Capital Gains Loss Calculator
Selling an investment for more than you paid creates a capital gain; selling for less creates a capital loss. Either way, the number that matters at tax time is not just the profit or loss but how the IRS taxes it: gains on assets held more than a year get preferential 0%, 15% or 20% rates, while gains held a year or less are taxed as ordinary income. This capital gains loss calculator computes the gain or loss, classifies the holding period, estimates the actual 2026 federal tax with income stacking, and handles the loss side too, so you can see what waiting a few more months is really worth.
Quick Answer
Buy for $25,000, sell for $35,000 after 18 months: a $10,000 gain (40.0%). Because you held more than a year, it is long-term. Stacked on $60,000 of other income as a single filer, the 2026 federal tax is $1,500 at the 15% bracket, leaving $33,500 after tax. Sold within a year, the same gain taxed at 22% would cost $2,200: waiting saved $700.
Key takeaways
- The holding period draws the line. More than one year means 0%, 15% or 20%. One year or less means your ordinary income rate, which can reach 37%.
- Your other income sets the rate. The gain stacks on top of your taxable income, so two people with the same gain can owe very different tax.
- Losses have real tax value. They offset gains dollar for dollar, then up to $3,000 of ordinary income a year ($1,500 married filing separately), with the rest carried forward.
- High earners pay a surtax. Above $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 joint, or $125,000 married filing separately, a 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax can apply on top.
Running your sale through the calculator
Enter the buy and sell figures, how long you held, and your income picture; the calculator prices both the long-term and short-term outcomes side by side. Results stay hidden until you click Calculate.
- Enter the purchase cost and sale proceeds. Include fees on both sides: they raise the basis and shrink the gain. The worked example has $25,000 and $35,000 pre-filled.
- Enter the holding period in months. More than 12 months flips the result to the long-term rates; 12 or less stays at ordinary rates.
- Pick your filing status and enter other taxable income plus your marginal ordinary rate. The status sets the 2026 thresholds, and the income decides how much of the gain fits in each band. The 22% default suits a typical middle-bracket earner.
- Click Calculate gain and tax. You get the gain or loss, the classification, the estimated federal tax, after-tax proceeds, the alternative scenario, a proceeds breakdown bar, and a note about NIIT and loss limits.
Negative inputs are floored to zero and the marginal rate is capped at 50%, so implausible entries cannot produce a wild answer. If you bought and sold at a loss, the tool switches to the loss branch automatically: deductible amount this year, carryforward, and the wash-sale warning.
The 2026 long-term brackets, verified
For 2026 the IRS taxes long-term gains at 0%, 15% or 20% depending on total taxable income, with the gain stacked on top of everything else you earned, per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The thresholds below were verified against that procedure on 2026-10-24. That stacking is the detail most simple calculators skip, and it is where real money hides.
| Filing status | 0% up to | 15% up to | 20% above | NIIT threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $49,450 | $545,500 | $545,500 | $200,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $98,900 | $613,700 | $613,700 | $250,000 |
| Head of household | $66,200 | $579,600 | $579,600 | $200,000 |
| Married filing separately | $49,450 | $306,850 | $306,850 | $125,000 |
A single filer with $40,000 of other income has $9,450 of 0% headroom left: the first $9,450 of a long-term gain is tax-free, and only the rest hits 15%. The calculator does this stacking math for your filing status automatically. Short-term gains skip all of this and land in ordinary income at 10% to 37%, which is why the one-year mark matters so much, as IRS Topic 409 explains.
The rates above are ceilings for most assets, not the whole story. Qualified dividends ride the same 0%, 15% and 20% schedule even though they are not gains, and our dividends calculator handles the payout side. This page covers a different question from our capital gains distribution calculator, which prices the year-end payouts a mutual fund sends you, not the tax on a sale you chose to make.
Short-term vs long-term: the $700 question
The same $10,000 gain costs $1,500 held long-term and $2,200 held short-term at a 22% marginal rate. That $700 gap is the entire argument for patience, and it widens at higher incomes. The worked example below shows how the tool gets there.
After-tax proceeds are $35,000 − $1,500 = $33,500, and the return on the original $25,000 is 40.0%. Every figure reproduces exactly from the pre-filled inputs.
| Scenario | Gain / loss | Class | Federal tax | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worked example, single | $10,000 | Long-term | $1,500 | $33,500 after tax |
| Same sale at 6 months | $10,000 | Short-term | $2,200 | Taxed at 22% |
| Lower income, single $30k | $10,000 | Long-term | $0 | Fits the 0% bracket |
| High income, single $200k | $75,000 | Long-term | $11,250 | NIIT heads-up fires |
| Loss, single | −$9,000 | Loss branch | $0 | $3,000 deductible, $6,000 carries forward |
| Loss, married filing separately | −$9,000 | Loss branch | $0 | $1,500 deductible, $7,500 carries forward |
Two special federal rates sit outside the 0/15/20 table: collectibles top out at 28% and unrecaptured real-estate depreciation at 25%. The calculator excludes both by design and says so in the results note.
