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Income Tax Slab Calculator

An income tax slab calculator works out how much tax you owe when your income is taxed in slices, called slabs or brackets. Enter your annual income, your filing status, and your slabs, and it shows your taxable income, your total tax, your effective tax rate, and how much tax comes from each slab. You can use the 2026 preset slabs or type in your own.

How it works

Income tax is not charged at one flat rate on your whole income. It is charged in slices. First, the standard deduction is subtracted from your gross annual income to give your taxable income. If your income is below the standard deduction, your taxable income is $0 and you owe no tax. Then each slice of taxable income is taxed at the rate of the slab it sits in, and the tax from all the slices is added up.

That slicing is the whole point of this calculator, and it is also what makes it different from calculators that use fixed brackets only. Here the slabs themselves are yours to change. In 2026 preset mode, the calculator loads the 2026 slabs for your filing status, taken from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. In Custom brackets mode, you can edit every slab's upper limit and rate — all seven rows are editable — so you can model a different year, a different tax system, or your own country's slabs. Change any number and the result, the breakdown table, and the chart all update at once.

The 2026 preset slabs are as follows. For single filers: 10% up to $12,400; 12% up to $50,400; 22% up to $105,700; 24% up to $201,775; 32% up to $256,225; 35% up to $640,600; and 37% above that. For married couples filing jointly: 10% up to $24,800; 12% up to $100,800; 22% up to $211,400; 24% up to $403,550; 32% up to $512,450; 35% up to $768,700; and 37% above that. For married couples filing separately: the same as single through the 32% slab, then 35% up to $384,350 and 37% above that. For heads of household: 10% up to $17,700; 12% up to $67,450; 22% up to $105,700; 24% up to $201,750; 32% up to $256,200; 35% up to $640,600; and 37% above that.

Your marginal bracket is the rate on your last dollar of taxable income — the highest slab your income reaches. Your effective tax rate is your total tax divided by your gross income, and it is almost always lower than your marginal rate, because the lower slices are taxed at lower rates and the standard deduction is not taxed at all. A common worry is that earning a little more and moving into a higher slab will make you worse off. It will not: only the income above the slab line is taxed at the higher rate, so your after-tax income still goes up when your gross income goes up.

When you edit custom slabs, keep the upper limits in rising order — each slab's limit must be higher than the one before it. The last slab has no upper limit: it covers everything above the previous slab's limit. If you leave a rate at 0%, that slice of income is simply not taxed. The calculator checks your numbers as you type and shows a friendly message if a limit is out of order or a rate is outside 0% to 100%.

Remember what this result is and is not. It estimates income tax on your salary-style income using the standard deduction only. It does not include state tax, payroll taxes such as Social Security and Medicare, tax credits, itemized deductions, or different rates that can apply to some kinds of income. Your real tax bill can be lower if you qualify for credits, or different if you itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction.

Worked example

Alex is single and earns $60,000 gross in 2026. First, subtract the 2026 single standard deduction of $16,100, which leaves taxable income of $60,000 − $16,100 = $43,900.

Now apply the 2026 single slabs. The first $12,400 is taxed at 10%, which is $12,400 × 0.10 = $1,240. The remaining $31,500 ($43,900 − $12,400) falls in the 12% slab, which is $31,500 × 0.12 = $3,780. Add them together: $1,240 + $3,780 = $5,020 of income tax.

Alex's marginal bracket is 12%, because the last dollar of taxable income falls in the 12% slab. The effective tax rate is $5,020 ÷ $60,000 = 8.37% of gross income, and after-tax income is $60,000 − $5,020 = $54,980, before state tax and payroll taxes. Try the same numbers in the calculator — $60,000 income, single, 2026 preset — and you will get exactly the same result. Then switch to Custom brackets, raise the 12% rate to 15%, and watch the tax rise: only the income in that slab is affected, which is exactly how slabs work.

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