Retirement withdrawal tax calculator (2026)
How much federal tax will you owe on a withdrawal from a traditional IRA or 401(k)? Enter the withdrawal and your other income. The calculator shows the tax the withdrawal adds, your marginal bracket, and what Social Security does to the rate on the next dollar.
Other taxable income means pensions, wages, interest and similar income, not counting the withdrawal or Social Security.
How a withdrawal is taxed
Money out of a traditional IRA or 401(k) is ordinary income, taxed at the same rates as a paycheck. It stacks on top of everything else you earned that year, so the rate that matters is your marginal rate, the rate on the last dollars in, not your average. That's why the calculator reports the tax the withdrawal adds: it works out your tax with the withdrawal and without it, and gives you the difference.
Before 59½ there's usually a 10% penalty on top of the tax. The IRS lists exceptions, such as separation from service in or after the year you turn 55 for a 401(k) and substantially equal periodic payments. The calculator applies the penalty whenever you tick the box, so leave it unticked if an exception covers you.
Why the rate can be higher than your bracket
If you get Social Security, up to 85% of it becomes taxable as your other income rises. In that range, each extra dollar of withdrawal can make another 50 or 85 cents of benefits taxable too. So a withdrawal in the 12% bracket can cost you 18% or even 22% on the margin. The "tax on the next $1,000" figure above shows that directly. When it's well above your bracket rate, Social Security is being pulled into tax.
Using the room in your bracket
The calculator also shows how much taxable income you have left before the next bracket starts. That room is the core of most retirement tax planning. Fill it with IRA withdrawals or Roth conversions in low-income years, so less is left to come out later at a higher rate, when required minimum distributions start.
One year at a time, that's arithmetic. Across a whole retirement it isn't: how much to take from the IRA, the brokerage account and the Roth each year depends on every other year. The Roth conversion calculator solves that as one optimization problem. It chooses the withdrawal order and the conversion amount every year to leave you the most after tax.
Plan your withdrawals and conversions →What this calculator leaves out
- State income tax.
- Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, which are taxed at their own rates.
- Itemized deductions: it uses the 2026 standard deduction, plus the extra amount for each person 65 or older.
- Medicare IRMAA premiums, which also rise with income. The IRMAA calculator covers those.
Related
- A withdrawal rate calculator that draws down to zero: how much you can spend, rather than what it costs in tax.
- How much to convert to a Roth each year