Federal Income Tax Calculator

2025 and 2026 federal tax brackets by filing status

The IRS publishes seven ordinary-income brackets each year. The rate schedule itself (10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37%) was set by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA, Public Law 119-1). The bracket thresholds are adjusted each year using a chained-CPI inflation formula. The 2025 thresholds come from Rev. Proc. 2024-40 and the 2026 thresholds from Rev. Proc. 2025-32.

Standard deduction tracking: $15,750 / $31,500 / $23,625 for single, married filing jointly, and head of household in 2025; $16,100 / $32,200 / $24,150 in 2026. OBBBA §70101 raised the 2025 baseline and made the higher amounts permanent — they no longer sunset at the end of 2025 the way the original TCJA standard deduction was set to.

2025 federal tax brackets

2026 federal tax brackets

Married Filing Jointly has the widest brackets at every rate. Married Filing Separately uses the same 10% / 12% / 22% / 24% / 32% widths as Single, but the 35% and 37% thresholds are exactly half of the MFJ thresholds — that is where the so-called marriage penalty bites high-earning couples who file separately.

How to calculate your federal income tax, step by step

1. 1. Start with gross income. Add up W-2 wages (box 1), self-employment net profit from Schedule C, interest and dividends from 1099-INT and 1099-DIV, capital gains from Schedule D, rental income from Schedule E, retirement-account distributions from 1099-R, and any other income that lands on Form 1040 lines 1–8. Some items — municipal bond interest, qualified Roth distributions, gifts received — are excluded entirely.
2. 2. Subtract above-the-line adjustments to get AGI. Schedule 1 collects the most common ones: half of self-employment tax, deductible traditional IRA contributions (subject to MAGI phaseouts when you are covered by a workplace plan), HSA contributions, student loan interest up to $2,500, and the self-employed health insurance deduction. The result is Adjusted Gross Income — the number every phaseout in the code uses as its anchor.
3. 3. Subtract the standard or itemized deduction. Take whichever is bigger. The 2025 standard deduction is $15,750 single / $31,500 MFJ. Itemizing only helps if SALT (capped at $40,000 in 2025, with a 30% phaseout starting at $500k MAGI per OBBBA §70120), mortgage interest, charitable contributions, and unreimbursed medical above 7.5% of AGI add up to more than the standard amount.
4. 4. Apply the brackets to taxable income. For every bracket your taxable income passes through, multiply the income in that bracket by the bracket rate. Sum across brackets. This is the bracket-by-bracket math the calculator on this page renders in the "breakdown" view.
5. 5. Subtract non-refundable credits, then apply refundable credits. Non-refundable credits (Child Tax Credit non-refundable portion, Saver's Credit, AOTC non-refundable portion, dependent care credit) reduce tax owed but not below zero. Refundable credits (EITC, Additional CTC up to $1,700 per child in 2025, AOTC refundable 40%, ACA premium tax credit, recovery rebate credits) can drive your liability below zero and produce a refund.

Capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed under a separate 0% / 15% / 20% schedule — they do not pass through the ordinary brackets above. Use the capital gains tax calculator for that side of the return. Earned income above $200,000 single / $250,000 MFJ also picks up an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax, modelled in the FICA calculator, and investment income above the same MAGI thresholds picks up the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (see the NIIT calculator).

Four worked examples

Each example uses the standard deduction, ignores credits, and uses the 2025 brackets and 2025 standard deduction shown above. The numbers below are generated from the same calculator engine that powers the widget at the top of this page.

Notice that even at $400,000 of gross wage income, the effective federal rate stays under 25% — the marginal-versus-effective gap that makes progressive bracket systems work. Adding state income tax, FICA payroll tax, the additional 0.9% Medicare tax, and NIIT on investment income changes the total burden materially; the tax burden by income calculator and the paycheck calculator add those layers.

Deductions and credits that lower your federal tax bill

Three layers reduce what you owe: above-the-line adjustments (which shrink AGI itself), the deduction you take against AGI (standard or itemized), and tax credits applied after the bracket math.

Above-the-line adjustments (Schedule 1)

• HSA contributions — up to the annual self-only or family cap, deductible even if you take the standard deduction. See the HSA calculator.
• Traditional 401(k) and traditional IRA contributions (IRA subject to MAGI phaseouts when covered by a workplace plan). Model both with the 401(k) calculator.
• Student loan interest deduction — up to $2,500, phased out by MAGI.
• Self-employment tax deduction — half of SE tax. See the self-employment tax calculator.
• Self-employed health insurance premiums.
• Educator expenses (up to $300) and certain alimony paid on pre-2019 decrees.

Itemized deductions (Schedule A)

Worth itemizing only when these add up to more than your standard deduction. OBBBA-permanent caps and floors:

• State and local taxes (SALT): $40,000 cap in 2025 ($40,400 in 2026, OBBBA-indexed), with a 30% phaseout that starts at $500,000 MAGI ($250,000 MFS) and floors at $10,000 / $5,000 MFS. See OBBBA §70120 and the Schedule A calculator.
• Home mortgage interest: deductible on the first $750,000 of acquisition debt taken out after 15 Dec 2017 ($1M grandfathered before that). See the mortgage interest deduction calculator.
• Charitable contributions: cash contributions to public charities capped at 60% of AGI, with a 0.5% AGI floor introduced by OBBBA starting 2026. See charitable donation optimizer.
• Unreimbursed medical expenses: deductible only above 7.5% of AGI.

Tax credits (applied after brackets)

• Child Tax Credit: $2,000 per qualifying child under 17, with up to $1,700 refundable as the Additional CTC in 2025. See the Child Tax Credit calculator.
• Earned Income Tax Credit: refundable, scales with earned income and number of qualifying children. See the EITC calculator.
• American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) and Lifetime Learning Credit. See AOTC vs LLC.
• Saver's Credit, ACA Premium Tax Credit, Dependent Care Credit, Clean Vehicle Credit (under OBBBA sunset rules).

Common federal-tax mistakes worth avoiding

• Confusing marginal with effective rate. A "22% bracket" filer rarely pays 22% of total income — the bracket only applies to the slice of income inside that range.
• Forgetting Schedule 1 adjustments. HSA and self-employment health insurance especially are easy to miss because they live above-the-line, not on Schedule A.
• Using prior-year brackets after the inflation update. Bracket thresholds move every year. A 2024 threshold used against 2025 income produces a worse result than the IRS will compute.
• Itemizing when standard wins. Post-OBBBA, the $31,500 MFJ standard deduction is hard to beat unless you have a large mortgage plus high SALT plus charity in the same year.
• Treating capital gains like ordinary income. Long-term capital gains use their own 0% / 15% / 20% brackets — model them with the capital gains calculator.
• Missing the Additional Medicare and NIIT thresholds. Wage earners above $200k single / $250k MFJ pick up extra 0.9% Medicare tax. Investment income above the same MAGI picks up 3.8% NIIT.

Sources

• IRS — Federal Income Tax Rates and Brackets
• IRS — One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act Provisions (Standard Deduction)
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-40 — 2025 Inflation Adjustments