About PayByTown
PayByTown answers a practical question: what will you actually take home, and does it cover the cost of living where you are? It is owned and operated by Miko LLC, a small California limited liability company.
What you will find here
- Take-home pay calculators for each state whose 2026 tax rules we have fully verified, with every bracket, deduction and payroll rate linked to its official source. City and county income taxes are being added next.
- Childcare prices by county from the U.S. Department of Labor, labeled with their year (2022, the latest available).
- An afford-to-live-here calculator that combines take-home pay with official rent, childcare, electricity, grocery and sales tax figures for your county.
- Single-purpose calculators (home affordability, HELOC, credit card payoff) that run in your browser with no sign-up.
What this site is not
- It is not financial, tax or legal advice, and it does not give personalized recommendations.
- It does not sell loans, insurance or any other financial product, and it does not collect your contact details.
- Prices are medians or averages from public sources, and tax results are estimates. Your own numbers will differ.
How the site is made
We use software, including AI tools, to collect public data, write the calculation code and draft pages. AI tools never supply a number on their own: every tax parameter is checked against the official source and two independent references, and every dataset is taken from a named official file, as described in our methodology. Where a source does not publish a figure, we say so instead of estimating one.
How the site is funded
The site is free to use. We may show advertising to cover costs. Advertising never changes which numbers we publish or how we describe them.
Corrections
If you think a number is wrong or out of date, please tell us with the page address. We check the original source and correct the page if needed.
Last updated October 11, 2026.