An IRS tax table is the pre-calculated chart in the Form 1040 instructions that tells you exactly how much federal income tax you owe based on your taxable income and filing status. If your taxable income on Form 1040, line 15, is less than $100,000, you’re required to use it instead of working through the tax rate schedules yourself.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions 1040 (2025) You find your row, move across to your filing status column, and read the number. That amount goes on line 16.
How the Table Is Laid Out
The table is a grid. Rows represent $50 income ranges labeled with an “at least” and “but less than” pair — one row covers $25,300 to $25,350, the next covers $25,350 to $25,400, and every dollar of taxable income under $100,000 falls into exactly one range.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1040 (2025), Tax and Earned Income Credit Tables
Columns are organized by filing status: Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, and Head of Household. Qualifying surviving spouses use the Married Filing Jointly column, so there are five statuses but only four columns.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions 1040 (2025)
The IRS builds the table from the same marginal rate brackets that appear in the Tax Rate Schedules, doing the bracket math for you and rounding to the midpoint of each $50 range. That’s why two people whose taxable incomes differ by $40 can owe exactly the same tax. They land in the same row.
Who Has to Use It
The $100,000 threshold is not optional. If your taxable income is under that amount, the instructions require the table; if it’s $100,000 or more, you switch to the Tax Computation Worksheet or Tax Rate Schedules.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions 1040 (2025) The statutory authority sits in 26 U.S.C. § 3, which directs the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe tax tables and permits their use by all filers regardless of whether they take the standard deduction or itemize.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 3 Tax Tables for Individuals
The $100,000 figure refers to taxable income, not total earnings or adjusted gross income. It’s the number left after subtracting either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Someone earning $115,000 who claims the standard deduction can easily land under $100,000 on line 15 and use the table.
Situations That Block Table Use Even Below $100,000
Some kinds of income are taxed at rates the flat lookup can’t reproduce, so certain returns must use a different worksheet even when taxable income is well under the ceiling:
- Qualified dividends on Form 1040, line 3a, or capital gain distributions on line 7a without a Schedule D requirement. These get the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, which applies the lower capital gains rates of 0%, 15%, or 20% to the relevant income.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions 1040 (2025)
- Foreign earned income exclusion, housing exclusion, or housing deduction claimed on Form 2555. These filers use the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040 and 1040-SR
- A child with unearned income over $2,700 who meets the age requirements for the kiddie tax. That tax is figured on Form 8615, which taxes part of the child’s unearned income at the parent’s marginal rate.5Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 553, Tax on a Childs Investment and Other Unearned Income (Kiddie Tax)
The qualified dividends exception catches many taxable-brokerage investors off guard. If your 1099-DIV reports any qualified dividends, the standard table doesn’t apply, and the worksheet will usually produce a lower tax.
How to Look Up Your Tax
Start with your taxable income from Form 1040, line 15.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1040 (2025), Tax and Earned Income Credit Tables If the figure includes cents, round first. The IRS lets you drop anything under 50 cents and round 50 cents or more up to the next dollar, but if you round one amount you have to round every amount on the return.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040 and 1040-SR
Scan the “at least / but less than” columns for the row that contains your whole-dollar taxable income. If your number matches an “at least” figure exactly, that row is yours. Move across to the column for your filing status. The figure at the intersection is your federal income tax for the year.
The IRS’s own worked example: a married couple filing jointly has taxable income of $25,300. They find the row for $25,300 to $25,350, move to the Married Filing Jointly column, and read $2,562. That amount goes on Form 1040, line 16.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1040 (2025), Tax and Earned Income Credit Tables
Line 16 is not the end of the return. Nonrefundable credits such as the Child Tax Credit on line 19 reduce what you owe from that point, and refundable credits such as the Additional Child Tax Credit on line 28 can produce a refund even if they exceed your tax.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040 and 1040-SR
If Your Taxable Income Is $100,000 or More
At $100,000 and above you leave the table and apply the marginal rates yourself through the Tax Computation Worksheet or Tax Rate Schedules. Each bracket’s rate applies only to the income within that bracket, not to your whole income.
For tax year 2026, the brackets for single filers are:6Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 2025-32
- 10% on taxable income up to $12,400
- 12% from $12,401 to $50,400
- 22% from $50,401 to $105,700
- 24% from $105,701 to $201,775
- 32% from $201,776 to $256,225
- 35% from $256,226 to $640,600
- 37% on income over $640,600
Married couples filing jointly have wider brackets. Their 10% band covers up to $24,800, the 12% band runs to $100,800, and the 37% top rate begins above $768,700.6Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 2025-32 The 2026 figures reflect inflation adjustments and changes made permanent by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.7Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
The table and the rate schedules produce the same result. A single filer with $62,000 of taxable income owes the same tax either way. The table just pre-computes the arithmetic for every $50 slice.
If You Read the Table Wrong
Errors from picking the wrong row, using the wrong filing status column, or transcribing the number incorrectly are treated as math errors. The IRS corrects them without going through normal audit procedures and sends a notice. The most common are CP11 (additional tax owed because of a miscalculation), CP12 (refund changed by a correction), and CP13 (changes made, balance zero). Each notice explains the adjustment and gives you a way to dispute it.
If a lookup error causes a significant underpayment, you owe interest from the original due date, and an accuracy-related penalty of 20% of the underpayment can apply when the understatement results from negligence or disregard of the rules.8Internal Revenue Service. Accuracy-Related Penalty A simple misread is unlikely to trigger that penalty on its own. Using the wrong filing status to reach a lower number is a different matter.
Nonresident Filers
If you file Form 1040-NR, you use the same tax table from the Form 1040 instructions, with one restriction: the Head of Household column is not available to you. Nonresident aliens have three available filing statuses for this purpose — Single, Married Filing Separately, and Qualifying Surviving Spouse — and a sample table in the 1040-NR instructions shows which columns apply.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040-NR – U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return
Dual-status taxpayers who were nonresidents on the last day of the tax year and were married must use the Married Filing Separately column unless they elect to be treated as resident aliens for the full year. The tax from the table goes on Form 1040-NR, line 16.