Most tax calculators stop at "your bracket is 22%." That number alone doesn't tell you what you'll keep, whether you'll get money back in the spring, or why your Social Security suddenly became taxable. The calculator below works out the whole picture for the current tax year — the return you'll file in early 2027 — including the new deductions for people 65 and older, tips, overtime and car loans. Type in what you know; the result updates as you go, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Key Takeaways
- Where the brackets sit. A single filer pays 10% on the first $12,400 of taxable income, 12% up to $50,400 and 22% up to $105,700. The 37% rate starts at $640,600, or $768,700 for married couples filing jointly.
- The standard deduction. $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household. Add $2,050 if you're single and 65 or older, or $1,650 for each spouse who is.
- The senior deduction is real, but it isn't "no tax on Social Security." It's an extra $6,000 per person 65 or older, for tax years 2025 through 2028. It shrinks once income passes $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint).
- $100,000 after tax. A single earner in a state with no income tax keeps about $79,180, roughly $3,045 every two weeks. In California, New York or Illinois it's closer to $74,100–$74,400.
- Tips and overtime. You can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips. For overtime, only the extra "half" of time-and-a-half counts, up to $12,500 ($25,000 on a joint return). Social Security and Medicare are still taken out of both.
- Payroll tax caps out. The 6.2% Social Security tax stops at $184,500 of wages this year and $192,300 next year. The 1.45% Medicare tax never stops.
- Can't pay? File anyway. Filing late costs 5% of the unpaid tax per month. Paying late costs 0.5%, a tenth as much. Short-term IRS payment plans have no setup fee.
- Dates to circle. The final quarterly estimate for this year is due January 15, 2027. Returns are due April 15, 2027, and an extension moves that to October 15, 2027.
- Free help still exists, but Direct File doesn't. The IRS dropped its Direct File program. IRS Free File, VITA (generally $67,000 or less) and TCE for people 60 and older are still free.
Tax Calculator: Federal, State and Take-Home Pay
Start with the three boxes most people know offhand: how you file, where you live and what you earn. Everything else is optional and only makes the estimate sharper.
The figure people misjudge most is the marginal one, not the bracket. When we ran a single 66-year-old with $24,000 of Social Security and a $25,000 pension, the next $1,000 taken from an IRA cost $185 in federal tax. That's an 18.5% hit for someone who sits in the 12% bracket, because each extra dollar also drags part of their Social Security into taxable income. The "next $1,000" line above catches that effect for your own numbers, and a bracket chart on its own never will.
How Much Is $100,000 After Tax in the U.S.?
For a single person earning a $100,000 salary with no other income, no pre-tax savings and the standard deduction, about $79,180 is left after federal tax and payroll tax. State income tax then takes anywhere from nothing to about $5,000 more in most states.
Add $7,650 for Social Security and Medicare (7.65% of wages) and the federal total is $20,820. That's the number people in Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska and New Hampshire live with, since none of those states tax wages. Everywhere else, the state's share comes on top. The table runs the same $100,000 through our calculator for some of the states readers ask about most.
| State | Federal income tax | Social Security + Medicare | State tax | Take-home | Every 2 weeks | Total tax rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas, Florida, Washington | $13,170 | $7,650 | $0 | $79,180 | $3,045 | 20.8% |
| Arizona | $13,170 | $7,650 | $2,291 | $76,889 | $2,957 | 23.1% |
| Pennsylvania | $13,170 | $7,650 | $3,070 | $76,110 | $2,927 | 23.9%* |
| North Carolina | $13,170 | $7,650 | $3,481 | $75,699 | $2,911 | 24.3% |
| Colorado | $13,170 | $7,650 | $3,692 | $75,488 | $2,903 | 24.5% |
| Georgia | $13,170 | $7,650 | $4,242 | $74,939 | $2,882 | 25.1% |
| Illinois | $13,170 | $7,650 | $4,805 | $74,375 | $2,861 | 25.6% |
| New York | $13,170 | $7,650 | $4,860 | $74,320 | $2,858 | 25.7%* |
| California | $13,170 | $7,650 | $5,070 | $74,110 | $2,850 | 25.9% |
* Pennsylvania cities and school districts add their own earned income tax, and New York City adds a separate city income tax. Neither is included above. California's figure leaves out the separate state disability insurance (SDI) deduction taken from paychecks.
