North Carolina tax brackets
One rate, no brackets — and a first taxed dollar at $12,751 of salary, not at zero.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 1, 2026Read off the North Carolina Department of Revenue’s 2026 scheduleNorth Carolina tax brackets for 2026
North Carolina has no tax brackets in 2026. It taxes every dollar of taxable income at a single rate of 3.99%, whatever you earn and whether you file single or jointly. Searching for "North Carolina 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 $12,750 for a single filer and $25,500 for a couple. That front slice is the only thing that makes the rate you actually pay lower than 3.99%.
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 North Carolina, $12,750 for a single filer and $25,500 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 North Carolina tax is owed at a gross income of $12,751. Below that you pay nothing; above it, 3.99% of each extra dollar.
Married filing jointly: the first dollar is owed at $25,501 of combined income.
These are wage figures, and they assume the income North Carolina 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 | −$12,750 |
| Taxable income | $62,250 |
| $62,250 at 3.99% | $2,484 |
| North Carolina income tax | $2,484 |
The result: $2,484 of North Carolina income tax, an effective rate of 3.31% 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 North Carolina takes at seven salaries
The rate in the schedule is not the rate you pay. Here is the 2026 North Carolina 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 | 2.29% | 3.99% | $57 | $688 |
| $50,000 | 2.97% | 3.99% | $124 | $1,486 |
| $75,000 | 3.31% | 3.99% | $207 | $2,484 |
| $100,000 | 3.48% | 4% | $290 | $3,481 |
| $125,000 | 3.58% | 3.99% | $373 | $4,479 |
| $150,000 | 3.65% | 3.99% | $456 | $5,476 |
| $200,000 | 3.74% | 3.99% | $623 | $7,471 |
| Household salary | Effective | Marginal | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 0.6% | 3.99% | $15 | $180 |
| $50,000 | 1.96% | 3.99% | $82 | $978 |
| $75,000 | 2.63% | 3.99% | $165 | $1,975 |
| $100,000 | 2.97% | 3.99% | $248 | $2,973 |
| $125,000 | 3.18% | 3.99% | $331 | $3,970 |
| $150,000 | 3.31% | 3.99% | $414 | $4,968 |
| $200,000 | 3.48% | 3.99% | $580 | $6,963 |
The marginal column barely moves — 3.99% everywhere above the starting point — while the effective column keeps rising toward it without ever arriving: 2.29% at $30,000, 3.48% at $100,000, 3.74% 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 North Carolina at seven salaries
The state income tax is one of four taxes on a paycheck. Here is what a single filer keeps once North Carolina, federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare have all come off, and what share of the combined bill North Carolina accounts for.
| Salary | NC | Federal | SS + Medicare | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $688 | $1,420 | $2,295 | $25,597 |
| $50,000 | $1,486 | $3,820 | $3,825 | $40,869 |
| $75,000 | $2,484 | $7,670 | $5,738 | $59,108 |
| $100,000 | $3,481 | $13,170 | $7,650 | $75,699 |
| $125,000 | $4,479 | $18,734 | $9,563 | $92,224 |
| $150,000 | $5,476 | $24,734 | $11,475 | $108,315 |
| $200,000 | $7,471 | $36,734 | $14,339 | $141,456 |
North Carolina's slice of the total is largest at the bottom of the scale and shrinks as pay rises: 15.63% of the taxes on $30,000, 12.76% on $200,000. The federal schedule is steeper than North Carolina's, so the higher the salary, the more of the bill is federal.
Three North Carolina 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: North Carolina $1,087, federal income tax $2,620, Social Security and Medicare $3,060 — $6,767 in all, leaving $33,233 ($2,769 a month). The state is 16.06% of what they pay.
A married couple earning $60,000 and $35,000, filing jointly: North Carolina $2,773, federal income tax $7,040, Social Security and Medicare $7,268 — $17,081 in all, leaving $77,919 ($6,493 a month). The state is 16.23% of what they pay.
