Nine rates, three separate rate schedules, and a top rate that gets quoted far more often than it gets explained. If you are working out what the state will take from a project payment, a bonus, or a year of freelance income, the California income tax brackets are where that answer starts.
Settle one thing before the tables, because it trips up more people than the rates do. The 2026 brackets apply to income you earn during the 2026 calendar year, on the return you file in early 2027. If you are finishing a 2025 return right now, including one on extension before the October 15 deadline, you need the 2025 schedules instead. Both sets are below.
California Income Tax Brackets for 2026
California runs nine rates: 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 9.3%, 10.3%, 11.3%, and 12.3%. Those rates have not moved in years. What moves annually is the dollar threshold where each one starts, because the Franchise Tax Board indexes the brackets to the California Consumer Price Index. The FTB indexing announcement put the 2026 adjustment at 3.4%, measured from June 2025 to June 2026, so every threshold below sits about 3.4% higher than last year. The figures in all three tables are the schedules the FTB published with that announcement.
Three schedules cover four filing statuses. Married filing separately reads from the same schedule as single filers, not half of the joint schedule, which is a detail plenty of calculators get wrong.
Single and married filing separately (Schedule X)
| Rate | Taxable income |
|---|---|
| 1% | $0 to $11,456 |
| 2% | $11,456 to $27,157 |
| 4% | $27,157 to $42,861 |
| 6% | $42,861 to $59,498 |
| 8% | $59,498 to $75,197 |
| 9.3% | $75,197 to $384,109 |
| 10.3% | $384,109 to $460,927 |
| 11.3% | $460,927 to $768,213 |
| 12.3% | $768,213 and above |
Married filing jointly and surviving spouse (Schedule Y)
| Rate | Taxable income |
|---|---|
| 1% | $0 to $22,912 |
| 2% | $22,912 to $54,314 |
| 4% | $54,314 to $85,722 |
| 6% | $85,722 to $118,996 |
| 8% | $118,996 to $150,394 |
| 9.3% | $150,394 to $768,218 |
| 10.3% | $768,218 to $921,854 |
| 11.3% | $921,854 to $1,536,426 |
| 12.3% | $1,536,426 and above |
Head of household (Schedule Z)
| Rate | Taxable income |
|---|---|
| 1% | $0 to $22,927 |
| 2% | $22,927 to $54,316 |
| 4% | $54,316 to $70,018 |
| 6% | $70,018 to $86,654 |
| 8% | $86,654 to $102,356 |
| 9.3% | $102,356 to $522,385 |
| 10.3% | $522,385 to $626,864 |
| 11.3% | $626,864 to $1,044,771 |
| 12.3% | $1,044,771 and above |
One caution on the Schedule Y figures. Joint thresholds are exactly double the single ones all the way up the schedule, which makes them easy to approximate, but head of household is its own schedule and does not follow that pattern. Reading joint figures off a doubled single table works; doing the same for head of household does not.
California Income Tax Brackets for 2025
These apply to income earned during 2025, on the return due in April 2026 or on extension by October 15, 2026. They come straight from the published FTB rate schedules. The table shows where each rate begins under all three schedules, so you can read across rather than flipping between three tables.
| Rate | Single or MFS | Married filing jointly | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1% | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 2% | $11,079 | $22,158 | $22,173 |
| 4% | $26,264 | $52,528 | $52,530 |
| 6% | $41,452 | $82,904 | $67,716 |
| 8% | $57,542 | $115,084 | $83,805 |
| 9.3% | $72,724 | $145,448 | $98,990 |
| 10.3% | $371,479 | $742,958 | $505,208 |
| 11.3% | $445,771 | $891,542 | $606,251 |
| 12.3% | $742,953 | $1,485,906 | $1,010,417 |
Comparing the two years shows what indexing actually buys you. The 9.3% bracket for a single filer started at $72,724 of taxable income in 2025 and starts at $75,197 in 2026. If your income rose by less than 3.4% over that period, slightly more of it now falls in the lower brackets.
