Capital gains tax brackets for 2025 and 2026, and how the 3.8% NIIT stacks on top
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Long-term capital gains are taxed on a completely different scale from your paycheck, and where you land on it depends on your ordinary income as much as the size of the gain itself. Here is exactly where the 2025 and 2026 thresholds sit, and how a 3.8% surtax most people forget about can push the real top rate to 23.8%.
For 2026, the 0% long-term capital gains rate applies to taxable income up to $49,450 for a single filer and $98,900 married filing jointly — both up roughly 2.3% from the 2025 thresholds of $48,350 and $96,700. Above those lines, the rate is 15%, then 20% past a second, higher threshold. None of that changes what counts as a long-term gain in the first place, and none of it applies at all to a gain from an asset held a year or less — that gets taxed as ordinary income instead, at rates up to 37%. The distance between those two outcomes on an identical dollar amount is usually the single biggest thing an investor can control about their own tax bill.
The brackets, both years
| Rate | Single, 2025 | Single, 2026 | Married filing jointly, 2025 | Married filing jointly, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | up to $48,350 | up to $49,450 | up to $96,700 | up to $98,900 |
| 15% | $48,350 – $533,400 | $49,450 – $545,500 | $96,700 – $600,050 | $98,900 – $613,700 |
| 20% | above $533,400 | above $545,500 | above $600,050 | above $613,700 |
The 2025 figures come from Revenue Procedure 2024-40; the 2026 figures from the IRS's 2026 inflation-adjustment release, issued under Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Every threshold in the table is taxable income — after your standard or itemized deductions — and that figure includes the gain itself, not just wages or other ordinary income sitting underneath it.
Gains stack on top of ordinary income, not beside it
A long-term gain does not get its own ladder starting back at zero. It sits on top of whatever ordinary taxable income you already have, and only the slice of the combined total that falls inside a given band is taxed at that band's rate. Take a single filer in 2026 with $40,000 of ordinary taxable income who realizes a $15,000 long-term gain:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ordinary taxable income | $40,000 |
| 0% bracket ends at | $49,450 |
| Gain taxed at 0% (up to the 0% ceiling) | $9,450 |
| Remaining gain taxed at 15% | $5,550 |
| Tax on the gain (15% × $5,550) | $832.50 |
Only $9,450 of the $15,000 gain — the room left under the 0% threshold once the $40,000 of ordinary income is accounted for — escapes tax entirely; the rest is taxed at 15%. An investor with $90,000 of ordinary income realizing the identical $15,000 gain gets none of the 0% treatment at all, because their ordinary income alone already exceeds the $49,450 threshold before the gain is even added. Same gain, same year, a different result driven entirely by other income. The income tax calculator is a useful way to check where your ordinary income alone lands before adding a gain on top of it.
The 3.8% surtax that isn't in the bracket table
A separate tax — the Net Investment Income Tax, or NIIT — can apply on top of whichever capital gains rate already applies, and it is easy to miss because it does not appear in any bracket table. It applies a 3.8% surtax on the lesser of your net investment income or the amount your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds a threshold: $200,000 for a single filer, $250,000 married filing jointly, or $125,000 married filing separately. Unlike almost every other figure on this page, these thresholds are fixed directly in the statute and have not been adjusted for inflation since the tax took effect in 2013 — so more taxpayers cross them every year simply because incomes rise while the threshold does not.
Take a single filer with $250,000 MAGI, including $60,000 of net investment income from dividends and long-term gains combined:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| MAGI | $250,000 |
| NIIT threshold (single) | $200,000 |
| MAGI over the threshold | $50,000 |
| Net investment income | $60,000 |
| NIIT applies to the lesser of the two | $50,000 |
| NIIT owed (3.8% × $50,000) | $1,900 |
That $1,900 comes on top of whatever the ordinary 15% or 20% long-term capital gains rate already produced on the same $60,000. For a high earner already in the 20% capital gains bracket and over the NIIT threshold, the real, combined top marginal rate on a long-term gain is 23.8% — 20% plus 3.8% — even though no single bracket table anywhere states that number directly.
The one-year line is worth more than most brackets
Everything above applies only to a long-term gain — an asset held more than one year before it is sold. A short-term gain, from something held a year or less, gets none of it: it is simply added to ordinary income and taxed at whatever ordinary bracket it falls into, up to 37% for 2026. Take a single filer with $90,000 of other ordinary taxable income for 2026, comparing a $10,000 gain taxed each way:
| Holding period | Rate applied | Tax on the gain |
|---|---|---|
| Long-term (over one year) | 15% | $1,500 |
| Short-term (one year or less) | 22% (their ordinary bracket) | $2,200 |
Identical gain, identical income otherwise, a $700 difference — purely from whether the asset was held 366 days instead of 365. The holding-period clock starts the day after purchase and ends on the day of sale, and there is no partial credit for being close to the one-year mark.
What actually changed for 2026
The 0%, 15% and 20% rate structure itself did not change — that has been stable since 2013. What moved is purely the dollar thresholds, adjusted for inflation under the same Revenue Procedure that also set the 2026 ordinary income brackets and standard deduction, this year incorporating amendments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The NIIT thresholds did not move at all, because they are written into the statute as flat dollar figures rather than being indexed — which is worth remembering every year, since it is the one number on this page that inflation quietly makes easier to hit rather than harder.
What to check before assuming a rate applies to you
- Confirm the holding period on the specific lot you are selling — brokerages track this per lot, and selling the wrong lot from a position built up over time can turn a long-term sale into a short-term one.
- Add the gain to your other taxable income for the year before checking which bracket it falls into; the rate depends on the total, not the gain viewed in isolation.
- Check your MAGI against the NIIT thresholds separately from the capital gains bracket check — the two taxes use different thresholds and neither one accounts for the other automatically.
- Remember that state capital gains taxation is entirely separate from everything above; several states tax capital gains as ordinary income with no separate long-term rate at all.
Sources
- IRS: Tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026, including OBBBA amendments
- IRS: Revenue Procedure 2024-40 (2025 inflation adjustments)
- IRS Topic no. 409: Capital gains and losses
This is general information, not tax advice. It covers federal long-term capital gains and the Net Investment Income Tax only; state tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax, and your specific filing situation can all change the result. For a decision about your own return, consult a licensed tax preparer or the IRS directly.