Federal Income Tax Calculator

Both use the same 2026 IRS brackets and the same standard deduction, but they answer different questions. The broader /income-tax-calculator/ adds itemized deductions and non-refundable credits (Child Tax Credit, education credits, dependent care) so you can model your full Form 1040 federal liability. This federal-only tool strips those out. It assumes the standard deduction, focuses on the marginal-rate story, charts the tax per bracket tier as a bar graph, warns you when one more dollar lands in the next bracket, and breaks federal take-home into per-paycheck dollars. Use this one when you want to understand the brackets themselves; use the broader one when you want to model credits and itemized totals.

Because most people overestimate how much a raise costs them in tax. The US uses a marginal bracket system: when your taxable income crosses the 22% threshold, only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at 22%, never your whole income. A $5,000 raise that nudges you from the 12% bracket into the 22% bracket adds $5,000 * 0.22 = $1,100 of federal tax on the portion above the line, not 22% of your whole salary. The next-bracket callout shows the gross-income threshold and the next marginal rate so you can see how much room you have before the next tier kicks in, and what each new dollar would actually cost.

The marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar of income, i.e. the top bracket you reach. The effective rate is the average rate across your whole gross income (federal tax / gross income * 100). Effective is always lower than marginal because the lower brackets are taxed first at lower rates and the standard deduction comes off the top. A single filer with $85,000 of gross income in 2026 sits in the 22% marginal bracket but pays an effective federal rate of about 11.6%. The graph in the result panel makes this concrete by showing how much income (and therefore tax) lands in each tier.

It is an annualized figure: annual federal take-home divided by paychecks per year (1, 12, or 26). That is useful for budgeting against the size of your direct deposit, but it is not the same as IRS withholding tables. Real W-4 withholding annualizes the paycheck through Circular E tables, factors Step 2 (multiple-job) and Step 4 (extra withholding) entries, and rounds at every step, so any single paycheck can deviate from the smooth annual average. Treat the per-paycheck number as your fair-share-per-paycheck baseline, not as what your employer will literally withhold this Friday.

A lot, on purpose. It is federal only. It does not include state income tax (which ranges from 0% in nine states to 13.3% in California), FICA payroll tax (7.65% Social Security plus Medicare for W-2 employees up to the wage base, and 15.3% as self-employment tax for 1099 workers), the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above $200,000, the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), or any tax credits. It also assumes the standard deduction; if you itemize, use /income-tax-calculator/. For the full payroll picture (federal + state + FICA per paycheck) use /paycheck-calculator/ or /take-home-pay-calculator/.