Marginal Tax Rate Calculator

How do I calculate my marginal tax rate on a raise?

A marginal tax rate calculator works out the share of your next dollar that goes to tax: it adds the federal income tax on an increment (the bracket rate, or a blended rate when it crosses a threshold), the state tax on the same increment, and FICA when it is wages, then reports the combined rate and the dollars kept.

The federal layer comes first. Your taxable income is gross income minus the standard deduction; the increment is taxed at the rate of the bracket it lands in. If you are in the 22% bracket and a $5,000 raise keeps you there, the federal layer is 22%. If the raise crosses into the 24% bracket, part is taxed at 22% and part at 24% — this calculator charges each part at its own rate and reports the blended figure, so the dollars kept are exact.

The second layer is state income tax on the same increment. This calculator uses the primary-verified 2026 brackets for twelve states — nine with no tax on wages (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming), Pennsylvania's 3.07% flat rate, and the graduated schedules of California and New York. For any other state you enter the rate yourself; it never guesses from an unverified table.

The third layer — the one most people forget — is FICA, the payroll tax. For wages, Social Security takes 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026 and Medicare 1.45% with no cap; above $200,000 of wages (single, head of household) or $250,000 (married filing jointly) an additional 0.9% Medicare applies. These are employee-side rates; your employer pays the same again. For a single Californian earning $85,000 in wages, the three layers are 22% + 9.3% + 7.65% = 38.95%: of every $100 of raise, $38.95 goes to tax and $61.05 reaches you.

How much of a raise do I actually keep?

The most concrete way to use this calculator is to enter the exact raise and read the "You keep" figure. A $5,000 raise for that single Californian on $85,000 leaves $3,052.50 — about 61 cents of every dollar. This is why a gross salary figure and take-home pay are such different negotiations; the marginal rate governs what actually reaches your bank.

Two thresholds matter most for raises. The Social Security wage base ($184,500 for 2026) is the point above which the 6.2% stops: a raise that pushes you past it is partly or wholly free of Social Security, and the FICA layer drops. The additional Medicare threshold ($200,000 single) adds 0.9% on the wages above it. A single earner on $200,000 taking a $20,000 raise pays no Social Security on it, 1.45% + 0.9% Medicare, and a federal layer of 24.85% because the raise crosses from the 24% to the 32% bracket — 27.2% combined, keeping $14,560. The calculator handles every crossing rather than applying one flat rate.

What is the marginal tax rate on a bonus, Roth conversion or side income?

Bonuses are wages — they trigger all three layers: federal, state and FICA, subject to the same wage-base rules as your regular salary. Your employer withholds federal tax on a bonus at the flat 22% supplemental rate (up to $1 million, IRS Pub. 15), but what you actually owe at filing is your marginal bracket rate, which is what this calculator shows.

A Roth conversion or an IRA withdrawal is non-wage income. It adds to your ordinary income and hits your federal bracket and your state bracket, but not FICA. Select Non-wages and the FICA layer drops to zero. A large conversion often crosses a bracket: a single filer on $120,000 converting $20,000 pays 22% on the first $1,800 and 24% on the remaining $18,200 — a blended 23.82%, $4,764 of federal tax, keeping $15,236 with no state tax in Texas.

Self-employment income is neither a wage nor a non-wage in the usual sense: it carries self-employment tax (both halves of FICA, 15.3% up to the wage base) on 92.35% of net earnings, with half of that tax deductible. That calculation belongs to the Self-Employment Tax Calculator; this page applies employee FICA to wages and nothing to non-wages.

Why can my true marginal rate be higher than my bracket?

The three layers above are the mechanical calculation. Your true economic marginal rate can be higher because of phase-outs — income thresholds where a benefit or deduction is withdrawn. Medicare's Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) raises Part B and Part D premiums in income tiers, judged on your MAGI from two years earlier; a single dollar over a tier boundary can cost hundreds of dollars in extra premiums, the equivalent of a sharp spike in the marginal rate at that income.

The Net Investment Income Tax adds 3.8% on investment income above $200,000 of MAGI (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly). The child tax credit, the earned income tax credit and the premium tax credit all phase out as income rises, adding an implicit marginal rate inside the phase-out range. The result panel names these effects when your income is near a threshold, but they are not in the stacked number — in those ranges the true marginal rate can be several points higher than shown.

What does this marginal tax rate calculator leave out?

This calculator applies the federal ordinary-income brackets after the standard deduction, primary-verified state brackets after that state's standard deduction and personal exemption, and employee FICA. It does not model itemised deductions, the alternative minimum tax, long-term capital-gains rates (lower than ordinary rates), the net investment income tax, self-employment tax, state payroll taxes such as California SDI, local income taxes, or any credit. For a full annual federal and state liability, use the Income Tax Calculator; for bracket position alone, the Tax Bracket Calculator.

State credit-style exemptions (California's exemption credit, for instance) are not modelled, so a state layer can be slightly high for the first dollars of taxable income. The tax year and its verified date are shown under the form, and every rate comes from that year's dataset — nothing is typed into the tool.