A single professional earning $180,000: North Carolina $6,673, federal income tax $31,934, Social Security and Medicare $13,770 — $52,377 in all, leaving $127,623 ($10,635 a month). The state is 12.74% of what they pay.
In all three, Social Security and Medicare take more than North Carolina 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.
North Carolina 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 | $24 | 1.44% | $289 |
| $30,000 | $57 | 2.29% | $688 |
| $40,000 | $91 | 2.72% | $1,087 |
| $50,000 | $124 | 2.97% | $1,486 |
| $60,000 | $157 | 3.14% | $1,885 |
| $70,000 | $190 | 3.26% | $2,284 |
| $80,000 | $224 | 3.35% | $2,683 |
| $90,000 | $257 | 3.42% | $3,082 |
| $100,000 | $290 | 3.48% | $3,481 |
| $110,000 | $323 | 3.53% | $3,880 |
| $120,000 | $357 | 3.57% | $4,279 |
| $130,000 | $390 | 3.6% | $4,678 |
| $140,000 | $423 | 3.63% | $5,077 |
| $150,000 | $456 | 3.65% | $5,476 |
| $160,000 | $490 | 3.67% | $5,875 |
| $170,000 | $523 | 3.69% | $6,274 |
| $180,000 | $556 | 3.71% | $6,673 |
| $190,000 | $589 | 3.72% | $7,072 |
| $200,000 | $623 | 3.74% | $7,471 |
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 3.99% of the extra $4,000.
Per paycheck, and why your withholding will not match exactly
Spread over 26 biweekly paychecks, a single filer's North Carolina income tax comes to about $26 at $30,000, $57 at $50,000, $96 at $75,000, $134 at $100,000, $172 at $125,000.
On other pay schedules, the $75,000 figure of $2,484 a year works out to about $48 a week, $104 twice a month, or $207 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 | $13 | $26 | $29 | $57 |
| $50,000 | $29 | $57 | $62 | $124 |
| $75,000 | $48 | $96 | $104 | $207 |
| $100,000 | $67 | $134 | $145 | $290 |
| $125,000 | $86 | $172 | $187 | $373 |
| $150,000 | $105 | $211 | $228 | $456 |
| $200,000 | $144 | $287 | $311 | $623 |
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 North Carolina 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 $12,751 costs $40 in North Carolina tax, and each extra $10,000 costs $399 — 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 3.99% 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 North Carolina is the point where tax starts: $12,751 of salary for a single filer. Below it the state takes nothing; one dollar above it, 3.99% 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 North Carolina there is not even a bracket to be pushed into.
Three ways to misread the North Carolina schedule
Applying the rate to your salary. 3.99% of a $75,000 salary is $2,993; the real North Carolina tax on it is $2,484. The shortcut overstates the bill by $509, 20.49% 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 North Carolina, is 13.54%; the combined marginal rate is 25.99%. 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 North Carolina 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: North Carolina $200, federal income tax $600, Social Security and Medicare $383 — you keep $3,817, or 76.34% of the raise.
From $100,000 to $105,000: North Carolina $200, federal income tax $1,100, Social Security and Medicare $383 — you keep $3,317, or 66.34% of the raise.
North Carolina's share is 3.99% of the raise at $50,000 and 3.99% 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 North Carolina penalise it?
A married couple filing jointly pays the same 3.99% 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 $2,972 between them; married and filing jointly they pay $2,973. 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 $3,481; the couple pays $2,973, so filing jointly with a non-earning spouse is worth $508 a year in North Carolina tax. All of it comes from the second deduction, 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 $2,973 to North Carolina 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 | $3,481 | $2,973 | saves $508 |
| $75,000 / $25,000 | $2,973 | $2,973 | no difference |
| $60,000 / $40,000 | $2,972 | $2,973 | no difference |
| $50,000 / $50,000 | $2,972 | $2,973 | 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 North Carolina figures only; the federal return has its own, separate version of the same effect.
