Federal tax bracket calculator

Find your bracket, then the number that actually matters: the effective rate you pay after the bracket structure is applied. 2024 federal brackets, single and married, with the math shown.

How the math works

Federal income tax is progressive. Your income is sliced across the brackets, and each slice is taxed only at that bracket's rate. The rate on your last dollar is your marginal rate. Total tax divided by taxable income is your effective rate — the one that describes what you actually pay.

The 2024 brackets for a single filer run 10% up to $11,600, 12% to $47,150, 22% to $100,525, 24% to $191,950, 32% to $243,725, 35% to $609,350, and 37% above that. Married-filing-jointly brackets sit at roughly double the width in the lower rates: 10% to $23,200, 12% to $94,300, 22% to $201,050, and up.

Being "in the 22% bracket" does not mean 22% of your income goes to federal tax. It means your top dollar is taxed at 22% and everything below it is taxed less. Most bracket calculators report the bracket and stop there, which is a bit like a speedometer that only tells you the speed limit.

Worked example

Take a single filer with $90,000 of taxable income. The top dollar lands in the 22% bracket, so the marginal rate is 22%. The tax itself is built in three pieces:

• 10% on the first $11,600 = $1,160
• 12% on the next $35,550 (up to $47,150) = $4,266
• 22% on the remaining $42,850 = $9,427

Total federal income tax: $14,853. Divide that by $90,000 and the effective rate works out to 16.5% — not 22%. The gap between the marginal rate and the effective rate is the whole point, and it is the number most people miss.

Now the trap. If that $90,000 is a salary rather than taxable income, you subtract the $14,600 standard deduction first, leaving $75,400 taxable. The tax on that is $11,641, and against the $90,000 earned, the effective federal rate is 12.9%. Read your bracket off your salary instead of your taxable income and you will overstate your tax by roughly a quarter.

When this calculator is wrong

A bracket calculator answers one narrow question — federal income tax on a taxable-income figure — and there are several ways to read too much into it.

• It wants taxable income, not your salary. Taxable income is gross income minus the standard deduction ($14,600 single, $29,200 married for 2024) or itemized deductions, and minus pre-tax contributions like a traditional 401(k). Feed it your paycheck number and every result is too high.
• It is federal income tax only. It does not include Social Security and Medicare (FICA) withholding, which is a flat payroll tax on wages, and it does not include state income tax. In a state with an income tax, your total rate is meaningfully higher than this page shows.
• The bracket is not the rate you pay. The marginal rate applies to your last dollar; the effective rate applies to all of it. Quoting your bracket as "my tax rate" overstates what you actually hand over.
• The numbers are 2024. Brackets and the standard deduction adjust for inflation every year. The rates hold, but the dollar thresholds move, so a figure that put you at the top of a bracket last year may not this year.

The most durable piece of tax folklore deserves its own line: a raise that pushes you into a higher bracket cannot lower your take-home. Only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at the higher rate. A single filer at $47,000 taxable who takes a $5,000 raise crosses into the 22% bracket, but only the $4,850 above the $47,150 line is taxed at 22%. The extra tax is $1,085, and $3,915 of the raise is kept. Crossing a bracket never costs you money you had before.

What to do with the result

Once you know your marginal rate, you know the value of the next dollar of deduction. In the 22% bracket, a dollar into a traditional 401(k) or HSA saves 22 cents in federal tax this year. That is the frame worth carrying out of this page: deductions are worth your marginal rate, and pre-tax contributions are the most reliable way to move your taxable income down a slice.

On the deduction question itself, the math points one way for most people. After the 2017 standard deduction nearly doubled, fewer than 12% of filers itemize. For a single filer to beat the 2024 standard deduction of $14,600, they need substantial mortgage interest plus state taxes plus charity. Unless you know your itemizable total clears that bar, the standard deduction is your taxable-income starting point, and this calculator's default assumption is the right one.

Common questions

What tax bracket am I in?

Your bracket is the rate on your last dollar of taxable income. A single filer with $90,000 taxable is in the 22% bracket because the top of their income sits in the 22% band — even though the effective rate they pay is 16.5%.

What is the difference between marginal and effective tax rate?

The marginal rate is what your next dollar is taxed at (your bracket). The effective rate is total tax divided by total taxable income. The effective rate is always lower, because the lower brackets tax the first slices of income at 10% and 12%.

Do I enter my salary or my taxable income?

Taxable income. That is your salary minus the standard deduction ($14,600 single, $29,200 married for 2024) or your itemized deductions, and minus any pre-tax retirement contributions. Entering your gross salary overstates your tax.

Does a raise into a higher bracket lower my take-home pay?

No. Only the income above the bracket threshold is taxed at the higher rate. A raise always leaves you with more money after tax than before, regardless of which bracket it crosses.

Does this include state tax and FICA?

No. This is federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare (FICA) are a separate payroll tax on wages, and state income tax varies by state. Your total tax burden is higher than the federal figure alone.