Iowa tax brackets
One rate, no brackets — and a first taxed dollar at $17,153 of salary, not at zero.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 1, 2026Read off the Iowa Department of Revenue’s 2026 scheduleIowa tax brackets for 2026
Iowa has no tax brackets in 2026. It taxes every dollar of taxable income at a single rate of 3.8%, whatever you earn and whether you file single or jointly. Searching for "Iowa tax brackets" is reasonable — most states that tax wages do have them — and the answer here is that there is exactly one.
Taxable income is what is left after a standard deduction of $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for a couple. Then a credit of $40 for each filer comes off the tax itself. That front slice is the only thing that makes the rate you actually pay lower than 3.8%.
Iowa completed its move to a single 3.8% rate in 2026. Every level of taxable income is now taxed the same.
Where the tax starts on your actual salary
The rate applies to taxable income, and nobody knows their taxable income by heart — everyone knows their salary. The gap between the two is whatever comes off before the rate is applied: in Iowa, $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for a couple. So the schedule is read wrongly by construction, and the fix is to shift it by that amount.
Single filer: the first dollar of Iowa tax is owed at a gross income of $17,153. Below that you pay nothing; above it, 3.8% of each extra dollar.
Married filing jointly: the first dollar is owed at $34,306 of combined income.
These are wage figures, and they assume the income Iowa starts from equals your salary with nothing taken out before it. Anything the state lets you subtract first moves every one of these lines up by the same amount — and the list is not the same in every state, which is why it is worth checking yours rather than assuming the federal one applies.
One salary through the whole calculation
Here is a single filer earning $75,000 in wages, step by step, exactly as the calculation runs.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross wages | $75,000 |
| Standard deduction | −$16,100 |
| Taxable income | $58,900 |
| $58,900 at 3.8% | $2,238 |
| Personal credit | −$40 |
| Iowa income tax | $2,198 |
The result: $2,198 of Iowa income tax, an effective rate of 2.93% on the salary.
Every figure on this page is this same sequence run at a different salary. None of it is estimated from an average: change the brackets in the source and every number here changes with them.
What Iowa takes at seven salaries
The rate in the schedule is not the rate you pay. Here is the 2026 Iowa income tax at seven salaries, for a single filer and for a married couple filing jointly on the same household income, with the effective rate — tax divided by gross income — and the marginal rate measured on the next $100 rather than read off the schedule.
| Salary | Effective | Marginal | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 1.63% | 3.8% | $41 | $488 |
| $50,000 | 2.5% | 3.8% | $104 | $1,248 |
| $75,000 | 2.93% | 3.8% | $183 | $2,198 |
| $100,000 | 3.15% | 3.8% | $262 | $3,148 |
| $125,000 | 3.28% | 3.8% | $342 | $4,098 |
| $150,000 | 3.37% | 3.8% | $421 | $5,048 |
| $200,000 | 3.47% | 3.8% | $579 | $6,948 |
| Household salary | Effective | Marginal | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 0% | 0% | $0 | $0 |
| $50,000 | 1.19% | 3.8% | $50 | $596 |
| $75,000 | 2.06% | 3.8% | $129 | $1,546 |
| $100,000 | 2.5% | 3.8% | $208 | $2,496 |
| $125,000 | 2.76% | 3.8% | $287 | $3,446 |
| $150,000 | 2.93% | 3.8% | $366 | $4,396 |
| $200,000 | 3.15% | 3.8% | $525 | $6,296 |
The marginal column barely moves — 3.8% everywhere above the starting point — while the effective column keeps rising toward it without ever arriving: 1.63% at $30,000, 3.15% at $100,000, 3.47% at $200,000. A flat tax is still progressive in what you actually pay, because the tax-free slice is worth the same number of dollars to everyone and so matters most to the lowest earners.
The table stops at $200,000 on purpose. Above roughly $250,000 some states start withdrawing deductions and exemptions, and a figure for those incomes should come from the full calculator, which asks for the details that decide it.
