The chart below details some of the various factors that can impact a taxpayer's marginal tax rate, including both ordinary income tax brackets and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), the tax treatment of long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, the payroll taxes that apply to earned income for wage employees and the self-employed, the new 0.9% (on earned income) and 3.8% (on net investment income) Medicare surtaxes, and the impact of various phaseouts including the Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP), phaseout of itemized deductions (Pease), and the AMT exemption phaseout.
This chart was originally produced for the November/December 2012 issue of The Kitces Report newsletter for subscribers, and has been updated for 2016.
Click here for an updated 2017 version of this chart.