Tax Calculator

The federal income tax uses a progressive bracket system, meaning your income is split into segments and each segment is taxed at its own rate. Moving into a higher bracket does not raise the tax rate on income you already earned in a lower bracket, it only applies the higher rate to the portion of income that falls inside that new bracket.

The table below shows the 2026 federal income tax brackets by filing status, the ranges of taxable income that apply to taxes filed in 2027.

For comparison, here are the 2025 brackets, the ones that apply to taxes filed in 2026.

Marginal Tax Rate vs. Effective Tax Rate

Your marginal tax rate is simply the rate on the bracket your last dollar of income falls into, the highest rate you reach. Your effective tax rate is your total tax bill divided by your total income, a blended average across every bracket you passed through on the way up.

These two numbers are almost never the same, and the gap between them tends to grow as income rises. A single filer with $70,000 in 2026 taxable income has a 22% marginal rate but only a 9.4% effective rate, since most of that income was actually taxed at 10% and 12%, not 22%.

Before your income tax is calculated, it is first reduced by either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions, whichever you choose. The standard deduction is a fixed dollar amount set by the IRS based on your filing status, no receipts or records required. Itemizing means adding up specific real expenses instead, such as mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to the current cap, charitable contributions, and medical expenses above a set threshold of your income.

Most filers take the standard deduction since it is larger than their real itemizable expenses. It only makes sense to itemize if your actual eligible expenses add up to more than the standard deduction shown above for your filing status. Switch the Deduction Type field to itemized and enter your own total to compare the two directly.

Additional Deduction for Age 65+ or Blindness

If you or your spouse are 65 or older, or blind, the IRS adds an extra amount on top of the regular standard deduction shown above, and the two conditions stack if both apply. This only applies when taking the standard deduction, not when itemizing. Open Advanced Options above to include it.

Whether you get a refund or owe additional tax depends on how much was already withheld from your paychecks or paid in estimated taxes during the year, compared against your actual tax liability. If more was withheld than you actually owe, the difference comes back to you as a refund. If less was withheld than you owe, you are responsible for paying the difference by the filing deadline.

Enter what you already know was withheld or paid in the Taxes Already Withheld field above, and this calculator will show the difference as an estimated refund or amount owed.

• A new job or a raise mid-year that was not reflected in updated withholding
• 1099 or freelance income with no tax automatically withheld at all
• A second income source pushing your household into a higher bracket than either job alone withheld for
• Selling investments or other income that had no withholding applied

This tool is scoped to federal income tax only, and it is worth being upfront about what that leaves out. It does not calculate state or local income tax, which varies by state and can add several more percentage points depending on where you live. It also does not include Social Security and Medicare (FICA) payroll tax, which is a separate 7.65% withheld from most paychecks on top of income tax.

It also does not model the new, temporary Enhanced Deduction for Seniors, up to $6,000 per qualifying person age 65 or older for tax years 2025 through 2028, since it phases out above a certain income level in a way this calculator does not replicate. The IRS's own page on this deduction has the current, exact eligibility and phase-out rules.

This calculator also does not walk through W-4 paycheck withholding adjustments the way the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator does. If you specifically need to adjust how much your employer withholds from each paycheck, that official IRS tool is the more precise option, since it accounts for your actual pay schedule.

This is the general-purpose federal Tax Calculator. If your situation is more specific, one of these related calculators may give a more precise estimate for your circumstances.

• Self-Employment Tax Calculator for freelancers and independent contractors covering both halves of FICA
• Quarterly Estimated Tax Calculator for planning estimated tax payments through the year
• Tax Calculator for Small Business Owners for owner income and business deductions
• Tax Calculator for Content Creators / YouTubers for ad revenue, sponsorships, and platform payouts
• Tax Calculator for Digital Nomads for income earned while working across multiple countries