The sale
The holding period — this is what picks the table
The state layer
This page works out capital gains tax on one sale, split into federal and state. Nothing is calculated yet.
The federal tables this page uses
Both tables below are the 2026 figures, transcribed from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (taxable years beginning in 2026). They are printed here so you can check the arithmetic against the same numbers the page used, and so the year is not something you have to take on trust.
Maximum capital gains rate — §1(j)(5)(B). A gain is taxed at 0% up to the first amount, 15% up to the second, and 20% above it.
| Filing status | 0% up to | 15% up to | above that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | 49,450 | 545,500 | 20% |
| Married filing jointly | 98,900 | 613,700 | 20% |
| Married filing separately | 49,450 | 306,850 | 20% |
| Head of household | 66,200 | 579,600 | 20% |
Ordinary brackets — §1(j)(2). Used only for a short-term gain, which is taxed at these rates rather than the preferential ones.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | up to 12,400 | up to 24,800 | up to 17,700 |
| 12% | up to 50,400 | up to 100,800 | up to 67,450 |
| 22% | up to 105,700 | up to 211,400 | up to 105,700 |
| 24% | up to 201,775 | up to 403,550 | up to 201,750 |
| 32% | up to 256,225 | up to 512,450 | up to 256,200 |
| 35% | up to 640,600 | up to 768,700 | up to 640,600 |
| 37% | above that | above that | above that |
Married filing separately uses the single brackets for ordinary income as well, but its own 15% capital gains ceiling of 306,850.
How the two layers work
The sale part is the same four steps as anywhere on this site: the cost is the shares times the buy price plus the buy fee, the net proceeds are the shares times the sell price less the sell fee, the taxable gain is the difference, and a fee on either side sits inside the gain rather than beside it.
What this page adds is what happens after the gain is known.
The holding period decides which table applies. More than one year — which is what the month box tests, twelve months or fewer being short term — and the gain takes the preferential ladder: nothing on the part that fits under the 0% amount for your filing status, fifteen per cent on the next band, twenty above that. Twelve months or fewer and the gain is ordinary income instead, so it is stacked on top of the rest of your taxable income and taxed at whichever ordinary brackets it reaches.
Your other income decides how much of the gain lands in each band. Ordinary income fills the low bands first, so the gain starts wherever your income already ended. That is why the same gain is taxed differently at two different income levels, and why the page asks for income and prints the bracket the gain actually reached rather than a flat headline rate.
The state layer sits on top and is never guessed. Nine states levy no personal income tax at all — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — and for those the state layer is zero. Everywhere else the page applies the rate you type, once, to the whole gain. It keeps no state table, picks no state bracket and does not spread the gain across a state's own bands, because state treatment of capital gains is not one number: some states use their own progressive brackets, some exclude a share of the gain, and some give long-term gains a different rate from short-term ones.
What this page does not do
Named here so the figure above is read for what it is:
- No state brackets. The state layer is one multiplication at the rate you typed. It does not stack the gain across a state's own bands, and it does not know your state's exclusions or its separate long-term rate.
- No net investment income tax. The 3.8% surtax that can apply above certain income levels is not added by this page.
- No local or city tax. Only the state layer, plus the state rate you type if your city is inside it.
- No losses, no carryover, no offsetting. One sale, and if it comes out at or below cost the tax lines stay empty rather than reading zero.
- No lot selection, no wash sales, no adjusted basis. One buy price for the whole position; splits, stock dividends and returns of capital are not modelled. The cost basis calculator is where a basis gets built from several purchases.
- No dividend tax and no income tax on anything else. This page is about a sale. Money a share paid you while you held it belongs to the dividend tax calculator.
- Not built: several sales at once, importing a statement, saving your history, signing in, or filing anything.
If you want the arithmetic without the two layers — one gain and one rate you already know, no holding period, no state — that is the stock capital gains tax calculator, which returns the gain, the tax at your rate and the after-tax net and keeps no table at all. This page is the one to use when the question is which table applies and what the state adds.
Rounding, and which way the last digit goes
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. The tax is floored to the cent, so what you read is at most a cent under the exact multiplication, and the totals are floored again after the addition. Each step is printed with its own numbers, so you can redo any of them if the place you are putting the figure expects a different rule.
Frequently asked questions
How much tax do I pay on a long-term capital gain? It depends on the band the gain reaches, and the band depends on your other taxable income. Ordinary income fills the low bands first, so the gain starts where your income ended: the part under the 0% amount for your filing status is untaxed, the next band is 15%, and anything above the 15% ceiling is 20%. Type the sale, the holding period, your filing status and your income, and the page prints which bands the gain fell into and the tax on each.
What counts as long term? More than one year. The page takes the holding period in months: more than twelve is long term, twelve or fewer is short term. Holding for the extra day matters, because a short-term gain is taxed at ordinary rates, which reach higher than the capital gains ladder does.
Does my state tax the gain separately? In most states, yes, and this page lets you put that rate in. Nine states tax no personal income at all, so for those the state layer is zero. This page deliberately holds no state table: pick your state, type the rate you know applies, and the page applies it once and shows the working.
Why does the page ask for my other income? Because the capital gains bands are drawn on taxable income, and the gain is only the top slice of it. At a low income a large gain can still land mostly in the 0% band; at a high one the same gain can reach the 20% band. Without the income figure the page would have to assume a band, and it will not.