Standard Deduction and Exemption Credits
The brackets apply to taxable income, not to what you earned. Before any rate touches a dollar, you subtract the California standard deduction or your itemized deductions. Exemption credits work differently: they come off the calculated tax at the end, not off your income, which is why they are worth more than their size suggests.
| Item | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Standard deduction, single or married filing separately | $5,706 | $5,900 |
| Standard deduction, joint, surviving spouse, or head of household | $11,412 | $11,800 |
| Personal exemption credit, single, separate, or head of household | $153 | $158 |
| Personal and senior exemption credit, joint or surviving spouse | $306 | $316 |
| Dependent exemption credit | $475 | $491 |
| Renter credit income ceiling, single filers | $53,994 | $55,830 |
Look at the size of that standard deduction. At $5,900 for a single filer in 2026, it is a fraction of the federal figure, so a far larger share of your income is exposed to state tax than to federal tax. That gap is why many Californians take the federal standard deduction and itemize on the state return instead. Our comparison of standard or itemized deductions covers when each one wins. The renter credit ceiling in that last row is the single-filer figure; for joint filers, it rises to $111,660 of adjusted gross income for 2026.
How do California tax brackets work?
California brackets are marginal. Landing in the 9.3% bracket does not mean 9.3% of your income goes to Sacramento. It means the slice of taxable income above that threshold is taxed at 9.3%, while every dollar underneath is taxed at the lower rates that came before it.
Run it on a real number. A freelance editor in Los Angeles finishes 2026 with $95,000 of California taxable income, filing single. The state does not charge 9.3% on $95,000. It stacks the brackets:
| Bracket slice | Tax |
|---|---|
| 1% on the first $11,456 | $115 |
| 2% on the next $15,701 | $314 |
| 4% on the next $15,704 | $628 |
| 6% on the next $16,637 | $998 |
| 8% on the next $15,699 | $1,256 |
| 9.3% on the final $19,803 | $1,842 |
| Total before credits | $5,153 |
Her top bracket is 9.3%. Her effective rate is about 5.4%, and the $158 personal exemption credit trims the bill to roughly $4,995. The distance between those two numbers, 9.3% against 5.4%, is the single most useful thing to understand here. The marginal rate tells you what the next dollar costs. The effective rate tells you what the year cost.
Which one you need depends on the question. Planning decisions run on the marginal rate: whether to invoice a December job in January, whether to make a retirement contribution, whether another project is worth the hours. Budgeting runs on the effective rate.
Where the 13.3% Rate Actually Comes From
The famous 13.3% is not a bracket. The schedules stop at 12.3%. The extra point is a separate 1% surcharge on taxable income above $1 million, created by Proposition 63 in 2004 and long known as the Mental Health Services Tax. Proposition 1, passed in March 2024, reorganized that funding, and the surcharge now goes by the Behavioral Health Services Tax. The rate and the threshold did not change with the rename.
Two details carry real planning weight. The $1 million threshold is identical for every filing status, so a married couple filing jointly reaches it at the same income a single filer does, with no doubling. And unlike every bracket on this page, that threshold is not indexed to inflation. It has sat at $1 million since 2004 while the brackets around it climbed each year, which means a single lump sum, a project payout, a vesting event, or a property sale can carry a household over a line that never moves.
When income arrives in lumps rather than evenly, the year a payment lands in becomes the lever that matters most, and several planning moves for higher earners work on exactly that timing.
Three Costs the Bracket Tables Leave Out
Bracket tables answer a narrow question. Here is what they do not show, and all three change the real number.
Capital gains get no break in California
Federal law taxes long-term capital gains at preferential rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%. California does not. A gain on stock, a rental property, or an equity stake is ordinary income on the state return, taxed at the same rates in the tables above. Sell something substantial, and the gain can carry you several brackets higher in a single year, which is how people land near that $1 million line with no salary anywhere close to it. The mechanics of how the state treats capital gains are worth reading before you sell, not after.
Uncapped SDI applies to every wage dollar
If you are paid as an employee, State Disability Insurance comes out of your wages on top of income tax. Senate Bill 951 removed the wage ceiling on January 1, 2024, so SDI now applies to every dollar you earn with no cap. The EDD withholding rate for 2026 is 1.3%, up from 1.2% in 2025. On $250,000 of wages, that is $3,250, most of which would have escaped the tax under the old cap. For someone at the top of the schedule, the combined marginal rate on wage income runs nearer 14.6% than 13.3%.
One nuance the national guides skip, and it matters in entertainment, where people often hold both kinds of income in the same year: SDI applies to W-2 wages, so union crew and staff positions pay it. Self-employment income reported on Schedule C sits outside the SDI system unless you elect coverage voluntarily.
