Effective Tax Rate Calculator

Divide estimated federal income tax by gross income. This page also shows tax as a percentage of taxable income so the denominator is explicit.

Federal brackets apply progressively. Lower slices of taxable income use lower rates, and deductions remove income before the brackets are applied.

This page reports both. Dividing tax by gross income gives the broadest measure and the lowest percentage; dividing by taxable income gives a higher figure because deductions have already been removed. A comparison between two people is only meaningful when both sides use the same denominator.

The standard deduction removes income before any bracket applies. For 2026 it is $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for married filing jointly, so that slice of gross income is effectively taxed at 0% and pulls the overall effective rate below the bracket rate.

No. It is a bracket-only federal income tax estimate and excludes FICA, state and local tax, credits, AMT, NIIT, and preferential investment-income rates.