Methodology
How we calculate your tax
Every figure, its source, and the date we last checked it. Including the parts that are not finished — because a calculator that hides its gaps is the problem, not the solution.
The calculation, step by step
- 01Gross incomeWhat you enter. Wages before anything is taken out.
- 02Minus pre-tax contributionsTraditional 401(k), HSA, pre-tax health premiums. These reduce taxable income but not Social Security and Medicare wages.
- 03Minus the deductionThe standard deduction for your filing status — $16,100 single — unless your itemized deductions are larger, in which case those apply instead.
- 04= Taxable incomeThe figure the brackets are applied to. Not your salary.
- 05Brackets applied cumulativelyEach slice of income is taxed at its own rate. Your top rate applies only to the last slice, never to the whole amount.
- 06Plus FICASocial Security at 6.2% up to $184,500, Medicare at 1.45% with no ceiling, plus the Additional Medicare Tax above the threshold.
- 07Plus state taxComputed separately with that state’s own brackets, deduction and exemptions, including the rules that make them move with income: deductions withdrawn as income rises (Alabama, Maine, South Carolina and Wisconsin); exemptions or credits that shrink or disappear (Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon and Utah); a deduction for federal income tax paid (Alabama, Missouri and Oregon); recapture of the lower brackets’ benefit (Arkansas, Connecticut and New York); credits set as a share of the tax (Connecticut and Ohio); low-income tax tables that replace the deduction and the brackets altogether (Arkansas); flat-dollar credits that shrink or vanish as income rises (Arkansas and Ohio); and, for married couples, how the income divides between the two spouses — each taxed on his or her own share (Missouri), a spouse tax adjustment or two-earner credit (South Carolina and Virginia), or the option to figure each spouse's tax separately on the same return, kept only where it is lower (Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia and Mississippi). The calculators ask for the split; pages that print a joint figure assume an even one and say so.
Where the numbers come from
| Figure | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Federal brackets, all four statuses | IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, § 3.01, Tables 1-4 | 2026-08-31 |
| Standard deduction | IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, § 3.14 | 2026-08-31 |
| Social Security wage base, Medicare | SSA, Contribution and Benefit Base 2026; IRS Topic no. 751 | 2026-08-31 |
| County property tax rates | US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year 2023 (B25103, B25077, B19013) | 2026-08-31 |
| State income tax rates | Compiled source — 49 of 51 checked against the state itself | 2026-09-01 |
State brackets pages: who gets one
A state gets its own brackets page only when both its single and its joint schedule have been read in the state’s own document, nothing is left open in the log below, and the engine models every rule that moves the figures the page prints (the seven salaries up to $200,000). 35 states meet that today. The others that tax wages are held back, and the log says why: Arkansas, California, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont. Their calculators stay live, with the open point declared on the page. All the published ones are on the brackets overview.
State-by-state verification log
We are reading every state’s figures off that state’s own publication, one at a time, and publishing what we find — including where the compiled data we started from turned out to be wrong. A state does not get its own brackets page until it appears here as verified or corrected, with nothing left open.
Where a state’s figures come from its employer withholding tables, one more check applies. Withholding can run a year behind the return: Arkansas’s 2026 withholding formula carries exactly the brackets indexed for 2025 returns. So for every state read from a withholding or payroll document (Connecticut, Hawaii, Missouri, Mississippi, Oregon, Arkansas, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Oklahoma) we checked which of the figures taken from it the state re-indexes each year and, for each of those, checked it against the previous year’s return — and, where we have it, the previous year’s withholding — before calling it 2026. Figures fixed in statute cannot lag. Where the check fails, the state’s entry says which year its figures really belong to.
14
verified against the state
22
corrected — data was wrong
5
some 2026 figures unconfirmed
1
state site blocks access
9
still to check
| State | Status | Document checked | What we found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Corrected | Alabama DOR, Form 40 Booklet 2025 (standard deduction chart p. 9; federal income tax deduction worksheet p. 31) | The brackets matched: 2% on the first $500, 4% up to $3,000 and 5% above, doubled exactly for joint returns ($1,000 and $6,000). Two larger rules were missing. Alabama lets you deduct all of the federal income tax you paid, with no cap, which lowers the tax for every wage earner and brings the real marginal rate on a $100,000 salary to about 3.9% rather than 5%. And its standard deduction is a table, not a figure: $8,500 for a couple and $3,000 for a single filer below $26,000 of income, falling in $500 steps to $5,000 and $2,500 at $35,500 — we had a flat $7,500 and $3,000. Both are now in the engine. Corrected on 24 September 2026. |
| Arizona | Corrected | Arizona DOR, Individual Income Tax Highlights and IRC conformity | The 2.5% flat rate was right; the standard deduction was not. Arizona has conformed to the FEDERAL standard deduction since 2019, so for 2026 it is $16,100 / $32,200. The compiled figure we held was roughly half that, overstating taxable income by about $7,750 and the bill by about $194. Corrected. |
| Connecticut | Corrected | CT DRS, TPG-211 2026 Withholding Calculation Rules (rev. 12/25), in IP 2026(1): Tables A–E | The seven brackets were right, and the joint ones are exactly double. Almost everything around them was not. We held a $15,000 exemption per person with no phase-out, so a couple got $30,000 at any income. Connecticut's 2026 withholding rules — which reproduce the return's Tables A to E, unchanged from 2025 — give an exemption per return, $15,000 single and $24,000 joint, shrinking by $1,000 for every $1,000 of income above $30,000 ($48,000) and gone at $45,000 ($72,000); an add-back that withdraws the benefit of the 2% rate above $56,500 ($100,500 joint), up to $250 ($500); a recapture from $105,000 ($210,000); and a personal credit of 75% of the tax at the lowest incomes, falling to nothing above $64,500 ($100,500). All five tables are now in the engine, loaded up to $295,000 of income for a single filer and $580,000 for a couple for the recapture. Pension and annuity exemptions are separate and not part of the wage calculation. |
