What are the 2026 federal income tax brackets for married filing separately?
For tax year 2026 a separate return runs through seven marginal rates, from 10% to 37%. The 10% band ends at $12,400, the 22% band starts at $50,400, and the top 37% rate begins at $384,350 of taxable income.
United States · federal · tax year 2026 · every figure from an open dataset with its source
The figures
Marginal rates: each rate applies only to the part of taxable income inside its own band. That is what the third column is — the tax on everything below the band, already added up.
| Taxable income over | But not over | Tax on the amount in the first column | Rate on everything above it |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | $12,400 | $0 | 10% |
| $12,400 | $50,400 | $1,240 | 12% |
| $50,400 | $105,700 | $5,800 | 22% |
| $105,700 | $201,775 | $17,966 | 24% |
| $201,775 | $256,225 | $41,024 | 32% |
| $256,225 | $384,350 | $58,448 | 35% |
| $384,350 | no upper limit | $103,291.75 | 37% |
A separate return uses the single filer’s thresholds all the way up and then diverges once, at the end: 37% starts at $384,350, which is exactly half the joint threshold of $768,700. That is the entire difference between this schedule and the single one — six identical thresholds and a seventh that is far lower.
Filing separately is rarely decided on the brackets. It halves the Additional Medicare Tax threshold, halves the income line that decides the estimated-tax safe harbour, and closes several credits altogether. If you are comparing the two ways of filing, compare whole returns; this table only tells you what the rates do.
Where these figures come from
Each row below is one line of our open dataset: the primary document the figure was read out of, the date it was read, and a link to the document itself. Nothing here was copied from a summary of a summary.
| constant | basis | source document | verified on |
|---|---|---|---|
ordinary_brackets_2026 |
indexed | Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments; announced in IR-2025-103), section 4.01 / 4.14 / 4.26, TABLES 1-4 | ✓ verified |
Work out your own
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The whole dataset
Every figure on this page, and everything around it, as a table you can read and as CSV and JSON you can download. Public domain, no attribution required.
Nearby answers
This is a reference table, not tax advice. Verify any figure against the linked primary document before relying on it.
