capitalgainstaxcalc

Answer · Tax year 2026

What are the capital gains tax brackets for 2026?

The 2026 capital gains thresholds for every filing status — and why "brackets" is the wrong mental model for a tax that stacks rather than slots.

Tax year 2026 figures. Last updated .

Written and maintained by the operator of capitalgainstaxcalc.com — a software engineer, not a CPA, attorney or enrolled agent. Nothing here is tax advice. Every figure is computed from published IRS and state sources, and the full methodology sets out where each one comes from and what is out of scope.

A word about the word "brackets"

Ordinary income has brackets: bands of income each taxed at its own rate, filled from the bottom up. Capital gains do not work that way, and importing the bracket model is where most of the confusion about this tax begins.

A long-term gain has ceilings. Your total taxable income — ordinary income plus the gain — is measured against a threshold, and the whole picture decides which rate the gain reaches. The gain does not have its own bracket that it falls into independently of everything else.

The practical difference: raising your salary can raise the rate on a gain you have already made. Under a true bracket model it could not.

The 2026 long-term capital gain thresholds

Read these as: the 0% rate applies while taxable income stays at or below the first figure, 15% while it stays at or below the second, and 20% above it.

Single — 0% to $49,450, 15% to $545,500, 20% above.
Married filing jointly — 0% to $98,900, 15% to $613,700, 20% above.
Head of household — 0% to $66,200, 15% to $579,600, 20% above.
Married filing separately — 0% to $49,450, 15% to $306,850, 20% above.

Note what is not true here: the joint figures are not double the single figures. The 0% ceiling is exactly double, but the 15% ceiling is not — $613,700 against $545,500. Assuming a clean doubling is a common and expensive error, and it is the kind of thing worth checking against the source rather than inferring.

Married filing separately is the trap

Look again at the separate column: the same 0% ceiling as a single filer, but a 15% ceiling of $306,850 — roughly half the joint figure rather than the same. A couple who file separately can push a gain into the 20% band that would have stayed at 15% on a joint return.

The capital loss offset halves too, from $3,000 to $1,500. Filing separately is sometimes necessary for reasons that have nothing to do with tax, but it is rarely an advantage where capital gains are concerned.

The ordinary brackets still matter

Two reasons. First, short-term gains are taxed on the ordinary table, so those brackets are the rates that apply. For a single filer in 2026 they run 10% to $12,400, 12% to $50,400, 22% to $105,700, 24% to $201,775, 32% to $256,225, 35% to $640,600 and 37% above.

Second, ordinary income fills the stack from below, which is what pushes a long-term gain toward a higher ceiling. The two tables are not independent — the ordinary one determines where on the capital gain ladder you start.

Deductions come off first

The thresholds are measured against taxable income, which is after the standard or itemised deduction. For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 single, $32,200 joint, $24,150 head of household and $16,100 married filing separately.

This is why the calculator on this site asks for gross income rather than taxable income: getting the deduction step right is part of the answer, and asking a reader to compute their own taxable income first is asking them to do the hard half of the work before they start.

One threshold that is not a bracket at all

The net investment income tax threshold — $200,000 single, $250,000 joint — is measured against modified adjusted gross income, which is a pre-deduction figure. It is not on the same measuring stick as the capital gain ceilings above.

So a filer can be under the 15% ceiling on taxable income and over the NIIT threshold on modified AGI at the same time. Treating them as the same number is one of the more common calculator bugs, and it produces answers that are wrong in both directions depending on the deduction.

Why the joint ceiling is not double the single one

It is worth dwelling on, because the assumption that joint figures are simply doubled is widespread and it is wrong here in a way that costs money.

The 0% ceiling is exactly double: $49,450 single, $98,900 joint. The 15% ceiling is not: $545,500 single against $613,700 joint — about 1.13 times, not 2. A couple projecting their position by doubling the single figure would believe they had over $1,000,000 of room before the 20% rate, when they have $613,700.