There are no city or county income taxes
This one runs in your favor. Unlike New York or Ohio, California does not let cities or counties levy their own income tax. A resident of Los Angeles and a resident of Fresno read from the same schedule. The rate you find above is the whole state income tax picture, which is worth remembering when you compare California against states that advertise a lower headline rate and then stack local tax underneath it.
When Your Income Arrives in Bursts
The tables assume a tidy annual figure. Project and freelance work rarely cooperate. A writer with a heavy first quarter and a quiet autumn, a crew member between productions, a musician whose touring income and royalties land months apart, all finish the year in a bracket that no single month would have predicted.
Two things follow. You cannot read your bracket off one good month, which is why a mid-year projection beats a guess in December. And because nothing is withheld from freelance payments, the state wants the tax as you earn it.
California also uses an unusual installment pattern, front-loading 30% of the annual estimate in April, 40% in June, nothing in September, and 30% in January, which catches anyone expecting four equal payments. The rules for quarterly estimated payments cover the safe harbor thresholds that keep penalties off your return.
Lowering the bracket you land in comes down to lowering taxable income before the year closes: retirement contributions, timing a deductible expense into the higher-income year, and claiming everything you qualify for. The list of deductions worth claiming is the place to start, and the broader overview of state income tax rules fills in filing requirements and residency.
Finding your bracket is the easy part. Deciding what to do about it, while December still gives you room to act, is where the money is. Eric M Hunt, CPA, works with performers, crew, writers, and creative businesses across Los Angeles, on income that rarely arrives in equal monthly pieces. Call 213-753-1219 or book an intro call.
Questions People Ask About California Tax Brackets
What tax bracket am I in in California?
Find your California taxable income, which is the figure after your standard or itemized deduction, then locate it in the schedule for your filing status above. The rate beside that row is your marginal bracket, meaning the rate on your next dollar earned. Most of your income is taxed at the lower rates beneath it, so your effective rate always comes in lower than your bracket.
What are the California tax brackets for 2026?
Nine rates: 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 9.3%, 10.3%, 11.3% and 12.3%, plus a 1% surcharge on taxable income above $1 million. For single filers, the 1% rate runs to $11,456, and the 12.3% rate begins at $768,213. Joint filers use double those thresholds, and the head of household has its own schedule.
How many tax brackets does California have?
Nine statutory brackets, running from 1% to 12.3%. The 1% Behavioral Health Services Tax on income above $1 million sits on top of the schedule rather than inside it, which is why California is usually described as having a 13.3% top rate.
What is the highest tax bracket in California?
The highest bracket in the schedule is 12.3%. Adding the 1% surcharge on taxable income above $1 million brings the top marginal rate to 13.3%, the highest state income tax rate in the country. For employees, uncapped State Disability Insurance pushes the combined marginal rate on wages higher still.
What is the lowest tax bracket in California?
1%. For 2026, it covers taxable income up to $11,456 for single and married filing separately filers, up to $22,912 for joint filers, and up to $22,927 for head of household.
Are California tax brackets progressive?
Yes. Each rate applies only to the portion of taxable income inside its own band, so moving into a higher bracket never raises the tax on the income below it. That is also why a raise can never leave you with less after tax than you had before it.
Do California tax brackets adjust for inflation annually?
Yes. The Franchise Tax Board indexes the brackets, the standard deduction, filing thresholds, and several credits to the California Consumer Price Index each year. The adjustment for 2026 is 3.4%, up from 3.0% the year before. The $1 million surcharge threshold is the exception and has never been indexed.
Does California tax capital gains at a lower rate?
No. California treats long-term and short-term capital gains as ordinary income, taxed at the same bracket rates as wages. There is no state equivalent of the federal 0%, 15%, and 20% structure, so one large gain can move you several brackets up in a single year.
How can you lower your California tax bracket?
Reduce taxable income before the year ends. Retirement plan contributions, timing deductible expenses into the higher-income year, shifting when a large payment is received, and claiming every deduction and credit you qualify for all help. For income that arrives unevenly, the timing of one large payment is often the biggest lever available.
Which year brackets do I use for my tax return?
Use the brackets for the year the income was earned, not the year you file. Income earned during 2026 uses the 2026 schedules on the return filed in early 2027. A 2025 return, including one filed on extension by October 15, 2026, uses the 2025 schedules.
The California income tax brackets are a starting point, not the answer. What you actually pay depends on what you subtract first, when your income shows up, and whether any of it is a capital gain or a lump sum that lands in the wrong year. Get those pieces in the right order, and the bracket sorts itself out.
