CFP® exam tax tables and formula sheet: What CFP Board provides and how to use it

The CFP® exam gives you the tax tables and a formula sheet to use during the test, so you do not have to memorize tax brackets, standard deductions or most contribution limits. CFP Board’s tax tables list the rates, thresholds and limits for the tax year your exam tests, and its formula sheet lists the investment and statistics formulas it provides. What you still have to know is what each table contains, where to find a number fast and how to turn it into an answer.

This guide covers which tax year each exam window tests, what is and is not in the tax tables and the formula sheet, whether you can use them in the testing room, and how to study with them. Everything about what is provided comes from CFP Board, which writes and administers the exam. For the format and topics, see our CFP® exam information page.

Which tax year does each CFP® exam window test?

CFP Board publishes a tax table for each exam window and says which tax year’s rates, tables and law that window tests:

The tax year is not always the year you sit for the exam: a March 2027 candidate is tested on 2026 law. That matters because the numbers change every year. For example, the standard deduction for a single filer was $15,750 for 2025 and is $16,100 for 2026 (IRS). Older flashcards, textbooks and question banks may use 2025 numbers, so check the tax year of every source you study from. The 2026 tables also reflect the 2025 tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, such as the new enhanced deduction for seniors.

A window that is not on CFP Board’s page yet has no published table. When you register for a later window, look again before you start studying tax numbers.

What is covered on the CFP® exam tax tables?

CFP Board’s tax tables PDF is a short document with these sections:

• Income tax rates: separate schedules for single, married filing jointly and surviving spouse, married filing separately and head of household filers, plus corporate and estate and trust rates
• Surtaxes: the net investment income tax and the additional Medicare tax, with their thresholds
• Long-term capital gains rates: the 0%, 15% and 20% ranges by filing status, plus the 25% rate on depreciation recapture and 28% on collectibles
• Standard deductions: including the extra amounts for age 65 or older or blind, and the enhanced deduction for seniors
• Retirement plan limits and phase-outs: 401(k), 403(b), 457, SIMPLE and IRA limits, catch-up contributions, compensation limits and the IRA and Roth IRA phase-out ranges
• Estate and gift tax: the applicable credit and exclusion amounts, the top rate, the generation-skipping transfer tax rate and the gift tax annual exclusion
• Social Security: the wage base, earnings limits and full retirement ages by birth year
• Health savings accounts: high-deductible health plan limits and HSA contribution maximums
• Education: phase-outs for the EE bond exclusion, Coverdell accounts, the Lifetime Learning and American Opportunity credits and education loan interest
• Alternative minimum tax: exemptions, phase-outs and rates
• Child tax credit: the phase-out ranges

Example: standard deductions. This is the standard deduction section of the 2026 table, a good first section to learn to read:

The standard deduction is increased by:

• $1,650 for each married taxpayer age 65 or older or blind ($3,300 if both 65 and blind)
• $2,050 for a single taxpayer age 65 or older or blind ($4,100 if both 65 and blind)

The senior deduction is listed as “up to $6,000” because it is not a flat amount. According to the IRS, it applies for 2025 through 2028, is available to each person who is 65 or older by the end of the year, is reduced once modified adjusted gross income passes $75,000 ($150,000 for joint filers), requires a Social Security number and, for married couples, a joint return, and can be claimed whether or not you itemize. It comes on top of the additional standard deduction above, and the table does not show the phase-out, so learn how it works.

Example: a tax rate schedule. Each schedule lists income ranges, the tax owed at the bottom of each range and the rate on the excess. This is the 2026 schedule for single filers:

Suppose a single client has $100,000 of income and takes the standard deduction. Taxable income is $100,000 − $16,100 = $83,900. That falls in the 22% row, so the tax is $5,800 + 22% × ($83,900 − $50,400) = $5,800 + $7,370 = $13,170. The marginal rate is 22%, and the tax is about 15.7% of taxable income. The Pay column already adds up the tax on every lower bracket, so you never compute each bracket separately: find the row, subtract the last column, multiply by the rate and add the Pay amount.

Example: limits and phase-outs. A sample of the limits the table gives you:

Phase-out ranges need a little arithmetic. A single filer with modified AGI of $160,500 is halfway through the $153,000 to $168,000 Roth IRA range ($7,500 into a $15,000 range), so can contribute about half of the $7,500 limit, around $3,750.

What the tables do not give you. The tables are numbers, not rules. They do not list required minimum distribution tables, the home sale exclusion, the qualified business income deduction, the thresholds for taxing Social Security benefits or the payroll tax rates, and they say nothing about how a planning strategy works. You need to know those, and how to apply every number you are given.

