Tax Bracket Year Comparison Calculator

Tax brackets work on a marginal (progressive) system, not a flat rate. Each dollar of income is taxed only at the rate for the bracket it falls into. This calculator shows your effective tax rate and compares two income scenarios side by side.

How marginal taxation works: Tax in Each Bracket = (Bracket Upper − Bracket Lower) × Bracket Rate Total Tax = Sum of Tax Across All Brackets You Enter Effective Tax Rate = Total Tax / Taxable Income

2026 Federal Tax Brackets (Single filers):

The box above wants TAXABLE income, not gross. Take your gross pay and subtract the standard deduction first, or your itemized total if it is larger.

Standard Deduction 2026: $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household. Taxable Income = Gross Income − Standard Deduction (or Itemized)

Worked example, $68,900 of taxable income (single), which is what $85,000 of gross pay comes to:

• 10% on $12,400 = $1,240
• 12% on ($50,400 − $12,400) = 12% × $38,000 = $4,560
• 22% on ($68,900 − $50,400) = 22% × $18,500 = $4,070
• Total federal tax: $9,870
• Effective rate on taxable income: 9,870 / 68,900 = 14.3%
• Effective rate on the original $85,000 of gross pay: 11.6%
• Marginal rate: 22%, the bracket your last dollar falls into

Both effective rates are correct arithmetic and they answer different questions. Against taxable income it tells you what the bracket structure did; against gross pay it tells you what share of your actual earnings went to federal tax, which is usually what people mean. This page divides by taxable income, since that is what you entered.

The effective rate, not the marginal one, is what you actually pay. People routinely confuse the two and conclude that a raise into the next bracket will leave them worse off, which cannot happen: only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at the higher rate.

What the year-over-year comparison actually shows

This calculator runs the same taxable income through both the 2025 and 2026 tables. Because the rates themselves did not change, any difference you see is pure inflation indexing: the thresholds moved up, so more of your income falls in the lower bands.

That is the point of indexing. Without it, a raise that merely keeps pace with prices would push you into higher brackets and leave you worse off in real terms, an effect called bracket creep. The US indexed its brackets in 1985 precisely because the high-inflation years of the 1970s had been quietly raising everyone’s real tax rate without a single vote in Congress.

Enter the same figure for both years and the 2026 bill should come out lower. If it does not, you have found something worth double-checking.