How far are you from the next tax bracket?
Most calculators tell you which bracket you are in. This tells you the more useful number: how much room is left in it, what your next $1,000 actually costs, and how far your effective rate sits below your marginal one. Official 2026 IRS figures.
Your 2026 income
Defaults to the standard deduction for your status. Replace it with an itemized total if that is larger. Which one wins?
How far through your current bracket you are.
Federal income tax only, using IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Payroll tax, state tax, and credits are not included. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is stored or sent.
Why headroom is the number that matters
Knowing you are "in the 22% bracket" tells you almost nothing actionable. Knowing you have $23,800 of room left in it tells you what a bonus, a side project, or a Roth conversion will actually cost, and whether any of it spills into the next rate.
It also settles the most persistent myth in personal tax. Crossing a bracket only reprices the dollars above the line. Your existing income keeps its lower rates, which is why a raise can never leave you worse off. See the full walkthrough with the math.
A worked example
A single filer earning $98,000 in 2026 takes the $16,100 standard deduction, leaving $81,900 of taxable income. That sits in the 22% band, which runs from $50,400 to $105,700.
- Headroom: $105,700 minus $81,900 is $23,800.
- Federal income tax: about $12,730.
- Effective rate: about 13.0% of gross, against a 22% marginal rate.
- Next $1,000: costs $220.
The gap between 13.0% and 22% is the whole point. Every filer gets the cheap early bands, so the effective rate is always well below the headline bracket.
The 2026 brackets this uses
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 to $12,400 | $0 to $24,800 |
| 12% | $12,400 to $50,400 | $24,800 to $100,800 |
| 22% | $50,400 to $105,700 | $100,800 to $211,400 |
| 24% | $105,700 to $201,775 | $211,400 to $403,550 |
| 32% | $201,775 to $256,225 | $403,550 to $512,450 |
| 35% | $256,225 to $640,600 | $512,450 to $768,700 |
| 37% | $640,600 and up | $768,700 and up |
Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Head of household is deliberately not offered here: the IRS announcement we verified publishes the full bracket table only for single and married filing jointly, and we do not publish tax thresholds we have not confirmed at the source. Thresholds are indexed every year; see how the 2027 figures get set.
Where headroom is genuinely useful
- Timing income you control. Deciding whether an invoice or bonus lands in December or January.
- Sizing a Roth conversion. Converting up to the top of your current bracket, not past it.
- Weighing pre-tax contributions. A traditional 401(k) contribution reduces taxable income, which can pull you back down a band. See Roth versus traditional.
- Judging a side project. Knowing the marginal rate on the extra income before you take the work on.
What it deliberately leaves out
Payroll taxes apply from the first dollar and are separate. State income tax has its own brackets. Credits reduce tax directly rather than reducing taxable income. Capital gains use a different schedule. This tool answers one question precisely rather than approximating all of them.
Frequently asked questions
What is bracket headroom?
The amount of additional taxable income you can earn before your next dollar is taxed at the higher rate of the next bracket. A single filer with $81,900 of taxable income in 2026 sits in the 22% bracket, which runs to $105,700, so the headroom is $23,800.
Does crossing into a higher tax bracket cost me money on all my income?
No. Only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at the higher rate. Everything below it keeps being taxed at the lower rates, which is why a raise can never reduce your take-home pay through federal income tax.
What does my next $1,000 of income actually cost in tax?
Your marginal rate multiplied by $1,000, unless the amount straddles a bracket boundary, in which case it is split across two rates. In the 22% bracket the next $1,000 costs $220 in federal income tax.
Why is my effective tax rate so much lower than my bracket?
Because every filer gets the low brackets first. Income is taxed in slices, so a filer in the 22% bracket typically pays an effective rate in the low teens once the standard deduction and the 10% and 12% bands are accounted for.
Which figures does this tool use?
The official 2026 federal brackets and standard deduction from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. It covers single and married filing jointly only, because those are the two schedules published in full in the announcement we verified. It is federal income tax only, and excludes payroll tax, state tax, and credits.
Is my income data sent anywhere?
No. The calculation happens entirely in your browser. Nothing is transmitted, logged, or stored.