Capital Gains Tax Calculator

For a collectible, select investment or personal use and read the specific exclusions before entering its cost and proceeds. Other asset types can use the following entry modes. Choose One purchase for total purchase cost and sale proceeds, Multiple purchases for acquisition lots of one holding, or Portfolio CSV for separate investment sales. Enter total USD amounts, not per-share prices, except in the lot form. Count selling fees once.

Enter ordinary taxable income after deductions, not gross salary. Form 1040 line 15 is a starting reference: update it for 2026 and remove capital gains, losses and qualified dividends entered separately here. If ordinary taxable income is zero, enter any deductions still available before investment income. Do not subtract deductions twice. Use actual MAGI when the NIIT approximation is unsuitable.

State tax is optional. Complete the selected model's state-specific assumptions and read its exclusions. An incomplete state estimate is not treated as zero. Choose a manual incremental tax amount when the automatic model cannot represent your circumstances.

For portfolio entry, use the example template or open Map a realized-gains CSV. The mapper lets you match columns, choose a date format and specify whether fees are already included. Review dates, adjusted basis and possible duplicate rows before applying. It does not reconstruct basis from broker transaction history. Do not repeat imported sales in other gains or losses.

Use the optional panels for three independent sale alternatives, a sequential three-year plan, five state comparisons or a loss-harvesting share-count worksheet. Future-date illustrations require acknowledgement that 2026 rules stay fixed. Use Jump to a worksheet to open a tool directly. Save or restore all inputs includes optional worksheets and opened property forms in one file. Saved files and links contain readable financial inputs; share them privately. Loading replaces all current worksheet inputs and recalculates results. Individual CSV exports retain their separate result tables.

The headline isolates the estimated tax change caused by the selected sale. Switch between federal, state and combined views when state inputs are complete. A pending state entry leaves results explicitly federal-only. After-tax proceeds subtract selling fees and the selected tax impact. A negative tax impact is a modeled reduction in annual tax, not an immediate refund.

The bracket chart and table include all entered taxable long-term gains and qualified dividends after netting and unused deductions. They do not show only the proposed sale. Lot details retain individual holding periods. The NIIT panel identifies estimated versus entered MAGI.

Independent scenarios compare alternative sales of one position. The three-year planner instead follows successive partial sales and two separate loss-carryover paths: planned sales and no sales of that position. It reports their difference in modeled tax over the three years. Remaining shares and unused losses are disclosed without treating them as cash. Future years hold 2026 rules fixed; these are sensitivity illustrations, not predictions.

Workspace files and links retain the primary inputs, lots or portfolio, selected state assumptions, optional worksheets and opened property forms. Loading replaces all current inputs and recalculates the separate estimates. Unopened forms use current defaults. Older investment-only files still load and reset optional worksheets. Individual CSV exports retain each worksheet's results; they are not a combined tax return.

Federal tax from an investment sale

Adjusted basis is purchase cost plus acquisition costs and signed basis adjustments. Net proceeds are gross proceeds less selling fees. Realized gain or loss is net proceeds less adjusted basis. The estimate compares modeled federal tax with and without the proposed sale, keeping other entered activity unchanged. It is an incremental planning estimate, not a complete Form 1040.

Holding periods and loss netting

A sale qualifies for long-term treatment only after more than one calendar year, using actual dates. Selling on the anniversary remains short-term. For lots and portfolio rows, holding periods are computed individually. Short-term and long-term categories are netted separately, then opposite-sign balances offset. A remaining net loss can reduce ordinary income by up to $3,000, or $1,500 for married filing separately. The carryover calculation preserves losses not absorbed when taxable income falls below zero. The three-year planner retains short-term and long-term character and uses short-term losses first for the annual deduction.

Ordinary rates, preferential rates and deductions

Short-term gains affect ordinary tax through the progressive 2026 brackets. Taxable long-term gains and qualified dividends stack above ordinary taxable income across the 0%, 15% and 20% bands. The calculation also compares all-ordinary treatment where the IRS worksheet requires the lower tax. Unused deductions reduce taxable investment income, but not net investment income for NIIT. Deductions, credits and eligibility phaseouts are not recomputed. Rates and thresholds use IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32; continuous brackets differ from the IRS Tax Table's $50 intervals.

Net Investment Income Tax

NIIT is 3.8% of the smaller of net investment income or MAGI above the filing threshold: $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, and $125,000 married filing separately. Entered capital losses affect NII through the allowed annual loss, rather than being discarded. Main-page MAGI must exclude the proposed sale but include the other activity entered. When blank, the tool approximates MAGI from taxable income, remaining deductions, the standard deduction and separately entered investment activity. Itemizers and users whose ordinary income already includes that investment income should enter their own MAGI to avoid an unsuitable approximation.

