Tax Bracket Calculator United States

Your federal tax bracket gives your marginal rate, the rate on your next dollar of income. That rate tells you how much of a bonus you keep and how much a deductible retirement contribution saves. Enter your taxable income and filing status, and this tax bracket calculator shows which 2026 federal bracket you are in and the income range it covers.

How federal tax brackets work

US income tax is progressive: income is divided into slices, and each slice is taxed at its own rate. For 2026 there are seven rates, 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%, each applying only to the income within its band. The first slice of taxable income is taxed at 10%, the next at 12%, and so on. The rate of the highest band your income reaches is your marginal rate.

Think of buckets stacked from the floor up. Income fills the lowest bucket first at 10%, then spills into the next at 12%, and so on. Reaching a new bucket never re-taxes the dollars already in the ones below.

Marginal rate versus effective rate

Your marginal rate is the rate on your last dollar earned. Your effective rate is your total tax divided by your total income, which is always lower because earlier slices were taxed at lower rates. A single filer in the 22% bracket pays 22% only on the income inside the 22% band. That is also why a raise never leaves you worse off: only the income above the next threshold is taxed at the higher rate.

The gap can be large. A single filer with $60,000 of taxable income is in the 22% bracket, yet the tax works out to roughly $7,900, an effective rate of about 13.2%. Treating the bracket as the rate on all your income overstates your tax by a wide margin.

Why filing status matters

The rates are the same for everyone, but the dollar thresholds depend on how you file. Married couples filing jointly get roughly double the width in the lower bands compared with single filers, head of household falls in between, and married filing separately matches the single thresholds through most of the range. The same taxable income can therefore put a single filer and a joint filer in different brackets. The calculator loads the 2026 table for the status you select.

A worked example

Suppose you are single with $60,000 of taxable income in 2026. The 10% band runs from $0 to $12,400, the 12% band from $12,400 to $50,400, and the 22% band from $50,400 to $105,700. Your $60,000 is above $50,400 and below $105,700, so your marginal bracket is 22%, with a range of $50,400 to $105,700. Only the income between $50,400 and $60,000 is taxed at 22%; the rest is taxed at 10% and 12%. With $50,000 of taxable income you would be one band lower, in the 12% bracket.

Using the result

A deductible contribution to a traditional 401(k) or HSA saves tax at your marginal rate, so a filer in the 22% band saves 22 cents per dollar contributed. Extra taxable income, such as a bonus or side work, is taxed at the marginal rate until it crosses the next threshold.

If you are near the top of a band and a few thousand dollars would push you into the next one, deferring income to next year or making a pre-tax retirement or HSA contribution can keep that slice in the lower band. In a lower-income year, such as after a job change, in early retirement or during a sabbatical, you might do the opposite and deliberately realize income, for example by converting a traditional IRA to a Roth, while your marginal rate is low.

Assumptions and limitations

The tool reports the federal ordinary-income bracket for the taxable income and filing status you enter, using the IRS 2026 thresholds stored as reviewed parameters. It expects taxable income, after your standard or itemized deductions, not gross salary, and it does not calculate the deduction for you. It does not model state income tax, the alternative minimum tax, capital gains rates, the additional Medicare tax, credit phase-outs, or the open-ended top bracket, which has no upper limit. For an exact liability, use a full income tax calculator or ask a tax professional.

About This Tax Bracket Calculator

Use this tax bracket calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official IRS guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.