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Tax Bracket Calculator

A tax bracket calculator shows which federal income tax bracket the last dollar of income falls in and how much tax each bracket adds, for any income and filing status in 2026.

Which tax bracket am I in?

Your pay for the year before the deduction. Type a plain number like 60000, with no dollar sign or commas. The most we accept is $10,000,000.

Filing status

The status on your federal return. Each one has its own bracket edges and its own standard deduction. Married filing separately is not offered.

Deductions

How Does a Tax Bracket Calculator Work?

A tax bracket calculator subtracts the deduction from income and then fills the brackets from the bottom up. Each bracket taxes only the income that falls inside it, at that bracket's rate, and the tax from every bracket is added together.

Tax = sum of (income in each bracket × that bracket's rate)

  1. Enter your yearly income and choose a filing status.
  2. We subtract the deduction. If Deductions is set to Standard, we use the standard deduction for your filing status.
  3. What is left is taxable income. We fill the lowest bracket first, then the next one, until the taxable income runs out.
  4. Each bracket's tax is the income inside it times its rate. The total tax is the sum of those slices.
  5. Your top bracket, also called the marginal rate, is the rate of the last bracket that holds any income. Income that lands exactly on a bracket's upper edge stays in the lower bracket.
  6. The effective rate is the total tax divided by your income.
Filing single for 2026, $60,000 of income less the $16,100 standard deduction. Each row shows how much of the $43,900 of taxable income lands in that bracket, which adds up to $5,020 of tax. An estimate of federal income tax, not tax advice.
RateBracket starts atBracket ends atIncome in bracketTax
10%$0$12,400$12,400$1,240
12%$12,400$50,400$31,500$3,780
22%$50,400$105,700$0$0
24%$105,700$201,775$0$0
32%$201,775$256,225$0$0
35%$256,225$640,600$0$0
37%$640,600No limit$0$0

The Math Behind Tax Brackets

Does moving into a higher tax bracket lower my take-home pay?

Moving into a higher tax bracket never lowers take-home pay, because only the dollars above the bracket's starting point are taxed at the higher rate. Rapunzl's calculator shows it with the default income plus a $10,000 raise. Taxable income goes from $43,900 to $53,900, which crosses into the 22% bracket at $50,400. Only the $3,500 above that line is taxed at 22%, so tax rises by $1,550 and $8,450 of the raise stays, before payroll and state taxes.

What is the difference between a marginal rate and an effective rate?

A marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar of taxable income, and an effective rate is the share of your whole income that goes to tax. For the default income, Rapunzl's calculator shows a marginal rate of 12% and an effective rate of 8.37%. The gap exists because the $16,100 standard deduction is untaxed and the first $12,400 of taxable income is taxed at 10%. Measured against taxable income instead of income, the tax is 11.44%.

How do the standard deduction and filing status change my bracket?

The standard deduction and filing status change your bracket because the deduction comes off income first, and each filing status has its own bracket edges. Take the same $60,000 of income in Rapunzl's calculator. Filing single leaves $43,900 of taxable income and a tax of $5,020. Married filing jointly leaves $27,800 and a tax of $2,840, and head of household leaves $35,850 and a tax of $3,948. All three land in the 12% bracket here, but the amounts taxed at each rate differ.

Using the Calculator in Class

Project it and ask students which bracket the default income lands in before you press go. Then change the income from $60,000 to $70,000 and ask whether take-home pay fell, since the top bracket jumps from 12% to 22%. Tax rises by only $1,550, and students can see which step took the new dollars. Close by switching to married filing jointly and asking why the same $60,000 now owes $2,840. The modules below cover income tax and fiscal policy, and the posts explain progressive taxes.

Questions about the tax bracket calculator

For 2026, a $60,000 income filing single with the $16,100 standard deduction has $43,900 of taxable income, which lands in the 12% bracket. The tax is $5,020, or 8.37% of income. The next bracket, 22%, starts at $50,400 of taxable income, $6,500 away. Married filing jointly, the same $60,000 leaves $27,800 of taxable income and a tax of $2,840. These are estimates of federal income tax only.

No. Bracket math alone never makes a raise leave you with less, because only the dollars above the new bracket's start are taxed at its rate. Take the default income and add a $10,000 raise. Taxable income rises from $43,900 to $53,900, and the 22% bracket starts at $50,400, so only $3,500 is taxed at 22%. The tax goes from $5,020 to $6,570, an extra $1,550, and $8,450 of the raise stays. The common mistake would be taxing all $53,900 at 22%, which would give $11,858. Credits and benefits that shrink as income grows are not in this calculator.

The marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar of taxable income, and the effective rate is your total tax divided by your total income. At $70,000 filing single, the top bracket is 22%, but the tax of $6,570 is 9.39% of income. Most of that income was either under the $16,100 standard deduction or taxed at 10% and 12%, and only $3,500 was taxed at 22%. That is why the effective rate comes out lower than the marginal rate.

For 2026, single filers pay these rates on taxable income: 10% up to $12,400, 12% up to $50,400, 22% up to $105,700, 24% up to $201,775, 32% up to $256,225, 35% up to $640,600 and 37% above that. Married filing jointly and head of household use different edges: the 12% bracket ends at $100,800 for joint filers and $67,450 for heads of household, against $50,400 for single filers. Each rate applies only to the income inside its bracket. The IRS sets these amounts in Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

The standard deduction is an amount subtracted from income before the brackets apply. For 2026 it is $16,100 for single, $32,200 for married filing jointly and $24,150 for head of household. Choose Standard under Deductions to use it, or choose Custom and type your own total to replace it. With $20,000 of deductions, the default income has $40,000 of taxable income and a tax of $4,552 instead of $5,020. This calculator does not work out itemized deductions for you.

No. It is an estimate of federal income tax for the 2026 tax year, using the IRS brackets and standard deductions. It leaves out state and local income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, credits, capital gains rates and any deduction other than the one you enter. Married filing separately is not offered. For the default income the estimate is $5,020, and a real return can differ. It is not tax advice.

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Sources. IRS: Federal income tax rates and brackets: When income reaches a higher bracket, the higher rate applies only to the part of income inside the new bracket. IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 4.01, Table 1 (married filing jointly and surviving spouses), Table 2 (heads of households) and Table 3 (unmarried individuals): as of tax year 2026 (single checked 2026-10-12; mfj and hoh added 2026-10-17). IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 4.14(1) (2026 inflation adjustments, including One Big Beautiful Bill Act amendments): as of tax year 2026 (checked 2026-10-12; amounts re-read 2026-10-17). Figures last checked October 12 2026.

Federal income tax only, for tax year 2026, using the brackets in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (section 4.01) and the standard deductions in section 4.14. State and local income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, credits, capital gains rates and other deductions are not included, and married filing separately is not offered. Amounts are shown to the nearest dollar. This is an estimate, not tax advice.

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