Federal Tax Bracket Calculator

Estimate regular federal income tax from taxable income and filing status. For 2026, a single filer pays 10% on the first $12,400 of taxable income, 12% up to $50,400, 22% up to $105,700, then 24%, 32%, 35% and 37% on higher slices, per IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The calculator covers all four filing statuses for 2027, 2026 and 2025. Results are for planning only. They are not a filed return and they are not a guarantee of what the IRS will assess.

2027 brackets

The IRS published the tax year 2027 brackets on November 5, 2026 in Rev. Proc. 2026-35. Pick 2027 in the Tax Year menu above to compute tax with these brackets. The calculator opens on 2026, the year of the return you file in 2027.

The 2027 standard deduction is $16,600 single or married filing separately, $33,200 married filing jointly and $24,925 head of household. Base tax amounts for each bracket, capital gains thresholds and the other 2027 figures are in the IRS inflation adjustments guide.

This calculator answers one question: the tax on a taxable income you already know. To go from wages, deductions, credits and withholding to the refund or the amount you will owe, use the tax refund calculator.

How US federal tax brackets work

The United States taxes ordinary income in stacked layers, not at a single flat rate on every dollar. The first slice of taxable income is taxed at 10%. The next slice is taxed at 12%, then 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. Crossing into a higher bracket does not reprice the dollars already in the lower layers.

That design is why “I got a raise and jumped a bracket, so I lost money” is almost never true for ordinary wages. Only the dollars above the threshold take the higher rate. The rest of your income keeps the lower rates.

Two numbers matter more than the headline bracket:

• Marginal rate — the rate on the next dollar of ordinary taxable income.
• Effective rate — total regular tax divided by taxable income (and, for a household picture, sometimes divided by AGI instead).

A single filer with $90,000 of taxable income might sit in the 22% bracket while paying an effective rate closer to the mid-teens. Use the calculator above to see both.

This page is part of the federal income tax hub. For the law changes that froze the TCJA rate structure and changed inflation on the bottom two brackets, read the OBBBA tax-changes guide.

Taxable income is not your salary

Brackets apply to taxable income, not to gross wages or to AGI.

A simplified path looks like this:

1. Start with gross income (wages, interest, some retirement distributions, business profit, and so on).
2. Subtract above-the-line adjustments to reach adjusted gross income (AGI).
3. Subtract the standard deduction or itemized deductions.
4. Apply other adjustments the return allows (for example QBI on a separate form).
5. What remains is taxable income — the number this calculator wants.

If you only know take-home pay, start with the paycheck after-tax calculator and the tax withholding calculator. Those tools work from wages and W-4 settings. This tool starts later in the stack, after deductions.

MAGI is a different figure used for Roth IRA phaseouts, some credits, and Medicare IRMAA. If a form asks for MAGI, use the MAGI calculator instead of pasting a bracket result.

Worked example: from a $75,000 salary to the number you enter

A single filer earns a $75,000 salary plus $2,000 of other ordinary income, defers $15,000 to a traditional 401(k), puts $3,000 into an HSA and pays $1,500 of student loan interest in 2026.

The student loan interest is fully deductible here because the 2026 phase-out for single filers starts at $85,000 of modified AGI ($175,000 joint) and ends at $100,000 ($205,000 joint), per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Entering the $77,000 of gross income instead of $41,400 would show $11,652 of tax, more than double the right answer.

What a deduction is worth at your bracket

Your marginal rate prices a deduction, but only for the dollars that stay inside one bracket. In the example above, dropping the 401(k) deferral would raise taxable income to $56,400 and tax to $7,120. The $15,000 deferral therefore saves $2,400, not a flat 12% ($1,800) or 22% ($3,300):

• $6,000 that would have landed in the 22% bracket (above $50,400) saves $1,320.
• The other $9,000, inside the 12% bracket, saves $1,080.

The rule: when a deduction is larger than the room between your taxable income and the bottom of your current bracket, split it at the threshold and price each piece at its own rate. Running the calculator twice, with and without the deduction, does the split for you.

Pre-tax 401(k) deferrals do not cut payroll tax. They remain Social Security and Medicare wages, so the filer above still owes 7.65% of $75,000, or $5,737.50, whatever the 401(k) election. Payroll deductions for an HSA through a cafeteria plan are the exception; they skip both taxes.

