Tax Bracket & Marginal Rate Calculator
See which federal tax bracket you are in, what your effective rate actually is, and — the number that matters most for decisions — what one more dollar of income would cost you. Every threshold comes from the published IRS inflation adjustments for the tax year you select, stored in a single data file so nothing here goes stale quietly.
Tax assumptions: tax year 2026 · federal only
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EstimateThis calculator provides estimates for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Results are based on the assumptions and information entered and may differ materially from actual outcomes. Tax rules and financial regulations can change. Consult an appropriately qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.
Tax credits are not modelled and can reduce real tax owed substantially. Treat this as an upper-bound estimate of federal income tax rather than a completed return.
- Marginal bracket and effective rate shown side by side, because confusing them is expensive.
- A bracket-by-bracket breakdown of exactly where your income is taxed and how much each band contributes.
- Shows the tax on the next $1,000 earned and the saving from another $1,000 contributed pre-tax.
- Federal income tax only, before credits. That limitation is stated in the results, not hidden here.
Marginal rate and effective rate are not the same number
This is the misconception the page exists to fix, and it costs people real money — usually in the form of turning down overtime, a raise or a bonus in the belief that it will leave them worse off.
Your marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar of income. Your effective rate is your total tax divided by your income. The US federal system is progressive, so the effective rate is always lower than the marginal rate, often by a lot.
Take a single filer with $95,000 of wages in tax year 2026, taking the standard deduction of $16,100. Taxable income is $78,900:
| Bracket | Income taxed here | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| 10% on the first $12,400 | $12,400 | $1,240 |
| 12% from $12,400 to $50,400 | $38,000 | $4,560 |
| 22% from $50,400 to $78,900 | $28,500 | $6,270 |
| Total | $78,900 | $12,070 |
The marginal rate is 22%. The effective rate on the full $95,000 of income is about 12.7%. Nearly half the income is taxed at 12% or less, and the first $16,100 is not taxed at all.
Earning more never reduces your take-home pay. Crossing a bracket threshold means the dollars above it are taxed at the higher rate — not all of your income retroactively. A $1,000 raise for this filer costs $220 in federal income tax and leaves $780. There is no cliff.
How the tax figure is built up
The calculation runs in a specific order, and understanding it explains why some deductions are worth more than others.
Gross income − above-the-line deductions (401k, HSA, deductible IRA, student loan interest…) = Adjusted gross income (AGI) − standard OR itemised deduction (whichever is larger) − senior deduction, if eligible = Taxable income → ordinary income taxed through the brackets → long-term gains and qualified dividends taxed on their own schedule + net investment income tax, if AGI exceeds the threshold = Total federal income tax before credits − tax credits (NOT modelled here) = What you actually owe
Two things follow from this ordering. First, above-the-line deductions reduce AGI itself, which can also help you qualify for other benefits that phase out with AGI — they are worth more than their face value suggests. Second, itemising only helps to the extent your itemised deductions exceed the standard deduction; the first dollars of itemising replace the standard deduction rather than adding to it.
The tax year 2026 brackets
These are the figures the calculator uses when the 2026 tax year is selected. They come from the IRS inflation adjustments published in Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and apply to taxable income — after your deduction, not your gross pay.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $12,400 | $0 – $24,800 | $0 – $17,700 |
| 12% | – $50,400 | – $100,800 | – $67,450 |
| 22% | – $105,700 | – $211,400 | – $105,700 |
| 24% | – $201,775 | – $403,550 | – $201,775 |
| 32% | – $256,225 | – $512,450 | – $256,200 |
| 35% | – $640,600 | – $768,700 | – $640,600 |
| 37% | above $640,600 | above $768,700 | above $640,600 |
Standard deductions for 2026: $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $16,100 married filing separately and $24,150 head of household. Taxpayers aged 65 or over, or who are blind, add a further amount per qualifying condition, and a temporary additional deduction for those aged 65 and over applies through tax year 2028, phasing out as income rises.
What you can actually do with this information
Knowing your marginal rate is useful because it prices decisions. It does not, however, mean you can "move income into a lower bracket" — that phrase describes something that does not exist. What you can do is change the timing and character of income.
