What if?
The same sale under different choices, each computed by the engine rather than estimated. Figures are the tax on the gain, so the rows stay comparable when a variant spans two tax years. Select one to load it into the calculator and read its full derivation.
Estimates only — this is not tax advice. Consult a CPA or enrolled agent before acting on these figures. The calculator does not model the alternative minimum tax, wash sales, like-kind exchanges, QSBS, installment sales, or state additions and subtractions. See what is out of scope.
Show your work — 0 steps, each with its rule and citation
How Delaware taxes a capital gain
Statutory authority: 30 Del. C. 1102(a)(14) (retrieved 1 September 2026)
A ladder that has not moved in over a decade
Delaware’s rate schedule applies, in the words of the statute itself, to taxable years beginning after 31 December 2013. There is no closing date and no indexing clause. The brackets a Delaware filer meets in 2026 are the brackets enacted for 2014, unchanged to the dollar.
The rates run 2.2% above $2,000, then 3.9%, 4.8%, 5.2% and 5.55%, reaching the 6.6% top rate above $60,000 of taxable income. The first $2,000 is untaxed.
What makes this worth a section rather than a footnote is what a frozen ladder does over time. Sixty thousand dollars of taxable income in 2014 was a comfortably above-median figure. The same nominal amount today is an ordinary salary, and because the threshold never moved, a filer who has merely kept pace with inflation has been pushed into the top Delaware bracket without their real income rising at all.
For capital gains the effect is blunt. A gain of any size stacks on top of ordinary income, and for most working filers the ordinary income alone has already consumed every bracket below the top. The whole gain is then taxed at 6.6%, which means Delaware behaves in practice like a flat 6.6% state for anyone with a normal salary and a meaningful sale.
The same brackets for everyone, married or not
Delaware does not widen its brackets for joint filers. The $60,000 top threshold is the same figure for a single filer, a head of household and a married couple filing a joint return.
That is unusual and it matters. Most graduated systems double the thresholds for a couple, on the theory that a joint return covers two people. Delaware does not, so a married couple reaches the top rate at half the household income a doubled schedule would require. Delaware does permit spouses to file separately on the same return, which can restore some of the benefit — a mechanism this calculator does not model.
Wilmington’s local tax does not reach a capital gain
Wilmington levies a 1.25% city tax, and it is worth being precise about what it covers, because local taxes elsewhere on this site do reach investment income.
The Wilmington charge is an EARNED income tax. It applies to wages and net profits from work, not to capital gains, dividends or interest. A Wilmington resident selling shares faces the Delaware state rate and nothing on top of it from the city.
That is a genuine difference from Maryland, Indiana or Ohio, where local income taxes do reach a gain and a state-only figure is materially short. For Delaware the state figure is the whole state-and-local answer.
What a frozen ladder means for planning
One consequence is that Delaware offers almost no bracket management for capital gains. Splitting a disposal across two tax years works when the lower brackets are wide enough to absorb part of the gain. With the top rate starting at $60,000, both halves of a split sale usually land at 6.6% anyway, and the exercise saves nothing at the state level.
The other consequence is a planning caution rather than an opportunity. Because the thresholds do not index, the real burden of the Delaware ladder rises every year that inflation does, without any legislative act. Anyone comparing Delaware with a state that indexes should compare the thresholds and not only the rates: two states with identical top rates are not equally expensive if one of them moved its brackets last year and the other last moved them in 2014.
What Delaware does not change
Delaware gives capital gains no preferential rate and no exclusion for long-held assets. A gain is taxed on the same ladder as a paycheque, so the entire holding-period saving is federal.
None of this touches the federal side, which indexes its own brackets every year even though Delaware does not. Your long-term rate, the surtax on investment income and the home-sale exclusion are all computed exactly as they would be for someone living anywhere else.
The state figure here stacks your gain on federal ordinary taxable income. Delaware computes its own taxable income with its own itemised and standard deductions and personal credits, none of which are modelled, so treat the number as close for a straightforward wage-and-sale year and approximate where a Delaware return carries significant adjustments.
A worked Delaware example
Every figure below is computed by the same engine that powers the calculator above, at the moment this page was built — not typed in by hand. When the tax-year data is updated, this example updates with it.
A $180,000 gain on a $95,000 salary
A single filer in Delaware earning $95,000 sells long-held shares for a $180,000 gain. Ordinary income alone has already passed the $60,000 top threshold.
- Taxable income after deduction
- $258,900
- Taxable gain
- $180,000
- Tax owed without the sale
- $12,070
- Tax the sale added
- $29,850
- of which net investment income tax
- $2,850
- Total federal tax
- $41,920
- Delaware state tax
- $11,880
- Effective rate on the gain
- 16.58%
The effective state rate on the gain is the full 6.6% — every lower bracket was consumed by salary before the gain was stacked on top. The graduated ladder is real but invisible to anyone in this position.
Caveats on this example (3)
- 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.
- Delaware: local income taxes are not modelled and apply on top of the state figure. Wilmington levies a 1.25% earned income tax, which does not reach capital gains.
- Delaware: the state taxable income base is approximated by federal ordinary taxable income. State additions, subtractions and deductions are not modelled.
Show the working — 13 steps, each with its citation
- Net short-term capital gain or loss for the year$0
Assets held one year or less. Taxed at ordinary rates if a net gain.
