California's 2026 income tax rates did not change. The brackets moved. The Franchise Tax Board indexed every threshold by 3.4 percent — the June 2025 to June 2026 change in the California Consumer Price Index — and published the new schedules in its October 2026 Tax News. The statutory rates still run from 1 percent to 12.3 percent. Add the 1 percent Behavioral Health Services Tax on taxable income over $1 million, and the top combined rate is still 13.3 percent.

What Actually Changed for 2026

Revenue and Taxation Code section 17041 requires the Franchise Tax Board to recompute the brackets each year. The Department of Industrial Relations reports the percentage change in the California CPI for all urban consumers from June of the prior year to June of the current year. FTB adds that percentage to 100, divides by 100, multiplies last year's brackets by the result, and rounds to the nearest dollar.

For 2026 that factor was 1.034, up from 3.0 percent the year before. The rates themselves are set in statute. Indexing only slides the dollar cutoffs so a cost-of-living raise does not, by itself, push a taxpayer into a higher bracket.

Two related amounts moved with the same 3.4 percent factor:

Item	2025	2026
Standard deduction, single or married filing separately	$5,706	$5,900
Standard deduction, joint, surviving spouse, or head of household	$11,412	$11,800
Personal exemption credit, single, separate, or head of household	$153	$158
Personal and senior exemption credit, joint or surviving spouse	$306	$316
Dependent exemption credit	$475	$491
Renter's credit AGI limit, single	$53,994	$55,830
Renter's credit AGI limit, joint	$107,988	$111,660

The full rate booklets are due on FTB's site in late December. The schedules below are the ones FTB already released.

2026 Rate Table: Single or Married/RDP Filing Separately

Tax is computed on Form 540, line 19, California taxable income. These are Schedule X figures.

If taxable income is over	But not over	Tax is
$0	$11,456	$0 + 1.00% of the amount over $0
$11,456	$27,157	$114.56 + 2.00% over $11,456
$27,157	$42,861	$428.58 + 4.00% over $27,157
$42,861	$59,498	$1,056.74 + 6.00% over $42,861
$59,498	$75,197	$2,054.96 + 8.00% over $59,498
$75,197	$384,109	$3,310.88 + 9.30% over $75,197
$384,109	$460,927	$32,039.70 + 10.30% over $384,109
$460,927	$768,213	$39,951.95 + 11.30% over $460,927
$768,213	and over	$74,675.27 + 12.30% over $768,213

A single filer with $90,000 of California taxable income owes $3,310.88 plus 9.3 percent of $14,803, or about $4,688. The marginal rate on the next dollar is 9.3 percent. The average rate is about 5.2 percent.

2026 Rate Table: Married/RDP Filing Jointly or Qualifying Widow(er)

Joint brackets are double the single brackets. Schedule Y:

If taxable income is over	But not over	Tax is
$0	$22,912	$0 + 1.00% of the amount over $0
$22,912	$54,314	$229.12 + 2.00% over $22,912
$54,314	$85,722	$857.16 + 4.00% over $54,314
$85,722	$118,996	$2,113.48 + 6.00% over $85,722
$118,996	$150,394	$4,109.92 + 8.00% over $118,996
$150,394	$768,218	$6,621.76 + 9.30% over $150,394
$768,218	$921,854	$64,079.39 + 10.30% over $768,218
$921,854	$1,536,426	$79,903.90 + 11.30% over $921,854
$1,536,426	and over	$149,350.54 + 12.30% over $1,536,426

Note: FTB's published table has a typo on the 8 percent row, printing "over $118,966." The base tax only reconciles if the breakpoint is $118,996. Use $118,996.

2026 Rate Table: Head of Household

Head-of-household brackets are not a simple multiple of the single schedule. Schedule Z:

If taxable income is over	But not over	Tax is
$0	$22,927	$0 + 1.00% of the amount over $0
$22,927	$54,316	$229.27 + 2.00% over $22,927
$54,316	$70,018	$857.05 + 4.00% over $54,316
$70,018	$86,654	$1,485.13 + 6.00% over $70,018
$86,654	$102,356	$2,483.29 + 8.00% over $86,654
$102,356	$522,385	$3,739.45 + 9.30% over $102,356
$522,385	$626,864	$42,802.15 + 10.30% over $522,385
$626,864	$1,044,771	$53,563.49 + 11.30% over $626,864
$1,044,771	and over	$100,786.98 + 12.30% over $1,044,771

The 13.3 Percent Rate Is a Surcharge, Not a Tenth Bracket

Proposition 63, now the Behavioral Health Services Tax under Revenue and Taxation Code section 17043, adds 1 percent on taxable income above $1 million. It applies to every filing status. It is not indexed. The $1 million line has not moved since 2005.

A single filer with $1.2 million of taxable income pays the ordinary 12.3 percent schedule on the full amount, then an extra $2,000. The marginal rate above $1 million is 13.3 percent. Crossing the line does not recompute tax on the first million.

Most wage earners also pay State Disability Insurance through payroll. That is a separate wage tax, not part of the Form 540 brackets.

What a 3.4 Percent Shift Is Worth

Compared with 2025, the top of the single 9.3 percent bracket rose from $371,479 to $384,109, and the 12.3 percent bracket now starts at $768,213 instead of $742,953. For a household whose income only kept pace with California inflation, the tax on that same real income is roughly flat. For a household whose income did not rise, the wider brackets cut the bill by a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, depending on where the income sits. The unindexed $1 million surcharge does the opposite for high earners: inflation slowly pulls more income over a fixed line.

Planning Estimate for 2027

The 2027 brackets will not be known until FTB receives the June 2026 to June 2027 California CPI change, which the Department of Industrial Relations reports by August 1, 2027. The rates should stay where they are. Nothing enacted in 2026 changes the 1-to-12.3 percent schedule or the 1 percent surcharge.

The inflation factor is the open question. The Department of Finance's 2026–27 May Revision projected California headline inflation of about 4.1 percent for calendar 2026 and 3.1 percent for 2027, with the oil shock from the Iran conflict as the main driver. UCLA Anderson's September 2026 forecast had national headline inflation back near 4 percent over the winter after a midyear dip to 3.4 percent. June-to-June California CPI — the figure that actually indexes the brackets — will not match a calendar-year average exactly.

A reasonable planning range for the 2027 indexing factor is 3.0 to 3.6 percent, with about 3.2 percent as the central case. Applied to the 2026 schedules and rounded to the nearest dollar, that central case looks like this:

Bracket starts (single)	2026 official	2027 at 3.2%
2%	$11,456	$11,823
4%	$27,157	$28,026
6%	$42,861	$44,233
8%	$59,498	$61,402
9.3%	$75,197	$77,603
10.3%	$384,109	$396,400
11.3%	$460,927	$475,677
12.3%	$768,213	$792,796

Joint thresholds would again be double those figures. Head-of-household thresholds would each rise by the same percentage. On the same 3.2 percent assumption, the standard deduction would be about $6,089 for single filers and $12,178 for joint filers, and the personal exemption credit about $163.

The $1 million Behavioral Health Services Tax threshold would not move. That is the one line in this system that inflation does not widen.

Treat the 2027 column as a planning estimate, not a filing number. FTB's official 2027 schedules will not exist until next fall.

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Questions about how the 2026 brackets affect your specific situation? Give us a call at (760) 947-8060 or stop by our office at 16501 Walnut St., Ste. 1, Hesperia. We work with individuals and small businesses throughout the High Desert year-round.