โ The Economic Explainer's suite
Front Door / The Economic Explainer / Bracket Sandbox
Companionbracket-sandboxDemo ยท payment-dark
Bracket Sandbox
Built for The Economic Explainer ยท Fiscal modelling in plain numbers
Move the tax brackets and watch the effect on real households and overall revenue โ every assumption visible.
Move the brackets ยท see the whole range
Current Law vs Your Proposed Schedule
Revenue Direction
โ Revenue flat
no change yet โ move a rate
$2.96T
Current-law revenue (illustrative)
$2.96T
Proposed revenue (illustrative)
Marginal rates
$0โ$11,60010.0%
$11,600โ$47,15012.0%
$47,150โ$100,52522.0%
$100,525โ$191,95024.0%
$191,950โ$243,72532.0%
$243,725โ$609,35035.0%
$609,350 and up37.0%
Quick scenarios
Household impact ยท current vs proposed
| Household | Income | Now | Proposed | ฮ / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Service worker Single | $35k | $3,968 | $3,968 | โ |
Teacher Single | $65k | $9,353 | $9,353 | โ |
Nurse + tradesman Married | $110k | $19,443 | $19,443 | โ |
Engineer Single | $165k | $32,643 | $32,643 | โ |
Surgeon Single | $400k | $110,375 | $110,375 | โ |
Executive Single | $1.2M | $402,188 | $402,188 | โ |
Green = pays less ยท red = pays more. Move any rate and these update live. Tax applied to gross income โ illustrative.
Where each dollar of tax originates
Current law
| Rate | Income in band | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| 10.0% | $11,600 | $1,160 |
| 12.0% | $35,550 | $4,266 |
| 22.0% | $53,375 | $11,743 |
| 24.0% | $64,475 | $15,474 |
| Total | $32,643 | |
Proposed
| Rate | Income in band | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| 10.0% | $11,600 | $1,160 |
| 12.0% | $35,550 | $4,266 |
| 22.0% | $53,375 | $11,743 |
| 24.0% | $64,475 | $15,474 |
| Total | $32,643 | |
At $165,000 of income: current law $32,643 ยท proposed $32,643 ยท no change ยท effective rate 19.8% โ 19.8% ยท marginal 24.0%.
How the model works โ nothing hidden
- Tax walks the marginal brackets above: each band of income is taxed at its own rate, summed across bands.
- Tax is applied to gross income โ no deductions, credits, or phaseouts. This keeps every number reproducible by hand from the brackets alone.
- Revenue direction = ฮฃ (households in band ร tax at the band's midpoint) across a fixed representative population, current vs proposed. The full weighting table is on the Assumptions tab.
- Rounding rule: tax is summed unrounded across bands, then rounded once to the dollar.
Illustrative designer's tool โ not a tax return, not official revenue scoring (JCT/CBO), and not tax advice. Non-partisan: the same numbers apply no matter who proposes a schedule, and both directions of effect are shown. Current-law figures are the 2025 single-filer marginal brackets (IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-61).
Sealed Designs ยท SHA-256 Hash Chain
# bracket-sandbox ยท sealed designs
# Save a bracket design to begin a tamper-evident, hash-chained record.
Showcase demo for the Born Between 2 Generals summit. Showcase ยท best home: LLC / BBG Academy. Seeded with realistic sample data; runs payment-dark (no billing). Not a production system.