Arkansas Income Tax Calculator 2026

Arkansas tax tables: low-income, regular and high-income

Arkansas does not use one rate schedule for everyone. The annual return directs you to the Low Income Tax Table if your income is low enough, and otherwise to the regular table, where the rate tops out at 3.9%. Filers with higher net income use a table that removes most of the benefit of the 0% and lower brackets, so their tax is close to 3.9% of net taxable income. The calculator above uses the 2026 withholding brackets, which can differ from the return by up to a few hundred dollars for higher earners.

Your net taxable income is total income less adjustments, less the $2,470 standard deduction per filer ($4,940 for married couples filing jointly) or itemized deductions.

Personal tax credits instead of exemptions

Arkansas turns exemptions into credits: $29 for you, $58 for a married couple and $29 for each dependent. Extra credits exist for taxpayers who are 65 or older or blind. Arkansas also gives an additional tax credit to individuals with net income up to $27,600 who file on time, and has its own credits for child care and for developmentally disabled dependents (Form AR1000-DD).

Worked example: two incomes, two children

A married couple filing jointly on $120,000 of wages with two children subtracts the $4,940 joint standard deduction, leaving $115,060. Using the 2026 brackets, the tax before credits is $4,067; four personal tax credits (two filers, two children) bring it to $3,951, an effective rate of 3.29%.

A single filer on $40,000 owes about $1,015 under the same rules, or 2.54% of wages.

Married couples can choose to file separately on the same return (filing status 4). Each spouse is taxed on their own income, which can lower the combined tax when both spouses work, because each spouse's income runs through the lower brackets separately.

How Arkansas treats retirement income

Arkansas exempts several kinds of retirement income completely and gives a flat exemption on others:

• Social Security benefits, VA benefits, workers' compensation and Railroad Retirement benefits are exempt.
• U.S. military retirement pay is exempt.
• The first $6,000 of income from an employer-sponsored retirement plan (pension, 401(k), 403(b), disability retirement not exempt under IRC §104) is exempt.
• The first $6,000 of traditional IRA distributions taken after age 59½ is exempt, but you get a single $6,000 exemption in total across both types, and military retirees cannot claim it if their military exemption already exceeds $6,000.

Forms, deadlines and residency

Full-year residents file Form AR1000F. Nonresidents and part-year residents file Form AR1000NR and pay tax on the share of income from Arkansas sources. Returns for 2026 are due April 15, 2027. An Arkansas extension on Form AR1055-IT can extend the filing date by up to 210 days, to November 15; if you have a federal extension instead, you check the box on the return. Either way, any tax due must still be paid by April 15 to avoid penalties and interest.

You are a full-year resident if you lived in Arkansas all year or kept your domicile there. A part-year resident is someone who established domicile in Arkansas, or moved away, during the year. Under federal law quoted in the instructions, service members neither lose nor gain a domicile just by being stationed somewhere under military orders.

For 2025 returns, a single filer had to file once gross income reached $14,644, and a married couple filing jointly with one or no dependents at $24,696; DFA updates these thresholds each year in the AR1000F instructions.