Guides · 2026 tax year
Tax Guides
According to the Internal Revenue Service Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and each state Department of Revenue August 2026 schedule, these seven explainers walk the published rates. Every figure below is queried from those tables, not typed into this page.
- 7
- guides
- 7
- federal brackets (single)
- 51
- state pages
- 9
- no-tax jurisdictions
Where the rates live
Start with how federal brackets work, the 2026 single-filer schedule is the stacked bar below, the same rows the calculator and the federal reference page use. These pages explain the published schedules. They are not filing advice.
IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 · each state Department of Revenue 2026 schedule · SSA 2026 Fact Sheet How we calculate →
Segment width is the bracket's income slice (open top cap truncated for scale). Color darkens as the marginal rate rises. Same rows as /federal/ and the calculator.
Each segment width is proportional to its bracket size up to $737K. Color intensity rises with the marginal rate.
- $0 → $12K 10.0%
- $12K → $50K 12.0%
- $50K → $106K 22.0%
- $106K → $202K 24.0%
- $202K → $256K 32.0%
- $256K → $641K 35.0%
- $641K → + 37.0%
Jurisdictions with no state income tax
All guides
How Federal Tax Brackets Actually Work
Marginal brackets are not flat rates. Walk through the 2026 federal schedule with worked examples.
Read guide →Effective Rate vs Marginal Rate
Why your last-dollar tax rate is always higher than your average rate. With $50K, $100K, $250K examples.
Read guide →The 9 States with No Income Tax
Which states forgo income tax, what they tax instead, and the tradeoffs.
Read guide →Self-Employment Tax (SECA) Explained
Why self-employed pay 15.3% on top of income tax, and how the deductible-half offset works.
Read guide →Capital Gains: Short-Term vs Long-Term 2026
0%, 15%, 20% preferential brackets, the $269,000 NIIT threshold, and the holding-period rule.
Read guide →Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Primer
When AMT applies after the 2017 TCJA reforms, and how the 2026 exemption thresholds work.
Read guide →Brackets vs Deductions vs Credits
The three knobs that determine your final tax, and why credits beat deductions dollar-for-dollar.
Read guide →Open Data
Download state-income-tax-statistics.csv, same extract as /statistics.
More PlainTaxCalc surfaces
After you pick a guide, continue with calculators, rankings, and research on the same schedules.
- Federal + state tax calculator Stack federal brackets, state schedules, and FICA at your income.
- 2026 federal bracket reference All filing statuses, standard deductions, and FICA wage-base thresholds.
- State tax rankings hub Architecture map plus links to lowest, highest, and $200K+ boards.
- Compare all 51 jurisdictions Side-by-side $50K, $100K, and $200K burden table sorted lowest to highest.
- Effective burden research study Data study ranking dollars owed at $100K across all jurisdictions.
- Federal marginal rate lookup Find your bracket from taxable income and filing status alone.
- Schedule structure analysis Aggregate counts of flat, progressive, and no-tax jurisdictions.
- US tax statistics CSV Downloadable reference extract from the compiled schedule database.
What to do with this
Read the schedule explainer that matches your question, then verify with the calculator.
- Start with how federal marginal brackets fill dollar by dollar. How brackets work
- Separate last-dollar rate from average bill with worked examples. Effective vs marginal
- Run your own income against the same schedules. Tax calculator
Guides explain published schedules for educational reference; they are not tax advice or a filing recommendation.
Every figure on PlainTaxCalc is rendered directly from IRS Revenue Procedure and state Department of Revenue data, no number is typed in by an editor. Guide hub rates are queried from IRS Revenue Procedure and state Department of Revenue tables; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data issue on this page. Data current as of August 2026.
A published rate is a schedule line, not a filing recommendation. The calculator's take-home figure applies the standard deduction only, it excludes credits, AMT, and itemized deductions. These pages explain the issued tables; they are not tax advice.