Your Tax Lifecycle Plan — Not Just a Calculator
Skip the scattered tools. Get a guided, step-by-step plan that walks the full tax lifecycle — from filing-status choices to year-end moves — with a printable one-page plan and a refund-or-balance gap check you can act on.
Why a static, source-verified site
- 41 states layer their own brackets, credits, and local taxes on top of federal.
- Nine states have no broad income tax — and Washington taxes capital gains separately.
- Working in two states can trigger dual residency, reciprocal agreements, and convenience-rule traps.
- OBBBA 2025 permanently changed SALT, QBI, QSBS, and the estate exemption.
Calculators & estimators
Every input maps to a published 2026 figure. No black boxes.
Federal Income Tax Estimator
2026 brackets, standard deduction, and effective-rate breakdown by filing status.
CalculatorState Income Tax Estimator
All 50 states + DC, including NYC/Yonkers local tax and reciprocity notes.
CalculatorSelf-Employment & QBI
15.3% SE tax plus the 20% QBI deduction with 2026 phase-in ranges.
CalculatorCapital Gains Tax
Long-term 0/15/20% rates, NIIT surtax, and the 23.8% high-earner ceiling.
CalculatorW-4 Withholding
Model 2026 payroll withholding from IRS Pub. 15-T tables.
CalculatorEstate Tax
The $15M per-person exclusion and portability for 2026 decedents.
CalculatorGift & GST
Annual exclusion, lifetime gift usage, and generation-skipping tax.
ReverseReverse Tax (Target Net)
What gross income do you need to hit a target take-home? Reverse-solve it.
ScenarioRemote-Work Dual-State Tax
Live in one state, work in another? See which state taxes your wages — reciprocity, convenience rule, local tax.
Compare & reverse tools
The differentiators — multidimensional comparison and reverse solving.
Why FiscTalk is different from a generic tax calculator
Most tax calculators on the web give you a single number and move on. FiscTalk was built around the idea that tax planning is a lifecycle, not a one-click form. Every figure is sourced from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 or the applicable state statute, and every tool links to the adjacent piece of the puzzle — so you never have to open three different tabs to compare scenarios.
The U.S. tax system has five independent layers that interact in ways a single-number calculator can never capture: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), state and local income tax, capital gains preference, and the self-employment surcharge. Change one input — a $5,000 raise, a rental property, a side gig — and the ripple reaches all five layers. Our calculators model each layer separately so you can see exactly where a decision changes your bill, and by how much.
The reverse-tax calculator is where this approach pays off most. Instead of asking "what is my tax?", it answers "what gross income do I need to hit $65,000 take-home?" by solving the bracket equations backward. The state-vs-state comparator does the same for relocation math — plug in two states and see the effective-rate delta, including the local tax and reciprocity edge cases that generic tools omit.
For high-net-worth planning, the estate, gift, QSBS, and capital-gains tools share a unified exclusion dataset so you can model gifting strategies, QSBS §1202 exclusions, and step-up-in-basis events in the same session. Everything is dated to the 2026 IRS dataset with visible source links at the bottom of every page.
2026 federal numbers at a glance
Read directly from the IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 dataset behind every calculator — no approximations.
Tax — quick answers
Are the 2026 numbers official?
Federal brackets, the standard deduction, and the Social Security wage base use IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. State rates follow each Department of Revenue. OBBBA 2025 changes to SALT, QBI, and the estate exclusion are reflected where noted.
Is FiscTalk tax advice?
No. It is an estimation tool for planning only. Confirm any filing figure with a CPA or the IRS.
Which calculators are free?
All of them — federal & state income, take-home, capital gains, self-employment/QBI, W-4, estate, gift, and the reverse and comparison tools.
Guides worth reading
Editorial-team deep dives, source-checked and dated — every figure links to its source.
How Much Tax Will I Owe in 2026? $75K–$300K
Worked 2026 federal tax examples for $75,000 to $300,000: federal income tax, FICA, effective and marginal rates, plus state tax notes. Every figure sourced.
Take-Home Pay 2026: What You Keep After Taxes
See how much of a 2026 salary you actually take home after federal income tax, FICA, and state tax — with state-by-state differences explained.
The 2026 Senior Deduction: $6,000 for Age 65+
The OBBBA added a temporary senior deduction for 2025–2028: up to $6,000 (single) or $12,000 (joint) for taxpayers 65+. See who qualifies and how the phase-out works.
2026 Federal Income Tax Brackets, Explained
The 2026 federal income tax brackets and standard deduction from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, with real thresholds and a worked example.
The Estate Tax Sunset Looming in 2026 — What It Means for Your Estate
The 2026 estate tax exemption is $15M per person, but the TCJA sunset is scheduled for 2026. Here's what drops back to, which estates are at risk, and how to plan before the change.
Crypto Tax Reporting in 2026 — 1099 Forms, Cost Basis, and What the IRS Knows
The IRS now receives 1099-DA forms for most crypto dispositions starting in 2025. Here's what that means for your 2026 return, how to track cost basis, and what to do if your broker didn't report.
Remote Work and the Convenience of the Employer Rule — Which States Apply in 2026
The convenience of the employer rule forces remote workers to pay state income tax to their home state even when working from a no-tax state. Here are the states that still apply it in 2026.
QSBS Five-Year Hold Rule and the 3-Year Early Sale Option in 2026
Qualified Small Business Stock can exclude up to 100% of gain under Section 1202. The standard hold is five years, but there is an optional three-year path with reduced exclusion. Here's how each works in 2026.