US Income Tax Calculator

The US uses a progressive bracket system - your first dollars are taxed at 10%, the next chunk at 12%, the next at 22%, and so on through seven bands up to 37%. For 2024, single filers pay 10% on income 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 couples filing jointly get bands roughly twice as wide.

People misread brackets all the time. Crossing from 22% to 24% does not mean your whole income is suddenly taxed at 24% - only the dollars above the threshold pay 24%. Your effective rate (tax paid divided by total income) is always lower than your marginal rate. A single filer earning $80,000 has a 22% marginal rate but pays around 13% effective federal tax once the standard deduction kicks in.

Picking single vs married filing jointly vs head of household shifts the bracket thresholds, the standard deduction, and your eligibility for credits. A married couple filing jointly with $200,000 of combined income pays roughly $4,000 less than the same two people filing as single individuals with $100,000 each, because the brackets stretch wider rather than doubling exactly.

Head of household status (single parents and some other cases) sits between single and MFJ, with a $21,900 standard deduction in 2024 and wider brackets than single. Married filing separately is rarely optimal but exists for couples with very different incomes, large medical deductions, or income-driven student loan repayment situations where keeping incomes separate helps.

Federal is only half the picture. Nine states have no income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, plus New Hampshire which only taxes investment income). California sits at the other end with a 13.3% top rate. New York City layers on a city tax of about 3.9% on top of state. Move from California to Texas and a $200,000 earner saves roughly $13,000 a year before any federal optimisation.

State tax is normally calculated on adjusted gross income with state-specific deductions, so the federal calculation flows in but the brackets and rates differ. Use the [US State Tax Comparison](/us-state-tax-comparison) to model the difference if you are considering relocating. Most calculators including this one estimate state tax as a flat percentage approximation for speed; for the actual filing, your state's tax software or a CPA gives the exact figure.

Tax credits cut your bill dollar-for-dollar, deductions only reduce taxable income. The big credits to check: Earned Income Tax Credit (up to $7,830 in 2024 for families with three+ kids and modest income), Child Tax Credit ($2,000 per child under 17, up to $1,700 refundable in 2024), American Opportunity Tax Credit ($2,500 per eligible college student, 40% refundable), Saver's Credit (up to $2,000 if you are contributing to a retirement account on a low-to-moderate income).

On the deduction side, the 2024 standard deduction is $14,600 single, $29,200 MFJ, and $21,900 head of household, so itemising only beats it if your mortgage interest, state-and-local-tax (SALT, capped at $10,000), and charitable giving combined exceed those numbers. Most people take the standard deduction post-2018 because the SALT cap and higher standard deduction killed the itemisation advantage for everyone but high-cost-of-living homeowners.