2026 tax brackets and standard deduction, calculated

The 2026 brackets

The rate applies to taxable income, the amount left after deductions.

The IRS published the 2026 figures in Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and on its Working Families Tax Cuts page for individuals. Each column shows the top of the bracket in taxable income.

Married people filing separately have their own table in the revenue procedure. The brackets apply to taxable income, not to salary: a $75,000 salary is not a $75,000 tax base.

The standard deduction

Subtract it, or your itemized deductions if larger, before using the table.

For 2026, a person who is 65 or older or blind adds $1,650 for each condition, or $2,050 if unmarried and not a surviving spouse. Someone who can be claimed as a dependent gets the greater of $1,350 or earned income plus $450, up to the normal amount. Taxpayers 65 and older can also take the separate $6,000 senior deduction for 2025 through 2028. If your itemized deductions — mortgage interest, state and local taxes within the SALT cap, charitable gifts — add up to more, you subtract those instead.

How the slices add up

A worked example for a single filer with $75,000 of income.

1. Taxable income: $75,000 − $16,100 standard deduction = $58,900.
2. First slice: 10% of $12,400 = $1,240.
3. Second slice: 12% of the next $38,000 (from $12,400 to $50,400) = $4,560.
4. Third slice: 22% of the remaining $8,500 = $1,870.

Total: $7,670 of federal income tax before credits. The top bracket is 22%, but the tax is 10.2% of the $75,000 income, because most of it is taxed at the lower rates or not at all.

That is why a raise never lowers take-home pay through the brackets: a $1,000 raise for this filer adds $220 of tax, and the other $780 is kept.

Joint returns and heads of household

The same income, three different results.

A married couple filing jointly with $150,000 of income has $117,800 of taxable income after the $32,200 deduction. Their tax is $2,480 + $9,120 + $3,740 = $15,340 — exactly twice the single filer’s $7,670, because through the 32% bracket the joint thresholds are double the single ones. Above that they are not: the 37% rate starts at $640,600 for a single filer and $768,700 for a couple, not at double.

A head of household — generally an unmarried person paying more than half the cost of a home for a qualifying person — gets a larger deduction and a wider 10% and 12% bracket. On the same $75,000 income, taxable income is $50,850 and the tax is $1,770 + $3,978 = $5,748, about $1,900 less than a single filer pays. The calculator above covers single and joint returns; use the head of household column for that status.

What the bracket math leaves out

The tax from the table is a starting point, not the bill.

• Credits are subtracted from the tax itself. The child tax credit is up to $2,200 per qualifying child for 2026.
• Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at separate, lower rates.
• The alternative minimum tax runs a parallel calculation; its 2026 exemption is $90,100 single and $140,200 joint, phasing out above $500,000 and $1,000,000.
• Self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare is separate from income tax.
• The new Schedule 1-A deductions for tips, overtime, car loan interest, and seniors reduce taxable income for those who qualify, so subtract them before using the table.

State income taxes follow their own brackets.

Using the number

Compare it with what is being withheld.

Your federal withholding is an advance payment against this tax. Add up what your pay stubs say has been withheld so far, project it to December, and compare it with the estimate. If the gap is large, the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator on IRS.gov walks through a new Form W-4. A refund means you paid in more than the tax; a balance due means less. Neither one changes how much tax the brackets produce.