| District of Columbia | Corrected | DC Office of Tax and Revenue, 2026 D-40ES booklet (rev. 1 April 2026), Tax Rate Table; 2025 D-40 booklet, filing statuses and Calculation J (Schedule S) | Confirmed against the 2026 estimated-tax booklet: one rate table for every filing status (4%, 6%, 6.5%, 8.5%, 9.25%, 9.75% and 10.75%), so a couple reaches each rate at the same taxable income as a single filer, and a standard deduction of $16,100 single and $32,200 joint. The District now sets its deduction in its own law, although for 2026 it matches the federal one. Above $200,000 of income deductions are reduced, which the engine does not apply. Corrected on 25 September 2026: the 2025 D-40 booklet lets a married couple file separately on the same return (Calculation J), each spouse taxed on the one table and the $32,200 deduction divided between them as they choose, and advises couples in which both earn to figure the tax both ways. We applied the table once to the couple's combined income, overstating the District tax of two-earner couples by up to about $1,600 (at $200,000 split evenly). The engine now computes both and keeps the lower, for the income split the calculator is given. |
| Delaware | Corrected | Delaware Code, Title 30, §§ 1102(a)(14), 1108, 1110, 1114 and 1117 | Read in the Delaware Code itself: the rates in force for taxable years after 2013 (0% up to $2,000, then 2.2%, 3.9%, 4.8%, 5.2%, 5.55% and 6.6% above $60,000) apply to a joint return's combined income on the same schedule; the standard deduction is $3,250 single and $6,500 joint and the personal credit $110 per exemption. Everything matched what we held from a compiled source. Delaware also lets spouses who file a joint federal return determine their Delaware taxes separately, each with the $3,250 deduction (§ 1108(a)(3)). We had declared that the engine did not model it; on 25 September 2026 it does, computing both and keeping the lower for the income split given. For a two-earner couple the joint schedule had overstated the bill by up to $1,017. Wilmington levies its own tax on top. |
| Georgia | Corrected | Office of the Governor of Georgia, press release of 11 May 2026 on HB 463 | The rate was not 5.19%. HB 463 cut it to 4.99% effective 1 January 2026, per the Governor's own release. This is the clearest illustration of why compiled sources fail: the bill was signed in MAY 2026 and backdated, so any table published before that date says 5.19% and was correct when it was written. Georgia hits its 4.99% target three years ahead of the schedule set in HB 1015. |
| Hawaii | Corrected | Hawaii DOT, tax tables and rate schedules for years beginning after 31 Dec 2024, and the 2026 payroll update | All twelve brackets match. The deduction did not: for 2026 it is $8,000 single, $16,000 joint and $12,000 head of household, and we had $4,400 / $8,800 — roughly half. Hawaii's 2024 tax cut raised the deduction in steps and the compiled source stayed anchored to the earlier figure, overstating by about $280 on an $85,000 salary. The $1,144 personal exemption was correct, and there is an additional one from age 65 that we do not apply. Re-read on 24 September 2026: the joint schedule (Schedule II) is exactly double the single one, so joint returns no longer fall back to the single thresholds; and Act 46 changes the brackets only in 2025, 2027 and 2029, so the 2026 brackets are the 2025 ones. Below $100,000 of taxable income Hawaii requires its tax table, which rounds by income band and can differ from the rate schedule by a dollar or two. |
| Louisiana | Corrected | Louisiana DOR, income tax reform FAQ | The 3% flat rate matches. The deduction did not: the department publishes $12,500 single and $25,000 joint for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2025, and we had $12,875 / $25,750. Our figures carried an inflation adjustment of about 3% that Louisiana does NOT apply — its FAQ gives a fixed amount and never mentions indexing. This is the inverse of the California and Massachusetts pattern: there an update was missing, here we had applied one nobody made. Corrected. Note also that Louisiana's withholding tables use 3.09%, not 3%, and the department explains that in a separate FAQ. |
| Maine | Corrected | Maine Revenue Services, State of Maine 2026 Individual Income Tax Rates (rev. 20 May 2026); 2026 phase-out worksheet (36 M.R.S. 5124-C) | We held Maine from a compiled source with a standard deduction of $8,350 / $16,700 — about half the real one. Maine Revenue Services' 2026 rate schedules (revised 20 May 2026) give $15,700 single and $31,400 joint, a $5,300 exemption per person, brackets at $27,400 and $64,850 (single) and a separate joint schedule at $54,850 and $129,750. The standard deduction is withdrawn between $102,250 and $177,250 of income ($204,550 to $354,550 joint), which pushes the real marginal rate on that stretch to about 8.65%, above the 7.15% top rate. From 2026 a 2% surcharge applies above $1 million ($1.5 million joint). Corrected on 24 September 2026. |
| Missouri | Corrected | Missouri DOR, 2026 and 2025 Missouri Withholding Tax Formulas; Form MO-1040 instructions 2025 (lines 7, 11-13, 26-30 and the 2025 tax chart, page 21); RSMo 143.171 | The 2026 formula confirms the brackets ($1,348 steps up to 4.7%) and the $16,100 / $32,200 standard deduction, which follows the federal one. These are 2026 figures, not a year behind: the 2025 withholding formula used $1,313 steps, the same as the 2025 return's tax chart. On 24 September 2026 we wrote here that a combined (joint) return applies the same rate chart to combined income and called that confirmed. It was wrong. The return splits the couple's taxable income between the spouses by each one's share of income and computes a separate tax for each on the rate chart (Form MO-1040, lines 27 to 30: "A separate tax must be computed for you and your spouse"). A couple with two earners therefore gets every bracket twice, and we were overstating its Missouri tax by $180.64 from about $34,000 of household income upward. Corrected on 25 September 2026: the engine now taxes each spouse's share separately, assuming both earn and each share of taxable income is above $9,436, and uses the chart once for a single-earner couple; the Missouri calculator asks which applies. The engine was also missing Missouri's deduction for federal income tax paid (RSMo 143.171): 35% of it at $25,000 of Missouri AGI or less, 25% up to $50,000, 15% up to $100,000, 5% up to $125,000 and none above, capped at $5,000 ($10,000 joint). It is now applied, which lowers Missouri tax for most earners below $125,000 — by about $54 on a $75,000 salary. From 2026 Missouri exempts capital gains entirely. Kansas City and St. Louis still levy their 1% earnings tax, which the engine does not include. |