Marriage changes the math a lot. Bring that same $100,000 home as a married couple filing jointly, with one earner, and federal income tax falls to $7,640. That's because both the standard deduction and every bracket are twice as wide. A head of household with one paycheck owes $9,588 before any child credit.
At $200,000 in wages, federal income tax is $36,734 for a single filer, $32,991 for a head of household and $26,340 for a married couple filing jointly. The single filer's top bracket is 24%, but the overall federal income-tax rate is 18.4%. Social Security tax stops at $184,500 of wages, so payroll tax is $14,339 instead of a straight 7.65% ($15,300). Once wages pass $200,000, an extra 0.9% Medicare tax starts on the excess. For a married couple the line is $250,000 of combined wages.
How to Calculate Your Federal Income Tax, Step by Step
The IRS formula fits on an index card. Most mistakes happen at step three, where people use the wrong deduction, or at step five, where they apply one rate to all of their income.
- Add up gross income. Wages, self-employment profit, pensions, IRA withdrawals, interest, dividends, capital gains and the taxable part of Social Security. Gifts, inheritances, Roth IRA withdrawals that meet the rules, and most life-insurance payouts don't count.
- Subtract adjustments to reach AGI. Traditional 401(k) contributions and pre-tax health premiums already come out of your W-2 wages. Half of any self-employment tax, deductible IRA contributions, HSA contributions you made yourself and student-loan interest come off here.
- Subtract the larger of the standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Itemizing only pays off when mortgage interest, state and local taxes (capped at $40,400 this year), charity and big medical bills add up to more than the standard amount. The calculator compares the two for you.
- Subtract the new "below-the-line" deductions. These are the senior deduction, tips, overtime and car-loan interest, all claimed on the new Schedule 1-A. You get them whether or not you itemize. Self-employed people may also get the 20% qualified business income deduction.
- Run what's left through the brackets. Each rate applies only to the slice of income inside its band. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends sit on top of everything else and get their own rates of 0%, 15% or 20%.
- Subtract credits. Credits cut the tax itself, dollar for dollar. The big ones are the child tax credit ($2,200 per child under 17, with up to $1,700 refundable), the $500 credit for other dependents and the earned income tax credit, worth up to $8,231 with three or more children.
- Compare with what you've paid. Payroll withholding plus estimated payments, minus the final tax, gives you a refund or a balance due.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household | Married filing separately |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $12,400 | $0 – $24,800 | $0 – $17,700 | $0 – $12,400 |
| 12% | $12,401 – $50,400 | $24,801 – $100,800 | $17,701 – $67,450 | $12,401 – $50,400 |
| 22% | $50,401 – $105,700 | $100,801 – $211,400 | $67,451 – $105,700 | $50,401 – $105,700 |
| 24% | $105,701 – $201,775 | $211,401 – $403,550 | $105,701 – $201,775 | $105,701 – $201,775 |
| 32% | $201,776 – $256,225 | $403,551 – $512,450 | $201,776 – $256,200 | $201,776 – $256,225 |
| 35% | $256,226 – $640,600 | $512,451 – $768,700 | $256,201 – $640,600 | $256,226 – $384,350 |
| 37% | Over $640,600 | Over $768,700 | Over $640,600 | Over $384,350 |
Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at 0% while total taxable income stays under $49,450 for a single filer, $98,900 for a joint return or $66,200 for a head of household. They're taxed at 20% above $545,500 single, $613,700 joint or $579,600 head of household, and at 15% everywhere in between. Above $200,000 of modified AGI ($250,000 joint), a 3.8% net investment income tax can apply too.
