About PlainSalary

Our mission is to make the 2026 US tax system computationally transparent, every bracket schedule, every threshold, every rate change, without paywalls, signups, or marketing distractions. PlainSalary helps US workers, freelancers, contractors, and small business owners estimate their actual federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA / SECA payroll tax liability, then understand exactly which numbers drove that result.

The US tax system is genuinely complex but knowable. Most online calculators either (a) hide the bracket math behind a single output number, or (b) bury you in data-collection fields and try to upsell paid tax preparation. We do neither. Every calculation traces directly back to the official 2026 schedule. Every bracket is shown. The methodology page documents every formula. Source code patterns are open about how the math works.

Our Data Sources

PlainSalary compiles its 2026 bracket database from primary, authoritative US government sources:

  • Federal income tax brackets - IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the official 2026 inflation-adjustment notice. Covers all four filing statuses (single, married jointly, married separately, head of household), the standard deduction, and AMT thresholds.
  • State income tax brackets and rates - Each US state's Department of Revenue, verified for 2026 rate changes effective January 1. Cross-checked against the Tax Foundation's State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets 2026 edition for completeness.
  • FICA and Medicare rates - SSA Fact Sheet 2026 Social Security Changes, including the wage base ($184,500 in 2026), employee and self-employment OASDI rates, Medicare rates, and the additional Medicare threshold.
  • Capital gains preferential rates - IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 long-term capital gains brackets and the IRC §1411 Net Investment Income Tax thresholds.

Methodology

The calculator runs entirely in your browser. We do not send any input to any server, your gross income, filing status, and state never leave your device. The bracket data ships as a static JSON snapshot loaded with the page. The math is plain JavaScript that walks the marginal brackets in order, computing tax at each slice and summing. See the methodology page for the full computation pipeline including FICA and the additional Medicare surcharge.

For state-specific calculations, we have detailed bracket schedules for the largest progressive-tax states (California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina). For other progressive states we approximate with the top marginal rate, see the per-state page for the precise schedule and a note on the approximation. We are progressively expanding detailed schedules to cover all 28 progressive-tax states by Q3 2026.

What This Calculator Does Not Do

PlainSalary estimates federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA. It explicitly does not include:

  • Itemized deductions beyond the standard deduction (mortgage interest, SALT, charity, medical)
  • Tax credits (Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit, education credits, energy credits)
  • Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) - see our AMT primer
  • Capital gains preferential rates, see our capital gains guide
  • Local income taxes (NYC city tax, several Pennsylvania municipalities, several Indiana counties)
  • Withholding adjustments, quarterly estimated payment optimization, or tax planning advice

For your actual filing, use commercial tax preparation software (TurboTax, H&R Block, FreeTaxUSA) or a qualified tax professional.

Annual Updates

The IRS publishes the next year's inflation adjustments via Revenue Procedure each November. Each US state Department of Revenue publishes 2026 rate changes through Q4 2025. PlainSalary refreshes its bracket database within two weeks of each major source update, federal updates come once per year (November), state updates trickle in through Q4 and effective January 1, FICA wage base updates from SSA in October.

Independent Editorial

PlainSalary is an independent editorial publisher of plain-language reference sites built on public data. We are not a tax preparation service, not a CPA firm, not affiliated with the IRS or any state Department of Revenue. We do not receive commission from tax software referrals. We do not sell user data, there is no user data to sell, since the calculator runs entirely on your device.

How Content Is Produced

Some narrative content on this site is compiled from official source data - drafted with the help of editorial drafting tools and then reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy, factual grounding, and clarity. Every editorially-drafted piece undergoes editorial review against the cited primary sources before publication. Bracket data is loaded directly from government sources without AI modification.

Disclaimer

This site is for informational purposes only and does not provide tax, financial, or legal advice. Tax law is complex and individual circumstances vary. Always consult a qualified tax professional or CPA before making filing decisions, claiming deductions or credits, or relying on a calculator estimate for any monetary purpose. PlainSalary estimates may differ from your actual tax liability for many reasons: itemized deductions, tax credits, AMT, capital gains preferential rates, local taxes, withholding adjustments, and other factors not modeled by the calculator.

Why We Built This

The IRS, SSA, and 51 state Departments of Revenue each publish their own bracket schedules, FICA rates, and rate-change notices.

This information is genuinely public, but spread across 50+ websites in 50+ formats, with rate changes arriving via Revenue Procedure PDFs, state DOR press releases, and inflation-adjustment notices throughout Q4.

For a typical worker or freelancer trying to estimate their 2026 tax burden, finding the current rate for their specific situation requires reading three or four primary sources and reconciling them.

Most online "tax calculators" solve this by hiring CPAs to maintain proprietary spreadsheets and putting the result behind a paywall, an account, or aggressive upsell to paid tax preparation.