| Mississippi | Corrected | Mississippi DOR, Pub 89-700 — Withholding Income Tax Tables and Employer Instructions (rev. 01-2026); Form 80-100 instructions 2025, filing status for married persons and Tax Computation Schedule | Same error pattern as Ohio. We held it as a flat 4% from the first dollar; Mississippi does not tax the first $10,000 of taxable income and applies 4% only above that. It overstated by roughly $400 on an $85,000 salary and proportionally more the lower the income. This was the second state where a compiled source had omitted an exempt band, which is what prompted us to go back and audit every remaining "flat" state deliberately. Exemptions confirmed: $6,000 single, $12,000 married, $9,500 head of household; deduction $2,300 / $4,600. Corrected again on 25 September 2026: a married couple in which both earn may file a combined return, each spouse in his or her own column with the $4,600 deduction and $12,000 exemption divided as they choose, and the instructions say to choose whichever method gives the least tax. Each column gets its own $10,000 tax-free band, so we had overstated the tax of two-earner couples by up to $400. The engine now computes both and keeps the lower for the income split given. |
| North Dakota | Corrected | ND Office of State Tax Commissioner, Form ND-1ES 2026 (SFN 28709, 12-2025), 2026 Tax Rate Schedules | We held North Dakota's 2025 thresholds from a compiled source. The 2026 rate schedules printed on Form ND-1ES are $49,575 and $250,400 for a single filer and $82,800 and $304,850 for a joint return — a schedule of its own, not the single one doubled. North Dakota starts from federal taxable income, so the federal standard deduction applies first. Corrected on 24 September 2026. |
| Nebraska | Corrected | Nebraska DOR, Form 1040N-ES 2026 (8-014-2025, rev. 11-2025), 2026 Nebraska Estimated Income Tax Rate Schedule | Top rate of 4.55% confirmed, with the third and fourth brackets levelled at that rate for 2026. Re-read on 24 September 2026 against the 2026 estimated-tax rate schedule, which prints the joint schedule we had not verified: $8,250 and $49,530, close to double the single $4,130 and $24,760 but not exactly. Until then joint returns were computed on the single thresholds, and the calculator said so; they now use the joint schedule. Standard deduction $8,850 / $17,700 and a $176 credit per exemption confirmed. The $2,050 additional deduction for unmarried filers over 65 or blind is not applied by the engine. |
| New Jersey | Corrected | NJ Division of Taxation, 2026 Form NJ-1040-ES — Rate Schedules | All seven single brackets match; one rate was wrong — the fourth is 5.525%, not 5.53%. The more important find was in the same document: New Jersey's joint and head-of-household table has EIGHT brackets, one more than the single table, including a 2.45% band between $50,000 and $70,000 that a single filer never sees. Now loaded, making New Jersey the first progressive state to drop our joint-bracket approximation warning. It also exempts filers below $10,000 ($20,000 joint) from withholding, a rule the engine does not yet model. |
| New Mexico | Corrected | NM TRD, "Personal Income Tax Rates for tax years starting 2025" (NMSA 7-2-7); PIT-1 instructions 2025, line 14 (NMSA 7-2-5.8) | We held New Mexico from a compiled source, with no joint schedule and no exemption. Read on 24 September 2026 against the statute as the Taxation and Revenue Department publishes it (NMSA 7-2-7, Laws 2024 ch. 67, in force from 2025): the six single brackets matched; the joint schedule is its own table ($8,000 / $25,000 / $50,000 / $100,000 / $315,000), not the single one doubled. New Mexico also gives low- and middle-income filers an exemption of up to $2,500 per person, withdrawn at 15 cents per dollar of income above $20,000 (single) and 10 cents above $30,000 (joint), gone at $36,667 and $55,000 — now in the engine. The legislature's own site refuses automated access, so the statute was read in the department's copy. |
| New York | Corrected | NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, IT-2105-I (2026): New York State tax rates (page 10) and tax computation worksheets | Read against the 2026 estimated-tax instructions (IT-2105-I). The single brackets matched. The joint schedule is its own table ($17,150, $23,600, $27,900, $161,550, $323,200 and up), and joint returns had been falling back to the single thresholds. The bigger omission was the recapture: once adjusted gross income passes $107,650, New York takes back the benefit of its lower brackets over the next $50,000, so a single filer at $157,650 pays a flat 5.9% on all taxable income and a couple converges to 5.4%. On that stretch the real marginal rate is about 7% rather than 5.9%. The engine now applies all of the department's worksheets: at each level the benefit of the lower brackets is taken back over $50,000 of income, so a single filer ends up paying 6.85% on all taxable income from $265,400, 9.65% above about $1.13 million and 10.3% above about $5.05 million, and anyone with income over $25 million pays 10.9% on everything. Standard deduction $8,000 / $16,050. New York City and Yonkers taxes are handled separately. |
| Oregon | Corrected | Oregon DOR, Oregon Withholding Tax Formulas 150-206-436 (rev. 31 Dec 2025) and Publication OR-ESTIMATE 2026 (150-101-026, rev. 7 Oct 2025) | All four brackets match, and the joint schedule (Chart J) is exactly double the single one. Re-read on 24 September 2026, three things were wrong or missing. The exemption credit is $263, not $260: the October estimate said $260, the December withholding formulas use $263, and $263 is what indexing 2025's $256 gives. The credit is lost entirely above $100,000 of income ($200,000 joint), which we did not apply. And the largest: Oregon lets you subtract the federal income tax you paid, up to $8,750, reduced in $1,750 steps between $125,000 and $145,000 ($250,000 and $290,000 joint). The engine now does all three; before, it overstated Oregon tax for almost everyone — by about $670 on a $75,000 salary. The Multnomah County and Portland metro local taxes remain outside the engine. |
| South Carolina | Corrected | Act 110 of 2026 (H. 4216, ratified), S.C. Code 12-6-510(C) and 12-6-1140(15), 12-6-3330 and 12-6-5000; SCDOR, "Information about H. 4216" | South Carolina rebuilt its entire income tax for 2026. We held the old three-bracket structure (0%, 3%, 6%); H. 4216, signed 30 March 2026 as Act 110, replaces it with 1.99% below $30,000 and 5.21% above, for every filing status. The law writes the top bracket as "5.21% minus $966", which we checked is exactly two marginal brackets with the boundary at $30,000. It also drops the federal standard deduction for a new South Carolina Income Adjusted Deduction: $15,000 single and $30,000 joint, withdrawn between $40,000 and $95,000 of adjusted gross income (single) and $80,000 and $190,000 (joint), the reduction rounded down to $10. We served the federal deduction until 24 September 2026; the engine now applies the new one, phase-out included. The state EITC is capped at $200. Corrected again on 25 September 2026: couples in which both spouses earn get a two wage earner credit of 0.7% of the lower earner's wages up to $50,000, at most $350 (S.C. Code 12-6-3330, not changed by H. 4216). The engine was not applying it, so two-earner couples' tax was overstated by up to $350. South Carolina has no option to file separately on the same return: § 12-6-5000 requires the federal filing status. |
