Tax Rates

Review 2026 federal brackets and plot marginal and effective tax rates across income levels. The charts mark Social Security, IRMAA, NIIT, and ACA thresholds, plus ordinary-income and long-term capital gains bracket edges.

Open Tax Rates Watch tutorial (4:39)

On this page

Features

Comparison of the 2025 and 2026 current-law brackets
Marginal and effective rate curves, including Social Security §86 taxability, NIIT, IRMAA, and ACA subsidy effects
Cliff annotations on the chart for every threshold the curves cross
All four filing statuses
Optional resident-state tax overlay (latest published state schedule)
Always uses the standard deduction. This page does not model itemized deductions

When to use this tool

Enter your income and filing status to estimate 2026 federal tax and compare marginal and effective rates. Change an income amount to model a raise, bonus, or Roth conversion.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Select your filing status: Single, Married Filing Jointly (MFJ), Married Filing Separately (MFS), or Head of Household (HoH). Optionally pick a resident state for the state-tax overlay.
Enter your W-2 wages and other ordinary income, such as a pension or IRA distribution. Then enter short-term and long-term capital gains.
Open Other income to enter qualified dividends, gross Social Security, and tax-exempt interest if applicable. Each shifts the rate curves and moves the cliff annotations.
Open IRMAA and ACA cliffs to draw Medicare-age IRMAA tiers or model an ACA SLCSP premium.
Review the bracket schedule and summary figures: federal tax, effective and marginal rates, and NIIT, IRMAA, or ACA effects when triggered. The summary figures and curve use the same tax calculation, so they agree at the entered income.

Include taxable interest and nonqualified dividends in Other Income for ordinary-income tax. This page does not separately classify those amounts as net investment income for NIIT. The detailed tax API has separate component fields for that use case.

Worked example

Scenario: Married filing jointly with $180,000 gross income, standard deduction.

Select MFJ. Enter $180,000 income. Use standard deduction ($32,200).
Taxable income = $180,000 − $32,200 = $147,800.
The bracket breakdown shows: first $24,800 taxed at 10% ($2,480), next $76,000 taxed at 12% ($9,120), next $47,000 taxed at 22% ($10,340).
Total tax: approximately $21,940.
Marginal rate: 22% (the bracket your last dollar falls in). Effective rate: ~12.2% ($21,940 / $180,000).

Each bracket's rate applies only to income in that bracket.

How federal tax brackets work

Federal income tax applies different rates to successive bands of taxable income, not one rate to all income.

Marginal rate: the rate on the next dollar of taxable income. See the Glossary.
Effective rate: total tax divided by total income.

2025 vs 2026: what changed

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) became law in 2025. It extended most Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) individual rate cuts that were due to expire. This page reflects these 2026 changes:

Rate brackets preserved: the TCJA rates continue. They do not revert to the pre-TCJA schedule.
Standard deduction: inflation-adjusted to $16,100 (single) / $32,200 (MFJ) for 2026.

Deductions

This page uses the standard deduction: $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married filing jointly. It does not model itemized deductions. The AMT Calculator accepts itemized deductions for its AMT estimate.

Filing status

Your filing status determines your bracket thresholds and standard deduction amount. The tool supports all four federal filing statuses: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, and head of household.