Only people whose taxable income, meaning income after deductions, passes $640,600 (single or head of household), $768,700 (married filing jointly) or $384,350 (married filing separately). Even then, 37% applies only to the dollars above that line. A single filer with exactly $700,000 of taxable wage income pays 37% on $59,400 of it, and the overall federal income-tax rate works out to about 31%, not 37%. Itemizers in the top bracket also get a little less value from their deductions now. The new law caps their benefit at 35 cents per dollar deducted.
Paycheck Taxes: What Comes Out Before You See a Dime
Your pay stub usually shows four tax lines: federal income tax withholding, Social Security, Medicare and (in most states) state withholding. Only the first and last are estimates that get settled on your return. Social Security and Medicare are final the moment they're taken out.
FICA is the name for the Social Security and Medicare pair. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to $184,500 this year, and the cap rises to $192,300 next year. They also pay 1.45% for Medicare on every dollar, plus 0.9% more on wages above $200,000. Your employer matches the 6.2% and 1.45%. If you work for yourself, you pay both halves as self-employment tax: 15.3% on 92.35% of your net profit, and you get to deduct half of it.
Here's something we noticed checking stubs against the calculator. People who change jobs mid-year often see more Social Security tax withheld than they owe, because each employer withholds up to the cap on its own. If two employers together took more than $11,439 of Social Security tax from you this year, the extra comes back as a credit on your return. You don't have to ask either employer for it.
Withholding is set by the Form W-4 you gave your employer. If the calculator shows a big balance due, raise withholding on a new W-4 using Step 4(c) (extra withholding per paycheck). If it shows a big refund, lower it, or claim credits in Step 3. The IRS Tax Withholding Estimator does the per-paycheck math from a recent pay stub. Retirees can have tax withheld from Social Security with Form W-4V at 7%, 10%, 12% or 22%, and from pensions and IRA payouts with Form W-4P or W-4R.
The New Deductions for Seniors, Tips, Overtime and Car Loans
The 2025 tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act added four temporary deductions that run from the 2025 tax year through 2028. All four go on Schedule 1-A. All four reduce taxable income even if you take the standard deduction, and none of them lowers Social Security or Medicare tax. The calculator applies each phase-out automatically.
You qualify if you turn 65 by December 31 and have a valid Social Security number. A married couple where both spouses qualify can take $12,000, but only on a joint return. The deduction drops by 6% of modified AGI above $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint), so it disappears completely at $175,000 for a single filer and $250,000 for a couple. It comes on top of the older extra standard deduction for age 65. A single 67-year-old therefore deducts $16,100 + $2,050 + $6,000 = $24,150 before paying a cent of federal tax.
This covers voluntary cash or card tips in occupations on the IRS list of jobs that customarily receive tips, such as servers, bartenders, hair stylists and delivery drivers. The tips must show up on a W-2, 1099 or Form 4137. Service charges added automatically to a bill don't count. The deduction shrinks by $100 for every $1,000 of income above $150,000 ($300,000 joint). Married couples must file jointly to claim it.
Only the premium portion of overtime required by federal law counts. If you earn $24 an hour and get $36 for overtime hours, $12 of each overtime hour is deductible, not the full $36. Overtime paid only because a union contract or state law requires it, beyond the federal 40-hour rule, doesn't qualify. The phase-out matches the tips deduction.
The loan has to be for a new car, SUV, pickup, van or motorcycle bought for personal use after 2024. Final assembly has to happen in the United States (the VIN decoder tells you), and the loan must be secured by the vehicle. Leases and used cars don't qualify. The deduction drops by $200 for each $1,000 of income above $100,000 ($200,000 joint).
Two smaller changes start with this tax year. If you take the standard deduction, you can now also deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to charity, or $2,000 on a joint return. If you itemize, only charitable gifts above 0.5% of your AGI count. The calculator handles both. The cap on deductible state and local taxes rose to $40,400 ($20,200 married filing separately), but it shrinks back toward $10,000 once modified AGI passes $505,000.
