Income tax calculator
Enter your income, your filing status and your deduction to see your federal income tax for 2026, your marginal and effective rates, and the tax in each bracket. Add credits to see what they take off.
This answer is for the example values in the boxes above. Single, income $85,000, standard deduction. Change the boxes to see your own answer.
This is the federal income tax for 2026 on income taxed at the ordinary rates. Social Security and Medicare tax, state tax, the lower rates on long-term gains and the alternative minimum tax are not in it.
The effective rate is the tax divided by your total income.
How it works
The calculator takes your adjustments off your income to get your adjusted gross income. Then it takes off your deduction, which is the standard deduction for your filing status unless you choose itemized deductions. What is left is your taxable income.
The tax is worked out bracket by bracket from the 2026 tables of Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Each rate applies only to the part of your taxable income that falls in its bracket, and the tax of the brackets is added up. Credits come off the total, down to 0.
Two rates describe the result. The marginal rate is the rate on your last dollar. The effective rate is the whole tax over your total income, so it is always lower.
A worked example
A single filer has $85,000 of income and takes the standard deduction of $16,100. The taxable income is $68,900.
The first $12,400 is taxed at 10 percent, which is $1,240. The next $38,000 is taxed at 12 percent, which is $4,560. The last $18,500 is taxed at 22 percent, which is $4,070. The tax is $9,870.
That is a marginal rate of 22 percent and an effective rate of 11.61 percent of the $85,000.
What changed for 2026
The standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100 in 2026, up from $15,750 in 2025. For a married couple filing jointly it rises from $31,500 to $32,200, and for a head of household from $23,625 to $24,150.
What it leaves out
This is the federal income tax on income taxed at the ordinary rates. Social Security and Medicare tax, state income tax, the alternative minimum tax and the lower rates on long-term gains are not in it. Other deductions and credits that you qualify for can be entered under adjustments, itemized deductions and credits.
Sources
Questions
How is federal income tax calculated?
Take your adjustments and your deduction off your income to get your taxable income. Then charge each bracket’s rate on the part of the income that falls in it, and add the results. Credits come off the total.
What is the difference between a marginal and an effective tax rate?
The marginal rate is the rate on your last dollar of taxable income, which is the rate of your bracket. The effective rate is your tax divided by your total income. On $85,000 a single filer’s marginal rate is 22% and the effective rate is 11.61%.
What is the standard deduction for 2026?
It is $16,100 for a single filer or a married person filing separately, $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly and $24,150 for a head of household. Each person who is 65 or older or blind adds $1,650, or $2,050 if unmarried.
Does a raise push all of my income into a higher bracket?
No. Only the income above the start of the bracket is taxed at its rate. A single filer with $50,400 of taxable income owes $5,800, and a $1,000 raise adds $220 of tax, which is 22% of the raise.
How much is the child tax credit?
It is up to $2,200 for each qualifying child for 2026. The credit is reduced by $50 for each $1,000 of income above $200,000, or $400,000 on a joint return. Enter the credit under tax credits.
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