North Carolina and federal brackets together
Every extra dollar is taxed by both. The combined marginal income tax rate — federal plus North Carolina — is 15.99% at $30,000 and 27.99% at $200,000 for a single filer, and the table shows every step in between.
| Salary | Federal | North Carolina | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 12% | 3.99% | 15.99% |
| $50,000 | 12% | 3.99% | 15.99% |
| $75,000 | 22% | 3.99% | 25.99% |
| $100,000 | 22% | 4% | 26% |
| $125,000 | 24% | 3.99% | 27.99% |
| $150,000 | 24% | 3.99% | 27.99% |
| $200,000 | 24% | 3.99% | 27.99% |
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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina rate got here
North Carolina has cut its flat rate every year since 2022, from 4.99% to 3.99%.
The top rate year by year: 2022 at 4.99%, 2023 at 4.75%, 2024 at 4.5%, 2025 at 4.25%, 2026 at 3.99%.
So anyone comparing with last year's figures should expect them to differ: the 2025 top rate was 4.25%, not 3.99%, so a table from before 2026 will not match this one.
Already legislated: 2027 — Further reductions may apply if revenue triggers are met. That is enacted law, not a proposal.
How North Carolina ranks
On a $75,000 salary, single, North Carolina takes $2,484 — the 12th 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 North Carolina is $318 below it.
The position is not fixed; it moves with the salary: 17th lowest at $50,000, 12th lowest at $75,000, 10th lowest at $150,000. North Carolina moves toward the cheap end as income rises, because other states' brackets keep climbing while its own rate does not.
At that salary the range among states that charge anything runs from $182 in North Dakota to $5,055 in Oregon, which puts North Carolina 47.24% of the way from the cheapest to the dearest.
Within $250 of it at $75,000: Mississippi ($2,268), Pennsylvania ($2,303), New Mexico ($2,359), Arkansas ($2,380). 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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina income tax calculator.
Income that is not wages. Retirement income, capital gains and business income can be treated differently in North Carolina 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 North Carolina Department of Revenue's own 2026 figures, [www.ncdor.gov](https://www.ncdor.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 North Carolina income tax calculator, from the brackets above, so the two cannot disagree. If North Carolina changes a rate or a threshold, this page changes with the data.
Where to go next
Questions
- What are the North Carolina tax brackets for 2026?
- North Carolina has no brackets in 2026: every dollar of taxable income is taxed at a flat 3.99%, for single and joint filers alike.
- What is the North Carolina income tax rate for 2026?
- 3.99% on taxable income, for single and joint filers alike — down from 4.25% in 2025.
- Is North Carolina a flat tax state?
- Yes. North Carolina taxes all taxable income at 3.99%. 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 North Carolina income tax?
- A single filer with only wage income owes the first dollar of North Carolina tax at a gross income of about $12,751, and a married couple filing jointly at about $25,501.
- How much North Carolina income tax do you pay on $100,000?
- A single filer earning $100,000 in wages pays about $3,481 in North Carolina income tax for 2026, an effective rate of 3.48%. A married couple filing jointly on the same household income pays about $2,973.
- Is North Carolina income tax high or low?
- On a $75,000 salary, single, North Carolina takes $2,484 — at the low end of the 42 jurisdictions that tax wages (12th lowest), against $2,802 for the middle one. Nine take nothing at that salary.
- How much is North Carolina state tax per paycheck?
- On a $75,000 salary paid every two weeks, a single filer's North Carolina income tax comes to about $96 a paycheck, or $207 a month. Actual withholding follows the state's own formula and can differ slightly; the difference is settled when you file.
- What was the North Carolina tax rate in 2025?
- The 2025 top rate was 4.25%. For 2026 it is 3.99%, so figures copied from last year's tables overstate the tax.
- What is the North Carolina standard deduction for 2026?
- $12,750 for a single filer and $25,500 for a married couple filing jointly. It comes off before the 3.99% rate is applied.
- Are North Carolina tax brackets different for married couples?
- A married couple filing jointly pays the same 3.99% 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.