| Utah | Corrected | Utah Code 59-10-104 and 59-10-1018 (as amended by S.B. 60 and H.B. 77, 2026 General Session); BLS series SUUR0000SA0 | We held 4.5%; the law now in force says 4.45%. S.B. 60 of the 2026 session cut the rate with retroactive effect to 1 January 2026, after the withholding guide we had checked was written. We also held the Taxpayer Tax Credit as a flat $966 at every income; the statute (59-10-1018) makes it 6% of the federal standard deduction, reduced by 1.3 cents for every dollar of state taxable income above an inflation-indexed threshold, so it is gone for a single filer by roughly $93,000. Both are now in the engine. One figure is still ours rather than the state's: the 2026 threshold. The Tax Commission publishes it, but its site refuses automated access, so we computed it the way the statute prescribes — $15,095 indexed by the chained CPI under IRC 1(f)(4) — at $18,471 single and $36,942 joint. An error of a few hundred dollars in that threshold would move the tax by a few dollars, but until the official figure is read Utah has no brackets page. |
| Virginia | Corrected | Virginia Tax, 2026 Form 760ES; "Deductions" page; 2026 Legislative Summary (HB 30, Special Session I, ch. 1); 2025 Form 760 instructions, line 17 and Spouse Tax Adjustment Worksheet | Standard deduction of $8,750 / $17,500 and the $930 personal exemption confirmed for 2026; all four brackets match, and the 2026 Form 760ES prints one rate schedule for every filing status, so couples reach each rate at the same taxable income as single filers. We had warned that the raised deduction would expire after 2026; the 2026 budget (House Bill 30) instead raises it to $9,200 / $18,400 for 2027 and $9,300 / $18,600 for 2028–2029, with a return to $3,000 / $6,000 scheduled from 2030. There is also $800 of extra exemption for age or blindness that we do not apply. Corrected on 25 September 2026: we were not applying the Spouse Tax Adjustment (Form 760, line 17; worksheet on page 12 of the 2025 instructions), which gives a couple in which both spouses earn up to $259 back on a joint return. The engine now follows the worksheet for the income split given; it reproduces the instructions' own example (a $220 adjustment on $47,000 of taxable income split $35,000 / $12,000). |
| Wisconsin | Corrected | Wisconsin DOR, 2026 Form 1-ES instructions (laws enacted as of 16 January 2026): standard deduction schedules and 2026 tax rate schedules | The single brackets we held matched the 2026 schedule ($15,110, $51,950 and $332,720 at 3.5%, 4.4%, 5.3% and 7.65%). Two things did not. The joint schedule is its own table ($20,150, $69,260 and $443,630), and joint returns had been falling back to the single thresholds. And the standard deduction slides: $13,960 for a single filer at lower incomes, less 12% of income above $20,120, gone at $136,453; $25,840 for a couple, less 19.778% above $29,040, gone at $159,690. We applied the full deduction at every income, which understated Wisconsin tax for most earners. Both are now in the engine; the exemption of $700 per person was right. |
| West Virginia | Corrected | W. Va. Code 11-21-4j (taxable years beginning on and after 1 January 2026) and 11-21-16 | We held West Virginia's 2025 rates from a compiled source. Senate Bill 392 of the 2026 session cut every rate by about 5%, retroactive to 1 January 2026: 2.11%, 2.81%, 3.16%, 4.22% and 4.58%, with the brackets unchanged at $10,000, $25,000, $40,000 and $60,000 for single and joint returns alike. There is no standard deduction; the personal exemption is $2,000 per person. Corrected on 24 September 2026. |
| Arkansas | Some 2026 figures unconfirmed | Arkansas DFA, Withholding Tax Formula Method, tax year 2026; 2025 Tax Tables (low-income tables, pages 24-25); Additional Tax Credit for Qualified Individuals Worksheet (R 10/10/2025); 2025 AR1000F/AR1000NR instructions, lines 26-38 | We held Arkansas as 2% up to $4,600 and 3.9% above. That is the formula for high incomes applied to everyone, and it overstated the tax by up to about $330 below $94,700 of taxable income. We replaced it with the schedule in the Department of Finance and Administration's 2026 withholding formula: 0% up to $5,599, then 2%, 3%, 3.4% and 3.9% from $26,400, with a "bracket adjustment" between $94,700 and $97,800 that claws back about $330 of the lower brackets' benefit. The same table applies to a joint return's combined income; the standard deduction is $2,470 per filer and the personal credit $29. On 24 September 2026 we added the two things that were missing for low incomes: the low-income tax tables, which replace the standard deduction and the brackets, and the additional credit of up to $60 per filer below $27,600 of net taxable income. With the $29 personal credit, a single filer now owes nothing up to $15,600 of income, a head of household nothing up to $21,100 and a couple with one or no dependents nothing up to $25,600. Together they cut the Arkansas bill by up to $141 for a single filer, $316 for a head of household and $357 for a couple, and change every result up to $30,070 of income ($32,540 for a couple). Reading the 2025 tables next to the 2024 ones showed something else: Arkansas re-indexes every one of these figures each year, and its withholding tables run a year behind. The 2026 withholding formula uses exactly the brackets indexed for 2025 returns, and the 2026 low-income withholding tables start at the 2025 return threshold ($281.60 a week × 52 = $14,643). So every Arkansas figure here, brackets included, is the 2025 indexing. The versions indexed for 2026 returns are not published yet (the 2025 ones came out at the end of September 2025), which is why Arkansas still has no brackets page. On 25 September 2026 we added filing status 4, married filing separately on the same return: each spouse with the $2,470 deduction and his or her own credits, without the low-income tables. For a couple in which both earn it is often lower than the joint return (by up to $751 at an even split), and the engine keeps the lower of the two. |
| California | Some 2026 figures unconfirmed | FTB, 2026 Instructions for Form 540-ES | Incomplete for 2026, and we say so rather than guess. The Franchise Tax Board has published the 2026 standard deduction ($5,706 single, $11,412 joint) but not the 2026 indexed brackets: its own 2026 estimated-tax instructions tell taxpayers to use the 2025 tax table. Our calculator does the same, and California has no brackets page until the 2026 schedule exists. |
| Maryland | Some 2026 figures unconfirmed | Comptroller of Maryland: Withholding Tax Facts 2026 (rev. 12/25); 2025 Resident Tax Booklet, Exemption Amount Chart (10A); Tax Alert on the 2025 Legislative Session (rev. 22 Dec 2025) | Largely verified on 24 September 2026. The Comptroller's 2026 Withholding Tax Facts print both 2026 schedules: the single one matched what we held, and the joint one is its own table ($150,000, $175,000, $225,000, $300,000, $600,000 and $1.2 million), which joint returns had not been using. The $3,200 personal exemption is reduced with income, per the 2025 resident booklet's chart: to $1,600 above $100,000 of federal adjusted gross income, $800 above $125,000 and nothing above $150,000 for a single filer, and at $150,000, $175,000 and $200,000 for a couple; every earner had been getting the full $3,200. Still incomplete: the 2025 law made the standard deduction a flat $3,350 single and $6,700 joint and indexes it from then on, and the 2026 figure is not published anywhere we can cite. We now serve the 2025 amounts, instead of the unsupported $3,400 / $6,800 we had, and Maryland has no brackets page until the 2026 figure appears. County income taxes are applied separately in the calculator. |
| Ohio | Some 2026 figures unconfirmed | Ohio Department of Taxation, 2025 IT 1040 instructions (exemption table; lines 9 and 12); 2026 estimated-tax worksheet; Tax Expenditure Report 2026–2027 | THE LARGEST ERROR WE FOUND, corrected on 1 September 2026: Ohio does not tax from the first dollar; for 2026 it charges nothing on the first $27,350 of taxable income and 2.75% above. On 24 September 2026 we added the personal exemption as the return actually applies it: $2,400 per person when modified adjusted gross income is $40,000 or less, $2,150 up to $80,000 and $1,900 above, and nothing from $500,000 (the 2025 budget lowered that line from $750,000), plus a $20 credit per exemption when income less exemptions is under $30,000. Before, every earner got $2,400. Still open, and the reason Ohio has no brackets page yet: those amounts are the 2025 ones, and Ohio indexes them — indexing was suspended only for 2024 and 2025; some secondary sources give the 2026 zero-rate threshold as $26,050 rather than $27,350. The joint filing credit is now applied too: 20%, 15%, 10% or 5% of the tax depending on income less exemptions, up to $650, when each spouse has at least $500 of qualifying income — the calculator asks, and assumes yes by default. Ohio's statute and legislative sites refuse connections from our tools. |
| Vermont | Some 2026 figures unconfirmed | Vermont Department of Taxes, "Vermont Rate Schedules and Tax Tables" (schedules published for 2019–2025) | Incomplete. Vermont publishes its rate schedules by tax year, and the most recent it has published is 2025; the 2026 schedule does not exist yet. We will not relabel the 2025 figures as 2026. For tax year 2025 the department confirms a $5,300 personal exemption and a $15,300 joint standard deduction. |
| Colorado | Verified | Colorado DOR, Individual Income Tax Guide (January 2026) | Flat 4.40% on federal taxable income, confirmed in the current guide. Colorado is the only state whose rate can fall temporarily through a mechanism unrelated to the tax calendar: when TABOR requires a surplus refund, the rate drops for that year. There are also proposals for a permanent cut to 4.0% that are NOT in force. This one is worth reconfirming each fiscal year, not just each January. |
| Iowa | Verified | Iowa DOR, "IDR Announces 2026 Individual Income Tax and Interest Rates" and the withholding formula effective 1 January 2026 | Flat 3.8% for 2026 confirmed: Senate File 2442 completes this year and every income level pays the same rate. Iowa revised its 2026 withholding formula expressly to absorb the federal One Big Beautiful Bill changes, so its calculation depends on the federal one more than most. If the federal deduction moves, Iowa's withholding moves with it. |
| Idaho | Verified | Idaho State Tax Commission, Individual Income Tax Rate Schedule | Flat 5.3% confirmed, cut from 5.69% on 1 January 2025. Idaho's standard deduction is set EQUAL to the federal one, which is exactly how it is loaded. Because it conforms, Idaho automatically inherits the One Big Beautiful Bill changes: the enhanced deduction for older filers and the deductions for tips, overtime and car loan interest. |
| Illinois | Verified | Illinois DOR, Booklet IL-700-T (2026) and bulletin FY 2026-15 | Flat 4.95% and a $2,925 per-person exemption for the year beginning 1 January 2026, both confirmed. The personal exemption DISAPPEARS entirely if AGI exceeds $500,000 joint or $250,000 otherwise — a cliff the engine does not yet model. |
| Indiana | Verified | Indiana DOR, Departmental Notice #1 and "Rates, Fees & Penalties" | Flat 2.95% for 2026 and the $1,000 personal exemption both confirmed. The rate is stepping down by statute — 3.05% (2024), 3.00% (2025), 2.95% (2026), 2.90% from 2027 — so the update is a calendar item, not a surprise. Indiana also gives $1,500 per dependent, which the engine does not yet apply, and its county rates are revised in January AND October rather than annually. |
| Kansas | Verified | K.S.A. 79-32,110, 79-32,119 and 79-32,121 (Kansas Revisor of Statutes, 2025 Supplement) | Kansas's revenue department site refuses connections from our tools, so we read the law itself (K.S.A. 2025 Supplement). From 2024 onward: 5.2% on the first $23,000 of taxable income and 5.58% above for a single filer, with the threshold at $46,000 for a joint return — exactly double. Standard deduction $3,605 single and $8,240 joint; personal exemption $9,160, or $18,320 on a joint return. All matched what we held; the joint schedule is now confirmed rather than assumed. |
| Kentucky | Verified | Kentucky DOR, "Kentucky DOR Announces 2026 Standard Deduction" and withholding formula 42A003 (10-2025) | Flat 3.5% and the $3,360 standard deduction for 2026 both confirmed. The deduction rose $90 from 2025 through indexing — a figure that changes every year and has to be re-read each January. |
| Massachusetts | Verified | Massachusetts DOR, "Massachusetts 4% Surtax on Taxable Income" (updated 1 June 2026) and "Personal Income Tax Exemptions" (updated 6 January 2026) | Confirmed on the Department of Revenue's own pages (read in a browser; they refuse our other tools): 5% on taxable income, plus the 4% surtax on taxable income above $1,107,750 for 2026 — one threshold per return, including a joint return. Personal exemption $4,400 single and $8,800 joint; no standard deduction. The joint rule is now confirmed rather than assumed. |
| Michigan | Verified | Michigan Treasury, 446 Michigan Income Tax Withholding Guide 2026 (rev. 02-26); "Tax Year 2025 Information"; "State Individual Income Tax Rate for 2026 Tax Year Determined" | The 4.25% rate for 2026 is confirmed by the Treasury. The $5,900 personal exemption we hold, which earlier could not be confirmed, is now: the 2026 withholding guide (446, rev. 02-26) states it on its cover. It is the 2026 amount, not a year behind — the Treasury's tax year 2025 page gives $5,800, the same as the 2025 withholding guide. |
| Minnesota | Verified | Minnesota DOR, press release of 16 December 2025 on the 2026 brackets | The four single brackets (5.35 / 6.80 / 7.85 / 9.85% at $0, $33,310, $109,430 and $203,150) and the standard deduction ($15,300 / $30,600) match exactly. The same release carries the JOINT brackets — $48,700, $193,480, $337,930 — which are not double the single ones. Loaded, making Minnesota the second state to drop the approximation warning. A $5,300 dependent exemption is not yet applied, and Minnesota indexes its brackets annually (2.369% for 2026). |
| Montana | Verified | Montana DOR, "HB337: 2026–2027 Montana Individual Income Tax Changes" (14 Nov 2025); HB 337 (2025, ch. 227) | Confirmed against House Bill 337 of 2025 and the Department of Revenue's own 2026 figures, published on 14 November 2025 after the annual indexing date: 4.7% on the first $47,500 of taxable income and 5.65% above for a single filer, with the threshold at $95,000 for a joint return — exactly double. Montana starts from federal taxable income, so the federal standard deduction applies. In 2027 the top rate falls to 5.4%. |
| North Carolina | Verified | NCDOR, Tax Rate Schedules | The department publishes: "For Taxable Years after 2025, the North Carolina individual income tax rate is 3.99%", matching what we serve. Further cuts may follow from 2027 through automatic revenue-trigger clauses, so this needs revisiting annually. |
| Oklahoma | Verified | Oklahoma Tax Commission, Packet OW-2 (rev. 11-2025) — Table 7, Annual Payroll Period | Matches to the cent. The official annual table taxes nothing up to $10,100 and applies 2.50%, 3.50% and 4.50% from $10,100, $11,250 and $13,550. Our thresholds ($3,750 / $4,900 / $7,200) plus the $6,350 standard deduction give exactly those three figures. The married table in the same document, less the $12,700 joint deduction, gives exactly double the single thresholds — confirming that Oklahoma's joint brackets do double, so it drops the approximation warning too. Third state with verified joint treatment, and the first where the answer turned out to be a simple doubling rather than a table of its own. |
| Pennsylvania | Verified | PA Department of Revenue, Personal Income Tax | Flat 3.07% confirmed. The department states expressly that Pennsylvania "does not provide for a standard deduction or personal exemption", which is exactly how it is loaded. Pennsylvania does have Tax Forgiveness, a low-income reduction that can wipe out the bill entirely and that the engine does not model. |
| Rhode Island | State site blocks access | RI Division of Taxation, ADV 2025-22 "Inflation-adjusted amounts set for Tax Year 2026" (not readable: security challenge) | Not yet verified. Rhode Island publishes its 2026 inflation-adjusted brackets, deduction and exemption in Advisory ADV 2025-22, but tax.ri.gov answers automated requests with a security challenge, and we do not work around those. Until the advisory is read the figures here come from a compiled source, the joint schedule is not claimed as verified, and Rhode Island has no brackets page. |
Retirement rules, checked separately
A state’s rate and its treatment of retirement income are two different things, and one being right tells you nothing about the other. So they carry two logs. Of the 34 partial exclusions loaded, 28 were read off the state’s own publication and 6 still come from a compiled source and say so on the page where they appear. Every state below turned up at least one detail the aggregators had flattened.
| State | Document | Checked | What it said |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | California FTB, AB 53 bill analysis; Publication 1005 — Pension and Annuity Guidelines | 2026-09-01 | This corrects us on a headline claim. We were saying California and the District of Columbia were the only two places that tax military retirement in full. AB 53 changed that: from tax year 2025 through 2029 California excludes up to $20,000 of military retirement and Survivor Benefit Plan pay, capped at $125,000 of AGI single or $250,000 joint. California had been the last state in the country with no military exemption at all. Confirmed at the same time that it offers no general retirement exclusion — pensions, 401(k)s and IRAs are taxed as ordinary income, while Social Security and tier 1 railroad retirement are exempt outright. |
| MN | Minnesota DOR, Qualified Public Pension Subtraction; Minn. Stat. § 290.0132 | 2026-09-01 | Minnesota does have a subtraction and we had missed it — but it is narrower than its size suggests. Up to $12,500 single and $25,000 joint, and only for state and federal employees whose work did not earn Social Security credit. It phases out from $78,000 of AGI single and $100,000 joint, losing 10% for every $2,000 above. |
| OR | Oregon DOR, Oregon subtractions and Schedule OR-ASC instructions | 2026-09-01 | Oregon has no general retirement exclusion, but federal retirees get a proportional one that no other state copies: you subtract the share of your federal pension attributable to service before 1 October 1991, worked out from months or points either side of that date and fixed once for life. |
| NE | Nebraska DOR, Military Retirement Benefits Exclusion | 2026-09-01 | Confirmed: no general pension or IRA exclusion in Nebraska. Since tax year 2022 it does exclude 100% of military retirement, replacing an older scheme of 40% for seven years or 15% for life that had to be elected within two years of retiring — a deadline many veterans missed. |
| ND | North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, Military Service Members guideline | 2026-09-01 | Confirmed: no general retirement exclusion in North Dakota — though at a 2.5% top rate it costs less than it would elsewhere. Military retirement is deducted in full, as is all National Guard and Reserve pay including bonuses and training, from tax year 2023. |
| OR | Oregon DOR, Tax benefits for families (credits page) | 2026-09-01 | This one corrects us. We had Oregon's earned income credit at 17% of the federal credit, or 14% without a young child. The Department's own page says 12% with a dependent under three and 9% otherwise — roughly half what we were showing. Corrected. |
| RI | RI Division of Taxation, PUB 2026-01 Retirement Income Tax Guide | 2026-09-01 | Rhode Island has raised this modification twice in three years: $15,000 through 2022, $20,000 for 2023 and 2024, and $50,000 from tax year 2025. Any source still quoting $20,000 is out of date, which is most of them. |