Ordinary rates versus capital gains

The seven rates on this page are for ordinary income: wages, interest, short-term capital gains, nonqualified dividends, and most retirement withdrawals that are not Roth.

Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends use a separate 0% / 15% / 20% structure (plus NIIT for some households). Do not run a stock sale through this calculator as if it were a bonus. Use the capital gains calculator and, if you are near the 3.8% surtax, the NIIT calculator.

Filing status still moves every threshold

The same seven rates apply to every filing status. The widths of the brackets change. Here are the 2026 thresholds (taxable income at the top of each bracket) from section 4.01 of Rev. Proc. 2025-32:

• Single — the base table.
• Married filing jointly — every threshold is exactly double the single amount up through 32%, which is why two similar earners rarely face a "marriage penalty" below the 35% bracket.
• Married filing separately — the same as single until the 35% bracket, which ends at $384,350 (half the joint $768,700). At $400,000 of taxable income an MFS filer owes $109,082 versus $108,769 for a single filer — the $313 gap is 2% on the $15,650 between $384,350 and $400,000.
• Head of household — wider 10% and 12% bands than single for qualifying unmarried people who keep up a home for a dependent; from 22% up it is close to the single table.

A couple comparing "file jointly versus separately" should not look only at brackets. Credits, the standard deduction, student-loan interest, and IRA rules can dominate. Run both statuses here, then check credits with the child tax credit calculator or EITC calculator if those apply.

OBBBA inflation on the lower brackets

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act kept the seven TCJA rates permanently (Rev. Proc. 2025-32, section 2.01). It also gave the 10% and 12% brackets a larger inflation adjustment than the rest of the table for 2026. You can see it by comparing the two Revenue Procedures for a single filer:

Practically, that means more income stays in the 10% and 12% bands than a uniform inflation factor would have allowed, while the 22%-and-up thresholds rise by the ordinary cost-of-living amount.

The calculator's tax-year selector switches between the 2025 and 2026 tables so you can see the difference. A single filer with $80,000 of taxable income owes $12,514 under the 2025 table and $12,312 under the 2026 table — $202 less for the same income. Official IRS Revenue Procedures and Form 1040 instructions control a filed return.

Inflation adjustments also hit the standard deduction, AMT exemption, and many credit phaseouts. The IRS inflation adjustments guide walks through those tables in one place.

Worked example: single filer

Suppose a single filer has $80,000 of 2026 taxable income (already after the $16,100 standard deduction).

• 10% on the first $12,400 = $1,240
• 12% on the next $38,000 ($12,400 to $50,400) = $4,560
• 22% on the remaining $29,600 ($50,400 to $80,000) = $6,512

Total regular tax is $1,240 + $4,560 + $6,512 = $12,312. The marginal rate is 22%. The effective rate is $12,312 ÷ $80,000 = 15.39%.

If that person later earns $1,000 of extra overtime, only that $1,000 is taxed at 22% for ordinary tax — $220 (FICA is separate). They do not pay 22% on the entire $80,000.

Overtime and tips may also qualify for temporary OBBBA deductions. Those are not the same as a bracket change. Model them on the Working Families Tax Cuts hub.

Worked example: married filing jointly

A couple with $180,000 of combined 2026 taxable income pays 10% on $24,800 ($2,480), 12% on the next $76,000 ($9,120) and 22% on the last $79,200 ($17,424), for $29,024 in total. Their marginal rate is 22% and their effective rate is 16.12%, because more than half of the income is taxed at 10% or 12%. Dual-income households sometimes look at “whose extra dollar is taxed more.” For ordinary wages on a joint return, the next dollar is taxed at the household’s joint marginal rate, not at each spouse’s old single rate.

Where stacking still hurts is payroll tax (Social Security wage base, Additional Medicare) and state tax, which this calculator does not include. California filers can pair this page with the California income tax calculator. For a national paycheck picture, stay on the payroll tax hub.

