2026 Tax Law Changes Calculator (OBBBA)
See how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's 2026 changes — new deductions, the SALT cap and QBI — affect a W-2 employee or 1099 self-employed filer.
Enter last year's net take-home above to see the year-on-year change.
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's 2026 Changes Affect Your Take-Home Pay
Federal tax law changed meaningfully for the 2026 tax year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and most of the coverage online is written for policy analysts, not for someone trying to work out what it means for their own paycheck or 1099 income. This calculator applies the actual 2026 figures — inflation-adjusted brackets, the standard deduction, and the qualified-dividend thresholds — to show the practical effect for both W-2 and 1099 filers.
The specific 2026 federal figures this calculator uses include the $16,100 single-filer standard deduction, income tax brackets running from 10% (above the standard deduction) to 37% above $656,700, and qualified-dividend thresholds of $49,450 and $545,500. One OBBBA provision made permanent that this calculator does not compute directly is the section 199A Qualified Business Income deduction (up to 20% of qualified business income) for self-employed and pass-through filers — it depends on entity type, W-2 wages paid, and (above a threshold) the type of business, none of which fit a straightforward bracket calculation, so it's flagged here rather than estimated.
What this calculator can and can't show you
- It applies the actual 2026 federal income tax brackets, standard deduction, and dividend thresholds — not a generic about-the-same-as-last-year estimate
- It does not compute the section 199A QBI deduction directly, since that deduction depends on facts (entity type, wages paid, business type) outside a simple bracket calculation — treat any self-employed income-tax figure elsewhere in this suite as not yet reflecting that deduction
- It is federal-only — OBBBA changes to state tax conformity vary by state and aren't modeled here
- It compares a single year's federal figures side by side for a W-2 employee and a 1099 self-employed filer at the same income, so you can see how the same law change affects each classification differently
