Pick the marginal tax rate for an income of $85,000
The tax calculator needs the right bracket rate for $85,000. The bracket table shows the lower bound of each tier in column B (sorted ascending). Use INDEX/MATCH with approximate-match so the formula picks the highest threshold that doesn't exceed the income.
Look up tax bracket via approximate match
Practice using INDEX/MATCH to solve a real finance & accounting problem. By the end, you’ll know when to reach for it and how to structure the arguments correctly.
Your tax calculator needs the marginal rate for any given taxable income. The bracket table lists the lower bound of each bracket. You need an approximate match: find the largest threshold that doesn't exceed the income.
In E2, return the marginal rate from column C for the income in D2. Use MATCH with the third argument set to 1 (approximate match, requires ascending sort) against the lower-bound column B.
INDEX/MATCH is the two-function lookup combo that beats VLOOKUP at flexibility. MATCH finds the position of a value in a single column, then INDEX returns the cell at that position from another range. It can look left, right, up, or down, and survives column inserts that would break VLOOKUP.
INDEX(return_column, MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_column, 0))Try the formula first. Hints cost CP for a reason.