Take-home pay in Iowa at seven salaries
The state income tax is one of four taxes on a paycheck. Here is what a single filer keeps once Iowa, federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare have all come off, and what share of the combined bill Iowa accounts for.
| Salary | IA | Federal | SS + Medicare | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $488 | $1,420 | $2,295 | $25,797 |
| $50,000 | $1,248 | $3,820 | $3,825 | $41,107 |
| $75,000 | $2,198 | $7,670 | $5,738 | $59,394 |
| $100,000 | $3,148 | $13,170 | $7,650 | $76,032 |
| $125,000 | $4,098 | $18,734 | $9,563 | $92,605 |
| $150,000 | $5,048 | $24,734 | $11,475 | $108,743 |
| $200,000 | $6,948 | $36,734 | $14,339 | $141,979 |
Iowa's slice of the total is smallest at the bottom of the scale and grows as pay rises: 11.61% of the taxes on $30,000, 11.97% on $200,000. Over this range the Iowa tax rises faster with pay than the federal and payroll taxes put together, so its share of the bill grows.
Three Iowa households
Averages hide the households they are made of. Three typical ones, each with every tax on their wages:
A single filer earning $40,000: Iowa $868, federal income tax $2,620, Social Security and Medicare $3,060 — $6,548 in all, leaving $33,452 ($2,788 a month). The state is 13.26% of what they pay.
A married couple earning $60,000 and $35,000, filing jointly: Iowa $2,306, federal income tax $7,040, Social Security and Medicare $7,268 — $16,614 in all, leaving $78,386 ($6,532 a month). The state is 13.88% of what they pay.
A single professional earning $180,000: Iowa $6,188, federal income tax $31,934, Social Security and Medicare $13,770 — $51,892 in all, leaving $128,108 ($10,676 a month). The state is 11.92% of what they pay.
In all three, Social Security and Medicare take more than Iowa does. The payroll taxes have no deduction at all and start on the first dollar, which is why they are the largest tax many lower earners pay.
Iowa income tax at every $10,000
For a salary between the seven above, here is the single-filer figure in $10,000 steps, from $20,000 to $200,000.
| Salary | Per month | Effective | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | $9 | 0.54% | $108 |
| $30,000 | $41 | 1.63% | $488 |
| $40,000 | $72 | 2.17% | $868 |
| $50,000 | $104 | 2.5% | $1,248 |
| $60,000 | $136 | 2.71% | $1,628 |
| $70,000 | $167 | 2.87% | $2,008 |
| $80,000 | $199 | 2.99% | $2,388 |
| $90,000 | $231 | 3.08% | $2,768 |
| $100,000 | $262 | 3.15% | $3,148 |
| $110,000 | $294 | 3.21% | $3,528 |
| $120,000 | $326 | 3.26% | $3,908 |
| $130,000 | $357 | 3.3% | $4,288 |
| $140,000 | $389 | 3.33% | $4,668 |
| $150,000 | $421 | 3.37% | $5,048 |
| $160,000 | $452 | 3.39% | $5,428 |
| $170,000 | $484 | 3.42% | $5,808 |
| $180,000 | $516 | 3.44% | $6,188 |
| $190,000 | $547 | 3.46% | $6,568 |
| $200,000 | $579 | 3.47% | $6,948 |
Between two steps the tax moves in a straight line at the marginal rate, so for $64,000 take the $60,000 figure and add 3.8% of the extra $4,000.
Per paycheck, and why your withholding will not match exactly
Spread over 26 biweekly paychecks, a single filer's Iowa income tax comes to about $19 at $30,000, $48 at $50,000, $85 at $75,000, $121 at $100,000, $158 at $125,000.
On other pay schedules, the $75,000 figure of $2,198 a year works out to about $42 a week, $92 twice a month, or $183 once a month. The annual total is the same whichever way it is paid; only the slices change.
| Salary | Weekly | Every 2 weeks | Twice a month | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $9 | $19 | $20 | $41 |
| $50,000 | $24 | $48 | $52 | $104 |
| $75,000 | $42 | $85 | $92 | $183 |
| $100,000 | $61 | $121 | $131 | $262 |
| $125,000 | $79 | $158 | $171 | $342 |
| $150,000 | $97 | $194 | $210 | $421 |
| $200,000 | $134 | $267 | $290 | $579 |
What your employer actually withholds is set by the state's withholding formula, which is built to land close to these annual figures but is not the same calculation — it works one paycheck at a time and relies on the form you filled in when you started the job. The gap between the two comes back at filing time as a refund or a bill. The Iowa refund estimator runs that reconciliation for your own figures.
The flat rate in dollars
With a single rate the arithmetic is short: each extra $1,000 of salary above $17,153 costs $38 in Iowa tax, and each extra $10,000 costs $380 — the same at $50,000 as at $200,000.
