The standard deduction is the amount you can deduct from your taxes if you don't itemize. There's also another change that will likely affect you: a change in the standard deduction. The remainder of your income, then, is still taxed in the 12% bracket. In 2019, on the other hand, $19,400 of your income will be taxed at 10%, not $19,050.

You'd have been taxed 10% on your first $19,050 in income and 12% on the rest, leaving you with a total tax bill of $4,419 in 2018. You'd have been right in the middle of the 12% tax bracket. Say you had taxable income of $40,000 in 2018 and filed as married filing jointly. Let's look at an example to see how this works. These small changes in the tax brackets won't have much of an impact on you, as only small amounts of your income will be taxed at different rates. The highest tax rate you pay is called your 'marginal tax rate,' because it applies to each additional dollar in income.

If you earn more money and find yourself in a higher tax bracket, you will not pay the higher tax rate on all of your income - only on the income in that bracket. Remember that the tax rates above only apply to the income in the corresponding brackets. How do these tax bracket changes affect you? There were no big changes, but the income ranges for each tax bracket went up slightly.

2019 tax brackets