Maine Salary Paycheck Calculator

Payroll taxes can be daunting. With a slew of different deadlines and forms to fill out and different laws in every state, it can seem impossible to keep it straight. Main business owners, don’t worry, you’ll be off to a good start with the information below.  We’ve summarized the key state and federal payroll taxes, and we’ve included the most common paycheck rules you’ll need to know.

Keep this guide by your side so you can spend less time worrying about payroll taxes and paycheck rules and more time growing your business. 

Maine payroll taxes

Here’s what you need to know about withholding payroll taxes in Maine.

• Maine payroll taxes start with employees filling out Form W-4 ME. This information helps you determine how much you should withhold.
• If an employee does not complete this form, you will need to withhold tax as though no exemptions were claimed.
• Employees need to update Form W-4 ME in case of life events (such as marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, etc.) that may impact their taxes.
• The personal income tax rate in Maine is 5.8%–7.15%.

Additional Maine forms

In addition to Form W-4ME mentioned above, Maine employers also need to file the following forms:

1. Employer's Payment Voucher for Income Tax Withheld (900ME)*
2. Quarterly Return of Unemployment Contributions (ME-UC-1)
3. Combined Filing for Income Tax Withholding & Unemployment Contributions (941/C1-ME)
4. Wage and Tax Statement (State W2)
5. Reconciliation of Income Tax Withheld (W-3ME)
6. New Hire Report

Maine unemployment tax rate

Maine requires most employers to pay unemployment insurance tax to help compensate workers who are out of work through no fault of their own.

• Employers pay Maine unemployment tax on the first $12,000 of an employee’s wages.
• New employers pay at a rate of 2.24%; 0.07% (CSSF rate), 0.14% (UPAF rate).
• Experienced employers pay at a rate of 0.74–6.16%.
• Unemployment tax should be paid quarterly through the MDOL Unemployment: Employer Services page.

Paying Maine taxes

Here’s what you need to know about paying Maine taxes:

• How often employers pay depends on the amount of tax you withhold in a year. 
• Maine’s payment frequencies are quarterly and semi-weekly.

Maine salary threshold

Maine has a salary threshold of $41,401 a year or $796.17 a week.

Workers’ Compensation

Requirements to obtain Workers' Compensation vary by state. This table outlines some of these requirements. If you determine that your company is required to purchase Workers' Compensation insurance in your state, learn how to sign up for this insurance with Gusto. Sometimes, companies get a request for a workers' comp audit—head to this article and click the workers’ comp audit reports dropdown for more information.

New hires

Employers in Maine need to report new employees.

• New hires must be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services.
• New hires must be reported within seven days of their first day of work.

Payroll stubs

You must provide a pay stub to every employee that includes:

1. Company’s legal name and address
2. Employee’s name and last four digits of their Social Security number
3. Pay period beginning and end dates
4. Total hours worked
5. Rate of pay
6. Gross wages
7. The amount and reason for any deduction

Final paychecks

Employers must pay final wages to employees on or before the company's next regular payday.

Time off

Maine law requires employers to provide the following types of time off to employees.

• Jury duty
• Family & Medical leave applies to employers with 15 or more employees at one location
• Domestic violence leave

Federal payroll taxes

In addition to Maine-specific taxes, both you and your employees will pay a variety of federal payroll taxes. Check out the breakdown below.

Federal income tax

Unless they are exempt, your employees will pay federal income tax.

• You must withhold federal income tax from employees’ pay, unless they are exempt.
• Each employee’s Form W-4 will differ based on their filing status and dependents, among other details—so the amount of income tax to be withheld will vary.
• Form W-4 does not need to be sent to the IRS, but should be kept for your records.

FICA

Both you and your employees will pay Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA tax.

• FICA is made up of the Medicare tax and the Social Security tax.
• In 2023, the Social Security tax requires employers and employees to each contribute 6.2% of wages up to $2,600.
• The Medicare tax requires employers and employees to each contribute 1.45% of all wages.
• See the IRS webpage for details, like maximum thresholds.

FUTA

Like the state, the federal government also has an unemployment tax, called FUTA, which is paid by employers.

• FUTA is an annual tax an employer pays on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages.
• The FUTA rate for 2023 is 6.0%, but many employers are able to pay less, for instance, up to 5.4% each year due to tax credits.
• Most employers will pay this tax annually with Form 940. But larger employers with more than $500 in tax due will have to pay quarterly.

Additional Medicare tax

The Additional Medicare tax is paid by employees. Here’s what you should know:

• For employees that earn over $200,000 per year, 0.9% of earnings will need to be withheld for the Additional Medicare tax. 
• Whether or not your employee owes this tax may depend on their filing status.

Paying federal taxes

How often you’ll pay federal payroll taxes depends on how much you owe.

• Semi-weekly or monthly payments are required for federal withholding, Additional Medicare, and FICA taxes. And every quarter, a summary payroll tax return is due on Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return.
• Quarterly or annual payments are required for federal unemployment tax. Most employers will pay annually, but quarterly payments are necessary if you owe more than $500. Each time you make a payment, you’ll need to file a payroll tax return on Form 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return.

We’re here to help

If you don’t love manual number crunching and payroll taxes sound overwhelming to you, take advantage of Gusto’s full-service payroll options or use an experienced accountant to help you with the process.