California Capital Gains Tax Calculator
California has the highest capital gains tax in the country and no preferential long-term rate — your gain is taxed as ordinary income. Enter your numbers below to see the full bill: California, federal, the 3.8% net investment income tax, and depreciation recapture if you are selling a building.
What is the tax bill on your California sale going to be?
Send me the sale price and rough basis and I'll email you the actual number within one business day — plus the Seller's Guide to §453. If it doesn't fit your deal, I'll tell you that plainly.
No retainer · no obligation · the carrier compensates the broker, not you.
Illustrative only, not tax advice — bring the numbers to your CPA, or send them the §453 guide built for accountants.
Find out what your sale is really going to cost you in tax — and what you can do about it
No retainer. The carrier compensates the broker — not you.
Find out what your tax bill actually looks like before you sell — including the parts your CPA may not raise until the return is already being prepared.
Most people find out what they owe after the sale closes, when nothing can be changed. A short conversation now tells you the number, which layers apply to your situation, and which options are still open while the sale is still in front of you.
- What you will actually owe — federal, the 3.8% surtax, recapture and your state
- Which of those layers you can still do something about
- Whether spreading the sale changes the number in your case
Hans Goldstein · 317-463-6659 · Goldstein & Co. LLC · This is an educational conversation, not tax advice. Bring your CPA in before you file.
What the calculator is applying
California: up to 13.3%. The top bracket is 12.3%, plus the 1% Mental Health Services Tax on taxable income above $1 million. California does not distinguish long-term from short-term gains — everything is ordinary income at the state level.
Federal: 0%, 15% or 20% on long-term gains, depending on total taxable income.
Net investment income tax: 3.8% above $200,000 single or $250,000 married filing jointly.
Depreciation recapture: 25% on unrecaptured §1250 gain — every dollar you depreciated on a building comes back at 25% regardless of your bracket. This is the line that surprises people most, and on a long-held rental it is often the largest single component. See the depreciation recapture calculator.
A top-bracket California seller lands around 37.1% all in. On a $2 million gain that is roughly $742,000 in one tax year.
The part the calculator is really for
Look at the tabs. The first shows what you pay at closing. The others show what happens if you do not take the whole check in one year.
Because California taxes gain as ordinary income, spreading a sale across multiple tax years does more here than in almost any other state — you are not just deferring, you are moving dollars out of the 13.3% band into lower ones. A §453 structured installment sale does exactly that, and the payments are guaranteed by a life carrier rather than invested at risk.
Common California situations
- Selling a rental you have held 20 years. Recapture usually hurts more than the gain. Run it with your building value filled in. See avoiding capital gains on California rental property.
- Leaving California before you sell. Moving does not automatically escape California tax on California-source real property, and the FTB is active on residency. See avoiding California capital gains tax by moving.
- Selling a business. Allocation between goodwill, equipment and real property changes the answer materially. See sell a business.
Illustrative only, not tax advice — bring the numbers to your CPA, or send them the §453 guide built for accountants.
Find out what your sale is really going to cost you in tax — and what you can do about it
No retainer. The carrier compensates the broker — not you.
Find out what your tax bill actually looks like before you sell — including the parts your CPA may not raise until the return is already being prepared.
Most people find out what they owe after the sale closes, when nothing can be changed. A short conversation now tells you the number, which layers apply to your situation, and which options are still open while the sale is still in front of you.
- What you will actually owe — federal, the 3.8% surtax, recapture and your state
- Which of those layers you can still do something about
- Whether spreading the sale changes the number in your case
Hans Goldstein · 317-463-6659 · Goldstein & Co. LLC · This is an educational conversation, not tax advice. Bring your CPA in before you file.
Run your specific numbers
The calculator runs your sale through real 2026 federal + state tax brackets and shows §453 savings vs lump sum side-by-side.
Run the calculator → 317-463-6659