Taxes in Retirement: Social Security, RMDs and Medicare Surcharges
Retirees ask us the same question over and over: "Do I have to pay tax on my Social Security?" It depends on your "provisional income," which is your other income plus half of your benefits. Below the first threshold none of your benefit is taxed. Higher up, up to 85% can be. These thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation since they were set in the 1980s and 1990s, which is why more retirees cross them every year.
Here's what that looks like for real households once the senior deduction is included. These are calculator results for retirees 65 and older in a state that doesn't tax retirement income, with no wages:
- Single · $20,000 Social Security + $10,000 IRA$0 federal tax
- Single · $24,000 Social Security + $25,000 pension$7,050 of benefits taxable$790
- Single · $30,000 Social Security + $40,000 pension$22,350 of benefits taxable$4,336
- Couple · $24,000 Social Security + $20,000 IRA$0 federal tax
- Couple · $30,000 Social Security + $40,000 pension$15,350 of benefits taxable$785
- Couple · $40,000 Social Security + $60,000 IRA/pension$34,000 of benefits taxable$5,084
The senior deduction is doing heavy lifting in those numbers. Without it, the couple with $70,000 of combined income would owe about $1,200 more. Keep in mind it expires after 2028 unless Congress extends it.
Traditional IRA and 401(k) owners must start withdrawals at age 73 if born 1951–1959, or 75 if born in 1960 or later. Miss one and the penalty is 25% of the shortfall, cut to 10% if you correct it within about two years. If you give to charity anyway and you're 70½ or older, a qualified charitable distribution sent straight from the IRA to the charity counts toward your RMD and never shows up in AGI. That beats the new $1,000 non-itemizer charity deduction, because it also keeps your Social Security and Medicare premiums out of the higher tiers.
Medicare looks back two years at your income. Modified AGI above $109,000 single or $218,000 joint on your 2024 return raised Part B premiums above the standard $202.90 a month this year, and Part D premiums rise too. That means a big Roth conversion or home sale now can raise premiums in 2028. If income dropped because you retired, divorced or lost a spouse, Form SSA-44 asks Social Security to use the newer, lower figure.
One more change for retirees: Social Security benefits rise 3.6% starting in January 2027. A raise in benefits can nudge some households over the provisional-income thresholds above even though nothing else changed. That's worth a quick rerun of the calculator once your new benefit letter arrives in December.
State Income Tax: Where You Live Can Cost Thousands
Nine states leave wages alone. Fifteen charge one flat rate. The rest use brackets, with top rates ranging from around 2.5% in North Dakota to 13.3% in California. Each tile shows a state's highest rate on wages this tax year.
Several states lowered rates after January, and many online calculators haven't caught up. Arkansas cut its top rate to 3.7%. Georgia went to 4.99% and raised its standard deduction to $15,000 single and $30,000 joint. Utah dropped to 4.45%. West Virginia's top rate is now 4.58%. South Carolina moved to two brackets, 1.99% and 5.21%, with its own new deduction. All of these apply to the full current year, so if you're in one of those states, your refund next spring may come in a little higher than your withholding suggested.
Two things a state calculator rarely tells you. First, most states don't tax Social Security, and several exempt some or all pension and IRA income. Illinois, Mississippi and Pennsylvania exempt nearly all of it, and Iowa does for people 55 and older. We build those exemptions in. Second, local income taxes can rival the state's. Maryland counties, New York City, many Ohio cities, Pennsylvania municipalities and Indiana counties all charge their own. Use the "local income tax rate" box for those.
Look at the whole bill before you pack. Texas and Florida have no income tax, but Texas property taxes are among the nation's highest, and Florida homeowners' insurance can cost more than a California income tax bill would. For retirees in states that already exempt Social Security and most pension income, the move might save less than you'd guess. Run your actual numbers for both states in the calculator, and add the property tax you'd pay in each.
