Base Pay vs. Take Home in Residency

[premed8888]

Could a couple interns/junior residents tell me how me how much they lose from their base pay through taxes etc.? If you feel comfortable, granted this is obviously anonymous, please state your gross and then the monthly take home amount. I am trying to get a feel for what I will be working with in a few months in terms of living situation etc.

Thanks in advance.

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[backcountryrez]

I lose about a third in taxes and other fees. Refer to the contract offered to residents, which should be made available at many institutions.

 

[Raryn]

Could a couple interns/junior residents tell me how me how much they lose from their base pay through taxes etc.? If you feel comfortable, granted this is obviously anonymous, please state your gross and then the monthly take home amount. I am trying to get a feel for what I will be working with in a few months in terms of living situation etc.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.paycheckcity.com

Pick a state and salary. The average intern makes around 53k but the range is like 45-60, so it may help to look on some of your potential programs websites.

 

[Crayola227]

there's some IRS website or link where you can crunch numbers and figure out how many exemptions to claim to get the most gross with low risk of owing at the end of the year. In case you'd rather go that way than have more withheld and a larger return.

I did this, am single, not sure how many exemptions (more than what the little form your job gives you would have you crunch), my gross was ~ $53K I believe, and my take home was definitely $3K/mo, almost exactly.

Remember if you have medical expenses and expect to hit your deductible to factor this in. I took it right off the top of my yearly predicted take home base when I was budgeting, even though I had to cough it all up in the first 2 months in (mine was ~$3K).

Besides the gov't, the other big thing is your health insurance premium. Mine was ~$150/mo, not sure if dental and vision was in that. I think dental was ~$50, and vision ~$18. Disability was pretty variable and was cheap even for the most coverage I could elect. All told, I think it was ~$200 a month for good coverage and max disability. (My take home was still $3K).

If I had done more with the HSA or whatever to withhold for my medical expenses and be able to write it off tax free, this would have changed the numbers somewhat, not sure by how much. I think I could have put in $4K for the year (which I easily could have used) but not really sure on the amount or rate of withholding there.

TDLR
Calculated minimum to withhold using IRS website, ie max exemptions
~$53K/yr gross
~$3K/mo take home
Difference was gov't withholding, and ~$200 monthly for health etc benefits

 

[Gfliptastic]

Is this timely since we all have W2's and wutnot? I mean, it must be deliberate. Even though I'm going to round.

PGY-2 in CT. Gross paycheck is $2500.
Retirement & Health Insurance (pre-tax) = $200/pay period (bi-monthly - 24 paycheck)
Fed Taxes = $575
CT Taxes = $100
Net = ~$1650 (rounded everything quite a bit, I know the math doesn't add up)

1/3 is fair (and even more liberal) rounding for taxes. Pretty much no refund this year. Health Insurance premiums actually got jacked up 30%, AND our HSA was cut 50%. Go figure! Bulls***!

 

[Gfliptastic]

What? 2500 gross??? That would put you at the 1th percentile for residency salary.

Or is that a biweekly paycheck? Only way that makes sense....

24 pay periods/year. Bi-monthly.

If I was supposed to only make 30K, I'd say F my loans, flee to Mexico and build Trumps wall.

 

[brotherman]

After taxation and insurance, as a resident, I took home about 65-70% of my base salary.

 

[DrMeowMeow]

Gross 52k a year
$60 per month pretax for cheapest health insurance/dental/vision
$240 per month pretax to my 403b since I'm contributing 6% to get maximum employer match
Claimed 1 allowance on W4. I'm single with no children and filing independent
Then after all the taxes and stuff they take out, I get about $2800 a month deposited into my account. $1400 every 2 weeks

 

[armybound]

I believe my salary is $52k/yr.
My net is $1343.10 every 2 weeks

This is after health, vision, dental for a family of 4 and my contribution to my FSA, maxed out
If there are more than 2 pay periods in a calendar month the deposit will be ~$200 higher on the third check

 

[backcountryrez]

I believe my salary is $52k/yr.
My net is $1343.10 every 2 weeks

This is after health, vision, dental for a family of 4 and my contribution to my FSA, maxed out
If there are more than 2 pay periods in a calendar month the deposit will be ~$200 higher on the third check

I admire your sanity for receiving this pay for a family of four. I Hope you're in a two-income household.

 

[armybound]

I admire your sanity for receiving this pay for a family of four. I Hope you're in a two-income household.

oh yeah. wife makes more than twice what I do.

there are obviously others who raise a family on this amount. it's doable.

 

[mvenus929]

Gross is somewhere around 53K. My monthly paycheck after insurances (~90/month) is about $3300 per month. I got about $700 back on taxes this year.

 

[J ROD]

I get right at 3K but our benefits are expensive. More so than I have paid on other jobs. Can't wait for the moonlight.....

 

[caffeinemia]

Pretty sure most residency salaries fall in the 25% tax bracket federally. State varies. I'd say by the end of the day you end up with about 60-70% of your salary after various taxes/retirement contributions?

 

[Raryn]

Pretty sure most residency salaries fall in the 25% tax bracket federally. State varies. I'd say by the end of the day you end up with about 60-70% of your salary after various taxes/retirement contributions?

So a typical resident who was single with no dependents, making say 55000 in CA (one of the higher tax states), would end up with about ~73% of his money after taxes.

Gross: $55k
Federal taxes: $7.9k
Social Security: $3.4k (many residents in CA are exempt from social security due to working for the UC system, but to compensate there's a 401(a) DCP that is almost exactly the same proportion of your salary, so that ends being a wash)
Medicare: $0.8k
California: $2.4k
State disability: $0.5k

Net pay: almost exactly $40k/year, or $3.3k/month.

To go more than 30% on taxes/retirement contributions, you'd have to be voluntarily putting money towards retirement, such as for a (Roth) IRA/401(k)/403(b). It's a good idea to do so, but the vast majority of residents don't (for a number of reasons, amongst which is the fact that physicians are notoriously bad with money).

Now, whether you see that full $3.3k or not is going to be a function of whether you have to pay for benefits. In residency, all of my benefits (health/vision/dental/life/disability/whatever) were all completely "free". That is, my portion of the premium was $0, and my salary was just salary. And they fed us hot meals 5 days a week and gave us vouchers for food on the weekend. In fellowship, I have premiums towards all of the above, plus I have to pay for parking and the hospital doesn't feed us (ever), so while I'm making nominally more money here, it's actually significantly less.

 

[kemper6036]

Gross 52k a year
$60 per month pretax for cheapest health insurance/dental/vision
$240 per month pretax to my 403b since I'm contributing 6% to get maximum employer match
Claimed 1 allowance on W4. I'm single with no children and filing independent
Then after all the taxes and stuff they take out, I get about $2800 a month deposited into my account. $1400 every 2 weeks

nice move

 

[Bacchus]

http://www.paycheckcity.com

Pick a state and salary. The average intern makes around 53k but the range is like 45-60, so it may help to look on some of your potential programs websites.

This. It's very accurate.