Capital gains tax calculator

The working, in the order it runs

1. Start with the gain, not the price. The gain is the difference between your adjusted basis in the asset and the amount you realized from the sale, not the sale price. Basis is generally what the asset cost you, adjusted for what you have spent on it and, on a rental, reduced by the depreciation you were allowed to claim. Selling costs come off the amount realized. Get this number wrong and every step after it is wrong by the same amount.
2. Date the holding period. This is the step that moves the answer most. The IRS rule is that an asset held for more than one year before you dispose of it produces a long-term gain, and one year or less produces a short-term one. A short-term gain is taxed at your ordinary rate; a long-term gain is taxed on its own scale. Count from the day after you acquired the asset up to and including the day you disposed of it, and be careful with anything acquired by gift or inheritance, where the rule is different.
3. Net the losses. Capital losses come off capital gains before any rate is applied, and if your losses exceed your gains the IRS allows the excess against ordinary income only up to the lesser of $3,000, or $1,500 if married filing separately, or your total net loss. Anything beyond that is not lost: it carries forward to later years. Losses on personal-use property, such as your own home or car, are not deductible at all.
4. Apply the band, then add the surtax. For most individuals the long-term rate is no higher than 15%. The 0% band runs up to $48,350 of taxable income for single filers and married filing separately, $96,700 for married filing jointly and a qualifying surviving spouse, and $64,750 for head of household; above the 15% band a 20% rate applies. Separately, a 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax is charged on the lesser of your net investment income or the amount by which your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately.
5. Add the state, if your state charges one. Your state is a separate calculation with its own answer, and the answers are genuinely different. California publishes that it does not have a lower rate for capital gains and that all capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. Washington levies no income tax and a standalone 7% excise on the sale of long-term capital assets instead. Texas forbids the tax in its constitution. The record on this site quotes each of them.

Common questions

What rate will I pay on a long-term capital gain?

The IRS states that the tax rate on most net capital gain is no higher than 15% for most individuals, with a 0% rate where taxable income is at or below $48,350 for single filers and married filing separately, $96,700 for married filing jointly and qualifying surviving spouse, and $64,750 for head of household. A 20% rate applies above the 15% band. Those are the figures on IRS Topic no. 409 as it read on 11 September 2026.

Does it matter how long I held it?

More than anything else on this page. The IRS rule is that holding an asset for more than one year before disposal makes the gain long-term, and one year or less makes it short-term. A short-term gain gets no special rate at all: it is taxed alongside your ordinary income.

Can I use a loss on one sale against a gain on another?

Yes, and that netting happens before any rate is applied. If the losses are bigger than the gains, the excess you can claim against ordinary income is capped at the lesser of $3,000, or $1,500 if married filing separately, or your total net loss, and the remainder carries forward to later years.

Is the 3.8% investment income tax on top?

It is a separate charge, not part of the capital gains rate. The IRS describes it as a 3.8 percent tax on the lesser of your net investment income or the amount by which modified adjusted gross income exceeds the threshold for your filing status, and capital gains are named as one of the kinds of income it reaches.

Will an adviser give me a number for my own sale?

That is what the enquiry form is for. What this site publishes is the published rule and the authority's own wording of it; applying it to your basis, your dates and your state is the part a CPA or enrolled agent is paid to do. They pay us a flat fee to receive the enquiry and never a share of what they charge you.

Capital gains tax by jurisdiction

• Capital gains tax in United States
• Capital gains tax in California
• Capital gains tax in Washington
• Capital gains tax in Texas
• Capital gains tax in Florida
• Capital gains tax in New Jersey