Tax calculator
Your 2026 federal income tax, effective and marginal rate, and refund or amount owed.
Who this is for: Estimating US federal income tax and your refund.
US Federal Estimate
Qualifying children for the child tax credit.
Net profit; can be negative for a loss.
The part of your dividends taxed at 0/15/20%.
Can be negative (loss).
Can be negative (loss).
Taxable pension / IRA / 401(k) distributions.
Also counts toward itemized SALT.
Capped at $2,500 a year.
Limits / phase-outs not checked.
Only if NOT already excluded from W-2 wages.
Feeds a conservative care-credit estimate.
EITC and similar — not auto-estimated.
Estimate only — sourced 2026 IRS figures for brackets, deductions, and the credits listed; AMT, EITC, QBI, NIIT and state returns are not computed. Not tax advice.
US federal estimate · 2026 · Single
Estimated federal tax
$7,670
Estimated refund
$1,330
Payments + refundable credits exceed the estimated tax.
After-tax income
$67,330
$5,611 per month.
Taxable income
$58,900
AGI $75,000 − standard deduction.
Effective tax rate
10.23%
Federal tax ÷ gross income.
Marginal federal rate
22%
On the top slice of ordinary income only.
Tax before credits
$7,670
Credits applied
$0
What this means
Includes your inputs, tax breakdown, refund estimate, formulas, sources, and disclaimer.
Where your income goes and how each band contributes to the tax.
From gross income to take-home
$16,100 of deductions and exclusions kept income out of the taxable base before tax was applied.
Tax before credits vs final tax
Tax by federal bracket
| Band | From | To | Rate | Taxable in band | Tax | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% bracket | $0 | $12,400 | 10% | $12,400 | $1,240 | $1,240 |
| 12% bracket | $12,400 | $50,400 | 12% | $38,000 | $4,560 | $5,800 |
| 22% bracket ← | $50,400 | $105,700 | 22% | $8,500 | $1,870 | $7,670 |
| 24% bracket | $105,700 | $201,775 | 24% | $0 | $0 | $7,670 |
| 32% bracket | $201,775 | $256,225 | 32% | $0 | $0 | $7,670 |
| 35% bracket | $256,225 | $640,600 | 35% | $0 | $0 | $7,670 |
| 37% bracket | $640,600 | No limit | 37% | $0 | $0 | $7,670 |
Ordinary income only — qualified dividends and long-term gains ($0) are taxed separately at 0/15/20%. ← marks the marginal bracket.
Income summary
| Income type | Amount | Treatment | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wages / W-2 income | $75,000 | Ordinary income |
Deduction summary
| Deduction | Amount | Applied | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard deduction | $16,100 | Standard |
Refund / amount-owed summary
| Item | Amount | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final estimated tax | $7,670 | Liability | |
| Withholding + payments | $9,000 | Payment | Withholding is a prepayment, not the final tax. |
| Estimated refund | $1,330 | Result |
A single filer with $75,000 of wages in 2026 owes $7,670 of federal income tax after the $16,100 standard deduction: 10.2% of the salary, although the top bracket reached is 22%. Add your filing status, dependents, other income, deductions and withholding to see your own figure and whether you get a refund.
IRS figures for 2026 and 2025 — full formula shown.
Updated 26 September 2026 · Works in any browser, no installation
It estimates your US federal income tax, your effective and marginal tax rates, and your refund or amount owed from your income, filing status, deductions, credits and withholding, on the IRS figures for 2026 or 2025. It shows a bracket-by-bracket breakdown, as an educational estimate, not a filing result. Income tax in the UK, India, Australia and Canada has its own calculator.
At a glance
Taxable income
Taxable Income = Gross Income − DeductionsNever below 0. Deductions act BEFORE tax.
Progressive tax
Progressive Tax = Σ (Amount in Band × Band Rate)Each band taxes only the slice inside it.
Effective tax rate
Effective Rate = Final Tax ÷ Gross IncomeThe average rate across all your income.
Marginal tax rate
Marginal Rate = Rate of Highest Band ReachedThe rate on your NEXT unit of income.
A single filer with $75,000 of wages in 2026 first takes off the $16,100 standard deduction, leaving $58,900 of taxable income. Bracket by bracket: $12,400 × 10% = $1,240; $38,000 × 12% = $4,560; $8,500 × 22% = $1,870. Total federal income tax is $7,670. The marginal rate is 22% — the rate on the next dollar earned — but the effective rate is only $7,670 ÷ $75,000 = 10.23%, because the first $16,100 was never taxed and the next slices paid 10% and 12%. Multiplying the whole salary by 22%, a common mistake, would wrongly produce $16,500.
