Effective Tax Rate Calculator
A lot of people panic about their tax bracket, and most of them are confusing two very different numbers. Your top bracket is what the next dollar gets taxed at. Your effective rate is what you actually pay across everything. This shows you both.
Effective federal tax rate
- Estimated federal income tax
- Your top bracket (marginal rate)
- Take-home after federal tax
Enter your numbers above to see an estimate.
How this works
Federal income tax is progressive: your income is sliced into bands, and each band is taxed at its own rate. So even in the 24% bracket, only the dollars inside that band are taxed at 24%, everything below is taxed less.
Your marginal rate is the bracket your last dollar lands in. Your effective rate is total tax divided by total income, almost always a good bit lower. This uses the 2026 federal brackets for your filing status.
What this does not include
This is federal income tax on ordinary income only. It does not include state or local tax, Social Security and Medicare (payroll) taxes, the additional Medicare surtax, capital gains rates, credits, or the alternative minimum tax.
It also assumes the number you enter is already your taxable income, after the standard or itemized deduction. Your real return has more moving parts, so treat this as a clarity tool, not a filing.
Why the two numbers differ, and why it matters
Enter your income and you'll see two percentages that catch people off guard: a high top bracket, and a noticeably lower effective rate. Only the dollars inside your top band are taxed at that top rate. Everything below is taxed at the lower bands, so your average across all of it lands well under the bracket number.
This is why "a raise pushed me into a higher bracket" almost never means you take home less. Only the new dollars above the line are taxed higher, and the rest doesn't change. The effective rate is the honest answer to the question that actually matters: what does income tax cost me on the whole?
When your income comes from your own work, the payroll side of tax becomes the bigger story. That's covered in business finance.