2026 tax brackets, and what the One Big Beautiful Bill actually did to them
Photo by Markus Winkler · Unsplash
Every 2026 bracket moved up, but not by the same amount — a 2025 law gave the bottom two brackets a larger inflation bump than the rest. Here is what that is worth on a real income.
For the 2026 tax year, the standard deduction rose to $16,100 for a single filer, and the lowest two brackets got a noticeably bigger inflation adjustment than the rest. That second part is new: a law signed in the middle of 2025 changed how the annual adjustment is calculated for the 10% and 12% brackets specifically, on top of the ordinary inflation update every bracket already gets. The result is a small but real difference in what a working income actually owes.
The 2026 brackets themselves
Seven rates, same as every year since 2018 — what moves is where each one starts and ends. For a single filer:
| Rate | Taxable income (single) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $12,400 |
| 12% | $12,400 – $50,400 |
| 22% | $50,400 – $105,700 |
| 24% | $105,700 – $201,775 |
| 32% | $201,775 – $256,225 |
| 35% | $256,225 – $640,600 |
| 37% | above $640,600 |
Married filing jointly roughly doubles each threshold: the 10% band runs to $24,800, the 22% band starts at $100,800, and the top rate begins at $768,700. These figures come from the IRS's own 2026 inflation-adjustment announcement.
What a mid-2025 law changed about how these move
Every bracket is indexed to inflation every year — that part is not new. What changed is a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025, which made the tax structure introduced in 2018 permanent rather than letting it expire, and on top of that gave the bottom two brackets — 10% and 12% — a larger inflation bump than the brackets above them: roughly a 4% increase to those two thresholds for 2026, against roughly 2.3% for the 24% bracket and above. The practical effect is that a modest income sees slightly more of its bracket structure widen than a high income does, a small deliberate tilt rather than a side effect of the ordinary inflation formula.
What it comes to on a real income
Take a single filer earning $85,000 in 2026:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | $85,000 |
| Standard deduction | −$16,100 |
| Taxable income | $68,900 |
| 10% on first $12,400 | $1,240 |
| 12% on the next $38,000 | $4,560 |
| 22% on the remaining $18,500 | $4,070 |
| Total federal tax | $9,870 |
That is an effective rate of 11.6% on $85,000, even though the last dollar earned sits in the 22% bracket. The salary after tax calculator runs this exact ladder for any income and filing status.
What indexing was worth compared with 2025
Running the identical $85,000 salary through the 2025 rules — a $15,750 standard deduction and brackets ending at $11,925 and $48,475 — produces a different bill:
| Tax year | Standard deduction | Taxable income | Total federal tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 rules | $15,750 | $69,250 | $10,149 |
| 2026 rules | $16,100 | $68,900 | $9,870 |
Same income, same filing status, $279 less in tax — entirely from the deduction and bracket widths moving, with no change in rates. That is the concrete answer to what "adjusted for inflation, plus the new bottom-bracket bump" is worth in a specific year.
The same arithmetic for a married couple
The ladder works identically for a married couple filing jointly, just against the wider thresholds. Take a household income of $150,000:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Household income | $150,000 |
| Standard deduction | −$32,200 |
| Taxable income | $117,800 |
| 10% on first $24,800 | $2,480 |
| 12% on the next $76,000 | $9,120 |
| 22% on the remaining $17,000 | $3,740 |
| Total federal tax | $15,340 |
An effective rate of 10.2% on $150,000 — lower than the single filer's 11.6% on $85,000 earlier, not because married couples are taxed more gently in some general sense, but because this particular household has more of its income sitting inside the wider 10% and 12% bands before the 22% rate ever applies. Filing status changes where the boundaries are; it does not change how the ladder works.
What this changes on a paycheck
Employers update withholding tables at the start of each year, so most salaried workers saw a small change in take-home pay in their first January 2026 paycheck without doing anything themselves. Withholding is only an estimate based on the W-4 on file, though — it does not know about a bonus, freelance income, or a second job. The bonus after tax calculator handles the case employers most often get wrong: a bonus is commonly withheld at a flat 22% federal rate regardless of your actual bracket, which over- or under-collects depending on total income for the year. Anyone outside standard payroll withholding can use the gross salary from net calculator to work the ladder in reverse.
What to check before assuming last year's numbers apply
- Confirm your filing status — the thresholds above are for single filers; married and head-of-household brackets sit at different points.
- Check whether your state also charges income tax with its own brackets; none of the above says anything about state liability.
- Several benefits and phase-outs key off adjusted gross income rather than gross salary — the adjusted net income calculator is worth running before assuming a deduction changes what you are eligible for.
- If you are self-employed or otherwise pay quarterly estimated tax, the same 2026 brackets apply to that income — a mid-year rise or fall in earnings is worth re-running through the ladder rather than leaving the same estimate on file all year, since the brackets above only ever describe annual income, not any single quarter of it.
This is general information, not tax advice. It describes 2026 federal brackets only; state tax, credits, and your specific filing situation can change the result substantially. For a decision about your own return, consult a licensed tax preparer or the IRS directly.