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Income Tax Calculator

Estimate your federal income tax liability based on your taxable income and filing status. Plan for tax season with confidence.

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Common Tax Planning Applications

Estimating federal income tax liability before filing season, comparing marginal vs effective tax rates, modeling the impact of a raise or bonus on take-home pay, deciding whether to contribute to a traditional 401(k) or IRA to lower taxable income, projecting taxes for freelancers and self-employed individuals on variable income, and evaluating Roth versus traditional retirement account conversions.

How Federal Income Tax Is Calculated

Starts with your annual gross income, subtracts the standard deduction for your filing status to get taxable income, then applies the progressive 2024 IRS tax brackets: 10% on the first slice, 12% on the next, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37% on the highest slice. Each portion of income is taxed only at the rate of the bracket it falls into (this is the marginal rate). The effective rate is the total tax divided by gross income, which is always lower than the marginal rate for any non-trivial income.

Fun Fact: The US federal income tax was introduced by the 16th Amendment in 1913, the same year the Ford Model T began mass production. The top marginal rate reached 94% during World War II and stayed above 90% through the 1950s before gradually declining to its current 37%.

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