That is also what a pay cut, an unpaid month or a larger pre-tax contribution the state recognises saves: the same 3.8% of the amount, wherever you are on the scale. No other part of the income tax is as easy to predict.
The one line that matters
With no brackets to cross, the only threshold in Iowa is the point where tax starts: $17,153 of salary for a single filer. Below it the state takes nothing; one dollar above it, 3.8% of that dollar. Nothing about crossing it touches the income below.
So the raise that "pushed me into a higher bracket" cannot happen here at the state level. It cannot happen anywhere, in fact — only the dollars inside a bracket ever pay its rate — but in Iowa there is not even a bracket to be pushed into.
Three ways to misread the Iowa schedule
Applying the rate to your salary. 3.8% of a $75,000 salary is $2,850; the real Iowa tax on it is $2,198. The shortcut overstates the bill by $652, 29.66% too high, because it skips everything that comes off first.
Confusing the effective rate with the marginal one. At $75,000 the combined effective income tax rate, federal plus Iowa, is 13.16%; the combined marginal rate is 25.8%. The first says how much of the salary goes in income tax; the second what the next dollar costs. Pricing a raise or a pre-tax contribution with the first is the classic slip.
Assuming last year's figures still hold. Thresholds and rates are set per tax year; everything on this page is for 2026, from the Iowa source checked on 2026-09-01.
What you keep from a $5,000 raise
The combined marginal rate is abstract; a raise is not. Here is where an extra $5,000 of salary goes for a single filer, with federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare all measured on the same two salaries:
From $50,000 to $55,000: Iowa $190, federal income tax $600, Social Security and Medicare $383 — you keep $3,827, or 76.54% of the raise.
From $100,000 to $105,000: Iowa $190, federal income tax $1,100, Social Security and Medicare $383 — you keep $3,327, or 66.54% of the raise.
Iowa's share is 3.8% of the raise at $50,000 and 3.8% at $100,000. The federal share is the one that moves most between the two salaries, because the federal schedule has more steps.
Married filing jointly: does Iowa penalise it?
A married couple filing jointly pays the same 3.8% on every taxable dollar. There is no joint schedule because there is no schedule: one rate cannot be doubled. What changes for a couple is the amount that comes off first, which is twice the single amount.
Measured on a household earning $100,000: split evenly, two single people would pay $2,496 between them; married and filing jointly they pay $2,496. The same, to within a few dollars — no penalty and no bonus.
With the same $100,000 earned by one partner alone, a single filer would pay $3,148; the couple pays $2,496, so filing jointly with a non-earning spouse is worth $652 a year in Iowa tax. All of it comes from the second deduction and credit, since the rates are the same.
How the split between two incomes changes it
A joint return pools the two incomes, so a married couple on $100,000 pays $2,496 to Iowa however the $100,000 is divided between them. Two unmarried partners file separately, and for them the split matters, as the table shows for four ways of dividing the same $100,000.
| Split | Two single filers | Married, jointly | Marriage |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 / $0 | $3,148 | $2,496 | saves $652 |
| $75,000 / $25,000 | $2,496 | $2,496 | no difference |
| $60,000 / $40,000 | $2,496 | $2,496 | no difference |
| $50,000 / $50,000 | $2,496 | $2,496 | no difference |
The more lopsided the split, the more a joint return is worth, because it lets the lower earner's unused deduction absorb part of the higher earner's income. These are Iowa figures only; the federal return has its own, separate version of the same effect.
Iowa and federal brackets together
Every extra dollar is taxed by both. The combined marginal income tax rate — federal plus Iowa — is 15.8% at $30,000 and 27.8% at $200,000 for a single filer, and the table shows every step in between.
| Salary | Federal | Iowa | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 12% | 3.8% | 15.8% |
| $50,000 | 12% | 3.8% | 15.8% |
| $75,000 | 22% | 3.8% | 25.8% |
| $100,000 | 22% | 3.8% | 25.8% |
| $125,000 | 24% | 3.8% | 27.8% |
| $150,000 | 24% | 3.8% | 27.8% |
| $200,000 | 24% | 3.8% | 27.8% |
On top of that come Social Security (6.2% up to the wage base) and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 for a single filer). And the deduction for state income tax on a federal return only helps if you itemise — most people take the federal standard deduction and get nothing back for the state tax they paid.
