AGI Calculator
With wages (w-2 box 1) 68000 usd, other income 2000 usd, self-employment profit 0 usd, deductible ira contribution 0 usd and 2 more fields, agi comes to $70,000 — adjusted gross income. It is reached in 7 steps, the last of which is max(0, 70000 - 0), and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by IRS, not an approximation fitted to it.
Adjusted gross income from your income and the adjustments taken before it — the figure a dozen credits and phase-outs are measured against.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Wages (W-2 box 1) 68000, Other income 2000
$70,000
Adjusted gross income for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- Half the self-employment tax
0 * 0.9235 * 0.153 / 20- Total income
68000 + 2000 + 070,000- Adjustments taken before AGI
0 + 0 + 0 + min(0, 2500)0- Adjusted gross income
max(0, 70000 - 0)70,000- Taxable income after the single standard deduction
max(0, 70000 - 16100)53,900- …or after the joint one
max(0, 70000 - 32200)37,800- Income kept out of AGI by the adjustments
0
Worked example
$68,000 of wages and $2,000 of interest is $70,000 of AGI with no adjustments. Put $7,500 into a traditional IRA and AGI falls to $62,500 — which matters twice, because a dozen credits and phase-outs are measured against AGI rather than against what you earned.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Start from box 1 of the W-2, not from your salary. A 401(k) contribution and a section 125 health premium are already out of it, so adding them again double-counts.
- 2.Add everything else that is income: interest, dividends, capital gains, rent, unemployment, the taxable part of social security.
- 3.Subtract the adjustments that sit above the line — a deductible IRA, an HSA you funded yourself, student loan interest up to $2,500, half of any self-employment tax, educator expenses. These are available whether or not you itemise.
- 4.What is left is AGI. Taxable income is AGI minus the standard or itemised deduction, and the two are not interchangeable: AGI is the figure phase-outs use.
The formula
- Half the self-employment tax
0 * 0.9235 * 0.153 / 2 - Total income
68000 + 2000 + 0 - Adjustments taken before AGI
0 + 0 + 0 + min(0, 2500) - Adjusted gross income
max(0, 70000 - 0) - Taxable income after the single standard deduction
max(0, 70000 - 16100) - …or after the joint one
max(0, 70000 - 32200) - Income kept out of AGI by the adjustments
Source: IRS — definition of adjusted gross income, IRS Schedule 1 (Form 1040) — additional income and adjustments to income (PDF)
Questions people actually ask
- What is the difference between AGI and taxable income?
- AGI is income minus the adjustments above the line. Taxable income is AGI minus the standard or itemised deduction, and it is what the brackets are applied to. AGI is the larger number and the more consequential one, because eligibility for the child credit, the earned income credit, education credits, IRA deductibility and the 3.8% investment surtax is all measured against it.
- Where do I find last year’s AGI?
- On line 11 of the Form 1040 you filed. It is asked for as identity verification when you e-file, and the figure has to match the IRS record exactly — if a return was amended, the original AGI is the one to use, not the amended one.
- What is modified AGI?
- AGI with certain items added back, and which items depends on the provision: the IRA deduction, the premium tax credit, the investment surtax and the student loan interest deduction each define it slightly differently. For most people with ordinary income the two figures are identical, which is why the difference is easy to miss until it matters.
- Does a 401(k) reduce my AGI?
- It reduces box 1 of your W-2, so it is already out of the figure you start from. Entering it again as an adjustment counts it twice. A traditional IRA is different: that is paid from money already in box 1 and comes off as an adjustment.
Related
- No Tax on Tips CalculatorWhat the tip deduction is actually worth: the deduction is capped at $25,000 and saves you your bracket rate on it, not the whole amount.
- Capital Gains Tax CalculatorFederal tax on a sale, with the long-term rate stacked on top of your other income the way the law does it — and the 3.8% surtax most calculators forget.
- 401(k) CalculatorWhat a 401(k) grows to, how much of it is the employer match, and whether your contribution rate leaves any of that match unclaimed.
- Sales Tax CalculatorTax and total from a pre-tax price, plus the reverse — the pre-tax price hidden inside a total you already paid.
- 1099 Tax CalculatorTotal tax on 1099 income — self-employment tax and income tax together — and the quarterly payment that keeps the underpayment penalty away.
- W-4 Withholding CalculatorWhat to put on line 4(c) of a W-4 to land where you want in April — or what to stop withholding if the refund is too big.
Put this calculator on your site
Free, no attribution required beyond the link.
<iframe src="https://rulecalculators.com/embed/agi" width="100%" height="420" style="border:1px solid #e7e4de;border-radius:12px" title="AGI Calculator"></iframe>