2026 Income Tax Calculator

How federal income tax is actually calculated

The U.S. federal income tax is progressive: your income is split into bands and each band is taxed at its own rate. You don't pay your top rate on everything — only on the slice of income that falls inside each bracket. Start from your gross income, subtract your pre-tax contributions to get your adjusted gross income (AGI), then subtract the standard or itemized deduction to get your taxable income. The brackets apply to that taxable figure, not your salary.

The calculator above does this slice by slice and shows you exactly how much tax each bracket adds — the breakdown that most calculators hide behind a single number. That is the difference between your marginal rate (the rate on your last dollar) and your effective rate (your total tax divided by your income), and it is the single most misunderstood part of the tax system.

The 2026 federal tax brackets (post-OBBBA)

For tax year 2026 (returns filed in 2027) the seven rates are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA, July 2025) made these TCJA rates permanent and raised the standard deduction, which for 2026 is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married filing jointly, $24,150 for head of household and $16,100 for married filing separately.

Because the standard deduction is so large, most households are taxed on far less than they earn. A single filer earning $80,000 has roughly $63,900 of taxable income after the standard deduction — and only the portion above each bracket threshold is taxed at the higher rate. Calcuris publishes the 2026 figures first; several big-name calculators still show only the 2025 table.

Marginal rate vs effective rate

Your marginal rate is the rate of your highest bracket — it tells you what you'd pay on one more dollar of income. Your effective rate is your total tax divided by your income, and it is always lower because your first dollars are taxed at 10% and 12% before anything reaches your top bracket.

Example: a single filer with $60,000 of taxable income in 2026 sits in the 22% bracket, so their marginal rate is 22% — but their effective rate is closer to 11%, because most of their income is taxed at 10% and 12%. The colored bar above shows how much of your bill comes from each bracket, so you can see where your money actually goes.

Standard vs itemized deductions

You subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions — whichever is larger. Itemizing only beats the standard deduction if your deductible expenses (mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to the cap, charitable gifts, large medical bills) add up to more than your standard amount. With the 2026 standard deduction now over $16,000 for singles and $32,000 for couples, the large majority of filers take the standard deduction.

Tick Itemize deductions above and enter your total; the calculator automatically uses the standard deduction instead whenever it would lower your tax, so you always see the better of the two.

Filing status: why MFJ vs MFS matters

Your filing status changes both your brackets and your standard deduction. Married couples almost always pay less filing jointly (MFJ) than separately (MFS), because the joint brackets are wider and the joint standard deduction is double the single amount. The status table above runs your exact income through all four statuses at once, so you can see the gap instead of guessing.

Head of household (HoH) — for unmarried filers supporting a dependent — sits between single and joint: a bigger standard deduction ($24,150 in 2026) and wider low brackets than a single filer.

Lower your taxable income with pre-tax contributions

Money you put into a traditional 401(k) or traditional IRA comes out of your taxable income for the year, so it directly lowers your federal tax. Putting $10,000 into a traditional 401(k) removes $10,000 from the top of your taxable income — taxed at your marginal rate — which is why a contribution can be worth 22% or 24% of itself in tax saved. Enter your annual pre-tax contributions above to see the effect.

Note that 401(k) contributions lower your income tax but not your Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes — those are based on your full wages. To see your per-paycheck FICA and take-home pay, use the Calcuris paycheck calculator.

The Child Tax Credit and dependents

Each qualifying child under 17 can cut your tax by up to $2,200 for 2026 under OBBBA. A credit is far more valuable than a deduction: it comes straight off your tax bill dollar for dollar, not off your income. The credit begins to phase out once your income passes $200,000 (single) or $400,000 (married filing jointly), losing $50 for every $1,000 above the threshold. Enter your number of dependents above and the calculator applies the credit and any phase-out automatically.

State income tax is on top of federal

Most states levy their own income tax in addition to federal. Nine states — including Texas, Florida and Washington — tax no wage income at all; others use a single flat rate, and the rest use their own progressive brackets. Pick your state above to add an estimate to your federal result. The state figure is an estimate (it doesn't model every local tax, credit or deduction), while the federal numbers are exact to the 2026 IRS schedule.

Income tax calculator by state (2026)

See state income tax, your effective rate and the federal + state total for your state: