Capital Gains Tax Calculator
Estimate the tax on selling stocks, crypto, a home, rental property, or collectibles, short-term or long-term.
Long-term: your profit gets lower tax rates.
Your profit (what you sold it for minus what you paid): $20,000
Add any other investment sales from the same year. Gains and losses offset each other before tax is calculated. Enter every amount as a positive number.
$4,860
$45,140
sale price minus fees & tax
24.3%
of your taxable profit
15%
top rate reached
Where your sale goes
How your profit is figured
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| What you sold it for | $50,000 |
| What you paid | -$30,000 |
| Profit | $20,000 |
2026 long-term rates (Single)
| Rate | Your taxable income | Your profit here |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | Up to $49,450 | – |
| 15% | $49,450 to $545,500 | $20,000 |
| 20% | Over $545,500 | – |
Tax on this sale
| Type | Tax |
|---|---|
| Long-term gain at 15%on $20,000 | $3,000 |
| California income tax | $1,860 |
| Total tax | $4,860 |
Where your sale goes, explained
- Your original cost: The $30,000 you originally paid isn't taxed. It's just your own money coming back.
- Profit you keep: After all taxes, you keep $15,140 of your $20,000 profit.
- Federal tax: Held over a year, so your gain gets the lower 0%, 15%, or 20% long-term rates. Yours reaches 15%, which comes to $3,000.
- State tax: California generally taxes gains like ordinary income, which adds about $1,860 on this sale. A few states treat gains differently, so treat this as an estimate.
This is an estimate for the 2026 tax year, not tax, legal, or financial advice. Figures are simplified and don't include every credit or deduction. Talk to a tax professional before making decisions.
How capital gains tax works
A capital gain is the profit when you sell something for more than you paid. You only owe tax once you sell, not while it's just gone up in value.
How long you owned it matters
- 1 year or less: taxed like your paycheck, at 10% to 37%.
- More than 1 year: taxed at lower rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%.
What you sold
- Stocks, ETFs, and crypto: your profit is what you sold for minus what you paid. Crypto counts as property, so every sale or trade is taxable.
- Your home: up to $250,000 of profit ($500,000 if married filing jointly) is tax-free if you lived there 2 of the last 5 years. A loss isn't deductible.
- Rental property: the depreciation write-offs you took are taxed at up to 25%. The rest of the profit gets the lower long-term rates.
- Collectibles like art, coins, wine, and precious metals: taxed at up to 28%.
Extra taxes
- 3.8% investment income tax if your income is over $200,000 ($250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately).
- State tax: most states tax gains like regular income. Washington adds its own tax on stock gains, and a few cities add theirs.
Ways to pay less
- Hold for more than a year.
- Sell losing investments to cancel out gains. Extra losses reduce your other income by up to $3,000 a year, and the rest carries forward.
- Spread big sales over several years to stay in lower brackets.
- Donate investments that have gained value instead of selling them.
- Invest inside an IRA or 401(k), where trades aren't taxed right away.
This tool doesn't cover wash sales, 1031 exchanges, installment sales, or the alternative minimum tax. Real estate dealers may owe regular income tax instead.