The Income Tax Projection

How to read this. Add as many income lines as you want. Each type lands where it should: wages carry payroll tax, 1099 income carries SE tax plus the QBI deduction, interest and short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income but still count toward the NIIT, and long-term gains and qualified dividends get the preferential 0/15/20% rates stacked on top of ordinary income. The standard deduction is automatic. Switch to Itemize to enter SALT, mortgage interest, charitable, and medical, and it warns you the moment you cross a 2026 cap.

What's modeled for 2026. SALT caps at $40,400 and phases down 30 cents per dollar of MAGI over $505,000, bottoming out at $10,000. Charitable cash gifts lose the first 0.5% of AGI and top out at 60% of AGI. Medical counts only above 7.5% of AGI. If you land in the 37% bracket, OBBBA's new value limit trims your itemized deductions by 2/37 of the amount sitting in that bracket, so a dollar of deduction is worth about 35 cents instead of 37. That haircut is applied here, not just flagged. Mortgage interest assumes your loan stays inside the $750,000 principal limit. Still left out: AMT and state-specific itemized rules.

ACA. The enhanced premium tax credits expired December 31, 2025, so the 400%-of-poverty subsidy cliff is back as of January 1, 2026. Eligibility for 2026 coverage runs off the 2025 HHS poverty guidelines, and a household one dollar over 400% FPL gets nothing. MAGI here is approximated as AGI.

State tax is simplified. Each state runs off one flat base - gross income less deferrals, the ½SE deduction, the QBI deduction and the state standard deduction - through its 2026 brackets. Real states vary in ways this doesn't capture: some start from federal AGI and others from federal taxable income, most don't follow the federal QBI deduction, and several tax capital gains or retirement income differently. Treat the state number as a close estimate, not a return.

This is a planning estimate, not tax advice and not a filing tool. Run it past a CPA before you act on it.

Sources. Federal brackets, the standard deduction, and the Social Security wage base are from the IRS 2026 inflation update (Revenue Procedure 2025-32). The SALT cap, the charitable floor, and the 37%-bracket limit on itemized deductions come from the 2025 tax law (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act). State brackets and standard deductions are the Tax Foundation's 2026 tables. The poverty figures behind the ACA cliff are the 2025 HHS guidelines, which is the set 2026 coverage runs on.