California State Tax Calculator (2026)

How California taxes income

California charges 1% to 13.3%. State tax is a separate calculation from your federal return rather than a share of it — California sets its own schedule and its own definition of taxable income.

• Top marginal rate: 13.3% including the 1% surcharge above $1 million
• Brackets: Nine graduated bands before the surcharge
• Standard deduction: $5,540 single / $11,080 joint — far below the federal figure
• Capital gains: Taxed as ordinary income, with no preferential rate

Rate figures are as of January 1, 2026 and come from the published Tax Foundation compilation; they have not been independently checked against California Franchise Tax Board. States do change rates mid-year, so confirm a figure there before relying on it.

What catches people out in California

• California does not have a reduced rate for long-term capital gains. A stock sale that qualifies for 15% federally is taxed at your full California marginal rate, which is the single most commonly missed part of a California tax bill.
• The state standard deduction is roughly a third of the federal one, so many people who take the standard deduction federally are better off itemising for California. The two decisions are separate.
• California also levies a state disability insurance contribution on wages, withheld by your employer and shown separately on your payslip. It is not income tax and is not part of the rates above.
• Residency is decided on where your closest connections are, not on a fixed number of days. Keeping a California home, licence or dependants in the state while working elsewhere is often enough to keep you a resident.
• IMPORTANT ON CURRENCY: California indexes its brackets and its standard deduction every year, and the figures here are the 2025 inflation-adjusted ones (footnotes j and n). The Franchise Tax Board announces each year's indexing factor in the autumn and had not published the 2026 schedule when this was last checked, so the 2026 boundaries are expected to sit slightly higher than shown - the rates themselves are unaffected. Rates include the 1% mental health services tax on taxable income over $1 million (footnote l) and exclude a 1.3% disability insurance payroll tax which, with no wage ceiling since 2024, takes the top rate on wage income to 14.6%. Exemption credits phase out above $252,203 of federal AGI for single filers (footnote k), and California does not fully index its top bracket (footnote nn).

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 — $153 single, $306 joint, $153 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, California 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 California 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, and it has been verified individually rather than assumed. The state guide sets out this state's position with the primary source behind it.

Sources

• Tax Foundation — 2026 State Income Tax Rates and Brackets
• California Franchise Tax Board — the authority for California