That arithmetic is the whole of a progressive income tax. Income tax is a government levy on the money you earn — wages, business profit, interest, and other income — and the US federal system splits it into seven brackets taxed at their own rates, so higher slices of income pay higher rates while lower slices keep their lower rates. Taxable income is run through the bands in order, each band taxing only the income that falls inside it: Tax in Band = Amount in Band × Band Rate. The total is the sum across brackets, and credits subtract after that. The band-by-band table is the core of the result for exactly that reason: it shows how much of your income falls in each bracket and how much tax that slice contributes, so the total is never a mystery multiplication.
Two rates sit above the table. The marginal rate is what your next dollar of income would be taxed at; the effective rateThe average rate you actually pay across all your income — lower than your top tax bracket. is total tax divided by gross income, the honest average. Your bracket applies only to the top slice, and everything below it was taxed in cheaper brackets or not at all, thanks to the standard deduction, so the effective rate stays at or below the marginal rate whenever any income sits in those cheaper bands. The gap between the two is usually the most surprising number on the page.
The IRS sets seven rates, from 10% to 37%, and moves the dollar thresholds each year for inflation. These are the 2026 (filed in 2027) brackets on taxable income, that is, after the standard or itemized deduction. Married couples filing jointly get thresholds about twice the single ones in the lower brackets, and a head of household sits in between.
| Rate | Single | Married Filing Jointly | Head of Household | Married Filing Separately |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 to $12,400 | $0 to $24,800 | $0 to $17,700 | $0 to $12,400 |
| 12% | $12,400 to $50,400 | $24,800 to $100,800 | $17,700 to $67,450 | $12,400 to $50,400 |
| 22% | $50,400 to $105,700 | $100,800 to $211,400 | $67,450 to $105,700 | $50,400 to $105,700 |
| 24% | $105,700 to $201,775 | $211,400 to $403,550 | $105,700 to $201,750 | $105,700 to $201,775 |
| 32% | $201,775 to $256,225 | $403,550 to $512,450 | $201,750 to $256,200 | $201,775 to $256,225 |
| 35% | $256,225 to $640,600 | $512,450 to $768,700 | $256,200 to $640,600 | $256,225 to $384,350 |
| 37% | Over $640,600 | Over $768,700 | Over $640,600 | Over $384,350 |
A qualifying surviving spouse uses the married filing jointly brackets. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends have their own 0%, 15% and 20% rates on top of these: for a single filer in 2026 the 0% rate covers taxable income up to $49,450 and the 15% rate up to $545,500. The calculator stacks those gains on top of ordinary income the way the IRS worksheet does. For a 2025 return, choose 2025 in the calculator.
Most filers take the standard deduction instead of itemizing, and it comes off income before any bracket applies. The calculator uses whichever is larger unless you choose one.
| Filing status | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Single | $16,100 | $15,750 |
| Married Filing Jointly | $32,200 | $31,500 |
| Head of Household | $24,150 | $23,625 |
| Married Filing Separately | $16,100 | $15,750 |
Filers aged 65 or older, or blind, add an extra amount to the standard deduction, and from 2025 to 2028 each person aged 65 or older can also deduct up to $6,000, whether they itemize or not; that senior deduction shrinks by 6% of income above $75,000 ($150,000 for a joint return). The calculator applies both from the ages you enter.
A deduction reduces taxable income, so it saves roughly its amount × your marginal rate: in the 22% bracket, $1,000 of deduction is worth about $220. A credit reduces the tax itself, so $1,000 of credit is worth the full $1,000 — several times as much. Refundable credits can even be paid out beyond the tax; non-refundable ones stop at zero. Moving a figure between the deductions box and the credits box is therefore never cosmetic, which is why the calculator applies the two at different points in the chain.
Credits here are treated as non-refundable, flooring the tax at zero, except where explicitly labelled refundable: the child tax credit’s refundable part, and any other refundable credits you enter, can turn a zero bill into a refund. Deductions come in two places, adjustments such as student loan interest and pre-tax retirement contributions before AGI, and the standard or itemized deduction after it, and the calculator applies each where the IRS form does.
