SERIES 65 | FINANCIAL REGULATION COURSES
A tax bracket is one of the defined income ranges within the federal progressive income tax system established under IRC Section 1 to which a specific marginal tax rate applies — a structure in which the rate of federal income tax does not apply uniformly to all of a taxpayer's income but instead increases in steps as taxable income rises through successive brackets, with each bracket's rate applying only to the portion of income that falls within that specific range rather than to the taxpayer's total income.
The United States federal income tax system currently uses seven tax brackets with marginal rates of ten, twelve, twenty-two, twenty-four, thirty-two, thirty-five, and thirty-seven percent — the same seven-bracket structure established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, and adjusted annually by the IRS for inflation under IRC Section 1(f).
Understanding the mechanics of tax brackets — the distinction between the marginal rate and the effective rate, how filing status affects bracket thresholds, and how investment income types interact with the bracket system — is essential knowledge for investment advisers operating under the fiduciary duty of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and is directly tested on the Series 65 examination in the context of tax planning, investment selection, and client financial analysis.
The Progressive Tax Structure — How Brackets Actually Work
The progressive tax structure is the foundational principle that makes bracket analysis essential — because tax rates rise with income, understanding which bracket a client occupies and how close they are to the next bracket threshold directly informs investment planning, tax deferral strategies, and the relative value of tax-exempt versus taxable income.
The progressive system works as a ladder — each rung represents a different tax rate, and income climbs the ladder paying the applicable rate at each step. A single filer with seventy-five thousand dollars of taxable income in 2025 does not pay twenty-two percent on the entire amount. They pay ten percent on the first eleven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars, twelve percent on income from eleven thousand nine hundred and twenty-six dollars through forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-five dollars, and twenty-two percent only on income from forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-six dollars through seventy-five thousand dollars. The total federal income tax owed is approximately twelve thousand six hundred and seventy-five dollars — an effective rate of approximately sixteen point nine percent, substantially below the twenty-two percent marginal rate.
This distinction between the marginal rate and the effective rate is among the most commonly misunderstood concepts in personal finance and is directly examination-tested. The marginal rate is the rate that applies to the last dollar of income earned — it determines the tax cost of earning additional income and the tax benefit of reducing income through deductions, deferrals, or exclusions. The effective rate — also called the average rate — is the total federal income tax owed divided by total taxable income, producing the blended rate that reflects the lower rates paid on lower-income portions of the bracket ladder. The marginal rate determines the value of tax planning strategies, because it measures the actual tax saved on each dollar of additional deduction or deferral.
The 2025 and 2026 Federal Tax Brackets
The IRS adjusts federal tax bracket thresholds annually for inflation under the chained Consumer Price Index methodology established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. For 2025 the seven brackets and their thresholds for single filers are ten percent on taxable income from zero to eleven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars, twelve percent from eleven thousand nine hundred and twenty-six to forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-five dollars, twenty-two percent from forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-six to one hundred and three thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, twenty-four percent from one hundred and three thousand three hundred and fifty-one to one hundred and ninety-seven thousand three hundred dollars, thirty-two percent from one hundred and ninety-seven thousand three hundred and one to two hundred and forty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-five dollars, thirty-five percent from two hundred and forty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-six to six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, and thirty-seven percent above six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars.
For married filing jointly taxpayers the thresholds are approximately double those for single filers at the lower brackets, reflecting the marriage neutrality design of the current bracket structure — the ten percent bracket extends to twenty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, the twelve percent bracket to ninety-six thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars, and the thresholds continue doubling through the thirty-five percent bracket before converging at six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars for both single and joint filers at the thirty-seven percent threshold. This convergence at the top bracket creates the marriage penalty for high-earning couples — a married couple where each spouse earns above three hundred and thirteen thousand dollars individually would face higher combined taxes filing jointly than they would if filing as two single taxpayers.
