Every state, and what it does with a gain
There is no one rate to look up, because a capital gain is not one kind of thing in state law. Four different arrangements are in use, and every state and the District of Columbia falls into one of them. Each is listed below under the arrangement it uses, and every name carries a link to that state's own revenue authority — the place the classification can actually be checked.
- No broad individual income tax — eight states. A gain has nothing to be taxed under at the state level.
- No income tax, but a separate excise on long-term gains — one state. The charge arrives as an excise above an indexed threshold, not through an income tax.
- Levies an income tax, but gives a gain its own treatment — twelve states. A subtraction, an exclusion, a deduction or a separate rate; in several of them the preference reaches only part of the gain or only certain assets, which is exactly why a single charted number is wrong for them.
- Taxed through the ordinary income tax — the remaining thirty. The gain enters the return with your other income, and the rate on it is whatever your bracket happens to be.
Why the lists that rank for this query do not agree with each other is not a mystery either. On the day this page was written, not one of the ten pages ranking for capital gains tax by state carried a single link to a state's own revenue authority; the sources they named were aggregators and each other, and one of them still cited an article dated January 2017. Two of the tables are labelled 2024 in the title or the URL. One is a calculator whose title says 2026 while its own text states a different tax year. That is what a table does when every state's number is copied from another table: it goes stale in place, one state at a time, with nothing on the page to show which line moved. This page takes the other route. It prints no state's rate at all, keeps the classification narrow enough to be provable, and hands you the state's own page so the check does not depend on trusting this one.
No broad individual income tax
These eight states levy no broad individual income tax, so a resident whose gain is ordinary income to them has no state layer to add. Each name links to the state's own revenue authority.
No income tax, but a separate excise on long-term gains
One state sits apart, and it is the trap in every "no capital gains tax" list that stops at the names.
- Washington — app.leg.wa.gov, No broad income tax, but a separate excise on long-term gains above an indexed threshold (RCW 82.87). The visitor types the effective rate.
Levies an income tax, but gives a gain its own treatment
These twelve do levy an income tax, but a single number taken off a chart would be wrong for them: the treatment reaches part of the gain, or certain assets, or arrives as a separate rate or an alternative one.
- Arizona — azleg.gov, A subtraction applies to part of a net long-term gain on an asset acquired after 31 December 2011 (A.R.S. 43-1022), so the effective rate is below the ordinary rate.
- Arkansas — dfa.arkansas.gov, An exclusion applies to part of a net long-term gain, so the effective rate is below the ordinary rate.
- Hawaii — tax.hawaii.gov, An alternative rate applies, taken at the lesser of it or the ordinary rate.
- Massachusetts — mass.gov, A separate rate applies to most long-term gains, and short-term gains are taxed at a higher rate than long-term.
- Missouri — dor.mo.gov, A subtraction removes federally reported capital gains from state taxable income, effective for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2025.
- Montana — mtrevenue.gov, A net long-term gain is given its own treatment rather than the top ordinary rate, so a single charted rate would be wrong for it.
- New Mexico — tax.newmexico.gov, A deduction applies to part of a qualifying gain; the tests and the amount are set in the state's own rules.
- North Dakota — tax.nd.gov, A deduction applies to part of a net long-term gain.
- Oklahoma — oklahoma.gov, A deduction applies to qualifying gains on Oklahoma property, or on stock in an Oklahoma-headquartered entity, held for the statutory period (68 O.S. 2358).
- South Carolina — dor.sc.gov, A deduction applies to part of a net long-term gain.
- Vermont — tax.vermont.gov, An exclusion applies to part of a long-term gain held for a set number of years.
- Wisconsin — revenue.wi.gov, An exclusion applies to part of a net long-term gain.
Taxed through the ordinary income tax
These thirty levy an individual income tax and publish no separate regime for a capital gain, so the gain enters the return with your other income and is taxed at your bracket. Each name links to the state's own revenue authority, which is where the treatment is set out and where a change would show up first. The absence of a number here is deliberate: in these states the answer genuinely is your bracket, so any single figure printed beside the name would be wrong for most of the people reading it.
Fifty-one names in four lists, and every one links somewhere official. If your state's own page shows a carve-out this classification does not name, the link above is the place that would show it, and the classification is the thing that would change.