The federal brackets step up at different points from the Iowa ones, so the combined rate changes in more places than either schedule alone. Planning a raise or a bonus around one table is how people misjudge what they will keep.
How the Iowa rate got here
Iowa went from graduated rates reaching 8.53% in 2022 to a single 3.8% rate — one of the sharpest reductions any state has made in recent memory.
The top rate year by year: 2022 at 8.53%, 2025 at 3.8%, 2026 at 3.8%.
How Iowa ranks
On a $75,000 salary, single, Iowa takes $2,198 — the 7th lowest of the 42 jurisdictions that charge anything at that salary, with nine taking nothing at all. The middle of those 42 takes $2,802, so Iowa is $604 below it.
The position is not fixed; it moves with the salary: 9th lowest at $50,000, 7th lowest at $75,000, 7th lowest at $150,000. Iowa stays in roughly the same place across all three.
At that salary the range among states that charge anything runs from $182 in North Dakota to $5,055 in Oregon, which puts Iowa 41.38% of the way from the cheapest to the dearest.
Within $250 of it at $75,000: Indiana ($2,183), Rhode Island ($2,196), Mississippi ($2,268), Pennsylvania ($2,303). States that look different on paper often end up a few hundred dollars apart, because the deduction moves the bill as much as the rate does.
For 2026, 13 states tax wages at a single rate, 29 jurisdictions use brackets and 9 have no tax on wages at all, so Iowa is one of the 13 flat-rate states.
The 2026 brackets for every state are on one page, and the state income tax comparison ranks all 51 at the salary you choose.
What this page leaves out
Head of household and married filing separately. This page publishes the two schedules that were read at source, single and joint, and nothing for the other two statuses rather than a guess.
Dependents and credits. Credits for children, earned income, retirement income and the rest depend on your household, not on the brackets, and are left to the Iowa income tax calculator.
Income that is not wages. Retirement income, capital gains and business income can be treated differently in Iowa from a salary. Everything above is for wages.
Other tax years. Every figure here is for the 2026 tax year, the return filed in 2027. A return for an earlier year has to be worked out with that year's rates and thresholds, which is exactly where copied tables go wrong.
Where these brackets come from
Read off the Iowa Department of Revenue's own 2026 figures, [revenue.iowa.gov](https://revenue.iowa.gov/), checked on 2026-09-01. Both the single and the joint rules were verified against that source before this page was published — a state whose joint schedule has not been read does not get a brackets page here yet, and neither does one whose rules our engine still simplifies.
Every dollar figure on this page is computed by the same engine as the Iowa income tax calculator, from the brackets above, so the two cannot disagree. If Iowa changes a rate or a threshold, this page changes with the data.
Where to go next
Questions
- What are the Iowa tax brackets for 2026?
- Iowa has no brackets in 2026: every dollar of taxable income is taxed at a flat 3.8%, for single and joint filers alike.
- What is the Iowa income tax rate for 2026?
- 3.8% on taxable income, for single and joint filers alike.
- Is Iowa a flat tax state?
- Yes. Iowa taxes all taxable income at 3.8%. The rate you actually pay on your salary is lower, because the first part of your income is not taxed.
- At what income do you start paying Iowa income tax?
- A single filer with only wage income owes the first dollar of Iowa tax at a gross income of about $17,153, and a married couple filing jointly at about $34,306.
- How much Iowa income tax do you pay on $100,000?
- A single filer earning $100,000 in wages pays about $3,148 in Iowa income tax for 2026, an effective rate of 3.15%. A married couple filing jointly on the same household income pays about $2,496.
- Is Iowa income tax high or low?
- On a $75,000 salary, single, Iowa takes $2,198 — at the low end of the 42 jurisdictions that tax wages (7th lowest), against $2,802 for the middle one. Nine take nothing at that salary.
- How much is Iowa state tax per paycheck?
- On a $75,000 salary paid every two weeks, a single filer's Iowa income tax comes to about $85 a paycheck, or $183 a month. Actual withholding follows the state's own formula and can differ slightly; the difference is settled when you file.
- What is the Iowa standard deduction for 2026?
- $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly. It comes off before the 3.8% rate is applied.
- Are Iowa tax brackets different for married couples?
- A married couple filing jointly pays the same 3.8% on every taxable dollar. There is no joint schedule because there is no schedule: one rate cannot be doubled. What changes for a couple is the amount that comes off first, which is twice the single amount.