Only the income inside each bracket is taxed at that bracket's rate — moving up a bracket never re-taxes the dollars below it. A single filer earning $85,000 in 2026 is in the 22% bracket but pays $9,870.00 in total federal income tax, an 11.61% effective rate on gross income, because the standard deduction removes the first $16,100 and the next slices are taxed at just 10% and 12%.
How marginal brackets stack
Federal income tax is a staircase, not a cliff. Your taxable income — gross income minus deductions — climbs through the brackets one slice at a time. The first slice is taxed at 10%, the next at 12%, and so on; your marginal bracket is simply the highest step your income reaches. Nothing about reaching a new step changes the tax on the steps below it. That single fact is the whole design of the system, and it is why the phrase “a raise pushed me into a higher bracket and cost me money” describes something that cannot happen under the regular rates: a raise can only ever be taxed at the new rate on the dollars above the threshold, never retroactively on everything beneath it.
Worked example — single filer, $85,000 gross
The calculator is pre-filled with exactly this case: single status, $85,000 gross income, and the $16,100 standard deduction for 2026, leaving taxable income of $68,900.00.
- 10% bracket: the first $12,400.00 of taxable income → $1,240.00
- 12% bracket: the next $38,000.00 (from $12,400 to $50,400) → $4,560.00
- 22% bracket: the remaining $18,500.00 (from $50,400 to $68,900) → $4,070.00
- 24% and above: $0.00 → $0.00
- Total federal tax: $9,870.00 · marginal rate 22% · effective rate $9,870.00 ÷ $85,000 = 11.61% · take-home after federal income tax $75,130.00 · room to the 24% bracket: $105,700 − $68,900 = $36,800.00
Read the bracket table above against this walk-through — every row of your own result is built the same way, with $0 rows shown rather than hidden, so you can see exactly where your income stops.
Marginal vs effective rate — and which one this page reports
Your marginal rate answers “what happens to my next dollar?” — it is the rate that applies to a raise, a bonus, or one more freelance project, and it is the right rate for most incremental decisions. Your effective rate answers “what share of everything I earn goes to federal income tax?” It blends the low early brackets with your top bracket, so it is always lower than the marginal rate (unless all your income sits in the first bracket). Different calculators define the effective rate against different bases, which produces two different numbers under one label. This page locks its definition: effective rate = total federal tax ÷ gross income — the income you actually entered. The results panel also shows tax as a share of taxable income, labelled as exactly that, if you want the other base for comparison.
The standard deduction's role
Before any bracket applies, deductions remove income from taxation entirely. For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 single and married filing separately, $32,200 married filing jointly, and $24,150 head of household (IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32). The deductions field is prefilled with the standard amount for your status because most filers take it — but it is a field, not a fixture. If you itemize (mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable gifts), replace it with your itemized total and the taxable income, tax, and room-to-next-bracket all move. Additional standard-deduction amounts for age or blindness, and the temporary OBBBA deductions for tips, overtime, car-loan interest, and seniors, are not modeled here.
The full 2026 bracket table
Ceilings below are taxable income — the amount at which each rate stops applying — per Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §.01. Rates are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37% for every status.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household | Married filing separately |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | to $12,400 | to $24,800 | to $17,700 | to $12,400 |
| 12% | to $50,400 | to $100,800 | to $67,450 | to $50,400 |
| 22% | to $105,700 | to $211,400 | to $105,700 | to $105,700 |
| 24% | to $201,775 | to $403,550 | to $201,750 | to $201,775 |
| 32% | to $256,225 | to $512,450 | to $256,200 | to $256,225 |
| 35% | to $640,600 | to $768,700 | to $640,600 | to $384,350 |
| 37% | above $640,600 | above $768,700 | above $640,600 | above $384,350 |
Two rows deserve a second look. Head of household is not the single schedule with a bigger standard deduction — its first two brackets are wider ($17,700 and $67,450), which is real money for single parents. And married filing separately is the single schedule for the first five brackets but its 35% bracket ends at $384,350 — exactly half the joint ceiling — so MFS filers reach 37% far earlier than single filers do. Couples file separately for specific reasons (income-driven student-loan payments, liability separation, state quirks); the federal brackets alone rarely reward it.
What this tool leaves out
This calculator computes the regular federal income tax on ordinary income, before credits. It does not apply tax credits, the alternative minimum tax, preferential capital-gains rates, payroll (FICA) or self-employment tax, or any state tax — and its take-home figure is after federal income tax only, so your actual take-home will be lower. If your income is self-employment income, the same brackets sit underneath a different machine: the Self-Employment Tax Estimator and Quarterly Estimated Tax Calculator run SE tax first, then these brackets. And if a bonus just landed, remember it was withheld at a flat rate — the Bonus Tax Calculator shows the withholding, while this page shows the actual tax. Withheld ≠ taxed; the two pages are a pair.