That economic model is fine for software companies but bad for the public.

The bracket schedules are not proprietary information. The IRS publishes them. Each state DOR publishes them. The SSA publishes the FICA wage base.

The math is well-defined, marginally complex, and unchanged for decades. There is no reason a basic 2026 federal-plus-state-plus-FICA calculator should require an account, a credit card, or a 30-day trial.

So we built PlainSalary as the version we wished existed: free, browser-only, transparent about every formula, citing every source.

How We Verify Bracket Data

For each major data refresh, annually for federal, state-by-state for state, annually for FICA wage base, we independently re-derive a sample of bracket-schedule outputs against the official source PDF.

Any computational discrepancy blocks the release.

We publish the data update history at the methodology page.

For state brackets, we cross-check three sources: the state DOR's own publication, the Tax Foundation aggregator, and the official text of any tax-law change effective for the year.

If a state changes mid-year (rare), we refresh within two weeks of the effective date.

Our Editorial Standards

Every guide on the site is reviewed against the cited primary sources before publication.

Every numerical claim is grounded in a specific government source, IRS Revenue Procedure, SSA Fact Sheet, state DOR notice, or congressional record.

We do not extrapolate, hedge with phrases like "approximately" or "may be," or use vague figures.

If a number cannot be sourced authoritatively, we omit it from the guide.

For state-level rates, we prefer the state DOR's official 2026 schedule notice as the primary source, and the Tax Foundation aggregator as a secondary cross-check.

For federal numbers, IRS Revenue Procedure is the only official source we use.

For FICA, the SSA Fact Sheet is authoritative.

Privacy by Design

The PlainSalary calculator is implemented as a static JSON snapshot of the 2026 bracket data, plus plain JavaScript that walks the brackets in your browser.

Your gross income, filing status, and state never leave your device.

There is no API call to "submit" the calculation, the math runs locally.

We do not collect personally identifiable information.

We do not use third-party tracking cookies.

Page-view metrics are collected via Umami, a privacy-focused analytics platform that does not use cookies, does not collect IP addresses, and does not transmit user-identifiable data.

Read our privacy policy for the full details on what data is and is not collected.

Plans for 2026

Through Q3 2026 we are progressively expanding detailed bracket schedules to cover all 28 progressive-tax states (currently 9 are detailed, 19 use the top-marginal-rate approximation).

For Q4 2026 we plan to add: capital gains tax computation (currently approximated), AMT computation (currently noted as a separate concern), Net Investment Income Tax computation, local tax computation for NYC and the largest Pennsylvania / Indiana / Maryland local-tax jurisdictions.

For 2027 we plan to add: prior-year comparison ("how would my 2025 tax differ from 2026?"), bracket-change visualizations, and per-state rate-change history charts.

The bracket schedules for 2027 will be published within two weeks of the IRS Revenue Procedure release in November 2026.

Contact

For questions, factual corrections, or partnership inquiries, email hello@plainsalary.com or use our contact page.

For privacy-related requests (access, deletion, opt-out), use privacy@plainsalary.com.

For formal legal correspondence, subpoenas, or DMCA notices, use legal@plainsalary.com.

We aim to respond to data-correction reports within 72 hours on business days.

For partnership inquiries and longer research exchanges, response may take up to one week during busy periods.

Open Source & Inspectable

The bracket data is shipped to your browser as a static JSON snapshot.

You can read the bracket schedules and the calculator math by viewing page source on the calculator page.

The 2026 federal brackets are loaded directly from the seven schedule rows defined in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

Each state's brackets trace back to either a primary state DOR notice or, where the state uses a flat rate, a single rate row.

FICA rates trace back to the SSA Fact Sheet 2026 Social Security Changes.

If you find a discrepancy with the official source, please email the page URL, the input values, and the source you compared against.

What We Won't Do

We will not add lead capture forms, "save your calculation" features that require an account, or upsell paths to paid tax preparation services.

We will not add advertising that disrupts the calculator UX (popovers, vignettes between input fields, ad-blocker walls).

We will not partner with tax software vendors for affiliate referrals, there is no incentive structure that would not corrupt the editorial calibration of the calculator.

We will not add tracking that fingerprints users, links across sites, or transmits identifiable data.

About the PlainSalary Editorial Team

PlainSalary Editorial is our editorial team responsible for compiling 2026 US federal and state tax bracket schedules, FICA rates, and methodology documentation. Every bracket schedule and rate is independently verified against the official IRS, SSA, or state Department of Revenue source before publication. The editorial team specializes in US federal income tax, state income tax, FICA / SECA payroll tax, and tax bracket documentation. Editorial contact: hello@plainsalary.com.

Published by PlainSalary. The editorial team reviews every dataset and data-framing choice before publication and maintains consistent standards across the site.