How 2026 federal income tax is worked out
Federal income tax is not a single percentage of your pay. The IRS first takes a deduction off your income, and then taxes what is left in slices, each slice at its own rate. The calculator follows the same two steps:
T = I − D, then tax = Σ rate × (part of T inside each bracket)
Iis your yearly income: wages and other ordinary income, after pre-tax payroll deductions such as traditional 401(k) contributions, which never appear in the wages box of your Form W-2.Dis your deduction: the standard deduction for your filing status, or your itemized deductions (for example mortgage interest, state and local taxes and charitable gifts) when you enter a total larger than the standard deduction.Tis taxable income, never below zero.
For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and for married people filing separately, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and qualifying surviving spouses, and $24,150 for heads of household. These amounts already include the changes made by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill passed in 2025.
The brackets are set by section 1(j) of the Internal Revenue Code and adjusted for inflation each year in an IRS revenue procedure. There are seven rates, from 10% to 37%. For a single filer in 2026:
- 10% on taxable income up to $12,400
- 12% on over $12,400 up to $50,400
- 22% on over $50,400 up to $105,700
- 24% on over $105,700 up to $201,775
- 32% on over $201,775 up to $256,225
- 35% on over $256,225 up to $640,600
- 37% on over $640,600
For married couples filing jointly the same rates apply to wider slices:
- 10% on taxable income up to $24,800
- 12% on over $24,800 up to $100,800
- 22% on over $100,800 up to $211,400
- 24% on over $211,400 up to $403,550
- 32% on over $403,550 up to $512,450
- 35% on over $512,450 up to $768,700
- 37% on over $768,700
Heads of household have their own table, with the 12% rate starting above $17,700. Married people filing separately use the single brackets until the top rate, which starts above $384,350, exactly half the joint figure. The table each filing status uses is the one the revenue procedure assigns to it; a qualifying surviving spouse uses the joint table.
Each table in the revenue procedure also prints the tax at the start of every bracket, such as $5,800 at $50,400 for a single filer. The calculator adds up the slices instead of looking those figures up, and for all four tables every figure it produces at a bracket start is the base amount printed in the table. Amounts are kept to the cent; the Form 1040 instructions let you round to whole dollars on the return.
Worked example: a single filer earning $85,000
- Deduction: the standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100, so taxable income is $85,000 − $16,100 = $68,900.00.
- 10% on the $12,400.00 that falls in bracket 1 (up to $12,400): $1,240.00.
- 12% on the $38,000.00 that falls in bracket 2 (up to $50,400): $4,560.00.
- 22% on the $18,500.00 that falls in bracket 3 (up to $105,700): $4,070.00.
- Total federal income tax: $9,870.00.
The marginal rate, the rate on the last dollar earned, is 22%. The effective rate is the tax divided by income: $9,870.00 ÷ $85,000 = 11.6%. The two answer different questions. The marginal rate tells you how much of the next dollar of income goes to federal income tax; the effective rate tells you how much of all your income went to it.
What changes the result
Income right on a bracket line
The tables read "not over" and "over", so income exactly at a bracket line stays in the lower bracket. A single filer with $66,500 of income has $50,400 of taxable income and owes $5,800.00, all of it at 12% or less. Only the first dollar above the line is taxed at 22%.
A raise that crosses into the next bracket
Moving into a higher bracket never taxes the rest of your income at the higher rate. A single filer whose income rises by $2,000, from $65,500 to $67,500, crosses from the 12% bracket into the 22% bracket. The tax rises by $340.00, and income after federal tax still rises, from $59,820.00 to $61,480.00.
Filing jointly
With the same $85,000 as a married couple filing jointly (one earner), the deduction is $32,200, taxable income $52,800.00 and the tax $5,840.00, against $9,870.00 for a single filer. Filing as head of household, which requires being unmarried and paying more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying person, gives $6,948.00.
Itemizing
You take whichever deduction is larger. A single filer with $22,100 of itemized deductions deducts that amount and owes $8,550.00; with $15,100 of itemized deductions, the standard deduction of $16,100 is larger and the tax stays at $9,870.00.
Frequently asked questions
Is this what I owe, or my refund?
It is the tax on your income before credits. Your refund or balance due is the difference between your total tax after credits and what was already withheld from your paychecks or paid as estimated tax. Credits such as the child tax credit reduce the tax itself, dollar for dollar, and are not modeled here; the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator compares your withholding with your expected tax.
Why might my Form 1040 show a slightly different number?
When taxable income is less than $100,000, the Form 1040 instructions have you look up your tax in the Tax Table, which lists one tax amount for each income band. In the latest published table (for 2025), the bands are $25 wide up to $3,000 (narrower still below $25) and $50 wide from $3,000 up to $100,000. This calculator applies the rate tables to your exact taxable income, as the Tax Computation Worksheet does from $100,000 up, so below that line the two can differ by a few dollars.
Which filing status do I use?
It depends on your marital status on the last day of the year and on who lives with you and whom you support. The calculator offers Single, Married filing jointly, Married filing separately, Head of household, Qualifying surviving spouse, each applied with the table the revenue procedure assigns to it (for example Table 2 for heads of household). The IRS page on choosing the correct filing status lists the conditions for each one.
What income and deductions are left out?
Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, which are taxed at their own lower rates; the alternative minimum tax; self-employment tax; the additional standard deduction for people aged 65 or older or blind; and the deductions added in 2025 for qualified tips, qualified overtime, qualified vehicle loan interest and seniors, which are claimed on Schedule 1-A. If any of these apply to you, the figure here covers only the ordinary income part.
When do the 2026 numbers apply?
To income earned from January 1 to December 31, 2026, which you report on the return filed in 2027. The IRS publishes the next year's brackets and standard deduction each autumn; this page states the tax year it uses and is updated when new figures are published.
Sources
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2025-32: 2026 tax rate tables (section 4.01) and standard deduction (section 4.14)
- IRS news release IR-2025-103: tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026, including amendments from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
- IRS, Choosing the correct filing status
- IRS, Instructions for Form 1040 (Tax Table and Tax Computation Worksheet)
- IRS, Tax Withholding Estimator