Reference
Crossing a tax threshold.
People turn down raises over this. They should not. We checked every federal threshold, a dollar either side, for all four filing statuses — and earning more never leaves you with less. Not once, not anywhere. Here is what does change.
Sampling net income either side of every federal income tax and FICA boundary, across all four filing statuses, confirms the schedule is monotonic throughout: there is no point at which additional gross income reduces take-home pay. Each page below shows the combined marginal rate either side of one boundary and the amount retained from the adjacent thousand dollars, for tax year 2026.
Browse thresholds
The one that gives money back
Above this line Social Security stops being collected, so the rate on further pay falls and take-home rises. It is the only federal boundary that works this way.
The ones that take a little more
Each of these raises the rate on income above it, and on nothing below it. None of them reduces what you take home. Listed by where they fall for a single filer.
- The standard deduction — where federal income tax actually startsSingle filer, from $16,100
- The 12% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $28,500
- The 22% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $66,500
- The 24% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $121,800
- The Additional Medicare tax threshold — a surtax with three different starting pointsSingle filer, from $200,000
- The 32% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $217,875
- The 35% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $272,325
- The 37% tax bracket — what changes when you reach itSingle filer, from $656,700