AGI Calculator

What adjusted gross income is

Adjusted gross income sits halfway down the first page of your federal return. It is every dollar of taxable income you brought in, minus a short list of adjustments the tax code allows before you take the standard or itemized deduction. The IRS places it on line 11 of Form 1040, printed as 11a on recent versions of the form.

Two things surprise people. AGI comes before the standard deduction, so it runs higher than taxable income. And it is the figure the rest of the code points at. Credits, IRA rules, student loan programs, health insurance help and state benefit forms all measure your income with it.

That makes a rough AGI worth having before you file. If a credit starts to shrink at a certain income, the form compares AGI, not your salary, not your take-home pay.

The two figures that make it

Form 1040 handles AGI in two steps. The first adds up your income: wages, taxable interest, dividends, capital gains, business profit, retirement distributions, rent, jobless pay. The second collects the adjustments from Part II of Schedule 1. Subtract one from the other and the answer is AGI.

An adjustment is not a deduction in the usual sense, because you never have to itemize to claim one. A teacher who spends $350 on classroom supplies, a freelancer with a health plan, or anyone funding an HSA gets the benefit whether or not they own a home or keep receipts in a shoebox.

Total income is the easier half to get right, so start there. Pull the W-2 and any 1099s, add the business profit from Schedule C, and check whether a retirement distribution or a rental property belongs in the total. Then work down.

Example: a single filer with a side business

Say you are single, earned $72,000 on a W-2, collected $400 of interest, and cleared $18,000 from a side business. Total income is 72,000 + 400 + 18,000 = $90,400.

The business profit drags a second tax along with it. Self-employment tax starts from 92.35% of the profit, which is $16,623. Social Security takes 12.4% of that up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026, and Medicare takes 2.9% of all of it, so the tax is 2,061.25 + 482.07 = $2,543.32. Half of it, $1,271.66, is an adjustment to income.

Add the rest: $4,400 into a self-only HSA, $7,500 into a traditional IRA, and $1,800 of student loan interest. The adjustments total 4,400 + 7,500 + 1,800 + 1,271.66 = $14,971.66. AGI is 90,400 - 14,971.66 = $75,428.34.

The last line uses the 2026 standard deduction for a single filer, $16,100, from Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Taxable income of $59,328.34 lands in the 22% bracket, which runs from $50,400 to $105,700 for 2026.

The adjustments worth checking

Most people qualify for one or two of these and forget the rest. The limits below are for tax year 2026 and are indexed each year, so check the current IRS page before you file.

Spend a minute on the educator line. A teacher who spends $500 on supplies deducts $350, not $500, and the cap applies per person rather than per household. Two eligible teachers filing together can reach $700 between them, but neither can go past $350.

Student loan interest has the same ceiling, and it also fades as income rises. For 2026 the $2,500 shrinks for a single filer with modified AGI above $85,000 and disappears at $100,000. Joint filers lose it between $175,000 and $205,000.

Example: a married couple with family coverage

Two earners, one W-2 at $120,000 and another at $45,000, plus $1,200 of interest. Total income is 120,000 + 45,000 + 1,200 = $166,200.

They have family HSA coverage and fund the full $8,750. One spouse puts $7,500 into a traditional IRA, and they paid $2,500 of student loan interest, exactly the cap. Adjustments are 8,750 + 7,500 + 2,500 = $18,750, so AGI is 166,200 - 18,750 = $147,450.

The 2026 standard deduction for a joint return is $32,200, which leaves taxable income of 147,450 - 32,200 = $115,250. Their last dollar is taxed at 22%, since the joint 22% bracket runs to $211,400.

Notice how the adjustments differ from the first example. The couple has no business income, so there is no self-employment tax to halve, but the family HSA limit is nearly double the self-only limit. Two households with the same AGI can arrive there by different routes.

AGI, MAGI and taxable income

These three get used as if they were the same number. They are not, and the differences decide who qualifies for what.

There is no single MAGI, which is the part that trips people up. Each rule adds back its own list. The student loan interest test adds back the interest deduction itself, the IRA deduction and the foreign earned income exclusion. The Roth rules add back something slightly different. Two IRS publications can print two MAGI figures for one taxpayer, and both are right.

Taxable income is the one that sets your rate. AGI of $75,428.34 with a $16,100 standard deduction gives $59,328.34 of taxable income, and only that last number meets the bracket table.

Why this number follows you around

AGI is the gateway to a long list of programs. The saver's credit, the child tax credit phase-in, education credits, the premium tax credit for marketplace insurance and most state property tax relief programs all read it. So do income-driven student loan payments, which are usually a slice of AGI rather than gross pay.

Small changes can move a household across a line. Putting $1,000 more into an HSA lowers AGI by $1,000, which can be the difference between a full student loan interest deduction and a partial one. Raising AGI for a Roth conversion can push a household out of the direct Roth contribution range.

Financial aid uses its own formula, but the FAFSA starts from AGI as well. A parent who files with a lower AGI one year may see a different aid offer the next, even with the same salary.

None of those programs fit inside one calculator. They all start with the same subtraction, though, and getting that part right is most of the work.

Where the estimate drifts

W-2 box 1 is not your salary. It already has 401(k) contributions and health premiums pulled out, which is why typing gross pay into the wages box overshoots.

Capital gains get their own rates. A large gain lifts AGI without raising the tax on ordinary income by the same amount, so a big AGI does not always mean a big bill.

The IRA box gives you the full $7,500 whether or not the deduction phases out. If a workplace plan covers you, the real deduction shrinks above certain income levels, and the tool has no way to know that. Student loan interest stops at the $2,500 cap here, and it does not check whether your modified AGI already pushed the deduction toward zero.

State returns usually start from federal AGI and then add or subtract items of their own, so treat the result as a starting point for the state form. Business owners should also remember that the deduction for half of self-employment tax is already inside the estimate, and that business profit above the additional Medicare threshold carries a 0.9% surtax this tool leaves out.

Use the answer to plan, to check a paycheck, or to see how much an HSA or IRA contribution would save. For a return you are about to sign, run the numbers through the actual forms.