Lots, imported sales and wash-sale review

Specific identification allocates the units you select and requires the appropriate broker instructions. FIFO allocates oldest shares first. Average basis is eligibility-gated for qualifying fund or dividend-reinvestment holdings and is not a general crypto or stock method. Include all remaining identical eligible shares in the account and prior basis adjustments. The CSV mapper requires a realized-gains export with actual acquisition and sale dates, final adjusted basis and explicit fee treatment. It previews mapped fields and flags identical rows without deleting them. It does not reconcile transfers or infer basis from buys, sells and deposits. Wash-sale flags identify review windows; they do not automatically disallow losses, find replacements across accounts or adjust basis.

State estimates

Listed 2026 models cover 49 states and DC, including eight states without personal income tax. Idaho still requires a manual estimate because its indexed 2026 threshold has not been verified. Coverage does not mean full state-return automation. Each selector explains progressive, flat or preferential treatment and its exclusions. Examples include Washington's capital-gains excise tax, acquisition-date eligibility in Arizona, Massachusetts category netting, New York benefit recapture and Connecticut's personal credit. Maryland requires an explicit local-tax adjustment. Residency, state basis differences, changing deductions, most credits and federal/state deduction interactions are not automatically determined. The five-state comparison holds federal assumptions fixed and does not establish relocation savings or taxing rights.

Independent alternatives and sequential planning

The three custom alternatives are independent: each scales basis and costs to the fraction sold while retaining the main annual context. The separate three-year planner follows successive sales of the original position in 2026, 2027 and 2028, caps total sales at 100%, and rolls loss balances into each following year. It also calculates a no-planned-sales path with its own carryovers. Tax change is the difference between those complete paths, including years with no sale. Other gains and losses default from the main tool only in year one. Each year has separate income, price, fees, dividends and MAGI inputs. Planner MAGI is before all capital activity, unlike the main field, so that figure is not copied automatically.

All future-date comparisons explicitly freeze 2026 tax rules, brackets and deductions. They are not estimates of enacted future-year law or future investment returns. State tax, reinvestment, discounting, the future value of retained shares and cash value of unused losses are excluded from the three-year illustration. Workspace saves retain its inputs. Its separate CSV retains the year-by-year results.

Property and excluded situations

The linked home-sale and rental-property tools are separate federal calculations, not part of this securities portfolio. Their depreciation-related gain uses the Schedule D Tax Worksheet, including lower ordinary-rate portions, the 25% cap and the all-ordinary comparison. Do not enter property depreciation as ordinary stock gain. Direct-purchase collectibles use the separate purpose-specific options described below. Separate optional workflows now cover a limited verified-QSBS comparison, RSU basis, ISO income classification, annual AMT from verified inputs and a scoped 1031 gain/basis worksheet within the rental tool. These results are not combined with the main sale estimate or each other. Mixed special-asset netting, unsupported QSBS, full compensation-tax calculations, minimum-tax credit recovery, federal credits, gifts or inherited basis, installment sales and automatic wash-sale adjustments remain excluded.

Saved plans and verification

Main saved files and URL fragments contain inputs, including asset names if provided. Encoding is not encryption. They are recalculated using the current engine when restored, and results can change after a rule correction. Workspace saves include custom scenarios, the sequential plan, state comparisons, harvesting, special-asset worksheets and opened property forms. Unopened forms use current defaults. Loading replaces all worksheet inputs; older investment-only files reset optional worksheets to defaults. Source verification is not professional tax review; consult the linked official references and model-specific exclusions before relying on an estimate.

Directly purchased collectibles

Choose investment or personal use based on how you actually held the item. For a direct-purchase collectible held more than one year, the federal engine uses the Schedule D 28% Rate Gain Worksheet and Tax Worksheet. The 28% rate is a maximum, not a flat rate. Lower ordinary rates can apply. Long-term loss carryovers and net short-term losses reduce the special-rate category; remaining regular long-term losses enter the overall net-gain cap. Unused deductions are applied through the worksheet. Short-term collectible gains use ordinary rates without a 28% cap. Personal-use losses are excluded from capital-loss netting, deductions, carryforwards and NIIT loss offsets. Investment losses remain eligible for the modeled netting rules.

