The federal tax rate on income ranges from 10% to 37%, 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. Nobody pays a single flat rate on everything they earn.
2026 Federal Income Tax Brackets
For tax year 2026 (the return you’ll file in early 2027), the IRS has set the following rates and income thresholds:
- 10% on income up to $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (married filing jointly)
- 12% on income over $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (jointly)
- 22% on income over $50,400 (single) or $100,800 (jointly)
- 24% on income over $105,700 (single) or $211,400 (jointly)
- 32% on income over $201,775 (single) or $403,550 (jointly)
- 35% on income over $256,225 (single) or $512,450 (jointly)
- 37% on income over $640,600 (single) or $768,700 (jointly)
These thresholds are adjusted each year for inflation. The rates themselves have held steady since 2018, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered several brackets.
How Marginal Tax Rates Work
A common misunderstanding is that earning more pushes all your income into a higher tax bracket. That’s not how it works. Each bracket only applies to the dollars that fall within its range.
Say you’re a single filer with $60,000 in taxable income. Your first $12,400 is taxed at 10%, giving you $1,240 in tax. The next chunk, from $12,401 to $50,400, is taxed at 12%, adding $4,560. Only the remaining $9,600 (from $50,401 to $60,000) is taxed at 22%, adding $2,112. Your total federal income tax would be about $7,912, which works out to an effective rate of roughly 13.2%, 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 (your total tax divided by total income) matters whenever you’re evaluating a raise, a side income stream, or a retirement withdrawal. Only the additional dollars get taxed at the higher rate.
The Standard Deduction Lowers Your Taxable Income
Before the bracket math even starts, you subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions from your gross income. Most filers take the standard deduction because it’s simpler and, for many households, larger than the sum of their itemized expenses.
For 2026, the standard deduction is $15,450 for single filers, $30,850 for married couples filing jointly, and $23,150 for head of household filers. That means a single person earning $55,000 in gross wages would subtract $15,450, leaving $39,550 in taxable income. The brackets apply to that $39,550, not the full $55,000.
These deduction amounts are roughly double what they were before 2018. If the current tax law were to expire without being renewed, the standard deduction would drop back to around $8,350 for single filers and $16,700 for joint filers, though personal exemptions (worth about $5,300 per person) would return to partially offset the difference.
Tax Rates on Investment Income
Not all income is taxed at the same rates. Long-term capital gains, meaning profits on investments held longer than one year, and qualified dividends get their own, lower rate schedule:
- 0% on taxable income up to $49,450 (single) or $98,900 (jointly)
- 15% on taxable income from $49,451 to $545,500 (single) or $98,901 to $613,700 (jointly)
- 20% on taxable income above $545,500 (single) or $613,700 (jointly)
These thresholds are based on your total taxable income, not just the gains themselves. So a married couple with $90,000 in total taxable income could sell stock at a long-term gain and owe zero federal tax on that profit. Short-term capital gains, from assets held one year or less, are taxed as ordinary income using the standard brackets above.
High earners may also owe the net investment income tax, an additional 3.8% on investment income once modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers.
Payroll Taxes You Pay on Top
Federal income tax isn’t the only tax taken from your paycheck. Payroll taxes fund Social Security and Medicare, and they apply to your wages before any deductions.
Social Security tax is 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 in 2026. Your employer pays a matching 6.2%. Once your earnings pass that cap, no more Social Security tax is withheld for the rest of the year. Medicare tax is 1.45% on all wages with no cap, and an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax kicks in on earnings above $200,000 for single filers ($250,000 for joint filers).
Combined, a typical worker pays 7.65% in payroll taxes (6.2% plus 1.45%) on every dollar up to the Social Security wage base. That’s separate from and on top of the income tax brackets. For someone earning $70,000, that’s about $5,355 in payroll taxes alone, before a single dollar of income tax.
Self-Employment Tax
If you’re a freelancer, independent contractor, or business owner, you pay both the employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes. That comes to 15.3% on net self-employment earnings (12.4% for Social Security, up to the wage base, plus 2.9% for Medicare). You can deduct half of this amount when calculating your adjusted gross income, which slightly reduces your income tax bill.
How Your Total Federal Tax Rate Adds Up
When people ask “what’s the federal tax rate,” they often want one number. In reality, your total federal tax burden is a combination of income tax and payroll tax, and the effective rate varies widely based on your income, filing status, and deductions.
A single filer earning $50,000 in wages takes the $15,450 standard deduction, leaving $34,550 in taxable income. Income tax on that amount is roughly $3,898 (10% on the first $12,400, then 12% on the rest). Add $3,825 in payroll taxes (7.65% of $50,000), and total federal taxes come to about $7,723, an effective combined rate of roughly 15.4%.
A married couple filing jointly with $150,000 in combined wages takes the $30,850 standard deduction, leaving $119,200 in taxable income. Their income tax is approximately $14,707. Payroll taxes total $11,475. That puts their combined effective federal rate around 17.5%.
These examples don’t account for credits like the child tax credit (up to $2,000 per qualifying child in 2026) or education credits, which reduce your tax bill dollar for dollar and can push your effective rate even lower.