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Free tax bracket calculator. See how progressive ordinary brackets split your modeled taxable income, which marginal rate applies at the top of the stack, and how effective rates compare on taxable vs gross wages. Browse the payroll and tax calculator hub.
Last updated: April 21, 2026
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Marginal ordinary rate
22%
Bracket containing your last dollar of taxable income
Effective on taxable
14.97%
Effective on gross
12.40%
Taxable income: $70,400
Modeled federal tax: $10,541
Gross $85,000 − deferrals $0 − std. ded. $14,600
Statutory bracket rate
Not flat on all income
Clarifies why a raise or bonus can bump withholding conversations even when averages stay moderate.
Same tax, two denominators
Apples-to-oranges guard
Effective on gross is often the better headline for “what share of my paycheck is federal income tax in this slice-of-world model.”
Slice-by-slice
Dollars × rate
Each row shows how many taxable dollars fall inside a band and the tax generated there.
Taxable base
Gross − deferrals − std.
Matches the simplified assumptions used on related paycheck education calculators.
Planning lever
Marginal band shifts
Watch marginal and effective rates move when you model traditional contributions.
Transparency
What we skip
Detailed mode lists credits, AMT, payroll taxes, and other real-world layers not modeled.
$165,000 gross, married filing jointly, $23,000 pre-tax deferrals (illustrative):
Marginal ordinary rate
22%
Effective on gross
9.04%
Taxable income starts from your annual gross wages, subtracts any traditional-style pre-tax deferrals you model, then subtracts the federal standard deduction for your filing status. Non-negative taxable income is run through the same simplified ordinary progressive brackets used elsewhere on the payroll hub: each band contributes (dollars in band)×(band rate) to total federal tax. The marginal ordinary rate returned is the statutory rate of the bracket interval that contains your highest dollar of taxable income. Effective rate on taxable income divides that total tax by taxable income; effective on gross divides the same tax by gross wages so you can contrast average burden on all earned dollars versus only taxed dollars.
Gross − deferrals − std. ded. → taxable → bracket slices → total tax → marginal & effectiveModel deferral tax deltas with the pension contribution tax savings calculator.
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