Capital Gains Calculator Capital gains rates are designed to encourage long-term investing. Most people can get a significant advantage from holding stock investments for more than one year. Here is a simple capital gains calculator, to help you see what effects the current rates will have in your own life. (Before you use it for the first time, you may want to check out an example with numbers already filled in). Purchase Price: $ Sale Price: $ Your Federal Tax Bracket:     39.6 36 31 28 15 % Time from Purchase to Sale: One Year or Less More than One Year Your State Tax Rate: % %   Federal Tax Rate:* % % Total Tax Due: $ $ Net Sale: $ $ Advantage of Waiting:   % As of January 2001, the federal long-term rate on capital gains from stock investments is 10% for people in the 15% bracket, and 20% for everybody else; except that new lower rates are being phased in, for some brackets only, on investments held for more than five years. See the IRS for the real dope.