Tax Strategy Calculator: Project Your 2026 Tax Savings
A free tax strategy calculator built on real 2026 law. Enter your income and your facts, turn strategies on and off, and watch the projected tax savings move: federal, state, and self-employment tax, each with its IRC citation and the paperwork it takes. Projected estimates, not guarantees.
Real 2026 federal and state figures Year-1 numbers on the page, no gate Locked and not-worth-it strategies say why
Your 2026 in 60 seconds
Every answer changes which strategies unlock below. Nothing is gated here.
We compute your actual state tax, not a flat guess.
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Which of these are true?
Total income entered: $150,000. The board and the projection below update as you type.
The strategy board
One card per strategy. Locked cards stay visible with the reason, and strategies whose paperwork costs more than they save say so. Turn a card on and drag its dial; the projection moves live.
S corporation election
IRC 1362Settled law
Up to $12,014 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Form 2553 filed and accepted
Reasonable-salary analysis on file (comparable wage data)
Payroll run through a payroll provider with W-2 issued
QBI deduction (automatic)
IRC 199ASettled law
Up to $5,425 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Form 8995 / 8995-A with the return
Solo 401(k)
IRC 401(k) / 415(c)Settled law
Up to $11,990 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Plan adoption agreement signed before year end
Contribution deposited by the filing deadline
Heavy vehicle (>6,000 lb GVWR)
IRC 168(k) / 179(b)(5)Settled law
Up to $17,600 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
GVWR over 6,000 lb (door-jamb sticker)
Contemporaneous mileage log proving the business-use percentage
Placed in service by December 31
Donor-advised fund
IRC 170(b)(1)(A)Settled law
Up to $3,300 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the sponsor
Form 8283 for non-cash gifts
Oil & gas working interest
IRC 263(c) / 469(c)(3)Execution dependent
Up to $8,800 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Working interest held directly or through an entity that does NOT limit liability (general partner interest)
Operator statements breaking out IDC vs tangible costs
Election to expense IDC on the first return
Expense your own production
IRC 181 / 168(k)Execution dependent
Up to $22,000 at your income. Turn it on to price it.
What the IRS expects on file +
Production is YOURS (your film/series/content), produced in the US
Sec. 181 election statement attached to the return
Cost ledger per production
HSA contribution
IRC 223Locked
Requires a high-deductible health plan
Switch to HDHP coverage at open enrollment
Put the kids on payroll
IRC 73 / 3121(b)(3)(A)Locked
Requires children
Augusta rule home rental
IRC 280A(g)Locked
Requires a home you own
Short-term rental + cost segregation
IRC 168(k) / Reg. 1.469-1T(e)(3)Locked
Requires buying (or owning) a short-term rental property
Unlocks when you are ready to buy a property
Cash balance plan
IRC 415(b)Locked
Requires your age -- contribution limits are actuarial
Add your age to size the plan
Pass-through entity tax election
IRS Notice 2020-75Locked
Modeled for California today; more states coming
Not worth it at your numbers
Private family foundation +
At your 22% rate this saves about $3,300 and costs about $5,000 to run
Your 2026 projection
$0
projected tax savings with 0 strategies on. Estimates, not guarantees.
Federal income tax
$16,413 to $16,413
State tax
$0 to $0
Self-employment tax
$21,194 to $21,194
QBI deduction
$24,661 to $24,661
Where the deductions bite
Taxable income left: $98,642
Marginal rate
22% to 22%
Effective rate
25% to 25%
Each dollar deducted comes off the top bracket of the stack, so it is worth your marginal rate, not your lower effective rate. That is why the same deduction is worth more at higher income.
TY2026 federal and state figures, including the QBI interaction and the excess-business-loss caps. Projected estimates, not guarantees, and not tax advice.
Year 2, and what you already paid
The year-1 projection above is free, no email. This part: where your NOL carryforward lands in 2027, what your prior tax bills could have compounded into, and the full report in your inbox.
Honest math only
Strategies we refuse to model
01
Leveraged film and media deals
If a promoter is showing you a 4x deduction on a film investment or a 10:1 media-board deal, the pitch depends on deducting money you never genuinely put at risk. Section 465 limits your deductible losses to the amount you actually have at risk, and leveraged deals built on nonrecourse notes fail that test. This calculator will not model them at any income.
The board above is the boring kind of planning instead: real cash, real substantiation, a citation on every card. That is also why each card shows what the IRS expects on file before you claim it.
A big depreciation year can push a business loss past what the law lets you deduct. For 2026 the excess-business-loss threshold is $320,000 for single filers and $640,000 for joint filers. Anything above it does not vanish into this year's refund; it becomes an NOL that carries into next year, where an 80% limit applies.
The projection shows the cap, the NOL it creates, and where that carryforward actually lands in year 2, so a strategy that defers tax never gets dressed up as one that erases it.
Most promoter calculators price a deduction at your marginal rate and stop. Many business deductions also shrink your qualified business income, which shrinks the 20% QBI deduction, so the real saving is smaller than the headline number.
The engine models that interaction on every strategy, which is exactly why some cards on the board come back marked not worth it. An honest smaller number beats an impressive wrong one.
Each strategy on the board, from the S corp election and Solo 401k to the Augusta rule and short-term rental cost segregation, priced against your actual 2026 income: federal tax, your state's real income tax, and self-employment tax. It also models the interactions promoter tools skip, including how a deduction shrinks your QBI deduction and where the excess-business-loss caps stop a big depreciation year.
Why are some strategies locked or marked not worth it?+
Locked cards fail a hard eligibility fact: no kids means no kids on payroll, no HDHP means no HSA. Cards marked not worth it are legal but uneconomic at your numbers; when a strategy saves $340 at your rate and costs $4,000 a year to administer, the honest answer is to skip it, so the calculator says so instead of hiding the cost.
Do you model the leveraged film deals and media boards promoters pitch?+
No, and that is deliberate. Deals promising a 4x deduction on a film investment or 10:1 write-offs through a media board depend on deducting borrowed money you never genuinely put at risk, which the section 465 at-risk rules disallow. Every strategy this tool models uses your real cash and a citation you can hand your preparer.
Are the projected tax savings guaranteed?+
No. Every number here is a projected estimate, not a guarantee. Each card carries a confidence tier: settled law, or execution dependent, where the saving is real only if the substantiation on the card actually gets done. The checklist on each card is what the IRS expects on file.
Yes. Pick your state and the projection uses its real income tax treatment rather than a flat national guess, which is why the same strategy board produces different savings in Texas and California. Where a pass-through entity tax election applies, it shows up as its own card.
Estimate only, using TY2026 federal and state figures, the QBI interaction, the section 461(l) excess-business-loss thresholds ($320,000 single, $640,000 joint) and the self-employment tax. Projected estimates, not guarantees; execution, documentation and your full facts decide the real number. Not tax advice.