Tax Brackets: Federal Income Tax Rates, Marginal and Effective

Federal income tax brackets set seven rates that apply to progressively higher slices of your taxable income: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%.¹ Each rate applies only to the portion of your income that falls within its range, not to your whole paycheck. Your filing status decides where those ranges begin and end.

How the Brackets Actually Apply

The system divides your taxable income into chunks and taxes each chunk at a higher rate than the one before it. Picture a stack of buckets. Your first dollars fill the 10% bucket. When that bucket is full, the next dollars spill into the 12% bucket, then the 22% bucket, and so on until your last dollar of taxable income lands wherever it lands.²

This is why a raise never costs you more in tax than it pays you. Moving from the 22% bracket into the 24% bracket means only the dollars above the 22% ceiling get the higher rate. Everything you earned underneath is still taxed at the lower rates it always was. The old worry about “losing money by moving into a higher bracket” comes from misreading how the buckets fill.

The IRS adjusts the dollar thresholds each year using the Chained Consumer Price Index, so ordinary inflation doesn’t quietly push you into higher rates.³ The seven rate percentages are fixed in statute; only the income ranges shift. The 2026 thresholds were published in Revenue Procedure 2025-32.⁴

These seven rates were originally set by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 and were scheduled to expire after 2025. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, removed the sunset and made them permanent.³ Without that law, rates would have reverted to a pre-2018 structure topping out at 39.6%.

2026 Brackets for Single Filers

10%: Taxable income up to $12,400
12%: $12,401 to $50,400
22%: $50,401 to $105,700
24%: $105,701 to $201,775
32%: $201,776 to $256,225
35%: $256,226 to $640,600
37%: Over $640,600

2026 Brackets for Married Filing Jointly and Qualifying Surviving Spouse

10%: Taxable income up to $24,800
12%: $24,801 to $100,800
22%: $100,801 to $211,400
24%: $211,401 to $403,550
32%: $403,551 to $512,450
35%: $512,451 to $768,700
37%: Over $768,700

The lower two ranges are roughly double those of a single filer, so a couple can earn substantially more before hitting the 22% rate.⁴ A qualifying surviving spouse uses these same thresholds for two years after a spouse’s death, provided they have a dependent child.⁵

2026 Brackets for Married Filing Separately

10%: Taxable income up to $12,400
12%: $12,401 to $50,400
22%: $50,401 to $105,700
24%: $105,701 to $201,775
32%: $201,776 to $256,225
35%: $256,226 to $384,350
37%: Over $384,350

The married-filing-separately thresholds are exactly half the joint amounts through most of the range. Filing separately usually costs a couple more overall, but it occasionally makes sense when one spouse has large medical expenses, student-loan considerations, or concerns about the other spouse’s reporting.

2026 Brackets for Head of Household

10%: Taxable income up to $17,700
12%: $17,701 to $67,450
22%: $67,451 to $105,700
24%: $105,701 to $201,775
32%: $201,776 to $256,200
35%: $256,201 to $640,600
37%: Over $640,600

Head of household is available to unmarried taxpayers who pay more than half the cost of maintaining a home for a qualifying dependent.⁵ The thresholds sit between the single and joint figures, and the standard deduction is larger than the single amount, so single parents and other caregivers who qualify generally owe meaningfully less than they would filing single.

Taxable Income Is What Enters the Brackets

The bracket math doesn’t run on gross pay. It runs on taxable income: gross income minus either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Gross income, by statute, covers wages, salaries, business profits, investment gains, rental income, dividends, and most other money you receive during the year.⁶

For 2026, the standard deduction amounts are:⁴

Single: $16,100
Married filing jointly: $32,200
Married filing separately: $16,100
Head of household: $24,150

A single filer earning $60,000 in gross income has a taxable income of $43,900 after subtracting the $16,100 standard deduction. That places their top dollar in the 12% bracket rather than the 22% one they’d occupy if the deduction didn’t exist.

Marginal Rate vs. Effective Rate

Your marginal rate is the percentage applied to your highest dollar of taxable income. Your effective rate is the blended average you actually pay across all the brackets combined. The gap between them is often wider than people expect.²

Take a single filer with $80,000 in gross income in 2026. After the $16,100 standard deduction, taxable income is $63,900. The tax works out to:

10% on the first $12,400: $1,240
12% on $12,401 to $50,400: $4,560
22% on $50,401 to $63,900: $2,970

Total federal tax: $8,770. The marginal rate is 22% because the last dollars fell in that bucket. The effective rate — $8,770 divided by $63,900 — is roughly 13.7%. For most filers, the effective rate ends up several percentage points below the marginal rate, because the lower brackets absorb a big chunk of income first.

Long-Term Capital Gains Use a Different Rate Table

Not all income runs through the seven ordinary brackets. Profits from selling investments you held for more than a year are taxed at preferential rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on your total taxable income and filing status. Approximate 2026 thresholds:

0% rate: Taxable income up to roughly $49,450 for single filers and $98,900 for married filing jointly
15% rate: Above the 0% ceiling up to about $545,500 single and $613,700 joint
20% rate: Income above those levels

Short-term capital gains from assets held one year or less get no special treatment; they’re taxed as ordinary income through the bracket system above. Selling one day too early can nearly double the tax rate on the profit.

Extra Federal Taxes That Can Raise Your Real Rate

Two additional federal taxes can push your effective rate above what the bracket tables alone suggest.

Net Investment Income Tax

A 3.8% surtax applies to net investment income — interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, and certain other passive earnings — once modified adjusted gross income exceeds a fixed threshold. Those thresholds are $200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for married filing jointly, and $125,000 for married filing separately.⁷ The tax equals 3.8% of whichever is smaller: your net investment income or the amount by which your income exceeds the threshold.⁸ These thresholds are not indexed for inflation. A taxpayer in the 35% bracket with significant investment income can face a combined marginal rate of 38.8% on those dollars.

Alternative Minimum Tax

The alternative minimum tax is a parallel calculation that disallows certain deductions and applies its own rate structure: 26% on the first portion of income above the exemption and 28% on higher amounts.⁹ You owe whichever is higher, regular tax or AMT. For 2026, the AMT exemption is $90,100 for single filers and $140,200 for married filing jointly, phasing out at $500,000 single and $1,000,000 joint.⁴ Most taxpayers never owe AMT, but if your income is above $200,000 and you claim substantial deductions, it’s worth running the calculation.

State Taxes Sit on Top

Federal brackets are only part of the picture. Most states impose their own income tax, with top rates ranging from zero in states with no income tax to above 13% in the highest-tax states. Some states apply a flat rate; others use progressive brackets of their own. When you evaluate a raise, a side gig, or a Roth conversion, the number that matters is your combined federal and state marginal rate, not the federal figure alone.

1
Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions – Individuals and Workers
2
Internal Revenue Service. Federal Income Tax Rates and Brackets
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1 – Tax Imposed
4
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
5
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Status
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 61 – Gross Income Defined
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1411 – Imposition of Tax
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No 559 – Net Investment Income Tax
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 55 – Alternative Minimum Tax Imposed