What to Do in Your Situation
Generic tax tips are everywhere. These answer the specific spots readers write to us about, where a wrong move costs real money.
File on time anyway, or file an extension by the deadline. The late-filing penalty is 5% of the unpaid tax per month, up to 25%. The late-payment penalty is 0.5% a month. Interest runs at 7% a year, compounded daily. Then set up a payment plan online. If you owe less than $100,000, a short-term plan gives you up to 180 days with no setup fee. If you owe $50,000 or less, a long-term monthly plan costs $29 to set up online with automatic bank debit ($69 otherwise, more by phone or mail). Low-income filers can have the fee waived. While a plan is active, the late-payment penalty drops to 0.25% a month.
Be wary of "tax relief" companies that promise to settle your debt for "pennies on the dollar." An offer in compromise is a real IRS program, but you can apply for it yourself, and the IRS has a free pre-qualifier tool to check whether you're likely to qualify. If an IRS debt is causing real hardship, like a utility shutoff or a lost paycheck, the Taxpayer Advocate Service is free and independent of the collection side of the IRS.
No one is withholding for you, so the IRS expects quarterly estimated payments. For this year the last one is due January 15, 2027. You avoid the underpayment penalty if what you pay in covers 90% of this year's tax or 100% of last year's (110% if last year's AGI topped $150,000). In our test of $80,000 of freelance profit for a single filer in Texas, total federal tax came to $16,647. That's 20.8% of the profit, and $11,304 of it was self-employment tax, more than the income tax itself. Setting aside about a quarter of every payment is a sensible starting habit at that income. The calculator shows your exact figure.
Two reporting changes are worth knowing. The 1099-K threshold for payment apps and marketplaces is back to more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions. The 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting floor rises to $2,000 for payments made after 2025. You owe tax on all your profit either way, form or no form.
If you owned it and lived in it for at least two of the last five years, up to $250,000 of profit is tax-free, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly. Profit means sale price minus selling costs minus what you paid plus the cost of improvements. Keep those receipts. Gains above the exclusion are long-term capital gains, and they can also raise your Medicare premiums two years later. Surviving spouses can still use the $500,000 limit if they sell within two years of the death.
Holding period decides the rate. Investments held a year or less are taxed like wages. Held longer, the gain gets the 0%, 15% or 20% capital-gains rates. A retired couple with taxable income under $98,900 can sell appreciated investments at 0% federal tax. We've found that's the single most overlooked planning move among the households we test. Losses offset gains first, then up to $3,000 of ordinary income a year, and the rest carries forward. Brokers now report digital-asset sales on Form 1099-DA, so crypto trades are as visible to the IRS as stock trades.
Your marital status on December 31 sets your filing status for the whole year. Married filing separately is rarely cheaper. It shuts you out of the senior, tips and overtime deductions, and in most cases the earned income credit and education credits too. It still makes sense when one spouse has large medical bills or when you need to keep your tax liabilities separate. After a spouse dies, you can file jointly for that year. If you have a dependent child, "qualifying surviving spouse" status keeps the joint brackets for two more years. After that, many widowed filers see a jump in tax on the same income — the "widow's penalty" — so it's worth planning withdrawals ahead.
Real IRS contact almost always starts with a letter by mail, with a notice number (like CP14 or CP2000) in the top or bottom right corner. The IRS doesn't demand payment by gift card, wire transfer or crypto, and it doesn't threaten arrest over the phone. To check a notice, sign in to your IRS Online Account at irs.gov. It shows your balance, payments and any notices. Don't use a phone number printed on a suspicious letter. A CP2000 is a proposed change, not a bill, and you have time to agree or disagree in writing.
Most e-filed returns with direct deposit are processed within 21 days. By law, refunds that include the earned income credit or the refundable child tax credit can't be released before mid-February. The Treasury has also been phasing out paper refund checks. If you didn't give bank details, the IRS may hold the refund and mail a notice asking for them, so answer it quickly. "Where's My Refund?" updates once a day, usually overnight.