| LA | Louisiana DOR, income tax reform FAQ — annual retirement exemption | 2026-09-01 | Louisiana doubled its retirement exemption from $6,000 to $12,000 for tax years from 1 January 2025, and indexed it to inflation. It is per person, so a couple both over 65 can exclude $12,000 each. |
| AL | Alabama DOR, Income Exempt from Alabama Income Taxation; Rule 810-3-19-.04 | 2026-09-01 | Alabama is the clearest case of a rule that a dollar figure cannot express: a defined benefit pension is exempt in full, while an IRA or 401(k) distribution is ordinary taxable income. Two retirees with identical incomes pay very different Alabama tax depending only on which kind of plan paid them. |
| DC | DC OTR, testimony on the Pension Exclusion and Restoration Act; D.C. Law 20-155 | 2026-09-01 | A negative finding worth publishing: the District's $3,000 exclusion for federal and DC government pensions from age 62 was REPEALED for tax years from 1 January 2015, and repeated bills to restore it have not passed. Sources still quoting it are describing a rule that ended a decade ago. |
| CT | CT DRS, Pension Income | 2026-09-01 | 2026 is the first year Connecticut retirees see the whole exemption. IRA distributions phased in at 25% in 2023, 50% in 2024, 75% in 2025 and 100% now. Note that the pension and annuity thresholds ($100,000 / $150,000) are NOT the Social Security ones ($75,000 / $100,000) — two different tests, easily conflated. |
| KY | Kentucky DOR, Individual Income Tax | 2026-09-01 | The $31,110 exclusion is confirmed. The source adds something the aggregators drop: anyone retired from federal, Kentucky state or Kentucky local government service performed before 1 January 1998 may exclude more than that. |
| DE | Delaware Division of Revenue, Personal Income Tax FAQs | 2026-09-01 | Delaware's cut-off is 60, not the 65 almost every other state uses: $12,500 from that age and $2,000 below it. Assuming 65 would have written off five whole cohorts. |
| VA | Virginia Tax, Deductions / Form 760 Instructions | 2026-09-01 | The age deduction is $12,000, but it is withdrawn a dollar at a time above $50,000 of income ($75,000 joint), so it is gone entirely by $62,000 and $87,000. The income that counts is federal AGI MINUS Social Security, which makes it survive further up the scale than the headline suggests. Filers born on or before 1 January 1939 keep it in full. |
| WV | West Virginia Tax Division, Senior Citizen Social Security Modification | 2026-09-01 | The phase-out is confirmed: 35% in 2024, 65% in 2025, 100% in 2026. And a detail that changes the answer — the $8,000 senior modification and the Social Security modification do not stack; you take the larger. Below $50,000 of federal AGI ($100,000 joint) the exemption was already complete throughout the phase-in. |
| UT | Utah State Tax Commission, Retirement Credit (code 18) and Social Security Benefits Credit (code AH) | 2026-09-01 | Utah gives CREDITS, not exemptions: up to $450 per person ($900 for a couple) for anyone born on or before 31 December 1952, withdrawn at 2.5% above $25,000 / $32,000; plus a Social Security credit of 4.5% of benefits, withdrawn at 2.5% above $54,000 / $90,000. The published figures are for tax year 2025. |
| IA | Iowa Department of Revenue, Retirement Income Tax Guidance | 2026-09-01 | Full exemption from age 55 confirmed, in force since tax year 2023. It covers traditional and Roth IRAs, SEP, SIMPLE, 401(k), 457(b), defined benefit plans and IPERS. It does NOT cover nonqualified deferred compensation under § 409A or nonqualified annuities. |
| CT | Connecticut DRS, Pension Income / Tax Tips for Senior Citizens | 2026-09-01 | Confirms the thresholds we already held: Social Security exempt below $75,000 of AGI ($100,000 joint), and the pension and annuity modification below $100,000 ($150,000 joint). Those are two DIFFERENT thresholds, and conflating them is an easy mistake to make. |
Property tax law, state by state
A county’s rate is only half the story. What an owner-occupier actually pays is decided as much by the state’s homestead exemption, its cap on assessment growth and the fraction of value it taxes in the first place — Texas exempts $140,000 from school tax, California caps growth at 2% a year, South Carolina taxes 4% of value while Texas taxes 100%. None of those figures appears on any competing calculator we audited, and a rate comparison that ignores them can point the wrong way entirely. All 51 of 51 are now loaded and every one was read off the state’s own publication — none from a compiled source. One gap is declared rather than filled: neither the Oklahoma Tax Commission nor its published statistics returned that state’s residential assessment percentage to us, so its county pages say so instead of repeating a figure we could not verify.
Canada, built the same way
The Canadian silo covers 13 provinces and territories across income, consumption, property, corporate, investment and estate tax, with 107 parameters listed on the sources page. There is no national register for most of it — Canada devolves more of its tax to provinces and municipalities than the United States does, so most figures exist only in the document of the body that levies them.
- Federal and provincial income tax
- Read off the CRA’s current-year rates page and the T4127 payroll formulas guide, which carries the basic personal amount formulas, the Ontario surtax and the contribution figures that bracket tables leave out.
- Quebec, separately
- Revenu Québec’s own documents. Quebec runs its own income tax, the QPP instead of the CPP, a QPIP premium, a lower EI rate and a 16.5% federal abatement — four moving parts, and applying Quebec’s brackets to the rest of Canada’s payroll machinery produces a plausible wrong answer.
- Municipal property tax
- Each city’s own by-law or published rate schedule, one at a time. There is no national register: Toronto puts it on a web page, Hamilton and Mississauga in a levying by-law, Kitchener in a PDF schedule.
- Consumption, vehicle and land transfer taxes
- The CRA for GST and HST, and each province for its own — Revenu Québec for the QST, British Columbia’s Bulletins PST 308 and 116, Saskatchewan’s PST-78 and PST-18, Manitoba’s RST 054 and 012, Nova Scotia’s Guide 2006, Newfoundland and Labrador’s used-vehicle circular and Prince Edward Island’s Retail Sales Tax Act for vehicles, and Ontario’s Retail Sales Tax rules for private car sales.
- Dividend and donation credits
- Each province’s Form 428 and its worksheet, read one at a time, because those percentages exist nowhere else. Thirteen documents for each of the two credits.
- Probate fees
- Each province’s own court or legislature, because probate is set by the courts rather than by a revenue department.
