US Tax Bracket Calculator 2026

Worked example

Take a single filer with a $85,000 gross income taking the 2025 standard deduction.

Step 1 - Taxable income: $85,000 - $15,750 = $69,250.

Step 2 - Apply the brackets (marginal):

• 10% on the first $11,925 = $1,192.50
• 12% on the next $36,550 (from $11,925 to $48,475) = $4,386.00
• 22% on the remaining $20,775 (from $48,475 to $69,250) = $4,570.50

Total federal income tax = $10,149.00

Step 3 - Rates: The last dollar landed in the 22% band, so the marginal rate is 22%. The effective rate is 14.7% of taxable income ($10,149 / $69,250), or 11.9% of gross income ($10,149 / $85,000). Notice the taxpayer is "in the 22% bracket" but pays far less than 22% overall, because only the top slice is taxed at 22%.

Marginal rate vs effective rate: what this calculator shows

The single most common tax myth is that moving into a higher bracket taxes all of your income at that higher rate. It does not. The US federal income tax is marginal and progressive, which means each rate applies only to the portion of your taxable income that falls inside that bracket's dollar range. Your marginal rate is simply the rate on your last dollar, which is the rate of the highest bracket you reach.

Your effective rate is the blended average you actually pay: total tax divided by income. Because the lower slices of your income are taxed at 10% and 12% before any higher rate touches a dollar, your effective rate is always lower than your marginal rate. In the worked example above, a single filer sits in the 22% bracket but pays an effective 14.7% of taxable income and only 11.9% of gross income.

This distinction matters for real decisions. A worker weighing overtime, a bonus, or a Roth conversion only pays the marginal rate on the extra income, not on everything they earn. So a $1,000 bonus for a 22%-bracket filer costs $220 in federal income tax, and the rest of their pay is untouched. Earning one dollar over a bracket threshold never leaves you with less money after tax, because only that one extra dollar is taxed at the higher rate.

The calculator reports both numbers side by side, plus a bracket-by-bracket breakdown so you can see exactly how the total was built. It models federal ordinary income tax only. It does not include Social Security and Medicare (FICA) payroll taxes, self-employment tax, the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax, state or local income tax, or the separate 0/15/20% rates on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends. Those are handled by dedicated calculators, so treat this as a clean read on your federal bracket position.

How filing status and the 2025 standard deduction change your result

Two inputs move your answer more than anything else: your filing status and your deduction. Filing status does double duty. It sets the dollar width of every bracket, and it sets your standard deduction. That is why the same gross income can produce very different tax bills for a single person versus a married couple.

For the 2025 tax year (returns filed in 2026), the standard deduction was raised by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to $15,750 for single filers, $31,500 for married filing jointly, $23,625 for head of household, and $15,750 for married filing separately. This amount is subtracted from gross income before any bracket applies, so a married couple filing jointly shields $31,500 before paying a cent of income tax.

The bracket widths differ too. Married filing jointly brackets are exactly twice the single brackets through the 32% band (the 10% band runs to $23,850 versus $11,925 for single), which is why joint filing usually beats filing separately. Head of household, available to unmarried people supporting a qualifying dependent, sits between single and joint: its 12% band runs to $64,850, wider than the single $48,475, and it carries a larger standard deduction.

Married filing separately mirrors the single thresholds up to the 35% band, then the 37% top rate kicks in at just $375,800, half the joint figure. Couples rarely lower their combined bill by filing separately, though it can make sense for income-driven student loan plans or to isolate one spouse's liability. Choosing the correct status in the calculator is the fastest way to a realistic number, because a wrong status distorts both the deduction and every bracket at once.

Reading the 2025 federal bracket table

The calculator's bracket table is the heart of the result, so it helps to know how to read it. There are seven rates for 2025: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. Each row shows a dollar range of taxable income and the rate that applies inside it. Your income fills the table from the bottom up.

For a single filer, the ranges are: 10% up to $11,925; 12% from $11,925 to $48,475; 22% to $103,350; 24% to $197,300; 32% to $250,525; 35% to $626,350; and 37% on everything above $626,350. For married filing jointly, the 37% rate starts much higher, at $751,600, and every lower band is correspondingly wider. Head of household filers hit 37% above $626,350, the same ceiling as single, but with wider low and middle bands.

Read the table as a stack of slices, not a single switch. If your taxable income is $120,000 as a single filer, you do not pay 24% on all of it. You pay 10%, then 12%, then 22% on the slices below $103,350, and 24% only on the roughly $16,650 that sits above $103,350. The breakdown column shows the tax generated by each slice, and the sum is your total.

These thresholds are inflation-adjusted every year under IRS Revenue Procedure 2024-40, so 2025 numbers differ from 2024 and will differ again for 2026. Always match the table year to the return you are filing. Because the tool applies the 2025 tax-year schedule, it is the right reference for the return you prepare in early 2026. If you are estimating quarterly taxes or planning a large one-off event like exercising stock options, watch the width of your current bracket: it tells you how much more income you can add before the next rate applies.

Standard vs itemized: which deduction lowers your taxable income more

The deduction dropdown decides how much income the brackets never touch, so it directly changes your marginal and effective rate. You take the larger of the standard deduction or your total itemized deductions, and this calculator lets you enter an itemized figure to compare.

The standard deduction is a flat amount that needs no receipts: $15,750 single, $31,500 married filing jointly, $23,625 head of household for 2025. Because those amounts are now fairly high, the large majority of filers come out ahead taking the standard deduction and never itemize.

Itemizing means adding up specific deductible expenses instead: home mortgage interest, state and local taxes (capped), charitable contributions, and qualifying medical costs above a threshold. Itemizing only helps if that total beats your standard deduction. For a single filer, itemized deductions have to clear $15,750 before the first extra dollar of benefit appears. A homeowner with a mortgage and sizeable state taxes may clear it; a renter usually will not.

Here is how it flows through the calculator. Suppose a head-of-household filer earns $95,000. With the standard deduction, taxable income is $95,000 - $23,625 = $71,375. If instead they have $28,000 of itemized deductions, taxable income drops to $67,000, roughly $4,375 lower. In the 22% marginal band, that difference is worth about $963 in tax. The tool will apply whichever deduction you select, so run it both ways: choose Standard for the baseline, then switch to Itemized and enter your total to see whether the paperwork is worth it.

One caution: this calculator models the deduction as a single subtraction from gross income to keep the bracket math transparent. It does not compute credits (such as the Child Tax Credit or education credits), above-the-line adjustments, or the qualified business income deduction. Those can lower your final bill further, but they sit outside the pure bracket calculation shown here.

Frequently asked questions