What this tool does not include

A real Form 1040 applies credits, other taxes, and phaseouts this estimator skips or only approximates:

• Payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare, Additional Medicare).
• The alternative minimum tax — use the AMT calculator.
• Net investment income tax — NIIT calculator.
• Self-employment tax on 1099 profit — 1099 tax calculator.
• The 20% QBI deduction — QBI deduction calculator.
• Credits (CTC, AOTC, LLC, EITC, adoption, and others).
• State and local income tax.
• Preferential rates on long-term gains and qualified dividends.

If you are a high earner with incentive stock options, AMT on a large ISO exercise can dwarf ordinary bracket tax. Use the ISO tax calculator with the AMT tool, not this page alone.

How to use the result

1. Confirm you entered taxable income, not gross pay.
2. Match filing status to the return you actually file.
3. Read total tax as regular federal income tax only.
4. Read effective rate as a planning ratio, not a withholding percentage. Withholding uses Publication 15-T tables and your W-4, which is why the withholding calculator exists.
5. If the result looks high, check whether you forgot the standard deduction. If it looks low, check capital gains, NIIT, or SE tax.

Mid-year, compare this annual estimate with what your employer has withheld year-to-date. A large gap is a W-4 problem, not a bracket-table problem.

The calculator gives exact bracket math. If your taxable income is under $100,000, the Form 1040 instructions have you look the tax up in the IRS Tax Table, which taxes the middle of a $50 income row ($25 under $3,000) and rounds to the dollar, so your return can differ by a few dollars. The free spreadsheet in income tax calculation in Excel shows both figures side by side.

Credits sit after the brackets

A $2,200 child tax credit does not change your 22% bracket. It subtracts from the tax the brackets produced. That is why a family can have a high marginal rate and a low (or zero) final tax. Run credits separately: child tax credit, EITC, AOTC, and the education tax credits calculator for the Lifetime Learning Credit.

If a credit is refundable, you can get money back even when bracket tax is already zero. If it is nonrefundable, it only eats the tax this calculator estimates. Mixing those ideas is how people conclude “brackets are wrong” when the real issue is a credit phaseout driven by MAGI.

Worked example: when credits push income tax below zero

A head of household with $30,000 of wages, no other income and two qualifying children under 17:

• Brackets: $30,000 − $24,150 standard deduction = $5,850 of taxable income, all at 10%, so $585 of tax. This is the only number this calculator produces.
• Child tax credit: $2,200 × 2 = $4,400. The first $585 wipes out the tax. Of the remaining $3,815, the refundable part is the smallest of that amount, $1,700 per child ($3,400), and 15% of earned income above $2,500 (15% × $27,500 = $4,125), so $3,400 comes back (IRS child tax credit).
• Earned income credit: the 2026 maximum with two children is $7,316, reduced by 21.06% of income above $23,890 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32): $7,316 − 21.06% × $6,110 ≈ $6,029. The IRS publishes the credit as a table in $50 bands, so the return can differ by a few dollars.
• Net federal income tax: $0 − $3,400 − $6,029 ≈ −$9,429, paid as a refund. Social Security and Medicare tax of 7.65% × $30,000 = $2,295 is still owed through payroll.

The bracket result ($585) and the final result (−$9,429) are both correct; they answer different questions. The EITC calculator checks the eligibility rules this example assumes.

How to use this calculator

Pick filing status, enter taxable income (not gross pay), and choose the tax year you are modeling. Read total tax first, then the bracket label, then the effective rate. The "Tax breakdown by bracket" card shows how many dollars fall in each band; the ceiling of a bracket belongs to that bracket, so exactly $12,400 for a 2026 single filer is all taxed at 10%. When your income is within $15,000 of the top of your current bracket, the tips card tells you how much room is left before the next rate starts. If you only have a salary offer, subtract a draft standard deduction before you enter the number, or you will overstate tax.

Keep a second tab open with last year’s return so you can sanity-check order of magnitude. A result that is double last year’s tax on similar income usually means you entered gross wages or you omitted a deduction the return had. A result that is almost zero on six-figure wages usually means you entered take-home pay.

Informational use only

Bracket widths, inflation adjustments, and related rules change. This calculator is an educational estimate. It does not file a return, give tax advice, or promise that your IRS balance due will match the output. Confirm figures against current IRS publications and, for material amounts, a qualified tax professional.

Related reading and tools: federal income tax hub, standard deduction calculator, paycheck after-tax calculator, OBBBA tax-changes guide.