What is covered on the CFP® exam formula sheet?

CFP Board’s formula sheet is a single page of 20 formulas, mostly from investment planning:

• Stock valuation: the constant-growth dividend discount model, V = D₁ ÷ (r − g), and the required return, r = D₁ ÷ P + g
• Risk: covariance, the standard deviation of a two-asset portfolio, beta, and the standard deviation of returns for a population and for a sample
• Risk-adjusted return: the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Jensen’s alpha, the Treynor ratio, the Sharpe ratio and the information ratio
• Bonds: duration and the estimated price change for a change in yield
• Returns and rates: the effective annual rate, tax-equivalent yield, arithmetic mean, holding period return, geometric mean return and the long-term rate implied by expected one-year rates

Example: tax-equivalent yield. The formula is TEY = r ÷ (1 − t). An investor in the 24% bracket is comparing a 4% municipal bond with a taxable bond: 4% ÷ (1 − 0.24) = 5.26%. The taxable bond has to yield more than 5.26% to beat the municipal bond after federal tax. Questions like this one connect the two documents, because the tax rate comes from the tax tables.

The sheet gives you formulas, not meaning. You still need to know which inputs go where (the sample standard deviation divides by n − 1, the population one by n), and when to choose one measure over another: the Sharpe ratio divides excess return by total risk, while the Treynor ratio divides it by beta. Time value of money, net present value and internal rate of return are not on the sheet, so your financial calculator does that work, and the keystrokes need to be automatic. The same goes for any other formula the sheet leaves out, such as the coefficient of variation.

Will I be able to access the CFP® exam tax tables and formula sheet during my exam?

Yes. CFP Board’s tax tables and formulas page says the tax tables are “provided for use during the CFP® exam” and that the formulas are “available to candidates when taking the CFP® exam.” You do not need to memorize what is in them.

You still bring your own calculator: CFP Board’s exam day guidance says to bring one or more battery-powered, non-programmable, dedicated financial calculators. The test center gives you a scratch paper booklet, your other belongings go in a locker, and if your calculator has notes or formulas printed on the back, you must remove or mask them with solid-color tape before you enter the testing room. So you cannot bring your own notes: the provided documents are the reference you get.

How to properly study the CFP® exam tax tables and formulas

Because the documents are provided, the exam tests whether you can use them quickly and correctly. A few habits make that automatic:

• Download the right version. Open CFP Board’s tax tables page, find your exam window and save that PDF. Use it for every tax practice question from the first week, so the layout is familiar on exam day.
• Learn the map, not the numbers. Know which section holds each number and time yourself finding it. Spend your memory on rules, not rates.
• Drill the schedule arithmetic. Work the same problem for each filing status until the “Pay plus a percentage of the excess” method is automatic, and remember that taxable income comes after the standard or itemized deduction.
• Practice phase-outs. For most phase-outs, the share you lose is (your income − the start of the range) ÷ the width of the range. Do it for Roth IRA contributions and the education credits.
• Make flashcards for what is not provided. Required minimum distributions, the home sale exclusion, how Social Security benefits are taxed and the rules behind each planning strategy are not in the tables.
• Match each formula to a question. For each of the 20 formulas, write down when you would use it, what each input means and one worked problem. Rehearse the ones that are easy to confuse together, such as Sharpe and Treynor.
• Memorize what is missing from the sheet, and practice time value of money on the exact calculator you will bring.
• Check the tax year of every practice question. A question bank written for 2025 law has different standard deductions, brackets and limits. Take CFP Board’s practice exams and rehearse timed sets with the official PDFs open beside you.
• Look again before test day. CFP Board publishes the tables for each window, so check its page the week before your exam to make sure you studied the right version.

For the format, a week-by-week plan and exam day tips, see our guide on how to study for the CFP® exam, and our CFP® exam FAQ and comparison of CFP® exam prep courses for picking a course.

Key takeaways

• CFP Board provides the tax tables and the formula sheet for use during the exam, so study how to use them instead of memorizing them.
• Each exam window tests a specific tax year: July 2026, November 2026 and March 2027 are tested on 2026 law, and March 2026 was tested on 2025 law.
• The tax tables hold rates, thresholds and limits. They do not hold the rules, such as required minimum distributions, the home sale exclusion or how Social Security benefits are taxed.
• The formula sheet is one page of 20 mostly investment formulas. Time value of money, net present value and internal rate of return are left to your calculator.
• Practice with CFP Board’s own PDFs for your window, and check the tax year of every study source.