Free Taxes Tools

Free federal tax calculators that use the actual IRS brackets, statutory formulas, and Treasury Regulations — not approximations. Each calculator answers a specific question. The Federal Income Tax Calculator estimates your full Form 1040 liability with the standard deduction, common credits, and all five filing statuses. The Self-Employment Tax Calculator computes Schedule SE tax using the 92.35% × 15.3% formula with the Social Security wage base ($176,100 for 2025, $184,500 for 2026) plus Medicare and Additional Medicare. The Quarterly Estimated Tax Calculator projects your 1040-ES payments and checks the § 6654 safe harbor against an underpayment penalty. The Capital Gains Tax Calculator runs short-term ordinary brackets against long-term 0/15/20% rates with NIIT. The Bonus Tax Calculator shows why flat supplemental-wage withholding rarely matches what you actually owe at filing time, and the AMT Calculator determines whether the alternative minimum tax overrides your regular liability.

Weighing a salaried offer against contract work? Start with the 1099 vs W-2 Calculator. The core difference: a W-2 employee pays 7.65% in FICA and the employer pays the other half, while a 1099 contractor pays both halves as self-employment tax — 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings — with no employer benefits. A contract rate has to be meaningfully higher than the equivalent salary to break even, and contractors also take on quarterly filing obligations that employees never see.

Quarterly estimated taxes catch most new freelancers off guard. The four payment deadlines each year are April 15 (Q1), June 15 (Q2), September 15 (Q3), and January 15 of the following year (Q4); when a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday it shifts to the next business day. Miss one and the IRS computes an underpayment penalty quarter by quarter — even if you pay in full the following April. Paying under the § 6654 safe-harbor rules is usually the simplest way to stay penalty-free, and the estimated-tax calculator builds the check in.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA, signed July 4, 2025) changed several numbers these calculators depend on. The 2025 standard deduction rose to $15,750 single, $31,500 married filing jointly, and $23,625 head of household; for 2026 those amounts are $16,100, $32,200, and $24,150 per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The state-and-local-tax (SALT) deduction cap increased to $40,000, and the child tax credit is $2,200 per child. The biggest structural change hits the AMT in 2026: the exemption phaseout rate doubles from 25% to 50% and the phaseout thresholds drop to $500,000 single / $1,000,000 married filing jointly — anyone exercising incentive stock options should re-run their numbers under the new rules.

Equity compensation sits at the boundary of income and investment tax: RSU vesting is taxed as ordinary supplemental wages and is frequently under-withheld, while ISO exercises can trigger AMT without generating any cash. The RSU and stock-option calculators in the Retirement & Investing category handle those cases. All math here is grounded in the governing IRC sections (§ 1 for brackets, § 1402 for SE tax, § 1411 for NIIT, § 6654 for estimated tax) and the annual IRS revenue procedures — Rev. Proc. 2024-40 as amended by OBBBA for 2025, Rev. Proc. 2025-32 for 2026. Every calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your income, deductions, gains, and dependents never leave your device.