Alberta Income Tax Calculator 2026

Alberta income tax brackets explained: $85,000 worked example

On $85,000 of salary in 2026, an Alberta employee pays about $4,970 in Alberta tax and $10,227 in federal tax, and takes home $64,034 ($5,336 a month). Taxable income is $83,873 after deducting the enhanced CPP contributions, and it falls into 2 Alberta brackets:

Why Alberta’s basic personal amount matters so much

Alberta’s credits are calculated at 8.0%. Its $22,769 basic personal amount is far larger than Ontario’s $12,989 or BC’s $13,216, so it removes more tax at the bottom. With base CPP and EI, the credits in this example are worth $2,192.92, leaving Alberta tax of $4,970.38.

In practice the first $22,769 of taxable income carries no Alberta tax, and Alberta’s effective rate stays low at modest incomes even though its lowest bracket rate is higher than BC’s 5.60% or Ontario’s 5.05%.

The supplemental tax credit adds 2% of non-refundable credit amounts above $61,200. A typical employee claims far less than that, so the credit is $0 in this example. It only matters for people whose combined credit amounts are unusually large.

Alberta tax rate vs BC and Saskatchewan

Alberta is not the cheapest province at every income. With 2026 rates, an Alberta employee keeps $570 less than in British Columbia at $85,000 and $1,796 more than in Saskatchewan. The table shows take-home pay and the combined marginal rate on the next dollar:

Alberta child and family benefit: amounts and payment months

The CRA administers the Alberta child and family benefit (ACFB) for the Province of Alberta as a Canada child benefit-related program, so it is based on the adjusted family net income from your returns. Details the CRA publishes for July 2026 to June 2027, beyond the first-child amounts listed above:

• The base component pays $764 for each of the second, third and fourth children, on top of the first-child amount.
• The working component starts once family working income is above $2,760. It falls from its first-child maximum to $141 for a fourth child, and is reduced above $47,115 of adjusted family net income.
• ACFB is paid separately from the Canada Child Benefit, in August, November, February and May.

Filing in Alberta: AB428, TD1AB and the December 31 rule

Alberta has no separate provincial return. You calculate Alberta tax on Form AB428 (Alberta Tax and Credits) and file it with your T1. The CRA says the AB428 is completed after steps 1 to 5 of the federal return, and that the eligibility rules for most Alberta non-refundable credits match the federal ones even though the amounts and calculations differ.

At work, you give your employer a TD1AB along with the federal TD1. The province you lived in on December 31 decides which provincial tax applies to the whole year. If you move from Alberta to BC in November, BC rates apply to all of that year’s income. The AB428 instructions also limit some amounts, such as the adoption expenses and pension income amounts, to residents of Alberta.