Pre-tax contributions. A dollar into a traditional 401(k) or a deductible IRA reduces taxable income by a dollar, saving you your marginal rate. At 22%, $1,000 contributed saves $220 this year. The tax is deferred, not cancelled — you pay it on withdrawal, at whatever rate applies then. That is a bet on your future rate, which the Roth vs. Traditional calculator examines properly.
Roth conversions in low-income years. If you have an unusually low-income year — a career break, an early retirement year before pensions begin — the room left in your current bracket can be filled with a Roth conversion at that lower rate. Your results show exactly how much room remains before the next rate applies.
Timing income and deductions. If you can influence when a bonus is paid or when a charitable gift is made, shifting it across a year boundary can matter when your rate differs between the two years. "Bunching" several years of charitable giving into one year to clear the standard deduction threshold is the same idea.
Understanding the character of income. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed under a separate, lower schedule. Short-term gains are not — they are ordinary income. The Capital Gains calculator handles that interaction.
What this calculator does not include
Stated plainly, because the gap between this estimate and a real return can be large:
- Tax credits. The child tax credit, education credits, the earned income credit, the premium tax credit and others reduce tax dollar for dollar, and some are refundable. For households eligible for them, real tax owed can be dramatically lower than shown here.
- State and local income tax. Not modelled at all. Depending on where you live this can add anywhere from nothing to more than ten percent.
- The alternative minimum tax. Affects a small number of filers, but not zero.
- Payroll tax. Social Security and Medicare are separate from income tax and are not in the headline figure. For many households they are a larger cost than income tax.
- Phase-outs. Many deductions and credits taper as income rises, creating effective marginal rates higher than the stated bracket. Those are not modelled.
- Situation-specific provisions. Rental income, foreign income, trusts, business entity elections and much else.
This is an educational tool for understanding how the bracket structure works and pricing marginal decisions. It is not a substitute for tax preparation software or a professional.
Common mistakes
Believing a raise can leave you worse off. It cannot, through the bracket system. (Benefit cliffs in means-tested programmes are a genuine and separate issue, but they are not tax brackets.)
Applying the marginal rate to all your income. This overstates tax substantially — by roughly $8,800 in the example above.
Using gross pay instead of taxable income. The brackets apply after your deduction.
Assuming itemising is better. It only helps above the standard deduction, and since that was raised substantially, most households are better off with the standard deduction.
Chasing deductions past the point of sense. A dollar spent to save 24 cents of tax is still 76 cents gone. Deductions are worth having for spending you would do anyway.
Frequently asked questions
Your bracket is determined by your taxable income — gross income less above-the-line deductions and less your standard or itemised deduction — not by your salary. Enter your figures above and the calculator shows both the bracket and how much of your income actually falls into it, which is usually less than people expect.
No. Only the income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate. A raise that pushes part of your income into the 24% bracket means those dollars are taxed at 24% while everything below stays exactly as it was. You always keep more after a raise than before. (Means-tested benefits can have genuine cliffs, but that is a different system from income tax brackets.)
The marginal rate is what your next dollar is taxed at — the number that matters for deciding whether to take overtime or make a pre-tax contribution. The effective rate is total tax divided by income, which is what you actually pay on average. Because the lower brackets and the standard deduction apply to everyone, the effective rate is always lower, often by ten percentage points or more.
Roughly your marginal rate multiplied by the contribution, since the contribution comes off the top of your taxable income. At a 22% marginal rate, $1,000 contributed saves about $220 in federal income tax this year. The calculator shows the exact figure for your situation. Remember the tax is deferred rather than cancelled — withdrawals from a traditional account are taxed as ordinary income.
They are shown separately but are not in the headline income tax figure. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security up to the annual wage base and 1.45% for Medicare on all wages, with an employer paying the same again. Self-employed people pay both halves — the W-2 vs. 1099 calculator covers that in detail.
Use the year the income is earned. Tax year 2026 covers income earned during calendar year 2026, reported on the return you file in early 2027. The calculator carries the published figures for the years listed in the tax year selector, and every threshold lives in a single data file so the site owner can add a new year without changing any calculation code.
Most commonly because of credits, which are not modelled here and reduce tax dollar for dollar. Other reasons include state income tax, withholding that differed from your actual liability, income the calculator does not know about, phase-outs of deductions, and provisions specific to your situation. Treat this as an estimate of federal income tax before credits, and use tax software or a professional for a real return.