Arkansas State Tax Calculator (2026)

How Arkansas taxes income

Arkansas charges 2% to 3.7%. State tax is a separate calculation from your federal return rather than a share of it — Arkansas sets its own schedule and its own definition of taxable income.

• Top marginal rate: 3.7%, reached at $4,600 for a single filer
• Brackets: 2 graduated bands, starting at 2%
• Standard deduction: $2,470 single / $4,940 joint
• Personal exemption: Structured as a credit — $29 single, $58 joint, $29 per dependent (not applied here)

Rate figures are as of January 1, 2026 and were checked against Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration on 2026-09-28 — top rate 3.7% against the Arkansas House special-session record and the DFA fiscal impact statement on SB1. Arkansas can still change them mid-year.

What catches people out in Arkansas

• Arkansas has 2 brackets for a single filer, running from 2% on the first dollar up to 3.7% above $4,600.
• Joint filers use the SAME bracket floors as single filers rather than doubled ones, so two people earning similar amounts reach each rate at half the combined income they would have as individuals. That is a marriage penalty written into the schedule, and it is the opposite of how the federal brackets work.
• The Arkansas standard deduction is $2,470 for a single filer and $4,940 for a couple filing jointly. It is a separate figure from the federal standard deduction and usually much smaller, so itemising is a decision you make once federally and again for the state.
• The top rate here is 3.7%, not the 3.9% most published tables still show. Act 2 of Arkansas's 2026 First Extraordinary Session cut it in May 2026, retroactive to 1 January 2026, so any 2026 table compiled before that date is out of date. The rates shown apply to filers with net taxable income above roughly $94,700; a SEPARATE tax table applies below that, with a bracket adjustment for income between $94,701 and $97,600, so for most filers this estimate is indicative rather than exact (footnote g). Arkansas expresses its personal exemption as a credit, not a deduction (footnote h). The band boundary of $4,600 is indexed annually and is the 2025 figure, because Arkansas had not published the 2026 adjustment (footnote j).

What this estimate leaves out

Three things are deliberately outside this calculation, because they change more often than annually and a confident wrong number does real damage on a tax page.

• The personal exemption — Structured as a credit — $29 single, $58 joint, $29 per dependent — is not applied, so the figure runs slightly high.
• Local and city income tax is not included. New York City is the significant one nationally.
• State-specific credits, subtractions and income addbacks are out of scope and can move the result either way.

If you have income in India, Arkansas is where treaty relief runs out

States are not parties to the India-US tax treaty, and a state credit for "taxes paid to other jurisdictions" almost always means other US states rather than other countries.

So NRO interest, Indian rental income or a gain on Indian shares can be taxed by Arkansas with no credit for the Indian tax deducted at source — even though Form 1116 largely neutralises that same tax federally.

The treatment is not uniform across states, so treat this as the general position rather than as Arkansas's confirmed one, and check the credit rules with Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration before relying on relief.

Sources

• Tax Foundation — 2026 State Income Tax Rates and Brackets
• Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration — the authority for Arkansas