Other long-term fields are for regular investment gains and losses only. Do not enter additional collectible, QSBS or depreciation-related gains there. One collectible is modeled at a time; automatic state models, lot/portfolio entry and the sequential planner remain restricted to securities and crypto. A manual incremental state/local amount can be supplied. Dealer inventory, business assets, gifts, inheritance, pass-through interests, collectible distributions and special basis cases are excluded. The source worksheet structure is the latest published IRS Schedule D instructions; 2026 federal thresholds come from Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

Property worksheets in this workspace

The home-sale and rental-property choices load their published CMS worksheets, defaults and source notes. Each is a separate federal estimate. Inputs remain in the browser while switching. Save or restore all inputs keeps one workspace file, including opened property worksheets, but does not merge their results with investment income. Open the property method panel for its eligibility rules and source links. A mixed property and investment return still requires a combined professional calculation.

RSU stock-basis helper

For one ordinary stock-settled RSU distribution, the optional helper allocates compensation already included in income plus cash paid across the gross distributed shares. It then multiplies that per-share basis by the shares in this sale. Gross shares include shares withheld or sold to cover taxes; allocating all compensation only to net shares would overstate basis. Tax withholding is not another basis addition.

Applying the helper replaces the single-purchase cost and acquisition date and clears acquisition fees and basis adjustments. Confirm the stock distribution date from records, which can differ from the grant or vesting date. The main income field must already include relevant wages taxable in the sale year. The helper does not calculate compensation tax, options, ESPPs, elections, deferred awards or multi-distribution basis. Broker Form 1099-B reporting can omit compensation adjustments, so reconcile employer and supplemental brokerage records. Both applied purchase inputs and the RSU helper inputs are included in workspace saves.

Verified QSBS: limited 2026 comparison

This separate comparison supports one verified original-issue cash purchase acquired after September 27, 2010 and on or before July 4, 2025, held more than five years. It does not determine whether the issuer, business, issuance or redemption history qualifies. Users must verify those conditions and confirm no other current-year dispositions of this issuer, basis changes, rollovers, gifts or holding-period tacking. Older partial-exclusion stock and newer-law cohorts are blocked.

The 100% eligible-gain exclusion is capped at the greater of remaining issuer dollar room ($10 million, or $5 million for married filing separately) or ten times original basis for the entered sale. Prior eligible gain counted against the dollar cap must come from prior returns, before any partial exclusion percentage. Remaining gain uses regular long-term rules. Excluded gain is removed from this sale contribution to federal income and NIIT, while physical sale proceeds remain unchanged. The comparison does not calculate state conformity, AMT, credits or compensation. Its CSV retains separate results; workspace saves include its inputs without combining its tax estimate with the main stock calculation.

ISO disposition worksheet

The separate ISO worksheet classifies one ordinary arm’s-length 2026 sale of unrestricted shares from a verified incentive stock option. It checks both the two-year grant and one-year exercise holding periods. For a disqualifying disposition within its scope, compensation is the smaller of the exercise spread or positive net sale gain. Regular-tax basis includes that compensation; the remaining gain or loss is capital. A disqualifying disposition may still be long-term for capital-gain purposes.

Shares sold in the exercise year have no ISO exercise AMT adjustment. For earlier exercises, obtain actual AMT basis and prior Forms 6251 and 8801: this worksheet does not calculate the sale-year AMT adjustment or minimum-tax credit. It does not determine ISO eligibility or support related-party sales, wash sales, restricted stock, early exercises, gifts, option modifications or excess grants. It has its own CSV and does not change the main tax estimate. Workspace saves include its inputs.

Optional annual AMT worksheet

The advanced AMT worksheet uses independently verified annual AMTI, AMT preferential income, regular ordinary taxable income and the annual regular-tax comparison amount. It applies 2026 exemptions, 50% phaseout, the separate-filer additional AMTI rule and 26%/28% rates. Preferential bracket room uses regular ordinary taxable income as directed by Form 6251 Part III. The lower of the preferential calculation and ordinary AMT-rate calculation is compared with annual regular tax.

This is a whole-year calculation, not incremental tax from the selected sale. Do not add its total to the sale estimate. It excludes 25%/28% gain, foreign income exclusions and credits, minimum-tax credit recovery and special computations. AMT basis, netting and income adjustments must be supplied from records; the worksheet does not infer them from regular-tax basis. It has a separate CSV for annual results. Workspace saves include its inputs without adding annual AMT to the main sale estimate. Thresholds use Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and Section 55; methodology uses the latest published Form 6251 with 2026 thresholds, not a final 2026 form review.