Turning a loss into a tax asset
A loss is not just bad news: it is a tax asset. Net your gains and losses first, then deduct up to $3,000 of any leftover loss against ordinary income each year ($1,500 if married filing separately), carrying the remainder forward indefinitely. A $9,000 net loss with no gains shelters $3,000 of wages this year, $3,000 next year, and $3,000 the year after.
Two traps to avoid. First, the wash-sale rule: buy back the same security within 30 days and the loss is disallowed. Second, losses inside IRAs and 401(k)s do not count at all, since those accounts are already tax-sheltered. If you are sitting on both winners and losers in December, harvesting losses to offset gains is one of the few legal ways to choose your tax bill. The mechanics of netting and carrying forward are laid out in the Schedule D instructions and Form 8949 instructions. For the year-by-year deductible-and-carryforward math on a running loss position, our capital loss deduction calculator carries it forward.
One honest edge: a sale that exactly breaks even ($0 gain) lands in the loss branch and shows a $0 deductible carry. Nothing is owed either way, so the reading is harmless, but it is why the badge mentions the loss rules on a flat sale.
What rival capital gains calculators get wrong
Most capital gains tools ask for a gain and a flat rate, then multiply. That misses the three things that actually determine your bill: the holding period, the income stacking that picks your bracket, and your filing status. Here is how the usual suspects fall short:
- Flat-rate multipliers (the generic calculator sites): enter a gain, pick “long-term,” get gain × 15%. No stacking means a retiree in the 0% bracket and an executive in the 20% bracket get the same answer. Wrong for both.
- Stale thresholds (older guides still ranking): several pages still show 2024 or 2025 brackets. The 2026 single 0% ceiling moved to $49,450; using $48,350 misprices gains near the boundary. This page’s thresholds are the 2026 Revenue Procedure figures, verified 2026-10-24.
- The NIIT blind spot: most tools never mention the 3.8% surtax. At $200,000+ of income it is real money, and the married-filing-separately threshold is $125,000, not $200,000, a detail even some guides get wrong.
- The missing loss branch: almost no capital gains calculator prices losses at all. This tool deducts up to $3,000 ($1,500 married filing separately) and tracks the carryforward, which is where losing years actually pay you back.
- No holding-period pricing (SmartAsset, NerdWallet and similar do this better): the good ones show both scenarios. This page goes one further and puts the dollar value of waiting, $700 in the worked example, directly under the result.
Thinking about the next position with the after-tax proceeds? Our stock purchase calculator sizes the buy order first.
Frequently asked questions
Subtract cost basis from sale proceeds to get the gain. If you held the asset more than a year, stack the gain on top of your other taxable income and apply 0%, 15% or 20% using the 2026 thresholds (single: $49,450 and $545,500). If you held a year or less, the gain is taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate.
More than one year is long-term; one year or less is short-term. The clock starts the day after purchase, so selling on the one-year anniversary already qualifies as long-term.
After offsetting all capital gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 of remaining net loss against ordinary income per year ($1,500 if married filing separately). Anything left carries forward to future years indefinitely.
An extra 3.8% tax on investment income, including capital gains, when modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 single or head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, or $125,000 married filing separately. It applies on top of the regular capital gains rates.
Usually yes. Most states tax capital gains as ordinary income with no preferential rate, though a handful have no income tax at all. This calculator estimates federal tax only.
Yes. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, so the same short-term and long-term rules, rates and loss limits apply. Note the wash-sale rule technically applies to securities, a gray area crypto traders should discuss with a tax professional.
Up to $3,000 per year after wiping out capital gains. A $20,000 net loss with no gains shelters $3,000 of wages this year and carries $17,000 forward.
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, needs no account, and stores nothing. Copy the result with “Copy my results” or send it to another app with “Share results”.
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References
- Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 409, Capital Gains and Losses (short-term vs long-term classification, 2026 rate structure). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (Revenue Procedure 2025-32: 0%, 15% and 20% capital gains thresholds by filing status). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses (capital gain distributions, holding periods, special 28% and 25% rates). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses (netting gains and losses, the $3,000/$1,500 annual deduction limit, carryforward). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets (reporting each sale, basis adjustments, wash-sale reporting). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 544, Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets (what counts as a sale or exchange, amount realized). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax (capital gains and losses chapter, filing-status rules). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Cornell Law Institute. 26 U.S.C. section 1(h): capital gain tax rates (the 0%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 28% rate groups in statute). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Cornell Law Institute. 26 U.S.C. section 1222: holding periods (long-term vs short-term definitions, the day-after-purchase clock). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Cornell Law Institute. 26 U.S.C. section 1411: Net Investment Income Tax (3.8% surtax, $250,000/$125,000/$200,000 thresholds). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Cornell Law Institute. 26 U.S.C. section 1211: limitation on capital losses ($3,000 annual limit, $1,500 married filing separately). Accessed October 24, 2026.