North Dakota State Tax Calculator (2026)

How North Dakota taxes income

North Dakota charges 1.95% to 2.5%. State tax is a separate calculation from your federal return rather than a share of it — North Dakota sets its own schedule and its own definition of taxable income.

• Top marginal rate: 2.5%, reached at $244,825 for a single filer
• Brackets: 2 graduated bands, starting at 1.95% above $48,475
• Standard deduction: $16,100 single / $32,200 joint
• Personal exemption: None

Rate figures are as of January 1, 2026 and were checked against North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner on 2026-09-28 — the 0%/1.95%/2.5% rates and the 2025 basis of the published floors against the Office of State Tax Commissioner. North Dakota can still change them mid-year.

What catches people out in North Dakota

• North Dakota has 2 brackets for a single filer, from 1.95% up to 2.5%, and the first band starts at $48,475 rather than at zero — income below that is untaxed.
• The North Dakota standard deduction is $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 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.
• Income below $48,475 for a single filer and $80,975 for joint filers is untaxed - North Dakota's first rate applies only above that floor, which is why a state with a 2.5% top rate can still collect nothing from a modest income. IMPORTANT ON CURRENCY: these floors are indexed annually and the ones here are the 2025 figures (footnote j), confirmed as such against the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, which publishes exactly $48,475 and $244,825 for the 2025 tax year. The 2026 floors are higher. The state publishes them in the 2026 Form ND-1ES rate schedule, which is where to read them; they are not restated here because a tax figure taken second-hand is not worth publishing. The three rates of 0%, 1.95% and 2.5% are unchanged for 2026.

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.

• Personal exemptions are not applied.
• 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, North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota's confirmed one, and check the credit rules with North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner before relying on relief.

Sources

• Tax Foundation — 2026 State Income Tax Rates and Brackets
• North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner — the authority for North Dakota