The federal tax rate ranges from 10% to 37% on individual income for the 2026 tax year, depending on how much you earn and your filing status. The U.S. uses a progressive system with seven tax brackets, meaning different portions of your income are taxed at different rates. Most people also pay payroll taxes on top of income tax, so your total federal tax burden is typically higher than the bracket rates alone suggest.
2026 Federal Income Tax Brackets
Each bracket applies only to the income that falls within its range, not to your entire earnings. Here are the 2026 rates for single filers and married couples filing jointly:
- 10%: Up to $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (married filing jointly)
- 12%: $12,401 to $50,400 (single) or $24,801 to $100,800 (jointly)
- 22%: $50,401 to $105,700 (single) or $100,801 to $211,400 (jointly)
- 24%: $105,701 to $201,775 (single) or $211,401 to $403,550 (jointly)
- 32%: $201,776 to $256,225 (single) or $403,551 to $512,450 (jointly)
- 35%: $256,226 to $640,600 (single) or $512,451 to $768,700 (jointly)
- 37%: Over $640,600 (single) or over $768,700 (jointly)
Head of household filers, a status available to unmarried people who pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying dependent, get slightly wider brackets than single filers. Their 10% bracket covers income up to $17,700, and the 12% bracket runs from $17,701 to $67,450.
How Marginal Tax Rates Work
A common misunderstanding is that moving into a higher bracket means all of your income gets taxed at that higher rate. That is not how it works. Only the dollars above each threshold are taxed at the next rate.
Say you’re a single filer with $80,000 in taxable income. Your first $12,400 is taxed at 10% ($1,240). The next chunk from $12,401 to $50,400 is taxed at 12% ($4,560). The remaining $29,600 from $50,401 to $80,000 is taxed at 22% ($6,512). Your total federal income tax comes to about $12,312, which works out to an effective rate of roughly 15.4%, well below the 22% bracket you technically fall into.
This distinction between your marginal rate (the rate on your last dollar) and your effective rate (total tax divided by total income) matters when you’re evaluating a raise, a side income stream, or a retirement withdrawal. You never lose money by earning more.
Taxable Income vs. Gross Income
The brackets apply to your taxable income, not your total earnings. Before your income hits those rates, you subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Most filers take the standard deduction because it’s simpler and often larger than the sum of their itemized deductions. Your taxable income is what remains after the deduction, and that’s the number that flows through the bracket table above.
Contributions to traditional 401(k) plans and traditional IRAs also reduce your taxable income, which effectively lowers the rate you pay on money you redirect toward retirement.
Federal Payroll Taxes
Income tax is only part of what the federal government takes from your paycheck. Payroll taxes fund Social Security and Medicare and apply separately.
For 2026, the Social Security tax rate is 6.2% on earnings up to $184,500. Your employer pays a matching 6.2%, so the combined rate is 12.4%. If you’re self-employed, you pay the full 12.4% yourself, though you can deduct half of that amount on your income tax return. Any wages above $184,500 are not subject to Social Security tax.
Medicare tax is 1.45% for employees (matched by employers) with no income cap. High earners pay an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax on wages above $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. That surtax is not matched by employers.
For someone earning $80,000, the combined employee-side payroll tax is $6,120 for Social Security plus $1,160 for Medicare, totaling $7,280. Add that to the roughly $12,312 in income tax from the example above, and the total federal tax on $80,000 in wage income is close to $19,600, or about 24.5% of gross pay.
Capital Gains Tax Rates
Investment profits get different treatment depending on how long you held the asset. Short-term capital gains, on assets held one year or less, are taxed as ordinary income using the bracket rates above. Long-term capital gains, on assets held longer than one year, are taxed at preferential rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%, based on your taxable income.
Most people with moderate incomes fall into the 15% long-term capital gains bracket. High earners may also owe a 3.8% net investment income tax on top of the capital gains rate, which can push the effective rate on investment income to 23.8% at the top end.
Corporate Tax Rate
Corporations pay a flat federal income tax rate of 21% on their profits. This rate applies regardless of how much the corporation earns. It replaced the old graduated corporate rate structure (which topped out at 35%) starting in 2018. Small businesses organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, or LLCs typically pass their income through to the owner’s personal return, where it’s taxed at the individual rates described above rather than the corporate rate.
How to Estimate Your Federal Tax Rate
To get a rough sense of your effective federal income tax rate, start with your gross income, subtract the standard deduction, then apply each bracket rate to the corresponding slice of what remains. Divide the total tax by your gross income, and you have your effective rate.
For most workers earning between $50,000 and $150,000, the effective federal income tax rate lands somewhere between 10% and 18%. Add payroll taxes and you’re looking at a total federal rate in the neighborhood of 20% to 28%. Your actual number depends on your filing status, deductions, credits, and the mix of income types on your return.
The IRS provides a free Tax Withholding Estimator on its website that lets you plug in your specific details and see whether your current paycheck withholding is on track or needs adjustment. Checking it once a year, especially after a major life change like marriage, a new job, or a new child, can help you avoid a surprise bill or an unnecessarily large refund at filing time.