Importing US Payroll Tax Tables

Downloading Payroll Updates

To download 2026 payroll tax tables for the United States, follow these steps if you have Windows:

1. WINDOWS: Click the link to download the new 2026 tax tables for Windows.
2. Save the file (US-Payroll-Win-2026.zip) onto your hard drive.
3. Double-click on the folder to see its contents.
4. Drag your state's file out of the zipped folder, and into a location you'll remember.
5. Also drag the US Federal file out of the zipped folder, and into a location you'll remember.

MAC: To download 2026 payroll tax tables for the United States, follow these steps if you have Macintosh:

1. Click the link to download the new 2026 tax tables for Mac.
2. Save the file (US-Payroll-Mac-2026.zip) onto your hard drive.
3. If your browser doesn't decompress the file automatically, use the Finder to expand it. That will give you a US-Payroll-2026 folder on your hard drive, at the same location where you downloaded the file from step 1.
4. Drag your state's file out of the zipped folder, and into a location you'll remember.
5. Also drag the US Federal file out of the zipped folder, and into a location you'll remember.

WARNING- IRS made big changes to W4 forms in 2020. Calculations are different for employees hired in 2020 or later. Click here for more info about the new US Payroll setup.

Installing Payroll Tax Tables

To bring the new tax tables into Goldenseal payroll accounting software, follow these steps:

1. Open your company file with Goldenseal.
2. Choose Import from the File menu, and choose Payroll Update.
3. "Navigate" to the place where you saved the update file, open the folder, and choose the US-Federal-Payroll-2026 file. Click OK.
4. Choose File--Import--Payroll Update a second time.
5. Choose the payroll file for your state. Click OK. NOTE- You can also edit the tax table for your state manually. In any given year, about half the states do not change their tables at all. Most other changes are minor.
6. Goldenseal will automatically replace your current tax tables with the new info.
7. If you need to collect taxes in more than one state, repeat steps 2 to 3 for each state.

Checking Tax Tables and Payroll Setup

After you have imported the new tax tables, double-check your payroll setup. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items.
2. Double-click on each Tax Item, and make sure it's OK.
3. You may need to change the Pay To account if you use a different account for tax agency payments.
4. Some taxe rates are different for each company (for example, SUTA in the US). For any taxes that use a different rate for each company, open those Tax Items and type in your current rate and cutoff amount.