The same trap exists in state data. One widely syndicated source published California’s head-of-household surtax threshold as the joint figure; the real joint number was exactly double the single one, and the error was caught here only by checking the doubling arithmetic explicitly. Where a figure ought to double, verify that it does.

Reading the table for your own situation

Work out your taxable income including the gain, then find which band it lands in. That is the rate on the top slice of the gain — not necessarily on all of it.

If your income without the gain is already above the 15% ceiling, the whole gain is at 20%. If your income with the gain is below the 0% ceiling, none of it is taxed. Between those, the gain straddles, and the calculator splits it into the lines that actually appear on a return.

One thing the table cannot show: the 3.8% surtax uses modified AGI, a different and larger figure than taxable income. You can be under the 15% ceiling and over the surtax threshold simultaneously, which is why the calculator reports them as separate lines rather than folding them into a single rate.

Head of household, the status people forget they qualify for

Head of household sits between single and joint on every threshold: 0% to $66,200, 15% to $579,600, with a standard deduction of $24,150 against the single filer’s $16,100.

That is a materially better position than filing single, and it is available to unmarried filers who paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying person for more than half the year. Divorced and separated parents frequently qualify and file single anyway, out of habit or because nobody told them.

On a capital gain the difference is real. The 0% band is roughly a third wider, and the larger standard deduction pushes taxable income down before the ceilings are measured, widening every band beneath it. For a modest gain in a modest-income year, that combination can be the difference between a tax bill and none.

Whether you qualify turns on facts this calculator cannot see, so it takes the status you select rather than inferring one. If you are unmarried and supporting a household, it is worth confirming which status you are entitled to before running the numbers.

State brackets are a separate table entirely

Everything above is federal. Your state, if it taxes income, applies its own brackets to its own definition of taxable income — with its own additions, subtractions and deductions that may differ substantially from the federal ones.

A handful of states give capital gains their own treatment rather than taxing them as ordinary income: Arizona subtracts a quarter of long-term gain on assets acquired after 2011, Massachusetts taxes in classes rather than on a ladder, and Washington charges an excise tax despite having no income tax at all.

The state comparison table sets out the covered states side by side, with the treatment and rate for each.

Worked example

Computed by the same engine that powers the calculator, at the moment this page was built — not typed in by hand. Open the derivation to see every rule and citation.

Joint filers just under the 15% ceiling

A married couple filing jointly with $450,000 of combined wages realise a $150,000 long-term gain, landing them close to the $613,700 ceiling.

Taxable income after deduction
$567,800
Taxable gain
$150,000
Tax owed without the sale
$86,608
Tax the sale added
$28,200
of which net investment income tax
$5,700
Total federal tax
$114,808
Effective rate on the gain
18.8%

The standard deduction of $32,200 is what keeps this gain inside the 15% band. Without it, part of the gain would cross into 20% — which is the deduction quietly doing work on the capital gain ladder, not just on the ordinary one.

Caveats on this example (1)
  • Net investment income was derived from capital gains and qualified dividends only. Interest, non-qualified dividends, rents, royalties and passive business income inside ordinaryIncome are also net investment income under IRC 1411(c) and are not counted here.
Show the working — 14 steps, each with its citation
  1. Net short-term capital gain or loss for the year$0Short-term / long-term nettingIRC 1222; IRS Pub. 550

    Assets held one year or less. Taxed at ordinary rates if a net gain.

  2. Net long-term capital gain or loss for the year$150,000Short-term / long-term nettingIRC 1222; IRS Pub. 550

    Assets held more than one year. Eligible for the 0/15/20% rates.

  3. Standard deduction-$32,200Deduction from adjusted gross incomeRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.14(1) (IRC 63(c)(2))

    Adjusted gross income of $600,000 less $32,200.

  4. Taxable income$567,800Taxable incomeIRC 63(a)

    The figure the rate tables and the capital gain ceilings are both measured against.

