2027 Capital Gains Tax Rates: The 0% Bracket Now Reaches $102,100 for Couples (Plus 2026 Rates)

The IRS has set the 2027 capital gains brackets. In 2027, long-term gains are tax-free up to $51,050 of taxable income for single filers and $102,100 for married couples filing jointly. The figures come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2026-35, released November 5, 2026.

The rates themselves haven’t moved: 0%, 15% and 20%. Only the income cutoffs rise with inflation each year, and the 2026 cutoffs (below) are the ones you’ll use on the return you file this spring.

What you owe on a sale comes down to three things: how long you held the asset, what kind of asset it was, and your taxable income for the year.

2027 Long-Term Capital Gains Brackets (Official)

These apply to assets held more than one year and sold in tax year 2027 (returns filed in early 2028).

Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2026-35, section 3.03. Estates and trusts hit 15% above $3,400 and 20% above $16,750.

Compared with 2026, the married 0% ceiling rose $3,200 and the single ceiling rose $1,600. For retirees who control how much they withdraw each year, that’s a little more room to sell appreciated shares tax-free.

Example, 2027: Priya is single with $44,000 of taxable income before a sale. She sells index fund shares she’s held for three years for a $9,000 long-term gain, taking her to $53,000.

The first $7,050 of her gain fits under the $51,050 ceiling and is taxed at 0%. The other $1,950 is taxed at 15%, so her federal tax on the whole $9,000 gain is about $293.

2026 Brackets for the Return You File This Spring

If you sold something in 2026, these are the numbers on the return you file in early 2027.

Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.

Example, 2026: Sarah is single with $45,000 in taxable income and a $6,000 long-term gain, for $51,000 total. $4,450 of the gain stays in the 0% bracket, and the remaining $1,550 is taxed at 15%. Her capital gains tax is about $233.

Short-Term Gains: Why the One-Year Mark Matters So Much

Short-term gains (held one year or less) are taxed as ordinary income, at the same 10% to 37% rates as your paycheck. Those rates and cutoffs are in my 2027 and 2026 federal tax brackets guide.

The cutoff is exact. Your holding period starts the day after you buy, so shares bought on March 10 and sold on March 10 a year later are still short-term. Sell on March 11 or later and the gain is long-term.

A reader asked me whether this even matters at a modest income. It does. Take Luis, single, with $38,000 of taxable income in 2027, including a $5,000 gain on stock he bought 11 months earlier.

That $5,000 lands in the 12% bracket, so he owes about $600 on it. Had he waited past the one-year mark, the same gain would have fallen inside the 0% bracket and cost him nothing.

What the OBBBA Did (and Didn’t) Do to Capital Gains

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) left the 0%, 15% and 20% rates alone. What it did was make the lower ordinary income brackets permanent, along with the larger standard deduction ($16,600 single and $33,200 married jointly for 2027).

That matters indirectly. Your gains stack on top of your other taxable income, so a bigger standard deduction and lower ordinary brackets leave more room under the 0% ceiling. My OBBBA guide for tax filers covers the rest of the law.

The OBBBA also expanded the Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) exclusion for stock issued after the law passed:

• 50% of the gain is excluded after three years, 75% after four and 100% after five.
• The per-company cap rose from $10 million to $15 million, and it’s now indexed: $15,480,000 for 2027.

Offsetting Gains With Losses: The $3,000 Rule

When your losses for the year exceed your gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 of the net loss against ordinary income ($1,500 married filing separately). Anything left over carries forward to future years with no expiration.

Example: Jim sold one position for a $12,000 long-term gain and another for a $9,000 long-term loss. He’s taxed only on the $3,000 net gain.

That’s the idea behind tax-loss harvesting, and I walk through my own three-step tax-loss harvesting process before December 31.

Watch the wash sale rule. If you buy the same or a “substantially identical” security within 30 days before or after selling at a loss, the IRS disallows the loss and adds it to the cost basis of the new shares instead.

The 3.8% Surtax That Isn’t Indexed

Higher earners pay a 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) on top of the capital gains rate. It applies to the smaller of your net investment income or the amount your modified AGI exceeds these limits:

These limits have been frozen since 2013. Every year the capital gains brackets rise with inflation while the NIIT thresholds stay put, so more households get caught.

A single filer with $220,000 of MAGI, including $40,000 of investment income, owes NIIT on only the $20,000 above $200,000. That’s $760. In the 20% bracket, NIIT pushes the top rate on long-term gains to 23.8%.

Collectibles, Rental Property and Crypto Get Different Rules

Not every long-term gain gets the 0/15/20% treatment.

• Collectibles (max 28%): art, antiques, coins, stamps and precious metals held as investments.
• Depreciation recapture (max 25%): the part of a rental property gain that comes from depreciation you claimed (“unrecaptured Section 1250 gain”). The rest of the gain gets standard long-term rates.
• Your home: most sellers exclude up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 married). See my post on the home sale tax exclusion.
• Crypto: taxed as property, with the same short and long-term rules as stock. Brokers now report sales to the IRS, which I cover in my Form 1099-DA guide.

Cost Basis, Fund Distributions and Dividends

Your cost basis is what you paid for a security, including commissions. When you own several lots of the same fund, you can use average cost or pick specific lots.

For loss harvesting, specific identification usually wins, because you can sell your highest-cost shares first. Most brokerages let you set the default method at the account level, so it’s worth checking yours.

Mutual funds and REITs can pay capital gain distributions even when you never sold a share. They show up on your 1099 in January.

Qualified dividends get the same 0/15/20% rates as long-term gains. Nonqualified dividends are taxed as ordinary income.

Mistakes That Cost Investors Money at Filing Time

These are the misunderstandings I see most from readers.

Thinking the 0% rate applies to the whole gain. Gains stack on top of your other income. With $40,000 of wages and a $20,000 gain, only the part of the gain under the ceiling is tax-free.

Forgetting NIIT. Plan on 18.8% or 23.8% on a large gain if your MAGI is above $200,000 single or $250,000 joint.

Buying back too soon. A repurchase within 30 days of a loss sale wipes out the deduction for now.

Losing track of reinvested dividends. Each reinvestment is a new lot with its own basis. Miss them and you’ll overstate your gain and overpay.

Treating inherited shares like purchased ones. Inherited assets usually get a stepped-up basis at the date of death, so selling soon after can mean little or no gain.

What I’m Watching for 2028 Capital Gains Thresholds

The 2028 cutoffs will come out in the IRS’s annual inflation Revenue Procedure, usually in late October or November 2027. The rates stay at 0%, 15% and 20% unless Congress changes them.

If inflation runs about 2.5% to 3%, I’d expect the single 0% ceiling to land somewhere near $52,300 to $52,600, and the married ceiling near $104,600 to $105,200. That’s my projection, not an IRS number.

The NIIT thresholds won’t move without new legislation. I’ll update this page as soon as the 2028 figures are out. If you’re also deciding how much to shelter in retirement accounts, my 401(k) and IRA limits page has the latest numbers.