Estimate your federal capital gains tax on investments, real estate, or other assets. Calculate whether your gain qualifies as short-term or long-term, and your tax owed.
The trade, and the tax year it lands in
The trade itself
$
What you originally paid, including commissions and fees.
$
months
Months held. Long-term = 12+ months.
Your position for the year
$
Your total taxable income including this gain — affects the long-term rate.
Estimated Tax Owed
$4,500.00
Federal capital gains tax on this transaction.
Formula verified 25 September 2026
Capital Gain
$30,000.00
Sale price minus cost basis (purchase price + fees).
Applicable Tax Rate
15.0
Federal capital gains tax rate applied to this gain.
Net Gain After Tax
$25,500.00
Capital gain minus estimated tax.
Long-Term Gain? (1=Yes, 0=No)
1
1 = held 12+ months (favorable rates); 0 = short-term (taxed as income).
Holding to twelve months takes this $30,000 gain from 22% to 15%
A $50,000 position sold for $80,000 after eighteen months is a long-term gain. For a single filer with $75,000 of income that is taxed at 15%: $4,500, leaving $25,500. Sell the identical position one month before the twelve-month mark and it becomes short-term, taxed as ordinary income at 22% — $6,600, leaving $23,400.
Capital Gain = Sale Price − Cost Basis | Long-term: 0/15/20% by income | Short-term: ordinary income rate
The same $30,000 gain therefore costs $2,100 more purely because of the sale date. The holding period runs from the day after acquisition to the day of sale, and it must exceed one year — twelve months exactly does not qualify as more than a year on its own, so the safe reading is one year and a day. Few decisions in personal tax have this large an effect for this little effort.
0%, 15% or 20% depending on income, not on the size of the gain
Long-term capital gains use a separate rate schedule from ordinary income. For 2026, a single filer pays 0% up to $49,450 of taxable income, 15% up to $545,500, and 20% above that; the thresholds are higher for married filing jointly and head of household. The default household sits in the 15% band.
The 0% band is genuinely valuable and widely missed. A retiree or anyone in a low-income year can realise gains up to the threshold at no federal tax at all, which makes deliberate gain harvesting worth considering. Note that the gain itself counts toward the income that positions you in the schedule, so a large realisation can push part of itself into a higher band.
The same $75,000 of income is taxed at 22% single and 12% married filing jointly
Short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income, which means they follow your own bracket table rather than a single universal one. On $75,000 of income a single filer sits in the 22% band; a married couple filing jointly on the same income sits in the 12% band, because the joint brackets are roughly twice as wide at the lower levels. Head of household falls between the two, with a 12% band running to $67,450.
The calculator reads the brackets for the status you select rather than assuming single, so the short-term figure reflects the filer rather than a default. On a $30,000 short-term gain, that distinction is worth $3,000 between a single filer and a joint one.
Commissions, reinvested dividends and inherited property all change it
Basis is what you paid plus acquisition costs — commissions and fees — and it is adjusted by later events. Reinvested dividends in a fund are purchases and add to basis; forgetting them means paying tax twice on the same money. Stock splits divide basis across the new share count. For real property, capital improvements add to basis while depreciation claimed reduces it.
Two cases differ sharply. Inherited assets generally receive a stepped-up basis to market value at the date of death, which can eliminate a lifetime of accrued gain. Gifted assets usually carry the giver’s original basis instead, which can transfer a large embedded gain along with the asset. Both are worth confirming before a sale rather than after.
Federal only, gains only, and none of the surtaxes or offsets
The calculator reports federal tax on a single gain. It does not include state capital gains tax, which several states levy at ordinary income rates and a handful do not levy at all, nor the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax that applies above $200,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $250,000 for joint. It also excludes the alternative minimum tax and any credits or phase-outs a larger gain might trigger.
Losses are outside the model too. The gain is floored at zero, so a loss reports no tax rather than the offset it would actually provide — capital losses net against gains and up to $3,000 a year against ordinary income, with the remainder carried forward. Special rates also apply to collectibles at 28% and to unrecaptured Section 1250 real estate gain at 25%. For anything material, confirm with a tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is capital gains tax on home sales?
Your primary residence gets a special exclusion: $250,000 of capital gains is excluded for single filers; $500,000 for married filing jointly — if you lived there 2 of the last 5 years. Gain above the exclusion is taxed at long-term capital gains rates. Investment properties don’t qualify for the exclusion.
What is tax-loss harvesting?
Tax-loss harvesting involves selling investments at a loss to offset capital gains. Losses offset gains dollar-for-dollar. If losses exceed gains, up to $3,000 of net capital losses can offset ordinary income per year; remaining losses carry forward to future years. The wash-sale rule disallows the loss if you buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale.
Do I owe capital gains tax on inherited assets?
Inherited assets receive a "step-up in basis" to the fair market value at the date of inheritance. This means if you sell immediately, the taxable gain is effectively zero. This is one of the most significant capital gains tax benefits in the US tax code.
Sources & References
Figures on this page are checked against primary, authoritative sources. Links open in a new tab.
Tax rules vary by country, state, tax year, filing status, income type, deductions, and exemptions. This calculator is educational and uses the values you enter. Always verify final tax treatment with official sources or a qualified tax professional.
Restored this calculator to the catalog. It had been retired as a deletion rather than merged, so no surviving calculator covered capital gains tax; the URL serves a full page again and the legacy /finance/ path redirects to it.
Published the calculator with its formula, worked example, assumptions, limitations and FAQs, and added an automated formula test suite covering it.
Corrected the short-term rate, which had been read from the single-filer bracket table for every filing status — taxing a joint filer on 75,000 dollars of income at 22% instead of 12%. Ordinary-income brackets now come from the same sourced federal table the Income Tax Calculator uses.
Frequently Asked Questions now show on the page: 3 answers, checked in a page-by-page audit.
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