California Income Tax Brackets for 2026 and What Comes Out of Your Paycheck

2026 California tax brackets: single and married filing separately

From FTB's 2026 Schedule X. Rates apply to taxable income (Form 540, line 19).

2026 brackets: married filing jointly and head of household

From FTB's 2026 Schedules Y and Z. Joint thresholds are double the single ones. Head-of-household thresholds fall in between.

Deductions, credits, SDI and the 1% millionaire tax

• Standard deduction (2026): $5,900 single or married filing separately; $11,800 joint, surviving spouse or head of household.
• Personal exemption credit: $158 single or head of household, $316 joint. Dependent exemption credit: $491 per dependent. These credits come off your tax, not your income.
• Mental Health Services Tax: an extra 1% on taxable income above $1 million for all filing statuses. This threshold is not indexed and does not double for joint filers.
• SDI: 1.3% of all wages in 2026, up from 1.2%, with no wage cap since 2024. It funds disability and Paid Family Leave benefits (maximum weekly benefit is $1,765 in 2026).
• Renter's credit: available for 2026 to single filers with AGI of $55,830 or less and joint filers with AGI of $111,660 or less.
• Bonuses: employers usually withhold a flat 6.6% California tax on supplemental wages, or 10.23% on stock options and bonuses paid as stock.

How much tax is taken out of a paycheck in California?

Worked example, $60,000 salary, single, 2026: CA taxable income = $60,000 − $5,900 = $54,100. The tax is $1,056.74 plus 6% of $11,239, which equals $1,731.08. Minus the $158 exemption credit, that's $1,573. Add SDI of $780 (1.3%), federal income tax of $5,020 and FICA of $4,590. Total deductions are about $11,963, or 19.9%, leaving roughly $48,037 a year, or $1,848 per biweekly check.

The table shows the same math at other salaries. Your actual withholding depends on your DE 4 and W-4 elections and on any pre-tax 401(k) or health deductions.

Why your effective rate is lower than your bracket

At $100,000 of wages, a single Californian is in the 9.3% bracket, but their state income tax is $4,911, an effective rate of 4.9%. Only the dollars above $75,197 of taxable income are taxed at 9.3%. California doesn't let you deduct federal tax, and it doesn't follow every federal break. For example, California taxes HSA contributions, and it didn't adopt the 2025 federal deductions for tips and overtime. That's why California taxable income can be higher than federal taxable income.

Married couple example: $150,000 household

Joint brackets are exactly double the single brackets, so a two-earner couple usually pays about the same California tax as two single people with the same incomes. Take a married couple filing jointly with $150,000 of combined wages in 2026 and no pre-tax deductions.

California taxable income is $150,000 − $11,800 = $138,200, which lands in the 8% joint bracket. Tax is $4,109.92 on the first $118,996 plus 8% of the remaining $19,204, minus the $316 joint personal exemption credit, for about $5,330. SDI takes another $1,950. With $15,340 of federal income tax and $11,475 of FICA, take-home pay is about $115,905 a year, or $4,458 per biweekly check.

California estimated tax payments

Freelancers, landlords and anyone with large investment income usually need to make estimated payments to the Franchise Tax Board. California's schedule is not the even four-way split the IRS uses. Front-loading 70% into the first half of the year catches many people out.

• There is no California payment in September, even though a federal one is due that day.
• If you also have wages, you can raise California withholding on Form DE 4 instead of paying estimates.
• Payments can be made through MyFTB or Web Pay on ftb.ca.gov.

Moving into or out of California

California taxes residents on all their income, wherever it is earned, and nonresidents only on California-source income, such as wages for work done in the state or rent from California property. If you move in or out during the year, you file Form 540NR as a part-year resident. That form taxes your income while a resident plus any California-source income from the rest of the year.

The tax rate on that income is figured as if all your income for the year were taxed by California. So a high earner who moves out in March doesn't get the low brackets on the few months of California wages. Keep proof of your move date, such as a lease, a new driver's license and voter registration, because the FTB looks closely at people who leave the state with large incomes.