Connecticut's income tax runs from 2% to 6.99%, but its signature feature is a personal exemption that shrinks as you earn more and disappears entirely for middle and higher incomes.
That phase-out means your effective Connecticut rate climbs faster than the brackets alone suggest. Here is how the rates and the vanishing exemption work on your paycheck. See your exact take-home with the free Connecticut paycheck calculator.
How Connecticut's income tax works
Connecticut is progressive: 2% up to $10,000, 4.5% to $50,000, 5.5% to $100,000, and higher rates above that (single filer). It applies after a personal exemption of up to $15,000 (single), but that exemption is reduced by $1,000 for every $1,000 of income over $30,000, so it is gone entirely by about $45,000. There is no local income tax.
Connecticut also offers a personal tax credit for lower earners and applies a tax recapture that claws back the benefit of the lower brackets for high earners, neither of which changes the picture much for a typical middle-income worker.
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $10,000 | 2% |
| $10,000 – $50,000 | 4.5% |
| $50,000 – $100,000 | 5.5% |
| $100,000 – $250,000 | 6% – 6.5% |
| Over $500,000 | 6.99% |
Your take-home on a $65,000 salary in Connecticut
Here is how a $65,000 salary breaks down for a single filer, using 2025 federal and FICA figures alongside Connecticut's progressive brackets from 2% to 6.99%.
| Item | Annual |
|---|---|
| Federal income tax | $5,246 |
| FICA (Social Security + Medicare) | $4,973 |
| Connecticut income tax | $2,825 |
| Take-home pay | $51,957 |
| Percent of gross kept | 79.9% |
On a $65,000 salary a single filer owes about $2,825 in Connecticut income tax, an effective rate near 4.3%, and keeps roughly $51,957, or 79.9% of gross. At this income the personal exemption has fully phased out, so you feel the full bracket schedule. Connecticut's high cost of living, especially in Fairfield County near New York, stretches that take-home less than the percentage suggests. Compare with Massachusetts.
The disappearing personal exemption
Connecticut's quirk is the income-tested personal exemption: a lower earner shields up to $15,000, but it erodes $1,000 at a time and vanishes by about $45,000 of income, so middle earners pay the full rate on nearly all their pay. That makes the effective rate climb quickly through the middle of the income range.
Connecticut has stopped taxing Social Security for most retirees and is phasing in exemptions for pension and IRA income, so retirees increasingly pay less than workers on the same income.
How to keep more of your Connecticut paycheck
Because the exemption is already gone at a typical salary, lowering taxable wages is the main Connecticut lever: a traditional 401(k) and HSA both cut your Connecticut and federal taxable income (and the HSA also skips FICA).