What this income tax calculator works out
The calculator takes your gross income, removes any pre-tax contributions and your deduction, then walks the result through the 2026 federal brackets one band at a time. What comes back is the tax from each band, the total, your marginal and effective rates, payroll tax shown separately, and your take-home.
It is an estimate for planning, not a filed return. It does not model credits, dependants, or state income tax — see the limits below.
How federal income tax is actually calculated
The most common mistake in personal finance is assuming that reaching a bracket means paying that rate on everything. You do not. Income is sliced at each threshold and every slice is taxed at its own rate.
A single filer on $85,000 does not pay 22% on $85,000. They pay 10% on the first slice, 12% on the next, and 22% only on what is left above the third threshold — after the standard deduction has already come off the top. The per-band breakdown above shows exactly where each dollar landed.
Marginal rate vs effective rate
Your marginal rate is what the next dollar you earn is taxed at. Your effective rate is the total tax as a share of everything you earned. The second is always the lower of the two, often by a wide margin.
The distinction is not academic. It decides whether an extra shift is worth taking, whether to defer a bonus into next year, and how much a traditional retirement contribution is really saving you — every one of those turns on the marginal rate, not the average.
Marginal is the number that matters for a decision — whether to take the overtime, whether the next $1,000 into a 401(k) is worth it. Effective is the number that describes what actually happened. Confusing them is what makes people believe a raise can leave them worse off, which the bracket system does not do.
Standard deduction or itemize
For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 filing jointly, and $24,150 for head of household. Itemizing only helps when your deductible costs — mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to the cap, charitable giving — add up to more than that.
If you switch this calculator to itemize and enter a smaller figure, it still applies the standard deduction, because taking the larger of the two is how the law works.
The practical test is simple: add up your mortgage interest, your state and local taxes up to the cap, and your charitable giving. If the total clears the standard deduction for your status, itemizing is worth the paperwork; if it does not, the standard deduction is not just easier but strictly better. Homeowners in high-tax states with a large mortgage are the group most likely to clear it. Renters almost never do, which is why the large majority of filers take the standard deduction without a second thought.
A worked example, band by band
Take a single filer earning $85,000 who takes the standard deduction and puts nothing into a 401(k). The deduction comes off first, leaving $68,900 of taxable income. That figure is then cut at every threshold:
- the first $12,400 is taxed at 10%;
- the next slice, up to $50,400, at 12%;
- only what remains above $50,400 is taxed at 22%.
The top band touched is 22%, but the tax actually paid works out far below that as a share of the whole $85,000. That gap between the two numbers is the entire point of the breakdown above, and it is the figure most people get wrong when they estimate their own bill.
Change one input and watch which band moves. Adding pre-tax contributions pulls taxable income down from the TOP, so the first dollars saved come off at your highest rate — which is why the calculator prices the next $1,000 separately. Switching filing status swaps the whole bracket table and the deduction together, which is why a married couple filing jointly on the same household income usually lands in a lower band than either would alone.
Who this calculator is for
It answers the annual question: given everything I earn in a year, what is my federal income tax? That suits anyone checking whether their withholding is roughly right, weighing a raise or a bonus, deciding how much to put into a traditional 401(k), or sanity-checking a number a preparer has quoted.
It is not a per-paycheck tool. If what you want is the amount landing in your account each pay period after withholding, use the paycheck calculator, which models pay frequency and W-4 settings. If you are self-employed, the self-employment tax guide covers the extra half of FICA that employees never see. And if you want the raw schedules rather than a calculation, the 2026 tax brackets page lists every band for all four filing statuses.
What this calculator does not include
Being explicit about the edges matters more than looking comprehensive:
- State and local income tax. Federal only. State treatment varies across fifty jurisdictions, and we would rather show nothing than a rate we cannot source.
- Credits. The Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit and education credits all carry phase-outs and eligibility tests that a single input cannot represent honestly. Credits reduce tax directly, so your real bill may be lower than shown.
- Self-employment tax. If you work for yourself you owe both halves of FICA — see self-employment tax.
- Capital gains. Investment gains are taxed on their own schedule — use the capital gains calculator.
For the bracket tables themselves, see 2026 tax brackets. For per-paycheck withholding rather than an annual figure, use the paycheck calculator.
Income tax questions people ask
Does moving into a higher tax bracket mean I take home less?
No. Only the income above the new threshold is taxed at the higher rate — everything below it keeps being taxed at the lower rates. A raise always leaves you with more after tax than before it.
Why is my effective rate so much lower than my bracket?
Because most of your income is taxed in the bands beneath your top one, and your deduction removes a slice before any tax applies at all. The bracket you are "in" is the rate on your last dollar, not your average.
Does this include state income tax?
No — this is federal income tax only. Rates and rules vary by state, and several states levy no income tax at all, so your total bill may be higher than the figure shown here.
What is the difference between income tax and FICA?
FICA is payroll tax: Social Security at 6.2% up to $184,500 of wages, and Medicare at 1.45% with no ceiling. It funds specific programmes, it is charged on gross wages rather than taxable income, and it is shown separately above.
How accurate is this estimate?
The bracket arithmetic is exact and the thresholds come straight from the IRS Revenue Procedure for 2026. What it cannot see is your credits, dependants, state tax and any income taxed on a different schedule — so treat it as a planning figure, not a filed return.