The layer the tables only mention: the 3.8% surtax
Above the federal bands sits a second federal charge on investment income, and it is the piece state-by-state tables either skip or name in a single sentence without working it out.
It runs at 3.8% on the lesser of two figures: the taxpayer's net investment income, or the amount by which modified adjusted gross income exceeds a threshold set by filing status. A capital gain is net investment income, so it is inside the tax. Both halves of that "lesser of" matter, and together they produce the thing worth knowing: the surtax does not switch on for the whole gain at once. It reaches only the part of the gain that sits above the threshold, so a single sale can have part of itself under the surtax and part of itself outside it — which is the same straddling behaviour the 0%, 15% and 20% bands show, one layer up. Nothing here is a state rule; this layer applies wherever you live.
| Filing status | Threshold the surtax measures against | Rate |
|---|
| Single | 200,000 | 3.8% |
| Head of household | 200,000 | 3.8% |
| Married filing jointly | 250,000 | 3.8% |
| Married filing separately | 125,000 | 3.8% |
Source: the IRS page on the net investment income tax, irs.gov, which states the tax as running "on the lesser of their net investment income, or the amount by which their modified adjusted gross income exceeds the statutory threshold amount based on their filing status", and gives the thresholds above. It has applied since 1 January 2013 and is reported on Form 8960.
The 2026 federal bands this page stacks against
The federal rate on a long-term gain is not one number either. It is three bands, and where a gain lands on them depends on total taxable income, because the gain is stacked on top of everything else you earned. The bands are printed here in full so the arithmetic above can be checked by hand.
| Filing status | 0% band ends at | 15% band ends at | 20% above |
|---|
| Single | 49,450 | 545,500 | over 545,500 |
| Married filing jointly | 98,900 | 613,700 | over 613,700 |
| Married filing separately | 49,450 | 306,850 | over 306,850 |
| Head of household | 66,200 | 579,600 | over 579,600 |
Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (the 2026 inflation adjustments, filed in 2027), irs.gov. The bands are thresholds on total taxable income, which is why the other-income figure is asked for. The state layer is not in this table, and the state's rate is not on this page at all.
Worked example: where the surtax starts to bite
Take one sale and one filer, and move a single number. 500 shares bought at 40.00 and sold at 80.00 is a taxable gain of 20,000.00. Single filer, other income 190,000.00, and a state layer typed at 5.00%.
The bands first. For a single filer the 0% band ends at 49,450.00, and the other income of 190,000.00 has long since filled it, so none of the gain sits at 0%; all 20,000.00 of it is in the 15% band, which runs to 545,500.00. Federal tax: 20,000.00 × 0.15 = 3,000.00.
Now the surtax, on its own figures. Other income 190,000.00 plus this gain 20,000.00 is a modified adjusted gross income of 210,000.00. The threshold for a single filer is 200,000.00, so the excess is 10,000.00. The tax runs on the lesser of the gain (20,000.00) and that excess (10,000.00), so it reaches 10,000.00 of the gain and not the other 10,000.00: 10,000.00 × 0.038 = 380.00.
The state layer next: 20,000.00 × 0.05 = 1,000.00, the same subtraction that would apply in any state whose effective rate is 5.00%.
Total: 3,000.00 + 380.00 + 1,000.00 = 4,380.00, an effective rate of 21.90% on the gain, and an after-tax net of 40,000.00 − 4,380.00 = 35,620.00.
Then move one thing that is not the gain. Drop the other income to 150,000.00 and the modified adjusted gross income becomes 170,000.00 — under the 200,000.00 threshold, so the excess is zero and the surtax disappears entirely. The federal bands do not move, because 150,000.00 still fills the 0% band: the same 3,000.00 of federal tax, the same 1,000.00 of state tax, a total of 4,000.00 and an effective rate of 20.00%. Same sale, same state, a different answer, and the difference is a threshold nobody printed next to the state's name.
Every figure above is computed by the tool at the top of this page from the same inputs, and every one of them is printed rather than summarised.
What this page does not do
The limits are deliberate, so they are worth stating exactly.
- No state rate table. This page prints no state's tax rate, for any state, and it keeps none in the code behind it. The lists above give the arrangement your state uses and a link to the state's own authority; the rate itself depends on your income, your bracket and rules that change, so the page asks you for it. Type it and the page applies it. Leave it empty and the state layer stays zero rather than being filled in with a guess.
