Federal Income Tax Calculator 2026 & 2027

How It Works

Federal income tax is worked out in three steps. First, your deduction comes off your income: either the standard deduction for your tax year and filing status — $16,100 (single) or $32,200 (married filing jointly) in 2026, and $16,600 or $33,200 in 2027 — or your itemized deductions if you choose those instead. What is left is your taxable income. Second, the federal brackets are applied to that taxable income, slice by slice: each rate touches only the income inside its own bracket, so moving into a higher bracket never raises the tax on the income below it. Third, your tax credits come off the tax itself, dollar for dollar, down to zero.

The table below shows the federal brackets this calculator uses, for both tax years and both filing statuses. The thresholds are on taxable income (after the deduction), not on your gross income.

Two rates in the results are easy to confuse. Your marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar of income — the bracket your taxable income sits in. Your effective rate is your total tax divided by your total income — the average rate you actually pay, always lower than your marginal rate in a progressive system. A single filer on $100,000 in 2026 has a 22% marginal rate but a 13.2% effective rate: most of their income is taxed at 10% or 12%.

The table below shows the tax owed (before credits) for a single filer using the standard deduction in 2026, at different income levels:

Worked Example

A single filer earning $60,000 in 2026, taking the standard deduction and claiming $2,000 of tax credits. The standard deduction of $16,100 leaves taxable income of $60,000 − $16,100 = $43,900. Federal income tax is 10% × $12,400 = $1,240, plus 12% × $31,500 = $3,780, for a total of $5,020 before credits. The $2,000 of credits comes straight off that figure, leaving $3,020 owed. The effective rate is $3,020 ÷ $60,000 = 5.0%, and the marginal rate is 12% — the next dollar earned would be taxed at 12%.

The same $60,000 earned by a married couple filing jointly shows why filing status matters. The $32,200 standard deduction leaves taxable income of only $27,800, and the tax is 10% × $24,800 = $2,480, plus 12% × $3,000 = $360 — $2,840 before credits, $2,180 less than the single filer on the same income. And in 2027, the single filer’s bill falls slightly even with no change in income: the $16,600 standard deduction leaves $43,400 taxable, taxed at $1,280 + $3,672 = $4,952, because the brackets and the deduction are adjusted for inflation each year.

Assumptions

• Federal income tax on ordinary income only. No state or local income tax, no FICA (Social Security and Medicare), no self-employment tax, and no Alternative Minimum Tax.
• Standard deduction or itemized deduction, as you choose. If you itemize, the amount you enter is used as-is — in practice you would take whichever is larger.
• Credits are nonrefundable. They reduce your tax to $0 but not below. Refundable credits (such as the refundable part of the Child Tax Credit or the Earned Income Tax Credit) are not modeled.
• Single and married filing jointly only. Married filing separately and head of household use different brackets and deductions and are not covered here.
• No preferential rates. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% depending on income — this calculator treats all income as ordinary income.

Sources: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 / IR-2025-103 (2026 figures, 9 October 2025); IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-35 / IR-2026-133 (2027 figures, 5 November 2026). Last reviewed: 13 November 2026.

Built and tested by SumKitTool — see how we check our numbers.

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your annual income first — your total ordinary income for the year, such as wages and salary. Then pick your filing status and tax year: 2026 for the return you file in spring 2027, or 2027 for next year’s planning. The calculator applies that year’s standard deduction and brackets automatically; there is no tax rate to guess.

Choose your deduction. The standard deduction suits most people; switch to itemized only if your deductible expenses — mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to the cap, charitable gifts — add up to more than the standard amount, and enter that total. Then add any tax credits. The headline result is the federal income tax you owe after credits, and the table underneath shows the deduction applied, your taxable income, the tax in each bracket, the credits applied, and your effective and marginal rates. Results update as you type, so try the same income as a single filer and as married filing jointly to see the difference filing status makes.

Tips and Practical Advice

Use the marginal rate for decisions and the effective rate for budgeting. When weighing a raise, overtime, a side job or a Roth versus traditional retirement contribution, the marginal rate is the number that matters: it tells you what the next dollar costs in tax. The effective rate is the one to use when working out what share of your income goes to federal tax overall — the honest answer to “how much tax do I pay?”

Compare the standard deduction with itemizing before you assume. Itemizing only helps when your deductions beat $16,100 (single) or $32,200 (joint) in 2026, which usually takes a mortgage, significant state taxes or large charitable gifts. If your itemized total is close, bunching two years of charitable gifts into one year can push you over the line that year while you take the standard deduction in the other.

Remember that credits beat deductions, dollar for dollar. A $1,000 deduction saves you $120 if you are in the 12% bracket, but a $1,000 credit saves you $1,000. That is why claiming every credit you qualify for — the Child Tax Credit, education credits, energy credits — is worth more than hunting for an extra deduction of the same size. Credits cannot take your tax below zero in this calculator, but some credits are refundable in real life, meaning the IRS pays the excess back to you.

Finally, remember what this calculator leaves out: state tax, and FICA — Social Security at 6.2% up to the wage base and Medicare at 1.45% on all wages — which this page deliberately excludes, because it answers one question only: how much federal income tax do I owe? For the full paycheck picture, use the take-home pay calculator instead.

Frequently Asked Questions