🧾 Income Tax Calculator

Your 2026 federal income tax, marginal and effective rates — and what you keep.

How it works

Federal income tax is not one percentage slapped on everything you earn. It works like a staircase. Before any rate applies, you subtract the standard deduction — $16,100 for a single filer in 2026, $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly — plus any extra deductions you entered. Whatever is left is your taxable income.

That income is taxed in slices using the 2026 brackets. The first slice is taxed at 10%, the next at 12%, then 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37% only on single-filer income above $640,600. Each rate touches just the slice inside it, which is why a raise never causes your whole salary to be taxed at the higher rate — only the part of the raise inside the new bracket.

Two rates come out of the maths. Your marginal rate is the bracket your last dollar fell into, and it is the useful one when you are judging a raise, a bonus or some extra freelance work. Your effective rate is the total tax divided by your whole income, and it is always lower than the marginal rate. That is the number that tells you what the IRS actually took overall.

Finally, any tax credits you entered are subtracted directly from the tax bill, dollar for dollar, which makes a credit worth more than a deduction of the same size. Everything here is an estimate only, not tax advice: it covers regular federal tax on ordinary income, not capital gains rates, self-employment tax, or state taxes.

An example

Take a single filer earning $90,000 in 2026, with no extra deductions and no credits. The $16,100 standard deduction comes off first, leaving taxable income of $73,900.

Now walk up the staircase. The first $12,400 is taxed at 10%, which is $1,240. The next slice, from $12,400 to $50,400, is $38,000 taxed at 12% — $4,560. The remaining $23,500 falls in the 22% bracket and adds $5,170. Total federal tax: $10,970.

So the marginal rate is 22%, because that is the bracket the last dollar landed in. But the effective rate is only 12.2%, since most of the income was taxed at 10% and 12%, and the first $16,100 was never taxed at all. After tax, this filer keeps $79,030 of the $90,000.

Notice what a raise would do: another $1,000 of income gets taxed at 22%, costing $220 — not 22% of everything earned that year. And if this same person had $2,000 of tax credits, the bill would drop straight from $10,970 to $8,970, because credits come off the tax itself rather than off income.

Common questions

What is the difference between my marginal and effective rate?

Your marginal rate is the bracket your last dollar of income fell into — 22% in the example above. Your effective rate is your total tax divided by your total income, which came to 12.2%. The effective rate is always the smaller, more honest number.

Are deductions or credits worth more?

Credits, dollar for dollar. A $1,000 deduction saves you $1,000 times your marginal rate — $220 if you are in the 22% bracket. A $1,000 credit takes a full $1,000 straight off the tax bill.

Does this include state taxes or Social Security?

No — this is federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare (the FICA taxes) are separate payroll taxes, and most states add an income tax of their own on top. The paycheck calculator shows FICA alongside federal tax if you want the full picture.

Related calculators

This calculator gives estimates for learning. Rates, taxes and rules change, and your lender or the IRS has the final numbers — check big decisions against the real documents.