Tax Calculators

I left consulting four years ago to write personal-finance content full-time, and the most common reader question I still get is some version of "what tax bracket am I in?" That's a useful question, but it answers about 10% of what most people actually need to know about their tax bill. The bracket the question asks about is the marginal rate on the last dollar earned. The effective rate (total federal income tax divided by total income) is almost always lower, often by 5 to 12 points. And the total tax burden, which stacks federal income tax plus FICA plus state plus local plus the self-employment piece if applicable, is the number that actually matters for budgeting. It's also the one nobody quotes. The tools in this section calculate all of them honestly. The bracket calculator stacks income dollar by dollar through the 2026 schedule and shows both marginal and effective rates side by side. The paycheck calculator layers federal, state, FICA, and local on top so you see net take-home, with all 50 states plus NYC, Philadelphia, Ohio cities, and Maryland counties. The capital gains tool handles short vs long term, NIIT exposure, and the 0/15/20 bracket structure. Self-employment, bonus tax, and salary-comparison tools cover the edge cases mainstream sites skip.

The NIIT 3.8% surtax that doubles the cost of a high-earner mistake

The Net Investment Income Tax was added by the 2010 Affordable Care Act and applies a 3.8% additional tax to investment income above $200,000 modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $250,000 for married filing jointly. Those thresholds are not indexed to inflation, so since 2013 they've effectively gotten lower in real terms every year. Investment income for this purpose includes interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, and certain passive business income - not wages or self-employment earnings. For a high earner already in the 20% long-term capital gains bracket, the NIIT layered on top brings the effective top capital gains rate to 23.8%, which is the number that has held since 2013. The mistake we see most often: a $400K-earning household sells a long-held appreciated asset in a single year, generating a $200K gain. The first $50K of that gain might have stayed in the 0% or 15% LTCG bracket if spread across multiple years; concentrating it in one year pushes the entire $200K into the 20% bracket and triggers NIIT on the portion above the threshold. The capital gains calculator on this site models this exact scenario.

FICA, the additional Medicare tax, and the cliff at $200K

FICA is the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security piece is 6.2% on wages up to the wage base ($176,100 in 2025, projected at $180,000 for 2026), and stops above that - meaning a high earner gets a small raise in net take-home pay once their year-to-date wages cross the cap. Medicare is 1.45% on all wages with no cap. The piece that surprises most $200K+ earners: the Additional Medicare Tax adds 0.9% on wages above $200,000 single or $250,000 married filing jointly, also unindexed since enactment in 2013. Unlike the regular Medicare rate, employers only withhold the additional 0.9% based on the individual employee's wages exceeding $200K (they don't factor in spouse income), so married-filing-jointly couples earning between $200K and $250K each routinely have over-withholding, and dual-high-earner couples earning combined over $250K but each under $200K end up under-withheld and owing at filing. Self-employed earners pay double FICA (15.3% total) on the SE-tax base plus the additional 0.9% on combined wages plus SE income above the threshold. The self-employment tax calculator handles this layered math.

Why your withheld amount almost never equals your actual tax owed

W-2 withholding uses a simplified calculation built into the IRS Publication 15-T tables that treats your annualized wage as if it were your only income. It doesn't know about your spouse's job, your investment income, your side business, your RSU vests, your year-end bonus tax method, or the fact that you maxed your 401(k) in October so December paychecks have larger taxable wages. Most W-2 earners end up with a tax refund of $1,500-$3,000, which is over-withholding - an interest-free loan to the federal government that you could have invested or paid down debt with. The fix is updating Form W-4 with your employer to add an "extra withholding" reduction (or for under-withheld scenarios, an increase). The paycheck calculator on this site lets you model exactly what your net pay would look like with different withholding settings before you file the W-4. Self-employed and high-earner W-2 hybrids should also be making quarterly estimated tax payments via Form 1040-ES - the IRS imposes underpayment penalties if you owe more than $1,000 at filing and didn't withhold or pay quarterly throughout the year.

RSUs, NSOs, and the bonus-tax method that determines your refund

Restricted Stock Units vest as ordinary income at the fair market value on vest date. Employers withhold federal tax using one of two methods. The flat method applies a 22% rate on bonus or RSU income up to $1M annually and 37% above that, regardless of your actual bracket. The aggregate method calculates withholding as if the RSU were part of your normal paycheck for that period. For a high earner in the 32% or 35% bracket, the flat method's 22% withholding leaves you materially under-withheld - meaning a big bill at filing. For a moderate earner in the 22% bracket, the flat method matches reasonably well. Most large employers default to flat. The fix for under-withholding is either selling enough shares at vest to cover the actual tax (a "sell-to-cover" beyond the default 22%) or making a Q4 estimated tax payment to close the gap. NSOs (non-qualified stock options) work similarly on exercise: the spread between exercise price and fair market value is ordinary income, subject to the same flat-or-aggregate withholding decision. ISOs are different - exercising creates AMT exposure rather than ordinary income, which is a separate calculation we don't currently have a calculator for.