How the layers work
Your income is not taxed at one rate. The first slice of taxable income is taxed at 10 percent, the next slice at 12 percent, and so on up to 37 percent. "Taxable income" is what is left after the standard deduction (or your itemized deductions) comes off your gross income: $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly and $24,150 for a head of household in 2026. So the first $16,100 a single person earns is taxed at 0 percent before the brackets even start.
The rate on your last dollar is your marginal rate. The tax you actually pay divided by your income is your effective rate, and it is always lower than the marginal rate, often by a lot.
The 2026 brackets by filing status
Taxable income, after the deduction. The seven rates were made permanent by the 2025 tax law; the thresholds are adjusted for inflation every year, and these are from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 to $12,399 | $0 to $24,799 | $0 to $17,699 |
| 12% | $12,400 to $50,399 | $24,800 to $100,799 | $17,700 to $67,449 |
| 22% | $50,400 to $105,699 | $100,800 to $211,399 | $67,450 to $105,699 |
| 24% | $105,700 to $201,774 | $211,400 to $403,549 | $105,700 to $201,749 |
| 32% | $201,775 to $256,224 | $403,550 to $512,449 | $201,750 to $256,199 |
| 35% | $256,225 to $640,599 | $512,450 to $768,699 | $256,200 to $640,599 |
| 37% | over $640,599 | over $768,699 | over $640,599 |
Married filing separately uses half of the joint thresholds, which for most of the table equals the single column. The brackets stop at taxable income; add the standard deduction to see the gross wages they correspond to. A single filer, for example, does not reach the 22 percent bracket until gross wages pass $66,500.
Worked example: $85,000 of wages, single
Gross wages $85,000, no other income, standard deduction only. Taxable income is $85,000 − $16,100 = $68,900. That amount is sliced across the brackets:
| Bracket | Income in this bracket | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $12,400 | $1,240 |
| 12% | $38,000 | $4,560 |
| 22% | $18,500 | $4,070 |
| Total | $68,900 | $9,870 |
The marginal rate is 22 percent, because the last dollars land in that bracket. The effective rate on the full $85,000 is 11.6%. Social Security and Medicare taxes and state income tax come on top of this federal figure; the paycheck calculator adds them and shows the result per pay period, and the salary converter turns the annual figures into hourly, weekly or monthly ones.
A raise into the next bracket
The most common worry about brackets is the wrong one: that a raise which pushes you over a threshold will be taxed away. It cannot. Take a single filer earning $66,000, which is $500 below the point where the 22 percent bracket starts, who gets a $1,000 raise to $67,000. Federal income tax goes from $5,740 to $5,910, a difference of $170: the first $500 of the raise is taxed at 12 percent and only the second $500 at 22 percent. The raise leaves $830 more in your pocket before payroll and state taxes. The same logic holds at every threshold, including the top one.
What can change at an income threshold is eligibility for a credit or deduction that phases out, which is a separate rule from the brackets. Those cliffs are real, but they are not what the bracket table describes.
Tax and effective rate at eight incomes
Single filer, standard deduction only, federal income tax only. Read the last two columns together: the bracket is where the next dollar lands, the effective rate is what the whole income pays.
| Gross wages | Taxable income | Federal income tax | Effective rate | Marginal bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $13,900 | $1,420 | 4.7% | 12% |
| $50,000 | $33,900 | $3,820 | 7.6% | 12% |
| $75,000 | $58,900 | $7,670 | 10.2% | 22% |
| $100,000 | $83,900 | $13,170 | 13.2% | 22% |
| $150,000 | $133,900 | $24,734 | 16.5% | 24% |
| $250,000 | $233,900 | $51,304 | 20.5% | 32% |
| $500,000 | $483,900 | $138,134 | 27.6% | 35% |
| $1,000,000 | $983,900 | $320,000 | 32.0% | 37% |
Even at $1,000,000 the effective federal income tax rate is 32.0%, below the 37 percent marginal rate, because every earlier bracket still applies to its slice. At $50,000 the effective rate is 7.6% while the marginal bracket is 12 percent.
What the brackets do not cover
- Payroll taxes. Social Security (6.2% up to $184,500 of wages in 2026) and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% on wages over $200,000) are flat rates on wages, separate from the income tax brackets.
- State income tax. Most states add their own brackets or a flat rate; a few have none. The paycheck calculator has a page per state.
- Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends. Taxed at 0, 15 or 20 percent with their own thresholds, not at the bracket rates; the capital gains tax calculator shows how a gain can straddle the 0 and 15 percent rates.
- Credits. The child tax credit ($2,200 per child in 2026) and others come off the tax after the brackets have done their work, which is why two people in the same bracket can owe very different amounts.
- Percent of what? When a news story says someone "pays 37 percent", check whether it means the marginal or the effective rate. The percentage calculator turns a tax bill and an income into the effective rate in one step.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 2026 federal tax brackets?
Seven rates: 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35 and 37 percent. For a single filer in 2026 the 10 percent rate covers taxable income up to $12,399, 12 percent runs to $50,399, 22 percent to $105,699, 24 percent to $201,774, 32 percent to $256,224, 35 percent to $640,599 and 37 percent above that. Married couples filing jointly get thresholds roughly twice as high. The figures are from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
If I move into a higher bracket, is all my income taxed at the higher rate?
No. Only the dollars above the threshold are. Crossing from the 12 to the 22 percent bracket with a $1,000 raise costs $170 more in tax in the example on this page, never the whole raise. A raise can never leave you with less take-home pay because of the brackets alone.
What is the difference between marginal and effective tax rate?
The marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar, the bracket you are in. The effective rate is the total tax divided by your total income. A single filer with $85,000 of wages is in the 22 percent bracket in 2026 but pays about 11.6% of that income in federal income tax, because the standard deduction is untaxed and the first dollars are taxed at 10 and 12 percent.
Are the brackets the same for capital gains?
No. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends have their own rates of 0, 15 and 20 percent with separate thresholds, and short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income at the bracket rates above. Our capital gains tax calculator applies the right set.
Do the brackets change every year?
Yes, the thresholds are adjusted for inflation each year, which is why the IRS publishes a new revenue procedure every autumn; the 2026 figures are in Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The seven rates themselves were made permanent by the 2025 tax law, which the revenue procedure notes in its first section.