Unemployment Benefits Calculator

How much unemployment can you get?

All 50 state and DC worksheets have a researched wage calculation. Choose the state where the covered work occurred, enter the accepted base-period wages and supply any additional state-specific record details. The guide below each form explains the current schedule, qualification tests and worked examples.

A state's maximum is not your automatic payment. Your covered wage pattern, approved dependents, qualifying weeks or hours, dated schedule and available balance can change the result. Some states need agency-confirmed parameters before the worksheet can resolve an amount.

Blank inputs stay unknown. A monetary test does not establish separation or weekly eligibility. An unresolved estimate is not a zero-dollar denial; confirm missing values or source disagreements with the agency.

What to have beside the form

1. The claim's effective date and the base-period quarter dates from the agency.
2. Covered gross wages for all four selected quarters and the monetary determination, if available.
3. Any agency-confirmed base weeks, dependent allowance or indexed wage threshold required by the state guide.

Do not substitute take-home pay for covered gross wages. Enter zero for a known empty quarter, and leave a genuinely unknown amount blank. Quarter 1 is the oldest quarter of the period the agency selected and quarter 4 the newest; a recent paycheck is not a base-period quarter.

Enter the claim's effective date, not today's date. A state can raise its cap for new claims while an older claim keeps the schedule it was filed under. If the worksheet leaves a claim date unresolved, do not move the date just to get a number.

One highest-quarter figure is not enough everywhere. In Texas the highest quarter sets the starting amount, but total wages across several quarters also count. Maine averages the two highest quarters. New Hampshire picks a row in its benefit table from annual earnings once two quarters each reach $1,400. New Jersey counts base weeks, which can also shorten the claim. That is why each state worksheet asks for its own inputs instead of applying one national divisor. The form does not choose an alternative base period or combine wages earned in different states; the agency decides those.

Weekly amount, balance and duration answer different questions

The weekly amount describes one full eligible week. The balance limits the total payable under the claim. A week ceiling can be longer than the number of full checks that a smaller balance can support. For example, the Iowa ordinary claim with $4,600 and $2,300 in its two paid quarters, zero dependents and a $200 weekly amount has an estimated $2,300 wage-limited account. Ten full weeks draw $2,000; requesting twelve cannot create funds beyond the account.

That is why the benefit runway above draws each week as its own tile: when the balance runs out before the last week, the remaining tiles stay empty instead of pretending every week is paid in full.

Read the weekly award, the maximum balance and the authorized number of weeks on your determination as three separate figures, and compare each one with the worksheet. Multiplying an advertised state maximum by 26 does not describe any real claim.

The methodology and source list explain what is covered.

Is unemployment taxed?

Yes, by the federal income tax. As a rule, state unemployment insurance benefits count as income in the year they are paid to you, so they go on that year's Form 1040 next to wages and any other income (IRS Tax Topic 418, page updated September 24, 2026, and the unemployment section of Publication 525 for 2025 returns). The worksheet's weekly amount and balance are both before tax, because federal tax comes out of a payment only when you ask for it: Form W-4V calls the request voluntary.

Federal withholding is 10% or none

To have tax taken out of each payment, give Form W-4V to the agency that pays the claim; it does not go to the IRS. If the agency offers its own request form instead, the form's instructions say to use the agency's. Line 5 of the January 2026 revision has a single rate for unemployment benefits: 10% of every payment. Social Security and the other payments on line 6 can choose 7%, 10%, 12% or 22%, but unemployment compensation cannot, and a flat dollar amount is not allowed either. The election lasts until you file a new form to stop it or the payments end.

Take a $400 weekly benefit with withholding chosen: $40 goes to the IRS and $360 reaches your account. Over 26 full weeks that is $10,400 in benefits and $1,040 already paid toward the year's federal tax. The award is still $400, and the claim balance still drops by $400 for each week paid. Withholding is a prepayment, not the bill: what you finally owe depends on filing status, the household's other income, deductions and credits. Enter 10 in the worksheet's optional withholding field to see the same split on your own estimate.

If nothing is withheld

The other route the IRS describes is paying quarterly estimated tax on Form 1040-ES. Publication 525 warns that paying too little through withholding and estimated payments combined can bring a penalty; Publication 505 covers both.

What arrives at filing time

After the year ends, the agency issues Form 1099-G, by mail or through the state agency's website. Box 1 holds the total unemployment compensation paid to you during the year and Box 4 the federal tax withheld from it. Tax Topic 418 puts the Box 1 amount on line 7 of Schedule 1 and the Box 4 amount on line 25b of Form 1040. If Box 1 includes benefits you never claimed, which can happen when someone files in your name, ask the state agency for a corrected 1099-G instead of reporting the wrong total.

Benefits you paid back in the same year come off that year's total, per Publication 525. Paying back more than $3,000 that you reported in an earlier year can instead be claimed as an itemized deduction or a tax credit. Payments from a fund your employer financed alone (supplemental unemployment benefits) are not unemployment compensation at all: the IRS treats them as wages, withheld like a paycheck.

State income tax is a separate question that this page does not price. Your state revenue department's return instructions show whether its income tax reaches the 1099-G amount.

IRS sources read October 28, 2026: Tax Topic 418, Publication 525 (2025), Form W-4V (Rev. January 2026) and the unemployment compensation page.