Income tax by state: 2026 state income tax rates

The table below gives each state’s personal income tax rates for tax year 2026, the returns filed in 2027. Nine states do not tax wages at all for 2026: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

A flat-rate state taxes all taxable income at one rate. For 2026, Illinois taxes individuals at 4.95% of net income and Pennsylvania at 3.07% of taxable income, the rates their revenue departments list as current. A graduated state shows a range from its lowest rate above 0% to its highest, and each rate applies only to the income inside its bracket; the brackets usually depend on filing status, and a 0% band, where a state has one, is in the notes.

The rates are state rates only. Local income taxes, such as New York City’s or the Maryland county taxes, are not included, and neither are the deductions, exemptions and credits that change what you actually pay.

By top marginal rate, California. In the 2026 schedules the Franchise Tax Board published in October 2026, its top bracket is 12.3%, starting at $768,213 of taxable income for single filers and $1,536,426 for joint filers. The 1% Behavioral Health Services Tax, formerly the Mental Health Services Tax, applies on top to taxable income over $1 million, for a top marginal rate of 13.3%.

A top rate applies only to income above its threshold, so it says little about what most people pay. Under California’s 2026 schedule, a single filer with $150,000 of taxable income owes $10,267.56 before credits, about 6.8% of that income, although the bracket rate is 9.3%. For comparison, Hawaii’s schedule for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2024 tops out at 11%, and New York State’s 2026 top rate is 10.9% on taxable income over $25 million.

Local taxes change the picture at the very top. New York City residents also pay the city’s income tax, at up to 3.876% for 2026, so their combined top rate of 14.776% is higher than California’s. Overall tax burden also depends on sales, property and other taxes, which no income tax rate shows.

New York, California and Illinois all sort filers into residents, part-year residents and nonresidents. New York’s tax department sums up the difference: as a resident, you pay state tax on all your income no matter where it is earned; as a nonresident, you pay only on New York source income, such as earnings from work performed in the state and income from real property located there.

New York starts with domicile, your permanent and primary residence, the one you return to after being away. Residency can also turn on time: you are a resident if you keep a permanent place of abode there for substantially all of the year and spend 184 days or more in the state, even if your domicile is elsewhere. Any part of a day counts as a day.

Wages are generally sourced to the place where the work is done: California taxes nonresidents to the extent they physically performed services in California. New York adds a convenience of the employer rule, under which a nonresident whose primary office is in New York State owes New York tax for days spent telecommuting from elsewhere unless the employer has established a bona fide employer office at that location.

If you move from one income tax state to another during the year, you usually file a part-year resident return in each. Illinois requires Form IL-1040 and Schedule NR from a part-year resident who earned income from any source while a resident or Illinois-source income while not one. California’s part-year residents and nonresidents with a filing requirement file Form 540NR, and New York’s file Form IT-203.

Each state taxes the resident part of your year in full and the rest only on income sourced to it. California taxes a part-year resident on all worldwide income received while a resident and on California-source income while a nonresident. New York figures the tax as if you were a full-year resident, then allocates it by the share of your income that came from New York sources.

Moving to a state with no wage tax can still leave a return to file in the state you left, which taxes your resident months and any income sourced there afterward, such as rent from a home you kept.

Living in one state and working in another can mean returns in both, but usually not double tax on the same income. New York’s tax department says such a person typically receives a credit in their state of residence to eliminate double taxation. Illinois’s version is Schedule CR, a credit for income taxes paid to other states, or to their cities and counties, on income received while an Illinois resident. It is allowed only if you filed the required return with the other state; a part-year resident can take it only on income earned while a resident, and a nonresident cannot take it.

Reciprocal agreements remove the work-state tax on wages altogether. Illinois has them with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin: residents of those states do not pay Illinois income tax on wages, salaries, tips and commissions from Illinois employers, and Illinois residents who work in those states pay Illinois tax on that pay instead. The agreements cover only compensation, not other income such as Illinois lottery winnings.

Two details catch people out. If an employer in one of those states withholds that state’s tax anyway, you claim a refund from that state, not a credit in Illinois. And the agreements do not stop local taxes: Illinois says that if you were subject to tax by a city in Kentucky while an Illinois resident, you may claim a credit for that local tax.

Some cities and counties tax income as well, and the rate table does not include them. New York City taxes all of its residents’ income, no matter where it is earned, at rates from 3.078% to 3.876% for 2026, and people who do not live in the city are not liable for it.

In Maryland, all 23 counties and Baltimore City levy a local income tax, which the state collects on its own income tax return. The Comptroller of Maryland says the local tax is based on where you live, not where you work.

Many states use the federal due date. Federal returns are due April 15, or the next business day when that falls on a weekend or legal holiday, so 2026 returns are due April 15, 2027, and Illinois’s due date for calendar-year filers is also April 15. Some states set their own: Virginia says most people must file by May 1.

Extensions differ too. A federal extension gives you until October 15 to file. Illinois grants an automatic six-month extension to file, and Virginia an automatic six-month extension, to November 1 for most filers, with no application. New York requires its own Form IT-370 and says a copy of the federal extension will not extend your due date.

No extension gives you more time to pay. The IRS says an extension is only for filing and tax owed is due by the April date, and Illinois and Virginia say the same, with penalties and interest on tax paid late.