- No local or city tax. Some cities and counties levy their own income tax that reaches capital gains. There is no field for it, and the state rate you type is used for the state layer only.
- The surtax is applied to this gain as the investment income that carries you over the threshold. The tax runs on the lesser of net investment income and the excess over the threshold. This page takes net investment income to be this gain, which is right when the gain is what pushes you across. If you have other investment income, or a different figure for modified adjusted gross income, the split between the two can move and the page does not model it. It does not model the additional Medicare tax either, which is a separate charge.
- No short-term route. This page works the long-term bands, which is what a state's "capital gains" treatment usually means. A gain on shares held a year or less is taxed as ordinary income federally and runs a different ladder — see the long-term capital gains page, which walks both holding periods on one page.
- No deductions, credits or exemptions. The bands are applied to the other income you type, with no standard deduction, no itemised deduction and no credit taken off first. If your taxable income after deductions differs from the figure you type, type the figure after deductions.
- No residency rules, no part-year split. Whether a move actually changes your state tax depends on domicile and day counts, which this page does not model. It applies one state's rate to the whole gain.
- No state return and no filing. Nothing here computes a state's tax for you, because nothing here knows your state's rate. It computes the layers it can stand behind and leaves the state number to you.
- No account, nothing saved, no filing. There is no sign-in here and nothing you type leaves the browser.
Rounding
Every figure on this page is rounded down, never up — the same rule as the rest of the site. Share counts and per-share prices are shown to four decimals, amounts and percentages to two, so the number you read is never larger than the one computed. Each federal band slice is floored to the cent, the surtax is floored to the cent, the state layer is floored to the cent, and the total is floored again after the three are added.
Frequently asked questions
What is the capital gains tax rate in my state?
In thirty of the fifty-one jurisdictions, the honest answer is that there is no single rate: the gain is taxed through the ordinary income tax, so the number depends on your bracket, and it moves when your income moves. In eight there is no state rate at all. In one, Washington, there is a separate excise rather than a rate on ordinary income. In twelve there is a rate, but it applies to part of the gain or at an alternative rate. That is why this page classifies rather than prints: the classification is the part that can be proved and kept current, and the state's own authority is linked beside every name for the rest.
Why do the state capital gains tables disagree with each other?
Because they are copies of copies, on different tax years. On the day this page was written, not one of the ten pages ranking for this query linked to a state's own revenue authority — the sources they named were aggregators and one another, and one was an article dated January 2017. Two of the tables carry 2024 in the title or the URL while their pages are presented as current. One is a calculator titled 2026 whose own text states a different tax year. A rate copied from another table cannot show you which line has moved; a link to the state's own page can.
Do I have to pay the 3.8% surtax on a capital gain?
Only if your modified adjusted gross income is over the threshold for your filing status — 200,000.00 for a single filer or a head of household, 250,000.00 for a married couple filing jointly, 125,000.00 for a married person filing separately — and then only on the smaller of your net investment income or the amount over the threshold. A capital gain counts as net investment income, so it can be caught. But the threshold has to be crossed first, and once it is, only the part of the gain above it is reached. The tool above shows that split line by line.
Which states have no capital gains tax?
Eight states levy no broad individual income tax, so there is no state layer on a gain: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Washington belongs in the conversation but not in the clean list, because it charges a separate excise on large long-term gains. Twelve states with an income tax give a gain a treatment of its own. The no-tax states page takes the first two groups and works the federal 0% band against them in detail; this page takes all fifty-one and adds the surtax layer above.
Is a capital gain taxed at the same rate as my salary in my state?
In the thirty states in the last list, yes — the gain enters the state return with your other income and is taxed at the same rate as the rest of it. That is exactly why no single number is printed next to those names: the rate on your salary is your bracket, not a published figure. In the twelve states in the previous list, no: a subtraction, exclusion, deduction or separate rate means the effective rate on the gain is different from the rate on the rest of your income.
What if I moved states during the year?
The page does not model it. Real part-year treatment turns on domicile, day counts and each state's own sourcing rules, and the gain may be split between two states rather than charged once. The tool applies one state's rate to the whole gain, which is the right shape for a single-state filer and the wrong one for a move.