What Makes Virginia 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 employee social-insurance contributions. Virginia sits at the simpler end of that range. Its income tax is graduated with a low top-bracket threshold, but it deducts nothing else from employees: no state disability, no paid family leave, and no employee unemployment.

Many high-tax states layer extra employee deductions on top of income tax. New Jersey takes worker contributions for unemployment, disability, and family leave; California deducts state disability. Virginia does none of that. A Virginia pay stub therefore has fewer lines than a New Jersey or California stub: federal taxes and the state income tax, and that is it. The federal baseline behind all of this is explained in the how payroll taxes work guide.

Employee Withholding Overview in Virginia

A Virginia employee sees federal taxes and a single graduated state income tax line. There is no local wage tax and no state social-insurance deduction. The deductions fall into two groups: federal taxes and Virginia income tax.

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. The only state line is the Virginia income tax. There is no employee unemployment, disability, or family leave line, because Virginia does not levy those on workers.

How Is Virginia Income Tax Withheld?

Virginia has a graduated income tax with four brackets that apply to every filing status. The rates have been stable for decades: employers withhold by annualizing wages, subtracting the $8,750 standard deduction and the Form VA-4 exemptions, then applying the schedule below to the result.

Unlike the federal system, Virginia does not use filing status to widen the brackets; the same schedule applies to single and married filers. Married couples can lower their combined tax by filing separately on the same Virginia return so each spouse uses their own set of brackets. The federal Form W-4 sets federal withholding, covered in the W-4 withholding explained guide, while Form VA-4 sets the Virginia exemptions. Because withholding is an estimate, the final Virginia tax is settled on Form 760.

The Virginia Withholding Formula and Form VA-4

Form VA-4 is Virginia's version of the federal W-4, but it works differently. Instead of picking a rate table, it counts exemptions that reduce your wages before the graduated schedule is applied.

The Formula

The Department of Taxation formula annualizes your wages, then subtracts three things to get Virginia taxable income: the $8,750 standard deduction, $930 for each personal and dependent exemption, and $800 for each age-65-and-over or blind exemption. The graduated schedule is then applied to the result and divided by the number of pay periods.

The Flat Standard Deduction

The $8,750 standard deduction in the withholding formula is a single figure used for every employee, regardless of filing status. This is the amount enacted by the 2025 General Assembly, effective for wages paid after July 1, 2025 (it was $8,500 before then). Because the formula uses the single-filer standard deduction for everyone, a married-filing-jointly couple whose Form 760 uses the $17,500 standard deduction can be slightly over-withheld unless exemptions are adjusted. The Virginia paycheck calculator lets you set exemptions directly so you can see the effect.

Virginia Deducts No Employee Disability, Family Leave, or Unemployment

This is where Virginia is simpler than its high-tax neighbors. Some states deduct social-insurance contributions from employee wages. Virginia deducts none.

• No state disability insurance: Virginia has no mandatory short-term disability payroll deduction, unlike California or New Jersey.
• No paid family leave payroll tax: Virginia has not enacted a state-run paid family and medical leave program funded by employee payroll deductions.
• No employee unemployment tax: Unemployment insurance is funded entirely by employers through the Virginia Employment Commission. Workers pay nothing toward it, and no unemployment line appears on an employee stub.

The practical result is that the only state deduction a Virginia employee sees is the income tax. That is why a Virginia stub is shorter than a New Jersey stub, which carries three separate employee contribution lines on top of the income tax.

Employer Payroll Obligations in Virginia

Virginia employers carry the federal employer taxes plus the state unemployment contribution. 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, Virginia adds a state unemployment tax paid entirely by the employer.

Virginia state unemployment tax is assessed only on the first $8,000 of each employee's wages and depends on the employer's experience rating with the Virginia Employment Commission. New employers are assigned the initial base tax rate of 2.5% plus add-ons until they have enough history to qualify for a calculated rate; base rates otherwise run from 0.1% up to 6.2%. None of this is deducted from employee pay. The combined cost-to-hire can be modeled with the employer payroll tax calculator.

Virginia Has No Local Wage Income Tax

Unlike neighboring Maryland, Virginia has no municipal or county wage income tax deducted from employees. A worker in Arlington, Richmond, Norfolk, or anywhere else in Virginia pays the state income tax, but no city or county income tax line.

