Free Calculator · 2026 Tax Year
Federal Tax Liability Estimator
Plug in your wages and long-term capital gains to see your estimated 2026 federal tax bill, with a clear bracket-by-bracket breakdown, your effective and marginal rates, and what you keep after FICA.
Salary or hourly pay reported on your W-2. Short-term capital gains also count as ordinary income. Fold them in here.
Profits from assets held more than one year. Stacks on top of ordinary income and uses the 0%/15%/20% preferential brackets.
Reduces your AGI. Note: 401(k) contributions don't reduce FICA wages, only income tax.
HSA contributions, student loan interest, self-employed health insurance, etc.
Your inputs save automatically.
How this estimator works
We walk the published 2026 federal tax brackets in four steps. First, we subtract any pre-tax 401(k)/IRA contributions and other above-the-line adjustments from your wages to get your adjusted gross income. Then we apply the standard deduction for your filing status to get your ordinary taxable income, and run that through the marginal brackets bracket-by-bracket. Long-term capital gains stack on top of that ordinary income and pay 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on where they land. Finally, we add FICA on your wages (Social Security up to the wage base, then Medicare with the 0.9% surtax above the threshold) and the 3.8% NIIT if your investment income pushes your MAGI past the threshold.
Want to see exactly which bracket each dollar fell into? Open the “Bracket detail” rows in the result panel.
What this estimator doesn’t include
- State and local income taxes
- Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
- The §199A QBI deduction for pass-through income
- Itemized deductions (mortgage interest, SALT, charitable)
- Dependents and credits (Child Tax Credit, EITC, education credits)
- Self-employment tax: see our self-employment tax guide if you’re a freelancer or 1099 contractor
- Short-term capital gains as a separate field (treated as ordinary income; fold them into wages)
Sources: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments) for brackets, standard deduction, and LTCG breakpoints. SSA 2026 wage base announcement. IRC §1411 and §3101(b)(2) for NIIT and Additional Medicare thresholds (statutory, not inflation-indexed).
Want to dig deeper?
The estimator is a fast directional answer. For the underlying concepts, our 2026 tax brackets & retirement limits guide walks through how marginal taxation actually works, what the tax-advantaged accounts get you, and where the 0% long-term capital gains bracket hides. If you’re self-employed, the self-employment tax guide covers the math this tool deliberately omits. And if you run a small business, the S-Corp tax savings calculator shows how much an S-Corp election could save you on FICA.
Frequently asked questions
Federal estimate for 2026 tax year. Educational only. This is not tax advice. Tax law changes annually and individual circumstances vary. Consult a CPA or tax professional before acting on the result.