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 Utah taxes a capital gain
Statutory authority: Utah State Tax Commission, individual income tax rate table, period "January 1, 2025 – current" (retrieved 1 September 2026)
An open-ended rate, and why that is a useful thing to find
The Utah State Tax Commission publishes its rate as a table of periods rather than a list of years. The current row runs from 1 January 2025 to "current" at 4.5%, with earlier rows recording 4.55% for 2024 and 4.65% for 2023.
An open-ended period read today is a statement about today. That is a stronger source than a bare percentage on a page with no date, because it tells you not only what the rate is but that the Commission still considers it in force. Where a state publishes a rate history in this shape, the absence of a closing date is the confirmation.
A 4.45% figure circulates. It was proposed, not passed
Bills introduced in the 2026 session proposed reducing the rate to 4.45%. They were not enacted, and Utah’s rate for 2026 remains 4.5%.
Utah has cut its rate in several successive years, which makes a proposed further cut entirely plausible and therefore easy to mistake for a settled one. The pattern is worth naming: in a state with a recent history of reductions, a proposal reads as a continuation rather than a possibility, and a reader who has seen 4.65, then 4.55, then 4.5 will accept 4.45 without much resistance. The Commission’s own table is the check, and it still shows 4.5%.
The taxpayer tax credit is not modelled, so this figure is an upper bound
Utah applies a non-refundable taxpayer tax credit that reduces the tax due and phases out as income rises. It is a genuine part of the Utah calculation and it is not modelled here, because it depends on figures this calculator does not collect.
The consequence is directional and worth stating: a Utah result here is an upper bound. Filers with lower incomes, where the credit has not fully phased out, will owe less than the figure shown. Filers with substantial income, where the credit has phased away, will find the figure accurate. Since a large capital gain tends to push a taxpayer into the phase-out, the approximation is usually closest precisely for the people bringing the largest sales.
A flat rate and a phasing credit pull in opposite directions
Utah is described as a flat-rate state, and the statutory rate genuinely is flat. The credit complicates that description in a way worth understanding, because the two features work against each other.
A flat rate means the proportion taken does not change with income. A credit that phases out as income rises means the proportion actually paid does change: at lower incomes the credit offsets part of the charge, and as income climbs the offset shrinks until the full 4.5% is being paid. The effective rate therefore rises with income even though the nominal rate does not, which is the ordinary signature of a progressive system arriving by a different route.
For a large capital gain the distinction usually collapses, because the gain itself pushes income past the phase-out and the effective and nominal rates converge. It matters most for a modest gain in a modest year, which is precisely the case where the figure on this page will read highest relative to the real bill.
Utah against the states people actually compare it with
Utah is often weighed against its immediate neighbours by people whose work is portable, and the spread is wide enough to be worth stating precisely.
Nevada levies no individual income tax, so the state charge on a gain there is zero. Arizona is a flat 2.5%, and lower still on qualifying long-term gains — 1.875% effective — because it subtracts a quarter of the gain for assets acquired after 2011. Colorado is 4.4%, marginally below Utah’s 4.5%.
So Utah is at the upper end of its immediate region for capital gains, though the gap to Colorado is a tenth of a point and the gap to Arizona depends on when the asset was bought. Only the Nevada difference is large, and it is the one that carries the heaviest residency requirements to actually claim.
What Utah does not change
Utah taxes capital gains as ordinary income at the flat rate, with no preferential treatment, no exclusion for long-held assets and no holding-period distinction. The entire benefit of holding an asset beyond a year is federal.
Your federal position is unaffected. The 0/15/20% ladder, the 3.8% net investment income tax, the Section 121 home-sale exclusion and Section 1250 depreciation recapture apply exactly as they would elsewhere, and the Utah charge is an additional layer on that result.
The state figure stacks your gain on federal ordinary taxable income, which approximates the Utah base. Combined with the unmodelled credit, treat a Utah number as a ceiling for a straightforward wage-and-sale situation.
A worked Utah 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 $300,000 gain on a joint return
A married couple filing jointly in Utah with $150,000 of income sells long-held shares for a $300,000 gain. At this income the taxpayer credit has phased out.
- Taxable income after deduction
- $417,800
- Taxable gain
- $300,000
- Tax owed without the sale
- $15,340
- Tax the sale added
- $52,600
- of which net investment income tax
- $7,600
- Total federal tax
- $67,940
- Utah state tax
- $13,500
- Effective rate on the gain
- 17.53%
Utah charges a flat 4.5% of the gain. At the proposed but unenacted 4.45% the same sale would have cost $150 less — a difference small enough that adopting the wrong figure would not look obviously wrong, which is exactly why it is worth checking.
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 — 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$300,000
Assets held more than one year. Eligible for the 0/15/20% rates.
- Standard deduction-$32,200
Adjusted gross income of $450,000 less $32,200.
- Taxable income$417,800
The figure the rate tables and the capital gain ceilings are both measured against.
- Ordinary income taxed at 10%$2,480
$24,800 of taxable income between $0 and $24,800.
- Ordinary income taxed at 12%$9,120
$76,000 of taxable income between $24,800 and $100,800.
- Ordinary income taxed at 22%$3,740
$17,000 of taxable income between $100,800 and $117,800.
- Ordinary income stacked below the long-term gain$117,800
Long-term gain is taxed by reference to where it sits ON TOP of $117,800 of other taxable income, not from the bottom of the rate table.
- Long-term gain taxed at 15%$45,000
Gain between the $98,900 zero-rate ceiling and the $613,700 15% ceiling.
- Net investment income tax threshold$250,000
Modified AGI of $450,000 against the $250,000 threshold for married filing jointly. This threshold is statutory and is not adjusted for inflation.
- Net investment income tax at 3.8%$7,600
3.8% of $200,000, the lesser of net investment income ($300,000) and the amount by which modified AGI exceeds the threshold ($200,000). Here the binding figure is the excess of modified AGI over the threshold.
- Utah income tax at 4.5%$13,500
Flat 4.5%, taxing capital gains as ordinary income. The Tax Commission rate table gives the period as "January 1, 2025 – current" at "4.5% or .045"; an open-ended current period read on 1 September 2026 is a statement about 2026, which is why this is recorded as verified rather than carried forward. Utah applies a non-refundable taxpayer tax credit that phases out with income, which this calculator does not model, so a Utah figure is an upper bound for lower-income filers.
- Total tax$81,440
$81,440 on $450,000 of total income, an effective rate of 18.1%.
What this calculator does not cover for Utah
The Utah figure stacks your gain on your federal ordinary taxable income. Utah 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
- ColoradoFlat 4.40%. The old capital gain subtraction appears to be gone.
- TexasNo individual income tax. Federal tax still applies in full.
- ArizonaFlat 2.5%, but 1.875% on gains from assets bought after 2011.
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.