Mississippi Income Tax Rate by Year (2025 to 2030)

Mississippi has one income tax rate, and it changes every year through 2030. For tax year 2025 it is 4.4% on taxable income over $10,000. For 2026 it is 4.0%. The first $10,000 is taxed at 0% in every year. If the page you read before this one gave a single number with no year attached, it was probably wrong for at least one of the returns you care about.

This guide is informational only and is not tax advice. Rates, deductions and exemptions here were verified against the Mississippi Department of Revenue and the text of HB 1 (2025) in September 2026. Confirm the figures for your tax year before acting on them.

The schedule, year by year

The phase-down is written into statute by House Bill 1 of the 2025 Regular Session, the “Build Up Mississippi Act,” signed March 27, 2025. It applies to taxable income over $10,000; the first $10,000 stays at 0% throughout.

Source: Mississippi DOR, Tax Rates (opens in new tab) (2025 and 2026 rates) and HB 1 (2025), as sent to the Governor (opens in new tab) (2027 onward), summarized on the DOR's 2025 Legislation page (opens in new tab). Checked September 2026.

On a married-filing-joint return, each spouse gets the $10,000 exemption, per the Department of Revenue's FAQ. Note that these rates apply to taxable income, which is what remains after the standard deduction and personal exemptions covered below, so the gross income you can earn before owing anything is higher than $10,000.

What happens after 2030

The statute guarantees 3.0% for 2030 and later. Everything below that is conditional. The text of HB 1 sets the 2030 rate at 3.0% “except as otherwise provided in Section 2 of this act,” and Section 2 is a revenue trigger. Beginning in 2031, once the state's Working Cash-Stabilization Reserve Fund is fully funded, the rate on income over $10,000:

“shall be reduced by a percentage as indicated below, depending on the percentage by which the Adjusted General Fund Revenue Collections for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 2029) exceed the Appropriations for the following fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 2030): (a) If the excess is at least eighty-five one-hundredths percent (0.85%), but less than one percent (1%), of the cost of a one percent (1%) cut, the tax shall be reduced by two-tenths percent (0.2%)”

Larger surpluses step the cut to 0.25% and 0.3%. In plain terms: in any year after 2030 when state revenue outruns spending by enough, the rate drops a fraction of a point. In a year when it does not, the rate stays where it is.

That is why “Mississippi is eliminating its income tax” is not an accurate sentence, even though you will see it written that way. The law guarantees a floor of 3.0% in 2030. Cuts below that depend on future revenue that nobody can promise today. The accurate version is: scheduled to fall to 3% by 2030, with further cuts only if revenue targets are met.

Which year am I looking at?

Most confusion about the Mississippi rate is really confusion about which tax year a number belongs to. Two different years are in play at any moment:

• The return you are filing covers last year. A return filed in the spring of 2026 is the tax year 2025 return, and the rate on it is 4.4%. It is due April 15, 2026, matching the federal date. An extension moves the filing deadline to October 15, 2026, but the tax is still due April 15.
• The paycheck you are receiving is being withheld at this year's rate. Wages paid in 2026 are subject to the 2026 rate of 4.0%, and that is the return you will file in spring 2027.

So during the 2026 filing season, both 4.4% and 4.0% are correct, for different things. A page that gives one number without saying which is not wrong so much as incomplete, and incomplete is enough to make you under-withhold or overpay an estimate.

Standard deduction, exemptions and filing thresholds

The rate is only half the calculation. Mississippi's standard deduction and personal exemption come off income before the rate applies. These are the amounts the Department of Revenue publishes on its Tax Rates page as of September 2026. They are not part of the HB 1 rate schedule, so check the page for your tax year before relying on them.

Source: Mississippi DOR, Tax Rates (opens in new tab), checked September 2026. The DOR page does not list a separate personal exemption figure for married filing separately.

Who has to file. Per the same DOR page, a single filer must file when gross income exceeds $8,300 plus $1,500 per dependent; a married couple filing jointly when gross income exceeds $16,600 plus $1,500 per dependent. The DOR's FAQ adds that anyone who had Mississippi tax withheld and wants it refunded should file regardless.

Notice how small the standard deduction is. A single filer's Mississippi standard deduction is $2,300, a fraction of the federal one. That means itemizing on the state return can pay off even when it does not federally, which is one of the more common things a Mississippi CPA finds on a return that software filed on autopilot.

Why most pages online quote the wrong rate

A tax rate that changes every year for six years is unusual, and the web is not built for it. Pages get written once, ranked, and left alone. Under the schedule above, every one of them goes stale within twelve months of publication:

• A page quoting a rate above 4.4% is describing a year before 2025.
• A page quoting 4.4% with no year is right for the 2025 return and wrong for 2026 withholding.
• A page saying the tax is “being eliminated” is treating a conditional trigger as a certainty.

The fix is to treat any Mississippi rate you read as unverified until you see a tax year beside it, and to check the DOR's Tax Rates page (opens in new tab) directly when in doubt. This page will be updated as the DOR publishes each year's figures.

What actually changes for you

The rate cut is real money, but it arrives in specific places and not in others. For a typical filer:

• Withholding. Your employer's payroll system should apply the new year's rate from the first paycheck of January. If your take-home pay did not move between December and January, ask payroll which rate table they are using.
• Estimated payments. If you pay quarterly, estimates for 2026 should be built on the 4.0% rate, not on last year's 4.4% bill. Copying last year's vouchers forward overpays.
• Retirement income. Nothing changes. Mississippi does not tax Social Security, and qualified retirement income is exempt regardless of the rate. The rate cut only matters for income the state was taxing to begin with. See our guide to retirement income in Mississippi.
• Business owners. The individual rate is what a sole proprietor or a partner in a non-electing partnership pays on their share. An entity that has made the pass-through entity election pays a different schedule entirely, and the gap between the two widens as the individual rate falls. See the pass-through entity election guide.

If your return is a single W-2 and the standard deduction, the change is simply a slightly larger refund or a slightly smaller paycheck deduction. If you have estimated payments, multiple income sources, or an entity decision to make, a CPA who is tracking the schedule year to year is worth the fee. You can browse Mississippi CPAs by city or get matched with one.

Frequently asked questions