Calculating taxes with capital gains tax

[Horacio Gutierrez]

Hello

On a high level view how is capital gains calculated in regards to taxes as well ordinary taxes. Do you first get salary from work for the year and make some standard deductions and then see what ordinary tax bracket your in which indicates the amount of taxes you pay. Then whatever tax bracket you fall into this determines which capita gain tax bracket you fall into which depending on the amount of capital gains for the year it can be some amount capital again and the rest of capital gains at a higher tax bracket and you might pay the net investment income tax and finally you add you ordinary tax amount plus the tax you need to pay on capital gains plus the nitt of 3.8% it's the total amount taxes you owe for the year. Is this correct?

Thanks,

[Eamonn McElroy]

@Ashish Acharya

"in 2018, you don't pay anything tax until you reach 77,200 in CG"

Capital gains have their own brackets but that bracket is determined by taxable income, not capital gains alone.

I like to think of it as capital gains (and qualified dividends) sit on top of net taxable income excluding cap gains and qual divs.

On your 2018 worksheet, change line 1 (taxable income) to $90,000 and run it through.  You'll see the mechanics that way.