You'll usually file two part-year resident returns, splitting income by the dates you lived in each state. If you worked in one state and lived in another, your home state normally gives you a credit for tax paid to the work state. Some neighboring states have reciprocity agreements that skip that step. Update your W-4 equivalent for the new state with your employer, or the old state may keep withholding all year.
Ways to File: Free, Low-Cost and Professional Help Compared
The IRS ended its Direct File program, so the free options have changed. Here's where each option fits, using the most recent filing season's eligibility rules.
| Option | Who qualifies | Cost | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRS Free File (guided software) | AGI of $89,000 or less; each partner sets its own rules | $0 federal | W-2s, Social Security, simple retirement income | Start from irs.gov/freefile, or you may land on a paid version |
| Free File Fillable Forms | Any income | $0 | People comfortable filling out IRS forms | No state return, little guidance |
| VITA (volunteer sites) | Generally $67,000 or less; people with disabilities; limited English | $0 | Families claiming EITC and child credits | Seasonal, roughly late January to April 15 |
| TCE & AARP Foundation Tax-Aide | TCE focuses on people 60+; Tax-Aide is open to anyone, focused on 50+ | $0 | Pensions, RMDs, Social Security questions | Appointments fill fast in February |
| Paid tax software | Anyone | Free tier to paid tiers + state fee | Investments, rentals, a small business | Upgrade prompts as forms are added |
| Enrolled agent or CPA | Anyone | Fee varies by complexity | Back taxes, audits, a business, an estate | Check credentials; both can represent you before the IRS |
What We Learned Testing the Calculator
Before publishing, we ran dozens of sample households through the calculator and checked each one against hand-worked IRS bracket math. We tested low-wage parents, freelancers, two-earner couples, high earners who itemize and retirees living on Social Security. Four results changed how we explain taxes on this page.
- Low earners can face the steepest rates. A single parent filing as head of household on $30,000 with one child has no income tax withheld and still gets a refund of about $5,066, thanks to the earned income and child credits. But the next $1,000 earned costs them $336 in taxes and lost credits. That's a heavier hit than a $100,000 earner's $297.
- The senior deduction phase-out acts like a hidden surtax. For a single retiree with $100,000 of pension income, each extra $1,000 of income cost $233 in federal tax. That's more than the 22% bracket alone would suggest, because part of the deduction disappears with it.
- Itemizing is back for high-tax-state homeowners. A California couple earning $400,000 with $15,000 of property tax, $30,000 of mortgage interest and $10,000 in donations deducted $78,400. That's well over twice the standard deduction, and it's only possible because the SALT cap is now $40,400 instead of $10,000.
- Capital gains can cost nothing. A single filer with $40,000 in wages and $30,000 in long-term gains paid 0% on $25,550 of those gains and 15% on the rest. Total federal income tax was $3,288 on $70,000 of income.
What This Calculator Leaves Out
It's built for the households most people actually have, so a few rarer pieces are left out. These include the alternative minimum tax, education credits, the premium tax credit for Marketplace health plans, the child and dependent care credit, rental property depreciation, the separate 28% rate on collectibles, and state credits beyond personal exemptions. It also skips some city taxes beyond the local-rate box. State results use each state's schedule and standard deduction or exemptions, start from your federal AGI, and exclude Social Security everywhere. That's a close estimate for most filers, not a substitute for the state's own form. If your situation involves any of these, use the result as a ballpark and confirm with tax software or a preparer.
Figures cover the current federal tax year (returns filed in 2027) and state rates in effect for the same year, including mid-year cuts made retroactive to January 1. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is stored on our servers, though your last entries are kept in this browser for convenience until you press "Start over." Results are estimates for planning, not tax advice. BudgetSeniors.com is independent and not affiliated with the IRS, the Social Security Administration or any tax software company.
Key sources: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and IRS newsroom releases · One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) · Social Security Administration · Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · Tax Foundation state rate data · state revenue departments