For 2026 the bracket thresholds increase modestly for inflation — the seven-bracket structure and seven rates remain identical, with the threshold adjustments reflecting the annual chained CPI adjustment published in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
Filing Status — Its Effect on Bracket Thresholds
Filing status is the single most important variable determining where a taxpayer's income falls within the bracket structure — the same taxable income amount produces dramatically different tax obligations depending on whether the taxpayer files as single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse.
Single filing status applies to unmarried individuals who do not qualify for any other filing category. It produces the narrowest bracket thresholds — the twenty-two percent bracket begins at forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-six dollars of taxable income for 2025.
Married filing jointly — available to legally married couples regardless of whether both spouses earn income — produces the broadest bracket thresholds at the lower and middle rates, allowing couples to benefit from effectively doubled thresholds through the thirty-five percent bracket. For many dual-income couples at moderate income levels, joint filing produces lower combined taxes than filing separately.
Head of household filing status — available to unmarried taxpayers who pay more than half the cost of maintaining a home for a qualifying person — produces intermediate thresholds between single and married filing jointly, providing relief for single parents and others supporting dependents without a spouse.
Married filing separately is generally the least advantageous filing status in most circumstances — it produces the narrowest thresholds, disqualifies taxpayers from numerous deductions and credits, and is primarily used when spouses have specific legal or financial reasons to maintain separate tax accounts despite being married.
Qualifying surviving spouse status allows a widow or widower with a dependent child to use the married filing jointly rates for two years following the year of the spouse's death — providing continued access to the broader bracket thresholds during the initial period of adjustment.
The Bracket System and Investment Income
Not all income is taxed at ordinary income rates within the bracket structure — and understanding how different categories of investment income interact with the bracket system is one of the most practically important tax concepts for investment advisers and their clients.
Ordinary income — wages, salaries, interest income, short-term capital gains on assets held twelve months or less, non-qualified dividends, and distributions from traditional retirement accounts — is taxed at the full marginal rates of the applicable bracket. A client in the thirty-seven percent bracket pays thirty-seven cents of federal income tax on each additional dollar of ordinary income.
Long-term capital gains on assets held more than twelve months and qualified dividends — dividends received from domestic corporations and qualified foreign corporations that meet holding period requirements — are taxed at preferential rates under IRC Section 1(h) of zero, fifteen, or twenty percent depending on the taxpayer's taxable income. For 2025 single filers, the zero percent long-term capital gains rate applies to taxable income up to forty-eight thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, the fifteen percent rate applies from forty-eight thousand three hundred and fifty-one to five hundred and thirty-three thousand four hundred dollars, and the twenty percent rate applies above that threshold. These thresholds are separate from the ordinary income bracket thresholds and are also adjusted annually for inflation.
The practical consequence of this dual-rate structure is that for clients in the twenty-two percent or higher ordinary income bracket, long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at significantly lower rates than ordinary income — creating powerful incentives to structure investments to maximise long-term capital gains and qualified dividend income relative to ordinary income. A client in the twenty-four percent ordinary income bracket pays only fifteen percent on long-term capital gains — a nine percentage point differential that compounds significantly over time.
The net investment income tax under IRC Section 1411 — enacted by the Affordable Care Act and effective since January 1, 2013 — imposes an additional three point eight percent tax on net investment income for single filers with modified adjusted gross income above two hundred thousand dollars and married filing jointly filers above two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This surcharge effectively raises the maximum federal tax rate on investment income to twenty-three point eight percent for long-term capital gains and qualified dividends for high-income taxpayers, and combines with the thirty-seven percent ordinary income rate to produce a forty point eight percent maximum effective rate on ordinary investment income for the highest earners.
Marginal Rate Versus Effective Rate — The Planning Distinction
The distinction between the marginal rate and the effective rate is critical for investment planning because the two measures answer different questions and drive different decisions.
The marginal rate answers the question of what a specific additional transaction is worth in tax terms — what is the tax cost of selling this appreciated security, what is the tax benefit of contributing this additional amount to a retirement account, what is the after-tax value of this interest income versus this municipal bond income. All of these questions require the marginal rate — the rate that applies to the specific dollars in question — not the effective rate.
