Income Tax Calculator

Federal income tax is computed in two moves. First, gross income is reduced to taxable income by subtracting a deduction. You get the larger of your itemized total and the standard deduction, which for tax year 2026 is $16,100 filing single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $16,100 married filing separately, and $24,150 as head of household. If you are 65 or older or blind, add $1,650 for each condition that applies, or $2,050 each if you are unmarried and not a surviving spouse — and both conditions can apply to the same person, with each spouse counted separately on a joint return. Second, the remaining taxable income is run through the seven-rate schedule of 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. Every figure here comes from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the IRS procedure that sets the inflation-adjusted amounts for 2026 under Public Law 119-21. The single filer thresholds are $12,400, $50,400, $105,700, $201,775, $256,225 and $640,600; the joint thresholds are exactly double the first three ($24,800, $100,800, $211,400) and then diverge at $403,550, $512,450 and $768,700. Here is the part that costs people real money in bad decisions: a bracket rate applies only to the slice of income inside that band, never to the whole amount. A single filer with $50,500 of taxable income pays 22% on exactly $100 of it, 12% on the $38,000 below that, and 10% on the first $12,400 — a total of about $5,822, not 22% of $50,500. Turning down a raise or deferring income to "stay out of a bracket" cannot make you better off, because there is no cliff to fall off. The bracket table in your result shows, band by band, how much of your income landed in each one and what each one cost, so you can see this rather than take it on trust. That is why the calculator reports two rates that people routinely confuse. Your marginal rate is what the next dollar you earn is taxed at — useful for deciding whether to make a deductible retirement contribution or take on freelance work. Your effective rate is total tax divided by total income, which is what you actually paid. They diverge sharply as income rises: a single filer on $250,000 sits in the 32% bracket but pays an effective rate near 20.5%, because everything below $201,775 of taxable income was taxed on the way up at lower rates. Married filing separately deserves a note. Its schedule is identical to single up to $256,225, then splits: a separate filer hits 37% at $384,350 while a single filer waits until $640,600. Separate filing also restricts credits and deductions this calculation does not model. The scope is deliberately narrow — ordinary income tax only. No credits, no alternative minimum tax, no Social Security or Medicare payroll tax, no self-employment tax, no qualified business income deduction, and no state tax. Long-term gains and qualified dividends are taxed under a separate preferential schedule, so run those through the capital gains calculator instead of adding them here. Because your marginal rate is what a pre-tax contribution actually saves you, it is worth pairing this with a 401(k) calculator before you set next year’s deferral rate, and with the salary calculator if you need to convert an hourly or monthly figure into the annual gross this form expects.