The current tax brackets for capital gains are 0%, 15%, and 20%.  These are gains on the sale of certain assets by the taxpayer that they have owned for more then one year.  These types of assets include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real property, business property, and things like that.  The taxpayer pays the capital gains tax rate based on what their total income tax bracket for the year is.  If they are in the 10% or 15% total tax bracket then their capital gains rate is 0%.  If they are in the 20% tax bracket then their capital gains tax rate is 15%.  If they are in a tax bracket higher then that their capital gains tax rate is 20%.