Each band, its rate, and a marker on the highest band your income reaches — the band that sets your marginal rate.
Band
Income range
Rate
Band 1
0 – 10,000
0%
Band 2
10,000 – 40,000
10%
Band 3
40,000 – 85,000
20%
◀ your marginal rate
Band 4
Above 85,000
30%
Estimates only — not financial, tax, or professional advice.
100% private — every number you enter is calculated in your browser and never sent to our servers.
What it calculates: Marginal Tax Rate, Tax on Next 1,000, Band You Are In.
Updated 5 June 2026 · Transparent assumptions
$60,000 in a 20% band does not mean $12,000 of tax
Progressive tax charges each band only on the income falling inside it. At the default bands, the first $10,000 is untaxed, income from $10,000 to $40,000 is taxed at 10%, and the portion from $40,000 to $85,000 at 20%. Someone on $60,000 pays nothing, then $3,000, then $4,000 — $7,000 in total, not $12,000.
This is the single most widespread misunderstanding in personal tax, and it has a practical cost: people decline raises, refuse overtime or turn down promotions believing a higher bracket applies retroactively to their whole income. It never does. Crossing into a higher band changes the rate on the next dollar only.
$200 on the next thousand is the number that should drive decisions
The marginal rate is the rate on the next unit of income, so the tax on another $1,000 — $200 here — is the figure that matters for any decision at the margin. Is the overtime worth it, is the side income worth declaring, is a pension contribution worth making: all of them are answered at the marginal rate, not the effective one.
It cuts both ways. A deduction saves tax at the marginal rate, so $1,000 into a pension saves $200 for this taxpayer and $370 for someone in a 37% band. The same contribution is worth almost twice as much to the higher earner, which is the entire logic of relief at the marginal rate.
Withdrawn allowances and benefit tapers create spikes no bracket table shows
Published bands are not the whole story. Allowances that phase out as income rises, benefits that taper, and thresholds that trigger a separate charge all raise the true marginal rate above the headline band. In several systems there are income ranges where the effective marginal rate exceeds 60%, sitting between two published bands of far less.
These spikes matter precisely because they are invisible. Someone earning just below such a threshold can take a raise and keep almost none of it. Anyone near a known cliff should compute the marginal rate over the actual range rather than reading it off a band table — which is what entering your own bands here allows.
Payroll contributions, local tax, and credits that phase out
The bands entered here are income tax alone. Payroll or social contributions have their own thresholds and often their own ceilings, so the combined marginal rate can fall at the point where a social contribution caps out — one of the few places where earning more lowers the marginal rate.
State, provincial or local income taxes stack on top, as do surcharges above certain thresholds. And credits that reduce as income rises act exactly like extra tax at the margin. For a decision of any size, build the band table from every charge that applies to you rather than from the headline national bands.
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.
Published the calculator with its formula, worked example, assumptions, limitations and a bespoke guide, and added an automated formula test suite covering it.
Verified that each band applies only to the income inside it, so crossing a threshold never re-taxes income below it — the misunderstanding that makes people decline raises.
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