  5. Ordinary income taxed at 10%$2,480Ordinary income tax bracketsRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.01 (IRC 1(j)(2))

    $24,800 of taxable income between $0 and $24,800.

  6. Ordinary income taxed at 12%$9,120Ordinary income tax bracketsRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.01 (IRC 1(j)(2))

    $76,000 of taxable income between $24,800 and $100,800.

  7. Ordinary income taxed at 22%$24,332Ordinary income tax bracketsRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.01 (IRC 1(j)(2))

    $110,600 of taxable income between $100,800 and $211,400.

  8. Ordinary income taxed at 24%$46,116Ordinary income tax bracketsRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.01 (IRC 1(j)(2))

    $192,150 of taxable income between $211,400 and $403,550.

  9. Ordinary income taxed at 32%$4,560Ordinary income tax bracketsRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.01 (IRC 1(j)(2))

    $14,250 of taxable income between $403,550 and $417,800.

  10. Ordinary income stacked below the long-term gain$417,800LTCG bracket stackingIRC 1(h); Schedule D Tax Worksheet, Form 1040 instructions

    Long-term gain is taxed by reference to where it sits ON TOP of $417,800 of other taxable income, not from the bottom of the rate table.

  11. Long-term gain taxed at 15%$22,500LTCG bracket stackingRev. Proc. 2025-32 4.03 (IRC 1(h), 1(j)(5))

    Gain between the $98,900 zero-rate ceiling and the $613,700 15% ceiling.

  12. Net investment income tax threshold$250,000IRC 1411 thresholdIRC 1411(a)-(b); 26 C.F.R. 1.1411-2

    Modified AGI of $600,000 against the $250,000 threshold for married filing jointly. This threshold is statutory and is not adjusted for inflation.

  13. Net investment income tax at 3.8%$5,700Net investment income taxIRC 1411(a)-(b); 26 C.F.R. 1.1411-2

    3.8% of $150,000, the lesser of net investment income ($150,000) and the amount by which modified AGI exceeds the threshold ($350,000). Here the binding figure is net investment income.

  14. Total tax$114,808Sum of all tax stepsRev. Proc. 2025-32 (I.R.B. 2025-45)

    $114,808 on $600,000 of total income, an effective rate of 19.13%.

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Related questions

What is the capital gains tax rate?

There is no single rate. Long-term gains use a three-step federal ladder of 0%, 15% and 20%, set by total taxable income. Two special rates sit outside it: collectibles are capped at 28%, and the part of a real-estate gain attributable to depreciation is capped at 25%. Short-term gains use the ordinary rate table, up to 37%. Any of these can carry the additional 3.8% net investment income tax.

How much is long term capital gains tax?

0%, 15% or 20% federally in 2026, plus 3.8% if the net investment income tax applies and whatever your state charges. The zero band is genuinely zero, not a deferral: a single filer whose total taxable income stays at or below $49,450 pays no federal tax on a long-term gain at all. The 20% rate only begins above $545,500 single or $613,700 joint, so most filers with a long-term gain land at 15%.

How much is short term capital gains tax?

Whatever your ordinary marginal rate is — 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% or 37% in 2026 — plus 3.8% where the net investment income tax applies, plus state tax. The gap against long-term treatment is the single largest number on most calculations. On the same income and the same gain, selling at 364 days rather than 366 can multiply the tax several times over, and the calculator shows both figures if you change the holding period.

Do I have to pay the 3.8% net investment income tax as well?

Only if your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 filing single or $250,000 jointly, and then only on the lesser of your net investment income and the amount by which you exceed the threshold. That “lesser of” matters: a taxpayer $10,000 over the threshold with a $400,000 gain pays 3.8% on $10,000, not on $400,000. The thresholds are fixed in statute and have never been indexed for inflation, so they capture more filers each year.

The full guide index lists every answer page, and the state comparison covers the state layer on top of these federal figures.