Same rates, wider brackets
The seven federal income tax rates did not change for 2026: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, made the 10% to 37% rates permanent rather than letting them revert. What moved is the inflation adjustment the IRS makes every autumn, in Rev. Proc. 2025-32. For a single filer the 12% bracket now ends at $50,400 instead of $48,475, the 22% bracket at $105,700, and the 37% rate starts above $640,600. Married couples filing jointly and heads of household have their own thresholds, all shown in the table below.
The standard deduction rose to $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly, from $15,750 and $31,500. Those 2025 amounts were themselves raised by the same Act, so 2026's are the first ordinary indexation of the new figures.
What a raise in the thresholds is worth
Because every threshold moved, the same salary pays a little less federal income tax in 2026, typically by up to a few hundred dollars a year in the impact tables. The gain is largest just above a threshold that moved, where some income dropped back into a lower bracket, which is why the figures jump around rather than rising smoothly with salary.
Social Security took more at the top
The Social Security rate is unchanged at 6.2%, but it now applies to pay up to $184,500, up from $176,100. Anyone earning above the old wage base pays tax on another 8,400 dollars, 520.80 dollars a year, which is more than the income tax indexation gives back at 200,000 dollars: the one salary in the tables where take-home pay falls, for single filers and heads of household. Above the new wage base, the extra Social Security is the same 520.80 dollars at any salary.
Medicare stays at 1.45% with no cap, and the additional Medicare tax of 0.9% still starts at $200,000 for a single filer and $250,000 for a joint return. Those thresholds are set in the statute and are never indexed, so each year more salaries cross them.
This page compares federal rules only. State income tax, which our 2026 rules cover state by state, is not compared because we hold no 2025 state tables; the paycheck calculator works out your state's withholding for 2026, and the take-home pay calculator your federal take-home under either year.