This is a meaningful difference for cross-border commuters. A Maryland resident is used to a county income tax stacked on top of the state tax; there is no Virginia equivalent. So a worker moving from Maryland to Virginia will not see a local wage line, and its absence is correct, not a payroll error.

Virginia Reciprocity: DC, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia

Virginia maintains reciprocal income tax agreements with five jurisdictions: the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Under reciprocity, wage income is taxed by the worker's state of residence, not the state where the work is performed.

A resident of one of those five places who works in Virginia files Form VA-4 with the Virginia employer to claim exemption from Virginia withholding, so their home state's tax is withheld instead. A Virginia resident who works in one of those states is treated the same way in reverse and gives the out-of-state employer that state's exemption form. The reciprocity covers wages and salaries only, not business or investment income, and it is especially common in the Washington, DC, metro area, where workers routinely live in one jurisdiction and commute to another. Note that Virginia has no reciprocity with North Carolina or Tennessee, so a Virginia resident working there generally files a nonresident return and claims a resident credit at home.

Virginia Supplemental Wage Withholding

Supplemental wages are payments outside regular salary: bonuses, commissions, overtime, sales awards, and back pay. Virginia withholds income tax on supplemental wages, generally by adding them to regular wages and applying the same formula, since Virginia does not publish a separate flat supplemental rate the way the federal system does.

• Virginia income tax on supplemental wages: withheld under the same annualized formula; there is no separate flat state supplemental percentage.
• There are no Virginia disability, family leave, or unemployment employee contributions to apply to supplemental pay, because Virginia does not levy them.
• 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 on a bonus, use the Bonus Tax Calculator.

Virginia Filing and Payment Frequency

Virginia employers report and remit withheld income tax through the Department of Taxation's online system. Withholding is deposited on a quarterly, monthly, or semi-weekly schedule depending on the amount withheld, using Form VA-5 for periodic payments and Form VA-6 for the annual reconciliation. The federal deposit schedule is covered separately in the payroll tax deadlines guide.

State unemployment contributions are reported and paid separately to the Virginia Employment Commission on its own quarterly schedule. New employees must be reported to the Virginia new hire directory shortly after the hire date.

How Take-Home Pay Works in Virginia

The calculation sequence runs from gross pay down to net pay. Virginia income tax starts from Virginia taxable wages after the standard deduction and exemptions, and there are no state social-insurance lines to add.

1. Start with gross wages for the pay period.
2. Apply federal income tax withholding using the Form W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T.
3. Annualize wages, subtract the $8,750 standard deduction and $930 per VA-4 exemption (plus $800 per age/blind exemption), apply the 2% to 5.75% schedule, and divide by pay periods for the Virginia income tax.
4. Subtract Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) on FICA wages.
5. The remainder is net pay. There are no state disability, family leave, or unemployment deductions to subtract.

To see exact figures for a specific salary, VA-4 exemption count, and pay frequency, use the Virginia paycheck calculator or the general take-home pay calculator for a full pre-tax benefits stack.

What Virginia Employees Should Check on a Pay Stub

• Virginia income tax line: Confirm Virginia income tax is withheld. If it looks very low, check whether you claimed too many exemptions on Form VA-4.
• No employee contribution lines: There should be no state disability, family leave, or unemployment deduction. If you see one, question it, because Virginia does not levy those on employees.
• No local tax line: Virginia has no city or county income tax, so there should be no local wage line even in Northern Virginia.
• FICA: Confirm Social Security at 6.2% (until $184,500 of wages for 2026) and Medicare at 1.45% with no cap.
• Reciprocity residents: If you live in DC, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia and filed Form VA-4, confirm Virginia income tax is not being withheld and your home state tax is.

What Virginia Employers Should Verify Before Running Payroll

• State registration: Confirm active accounts for Virginia income tax withholding with the Department of Taxation and for unemployment tax with the Virginia Employment Commission, and check the annual VEC rate notice.
• VA-4 on file: Collect a current Form VA-4 from each employee; without one, withhold as if the employee claimed zero exemptions.
• Current formula: Confirm the payroll system uses the $8,750 standard deduction, $930 personal exemption, $800 age/blind exemption, and the 2% to 5.75% schedule.
• Reciprocity: Collect a completed Form VA-4 claiming exemption from DC, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia residents so Virginia income tax is not withheld from their wages.
• New hire reporting: Report each new worker to the Virginia new hire directory.

Virginia Payroll Quick Facts (2026)

Frequently Asked Questions