Our capital gains tax calculator is simple to use. Enter a few details about your investment, income, and filing status to estimate your federal capital gains tax bill.
Purchase price (cost basis): How much you originally paid for the investment.
Sale price (proceeds): How much you expect to receive when you sell the investment.
2026 taxable income: Your estimated taxable income for 2026 before adding the gain from this sale. Your income helps determine which capital gains tax rate applies.
Holding period: How long you owned the investment.
Filing status: Choose single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or head of household.
Taxable income (before this sale): Your taxable income is after deductions — not your gross wages.
A capital gain is the profit you make when you sell an investment for more than you bought it for. For example, if you buy stock for $5,000 and later sell it for $8,000, you've realized a $3,000 capital gain.
Capital gains fall into two main categories:
Short-term capital gains: Profits from investments held for one year or less. They are generally taxed at ordinary federal income tax rates.
Long-term capital gains: Profits from investments held for more than one year. Most are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on your taxable income and filing status.
How much tax you owe depends on two factors: How long you owned the investment and your taxable income. Short-term gains are generally taxed at ordinary income rates, which range from 10% to 37%. Long-term gains receive more favorable rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%.
This calculator only provides an estimate. Your actual tax bill can also be affected by capital losses, state taxes, the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, or special tax rates that apply to certain assets, such as collectibles.
Source: Internal Revenue Service
Note: Short-term capital gains are generally taxed at ordinary federal income tax rates.
Here's an example: Say you're single and have $40,000 of taxable income before selling an investment for a $20,000 long-term gain in 2026. The first $9,450 of your gain falls within the 0% bracket. The remaining $10,550 falls into the 15% bracket, so your total long-term federal capital gains tax bill would be about $1,583.
Another example: If you're a single filer with $60,000 in taxable income and a $2,000 long-term capital gain, then the entire $2,000 would be taxed at the 15% rate, resulting in a $300 long-term capital gains tax bill.
There are several ways to potentially reduce — or even completely avoid — capital gains taxes on investments.
Hold investments for more than one year: Selling an investment you've owned for over a year can qualify for long-term capital gains rates, which are lower than ordinary income tax rates for most people.
Practice tax-loss harvesting: Selling investments at a loss can help offset taxable gains elsewhere in your portfolio. So if you have $2,000 in capital gains and $2,000 in capital losses, the two cancel each other out, and you won't owe tax on those capital gains. If you have more losses than gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 of the remaining loss against other income each year and carry additional losses forward to future tax years.
Invest through a traditional IRA: Buying and selling investments within a traditional IRA doesn't trigger capital gains taxes each time you sell a profitable investment. Instead, taxes are deferred until you withdraw the money. You'll still owe ordinary income tax when you withdraw, but you won't get hit with an immediate capital gains tax bill.
Use a Roth IRA: You can sell investments inside a Roth IRA without annual capital gains taxes, and unlike a traditional IRA, your qualified withdrawals are tax-free. That can make a Roth IRA especially useful for selling investments that have appreciated significantly over decades
Yes. Your income is one of the biggest factors determining your capital gains tax rate.
Not always. If you sell your primary home for a profit, you may qualify to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from taxable income, or up to $500,000 if you're married filing jointly. Generally, you must have owned the home and used it as your primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale. If your gain exceeds the amount you're eligible to exclude, the remaining profit may be taxable.
Capital losses can reduce the amount of capital gains subject to tax. Short-term losses generally offset short-term gains first, while long-term losses offset long-term gains. If you still have a loss in one category after that, it can be used to offset gains in the other category.
If your losses exceed your gains, you can use up to $3,000 of the remaining net loss to reduce other taxable income each year. Losses above that limit can be carried forward to future tax years.
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