A trust hits the top rate at $16,000.

The facts, in one place.

Six quotable sentences from the 2026 rate tables. Quote them with the year attached.

1. A trust or estate reaches the top 37% federal rate at $16,000 of taxable income in 2026. A single filer reaches it at $640,600; a married couple filing jointly at $768,700.
2. The estates-and-trusts table has four brackets: 10% to $3,300, 24% to $11,700, 35% to $16,000, and 37% above that. There is no 12%, 22%, or 32% bracket for a trust.
3. On $50,000 of taxable income kept in a trust, the federal income tax is $16,431, 32.9% of the income. The same $50,000 in the hands of a single beneficiary with no other income draws $5,752; a married couple, $5,504.
4. The 3.8% net investment income surtax starts at $16,000 for a trust, where its top bracket begins. For individuals the threshold is $200,000 single and $250,000 joint, and it has not been indexed since 2013.
5. Long-term capital gains inside a trust are taxed at 0% up to $3,300, 15% up to $16,250, and 20% above that in 2026. A single filer's 15% band runs to $545,500.
6. Income a trust distributes to beneficiaries within its distributable net income is deducted by the trust and taxed to them instead. A trustee has until the 65th day of the following year to make a distribution count for the prior year.

Key numbers.

The trust schedule, and the individual figures it is compressed against. Tax year 2026.

How a trust is taxed.

The same rates, a fraction of the runway. A non-grantor trust uses the same top rate as an individual, 37%, but the brackets beneath it are squeezed into the first $16,000 of taxable income. A single filer travels through six brackets and $640,600 of income before reaching the same rate. That is the whole story of this page, and it is why trustees think about distributions in December.

Keep it or pass it through. A trust pays tax on what it keeps. Income it distributes to beneficiaries, up to its distributable net income, is deducted by the trust and reported by the beneficiaries on their own returns, at their own rates. The trust's tax return carries the distribution deduction; each beneficiary receives a Schedule K-1. A trustee may treat a distribution made within the first 65 days of the following year as made on the last day of the prior year, which is what makes a January decision possible.

The surtax follows the bracket. The 3.8% net investment income tax applies to what a trust keeps of its dividends, interest, capital gains, and rents above the point where its top bracket begins, $16,000 in 2026. For individuals the thresholds are $200,000 and $250,000, set in 2013 and never indexed.

Capital gains usually stay. Under most trust instruments and state law, capital gains are allocated to principal, not income, and so stay in the trust and are taxed there: 0% to $3,300, 15% to $16,250, 20% above. Whether gains can be pushed out to beneficiaries depends on the document, and that is a question for the drafting attorney.

What this page does not cover. Grantor trusts, whose income is taxed to the grantor as if the trust did not exist; state income tax on trusts, which varies by the trust's and the trustee's residence; the interaction with a beneficiary's other income, which makes the real comparison less favorable to distributing than the columns here; and the many non-tax reasons a trustee keeps income in trust. The calculator shows the arithmetic of the compression. It does not recommend a distribution.

Worked examples.

Official rows are the revenue procedure's own bracket tops: the table states the tax at each boundary, and the engine must reproduce it. Derived rows are ours, computed from the same table and pinned. All ordinary tax only.

The compression, drawn.

Federal ordinary income tax on the same taxable income, $0 to $100,000, kept in a trust or received by a single filer or a married couple with no other income. The table beneath is the same comparison at six incomes. Free to reuse with its attribution; there is a download below.

Methodology.

Tax year 2026; record reviewed September 4, 2026.

1. Input. Taxable income the trust keeps for the year, after its deductions and its distribution deduction, in whole dollars. Optional: whether it is net investment income.
2. Trust tax. Applied exactly as the revenue procedure states the estates-and-trusts table: the base amount for the bracket plus the rate on the excess over the bracket floor.
3. Surtax. 3.8% of the lesser of undistributed net investment income or the excess of the trust's adjusted gross income over $16,000, the dollar amount where its top bracket begins (§ 1411(a)(2)). The calculator treats the entered income as adjusted gross income.
4. The beneficiary columns. The same taxable income run through the single and the joint tables, with no other income and no deductions. Real beneficiaries have other income, so the real gap is usually smaller than shown, and sometimes there is none.
5. Rounding. Whole dollars, once, at the end. The IRS tables state some base amounts to the cent; the engine keeps them and rounds the result.
6. Validation. Every base amount in the record must equal the tax at that bracket floor computed from the bracket below, so a transcription error in the tables fails the build. The examples above are pinned.
7. Not modeled. State income tax, grantor trusts, the alternative minimum tax, qualified dividends and capital gains within the calculator (the thresholds are given above), the throwback rules, and any change in law after the review date. Educational, not advice.

Sources.

1. 1. Internal Revenue Service, Rev. Proc. 2025-32 — 2026 inflation adjustments (tax rate tables § 4.01, capital gains § 4.03, AMT exemptions § 4.10). Every 2026 bracket boundary and base amount for individuals and for estates and trusts; the 0% and 15% capital-gain thresholds; the AMT exemption amounts. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
2. 2. United States Code (Cornell LII), 26 U.S.C. § 1 — Tax imposed; § 1(e) estates and trusts; § 1(j) 2018-and-later rate structure made permanent. That estates and trusts have their own compressed rate schedule, and the four rates it uses. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
3. 3. United States Code (Cornell LII), 26 U.S.C. § 1411 — Imposition of tax (net investment income). The 3.8% surtax; for a trust, the threshold is the dollar amount at which the highest § 1(e) bracket begins; for individuals, $200,000 and $250,000, unindexed. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
4. 4. United States Code (Cornell LII), 26 U.S.C. § 642(b) — Deduction for personal exemption (estates and trusts). The $600 / $300 / $100 fiduciary exemption amounts. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
5. 5. United States Code (Cornell LII), 26 U.S.C. §§ 651–652 and 661–662 — Deduction for distributions; inclusion by beneficiaries. That income a trust distributes (within distributable net income) is deducted by the trust and taxed to the beneficiary instead: the mechanism the comparison illustrates. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
6. 6. United States Code (Cornell LII), 26 U.S.C. § 663(b) — the 65-day election. That a distribution within the first 65 days of the year may be treated as made in the prior year.

The estate-tax side of the same subject, for Illinois families, is the Illinois estate tax calculator.

Revision history.

September 4, 2026

First release of the federal income-tax record for 2026 and the trust income-tax tool: the estates-and-trusts table, the single and joint tables for comparison, capital-gain thresholds, AMT exemptions, the § 1411 trust threshold rule, and the § 642(b) exemptions, all from Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and the Code.

Canonical address: https://consideratecapital.com/tools/trust-income-tax-brackets