The Canadian figures we deliberately do not publish
Each of these is a page that could exist and does not. The reason is published with it, and so is what would close it — because a gap without a condition attached is an excuse.
| Not published | Why | What would close it |
|---|---|---|
| Ottawa property tax ratesThe property tax calculators, where Ottawa would be the third-largest Ontario city shown. | Ottawa does not publish them. It publishes an estimator that will tell you your own bill, but three of its 2026 tax policy reports were read for this — ninety-one pages between them — and not one contains a rate. | A published rate schedule or levying by-law, as every other city here has. |
| Probate fees for New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and NunavutThe estate and inheritance calculator, which covers the other eight jurisdictions. | New Brunswick’s legislation site blocks automated access and its rates changed on 12 June 2026, so any figure written before that date is now wrong. The others do not publish a readable schedule. | A readable fee schedule from the court or legislature that sets it. |
| Private vehicle sale rules in New BrunswickThe car tax calculator, which covers dealer purchases in all thirteen and private sales in the other twelve. | New Brunswick taxes a private sale under its Provincial Vehicle Tax, and the province’s bulletins and statutes sit on sites (www2.gnb.ca, laws.gnb.ca) that answer automated reading with a Cloudflare challenge or a refusal. A search engine’s summary of them is not a source. The dealer figure is an ordinary taxable supply and is right everywhere. | Access to New Brunswick’s Provincial Vehicle Tax bulletins (PVTB-101 on fair value, PVTB-106 on trades). |
| Capital gains on the deemed disposition at deathThe estate and inheritance calculator, which does compute probate and the registered plan. | It needs an adjusted cost base for every asset, which no calculator can know, and the tax on it is frequently larger than everything else on that page. Showing a number without it would understate; guessing at it would be worse. | Nothing would, and that is the honest answer. This is a limit of the format rather than of the sources: a calculator cannot know an adjusted cost base, so the page explains the rule and declines to put a number on it. |
| Provincial dividend and donation credit rates for 2026The dividend and donation calculators, which use the 2025 rates. | The CRA does not release 2026 personal tax forms until 2027. These rates are set in provincial legislation rather than indexed, so they carry forward unless a budget changes them — but they are 2025 figures and both pages say so. | The 2026 editions of each Form 428 and its worksheet, when they are published. |
The hardest of those to hold was capital gains. Canada’s inclusion rate — the share of a gain that is taxable at all — was proposed to rise from one half to two thirds, deferred, and then contradicted, and for weeks the number that decides a third of the tax was genuinely unsettled. There was no capital gains calculator on this site during that time, on a page worth thousands of searches a month. It exists now, at one half, because the CRA settled it in writing, and the page tells that story before it tells you anything else. The editorial policy explains why that is the rule.
The one-in-four figure, with the range it should always have carried
The comparison pages lean on a measured claim: in 310 of the 1,275 pairs of US states, the take-home figure and the purchasing-power figure name different states. That was computed on one scenario — a $100,000 salary and a $400,000 home — and published without ever being tested against a different one.
A reader put the obvious objection: how can you declare a $400,000 house for every state when house prices vary enormously, and what use is a median county property tax rate when rates vary county to county? Both criticisms are correct, and neither had been answered. So here is the test.
Changing the house
| renting — no property tax at all | 337 |
| a $150,000 home | 339 |
| a $250,000 home | 325 |
| a $400,000 home (the figure the pages use) | 310 |
| a $600,000 home | 300 |
| a $1,000,000 home | 272 |
Changing the salary
| a $50,000 salary | 318 |
| a $75,000 salary | 313 |
| a $100,000 salary (the figure the pages use) | 310 |
| a $150,000 salary | 300 |
| a $250,000 salary | 306 |
It sits between 272 and 339 of the 1,275 — 21.3% to 26.6% — across the whole range. Removing property tax entirely gives 337, within 2 of the high end. So the $400,000 house was not holding the result up: the effect is at least as strong for someone renting (337) as for the house the pages use (310).
On median county rates: the objection stands and the answer is that the county data is published rather than hidden. The spread inside Wisconsin alone runs to $11,344 a year on the same house — more than most state pairs are worth. A state-level median is where a comparison starts, not where it ends, which is why every pair page lets you set both counties.
And a limit on what any of this shows. Purchasing power is what money buys, not quality of life. That two measures diverge when tax and price levels are uncorrelated is close to arithmetic; what is empirical, and all these figures defend, is how often it happens. A claim about which state is a better place to live would need measures this site does not have.
The data is deposited, so you do not have to take our word for it
Everything above is a claim about our own process, and a claim about your own process is the cheapest thing a site can publish. So the data is also deposited in a public research repository under a permanent identifier, where anyone can download it, recalculate it and use it to contradict us without coming through this site.
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22670573
US state and local tax, cost of living, and relocation comparisons (2026 tax year) — Zenodo, September 9, 2026, CC BY 4.0.
- condados.csv (3,132 rows) — Effective property tax rate for 3,132 US counties and county-equivalents, with the name each state actually uses for the unit — parishes in Louisiana, boroughs and census areas in Alaska.
- precios.csv (51 rows) — The Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities for 2024, split into all items, goods, housing, utilities and services, for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- comparativas.csv (1,275 rows) — All 1,275 pairs of US states resolved on a common salary and house value: the five taxes, take-home, purchasing power, the break-even salary, and whether the take-home figure and the purchasing-power figure name different states.
The third file carries a column that does not exist in any of the four sources it was built from: whether the take-home figure and the purchasing-power figure name different states. It is true for 324 of the 1,275 pairs — one in four — which means a reader following a tax calculator would move in the wrong direction on a quarter of the comparisons anyone can run.
The deposit records the exact commit of the engine that produced the files, so they can be regenerated byte for byte rather than merely believed. To cite it:
Ruiz Quintero, P. (2026). US state and local tax, cost of living, and relocation comparisons (2026 tax year) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22670573
To point at the data in general rather than at this release, use the concept DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22670572, which always resolves to the most recent version.
What we do not calculate
This list is the point of this page. Any calculator can produce a number; the useful question is what it left out.
- Local income tax
- Eleven states let counties or cities levy their own. We flag it on the result instead of silently omitting it.
- Alternative Minimum Tax
- Affects a small number of high-income filers with particular deduction profiles.
- Capital gains and investment income
- Taxed on a separate schedule, with the 3.8% NIIT on top above a threshold.
- Most credits
- Child Tax Credit, EITC, education and energy credits are not in the income calculator yet.
- Multi-state and part-year residency
- If you moved or work across state lines, apportionment rules apply that this does not model.
Where the AI is allowed
Nowhere near the arithmetic. The model receives figures our engine has already computed and turns them into a sentence. Any answer containing a number the engine did not produce is discarded before it reaches you — that check is automated, not a promise.
Where your data goes
Nowhere. The engine runs in your browser, so your income never reaches a server of ours. The one exception is the optional plain-English reading, which sends the rounded totals and nothing that identifies you.