Under the two rates the result shows after-tax income, the deductions and credits actually applied, and — if you entered withholding or payments — an estimated refund or amount owed, since withholding is a prepayment rather than the final tax. Switch to Compare mode to see how a raise, a deduction, or a different filing status moves every one of those numbers side by side.
A bracket is the rate on the next dollar, not on the whole income. Below are the 2026 (filed in 2027) single-filer brackets at seven gross incomes of wages alone, after the $16,100 standard deduction. The gap between the two rates is widest just after a bracket boundary is crossed, not at the top of the scale. US mode builds these from sourced IRS figures for the selected year plus simplified IRS worksheets for Social Security taxability, SE tax, capital-loss netting, preferential-rate stacking, and the CTC/ACTC; the effective rate is measured against gross income as entered, and MAGI is approximated by AGI for phase-outs.
| Gross income | Taxable after deduction | Federal tax | Effective rate | Marginal rate | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $13,900 | $1,420 | 4.73% | 12% | 7.27 pp |
| $50,000 | $33,900 | $3,820 | 7.64% | 12% | 4.36 pp |
| $75,000 | $58,900 | $7,670 | 10.23% | 22% | 11.77 pp |
| $100,000 | $83,900 | $13,170 | 13.17% | 22% | 8.83 pp |
| $150,000 | $133,900 | $24,734 | 16.49% | 24% | 7.51 pp |
| $250,000 | $233,900 | $51,304 | 20.52% | 32% | 11.48 pp |
| $500,000 | $483,900 | $138,134 | 27.63% | 35% | 7.37 pp |
Every filing status ends at the same 37% top rate; what differs is how fast the average rate climbs toward it. Each figure is the salary at which a filer with wages only, taking the standard deduction and no credits, first pays that share of it in 2026 federal income tax.
| Filing status | Reaches 10% | Reaches 20% | Reaches 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single$16,100 standard deduction | $73,583 | $239,133 | $714,282 |
| Married Filing Jointly$32,200 standard deduction | $147,167 | $478,267 | $1,282,136 |
| Head of Household$24,150 standard deduction | $103,433 | $275,675 | $782,664 |
Credits move these points further out: the child tax credit alone keeps many families with children below a 10% federal rate well into six figures. Enter your dependents in the calculator to see where your own rate lands.
The estimate is federal only, and every limitation that follows is a place where the model stops rather than guesses. State and local taxes paid are an input to the itemized SALT deduction, not a return calculated in its own right: in Texas and the other states with no income tax the federal result is the complete picture, while in California and every state that levies its own income tax you add that calculation separately. It is not a filing tool either — no AMT, EITC, QBI, NIIT, state returns, or every credit phase-in — and manual overrides are what cover the rest. OBBBA’s temporary “no tax on tips” and overtime deductions (2025–2028) are not auto-applied: the calculator warns when tips are entered, and you can approximate an eligible deduction under “Other adjustments”.
Income tax outside the United States now has its own calculators, each built on its tax authority’s figures: the UK income tax calculator (HMRC bands, National Insurance, Scotland), the India income tax calculator (new against old regime), the Australian income tax calculator (ATO rates, Medicare levy, HELP) and the Canadian income tax calculator (federal plus every province and territory).
This is an estimate, not a filed computation. For net pay across pay periods, with Social Security, Medicare and state tax, use the salary & take-home pay calculator; for consumption taxes see the sales tax calculator.
Every rate, band, threshold and deduction shipped with this calculator comes from the authority that sets it, pinned to a named tax year rather than reproduced from memory. Each entry below names the figure it backs. Links open in a new tab.
For what a tax estimate captures, what it leaves out, and when to check official sources, see Why Tax Calculators Are Estimates and When to Check Official Sources.
To turn this estimate into a take-home figure after deductions, see How to Estimate Take-Home Pay Without Confusing Gross and Net Income.
For how sales tax and VAT/GST are calculated differently from income tax, see VAT, GST, and Sales Tax Calculations Explained With Examples.
Tax disclaimer
This calculator is for educational estimates only. It is not tax, legal, financial, accounting, or professional advice. It estimates US federal income tax; state and local income taxes, and many credits and phase-ins, are not calculated. Tax rules vary by filing status, income type, deductions, credits, residency, and tax year. Verify all figures with the IRS or a qualified tax professional before filing or making tax decisions.
How we calculate · Found an error? email us
Defined in the glossary: Effective Tax Rate.
Published 10 June 2026