The effective rate answers the question of the taxpayer's overall tax burden as a fraction of income — useful for year-over-year comparisons of tax efficiency and for understanding the total federal tax cost of a given income level, but not the right tool for evaluating specific investment or planning decisions at the margin.
An investment adviser who uses the effective rate rather than the marginal rate to evaluate the value of tax planning strategies systematically underestimates the benefit of tax deferral and tax-exempt income for clients in higher brackets — a common analytical error that the Series 65 examination tests directly.
Bracket Management — The Role of Tax Planning
Understanding the bracket structure enables proactive bracket management — the strategic timing of income recognition and deduction claiming to minimise the total tax owed across multiple years by avoiding unnecessary exposure to higher brackets in individual years.
Tax-loss harvesting uses realised capital losses to offset capital gains, reducing the amount of net capital gain taxed at capital gains rates and potentially allowing some gains to be taxed at the lower zero percent rate for clients whose total income after harvesting falls below the zero percent capital gains threshold. Retirement account contributions — traditional IRA, 401(k), and SEP-IRA contributions that produce immediate deductions under applicable IRC sections — reduce current-year taxable income, pulling dollars out of higher brackets in the current year and deferring the tax to future years when the client may be in lower brackets. Roth conversions move dollars from traditional IRA accounts — whose future distributions will be taxed as ordinary income — to Roth accounts — whose future qualified distributions are tax-free — during years when the client is in a lower bracket than expected in retirement, harvesting the tax liability at lower rates.
Municipal bond income — which is exempt from federal income tax under IRC Section 103 — becomes progressively more valuable as the client's marginal rate increases. The after-tax yield equivalence calculation compares the yield on a taxable bond to the yield on a tax-exempt municipal bond: the tax-equivalent yield equals the municipal bond yield divided by one minus the marginal rate. A four percent municipal bond yield is equivalent to a six point three percent taxable yield for a client in the thirty-seven percent bracket — but equivalent to only four point eight percent for a client in the twenty-two percent bracket. Investment advisers who fail to account for the client's marginal rate when comparing taxable and tax-exempt fixed income are failing a fundamental fiduciary obligation.
Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways
The tax bracket is tested on the Series 65 examination in the context of federal income tax structure, the distinction between marginal and effective rates, investment income taxation, filing status effects, and the application of tax planning to investment recommendations.
The key points to retain are these.
A tax bracket is one of seven defined income ranges in the federal progressive tax system under IRC Section 1 to which a specific marginal tax rate applies — ten, twelve, twenty-two, twenty-four, thirty-two, thirty-five, and thirty-seven percent for 2025 and 2026 — with the same seven-bracket structure made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. The progressive system taxes only the income falling within each bracket at that bracket's rate — not all income at the top rate. The marginal rate is the rate on the last dollar of income — used for evaluating all specific planning decisions including the value of deductions, deferrals, and income exclusions. The effective rate is total tax divided by total income — the blended average rate, always lower than the marginal rate for taxpayers in brackets above the lowest.
Filing status determines bracket thresholds — married filing jointly produces the broadest thresholds approximately doubling single thresholds through the thirty-five percent bracket, with both rates converging at the thirty-seven percent threshold creating a marriage penalty for high-earning couples. Ordinary income is taxed at the full bracket rates. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at preferential rates of zero, fifteen, or twenty percent under IRC Section 1(h) — with thresholds separate from ordinary income brackets. The net investment income tax under IRC Section 1411 imposes an additional three point eight percent on investment income above the two hundred thousand dollar single and two hundred and fifty thousand dollar joint modified AGI thresholds — raising maximum effective rates to twenty-three point eight percent on long-term gains and forty point eight percent on ordinary investment income. Tax-equivalent yield equals municipal bond yield divided by one minus the marginal rate — making the client's marginal rate the essential input for comparing taxable and tax-exempt fixed income investments.