- Net long-term capital gain or loss for the year$180,000
Assets held more than one year. Eligible for the 0/15/20% rates.
- Standard deduction-$16,100
Adjusted gross income of $275,000 less $16,100.
- Taxable income$258,900
The figure the rate tables and the capital gain ceilings are both measured against.
- Ordinary income taxed at 10%$1,240
$12,400 of taxable income between $0 and $12,400.
- Ordinary income taxed at 12%$4,560
$38,000 of taxable income between $12,400 and $50,400.
- Ordinary income taxed at 22%$6,270
$28,500 of taxable income between $50,400 and $78,900.
- Ordinary income stacked below the long-term gain$78,900
Long-term gain is taxed by reference to where it sits ON TOP of $78,900 of other taxable income, not from the bottom of the rate table.
- Long-term gain taxed at 15%$27,000
Gain between the $49,450 zero-rate ceiling and the $545,500 15% ceiling.
- Net investment income tax threshold$200,000
Modified AGI of $275,000 against the $200,000 threshold for a single filer. This threshold is statutory and is not adjusted for inflation.
- Net investment income tax at 3.8%$2,850
3.8% of $75,000, the lesser of net investment income ($180,000) and the amount by which modified AGI exceeds the threshold ($75,000). Here the binding figure is the excess of modified AGI over the threshold.
- Delaware income tax on the gain$11,880
$180,000 stacked on $78,900 of other taxable income across a 6-bracket ladder topping out at 6.6%. Federal ordinary taxable income is used as the base; the state's own taxable income differs, so treat this as an approximation.
- Total tax$53,800
$53,800 on $275,000 of total income, an effective rate of 19.56%.
A smaller gain, on a smaller income
A single filer earning $40,000 sells for a $30,000 gain. Here some of the gain does reach the lower brackets, which is the only case where Delaware’s ladder shows.
- Taxable income after deduction
- $53,900
- Taxable gain
- $30,000
- Tax owed without the sale
- $2,620
- Tax the sale added
- $667.50
- Total federal tax
- $3,287.50
- Delaware state tax
- $1,661.15
- Effective rate on the gain
- 2.23%
The effective state rate comes out near 5.5% rather than 6.6%, because part of the gain fell below the top threshold. That gap is the entire practical value of Delaware’s graduation, and it closes as soon as ordinary income reaches $60,000.
Caveats on this example (3)
- 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.
- Delaware: local income taxes are not modelled and apply on top of the state figure. Wilmington levies a 1.25% earned income tax, which does not reach capital gains.
- Delaware: the state taxable income base is approximated by federal ordinary taxable income. State additions, subtractions and deductions are not modelled.
Show the working — 13 steps, each with its citation
- Net short-term capital gain or loss for the year$0
Assets held one year or less. Taxed at ordinary rates if a net gain.
- Net long-term capital gain or loss for the year$30,000
Assets held more than one year. Eligible for the 0/15/20% rates.
- Standard deduction-$16,100
Adjusted gross income of $70,000 less $16,100.
- Taxable income$53,900
The figure the rate tables and the capital gain ceilings are both measured against.
- Ordinary income taxed at 10%$1,240
$12,400 of taxable income between $0 and $12,400.
- Ordinary income taxed at 12%$1,380
$11,500 of taxable income between $12,400 and $23,900.
- Ordinary income stacked below the long-term gain$23,900
Long-term gain is taxed by reference to where it sits ON TOP of $23,900 of other taxable income, not from the bottom of the rate table.
- Long-term gain taxed at 0%$0
Taxable income stays at or below the $49,450 maximum zero-rate amount.
- Long-term gain taxed at 15%$667.50
Gain between the $49,450 zero-rate ceiling and the $545,500 15% ceiling.
- Net investment income tax threshold$200,000
Modified AGI of $70,000 against the $200,000 threshold for a single filer. This threshold is statutory and is not adjusted for inflation.
- Net investment income tax does not apply$0
Modified AGI is $130,000 below the threshold.
- Delaware income tax on the gain$1,661.15
$30,000 stacked on $23,900 of other taxable income across a 6-bracket ladder topping out at 6.6%. Federal ordinary taxable income is used as the base; the state's own taxable income differs, so treat this as an approximation.
- Total tax$4,948.65
$4,948.65 on $70,000 of total income, an effective rate of 7.07%.
What this calculator does not cover for Delaware
The Delaware figure stacks your gain on your federal ordinary taxable income. Delaware computes its own taxable income with its own additions and subtractions, which are not modelled here — so treat the state number as a close approximation for a straightforward wage-and-sale situation, and as a rough one if your return carries significant state adjustments.
Full-year residency is assumed throughout. Part-year residents, non-residents, and gains sourced to property in another state all turn on rules this calculator does not model. The complete list of what is in and out of scope is on the methodology page.
Other states
- New JerseyOrdinary income to 10.75%. Fixed thresholds, and no loss carryforward.
- PennsylvaniaFlat 3.07%, no holding-period distinction, and unusual loss rules.
- VirginiaTop rate of 5.75% from just $17,000, on 1990 thresholds.
See the full 2026 capital gains guide for the federal rules that apply wherever you live — the rate ladder, the net investment income tax, the home-sale exclusion and depreciation recapture — plus every state we currently cover.