The standard deduction you will use on your 2026 tax return is already set. The Internal Revenue Service has now published the larger amounts that will apply a year later.
For tax year 2026 — the return most people will file in 2027 — the standard deduction is $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, $16,100 for single taxpayers and married people filing separately, and $24,150 for heads of household, as the IRS announced last year. On Nov. 5, 2026, in IR-2026-133, the agency said that for tax year 2027, generally on returns filed in 2028, the standard deduction will rise to $33,200 for joint filers, $16,600 for single filers and married people filing separately, and $24,925 for heads of household.
The top marginal rate remains 37 percent. For tax year 2027, the IRS said that rate starts at $661,375 of taxable income for single filers and $793,650 for married couples filing jointly. The other brackets in the release are 35, 32, 24, 22, 12 and 10 percent, with the 10 percent rate applying to taxable income up to $12,800 for single filers and $25,600 for joint filers. The basic estate-tax exclusion for deaths in 2027 is $15.48 million, up from $15 million in 2026. The annual gift-tax exclusion rises to $20,000, from $19,000 this year. The details are in Revenue Procedure 2026-35.
If you are gathering documents for the 2026 return, use this year’s deduction, not next year’s. The new tables are for the year after that.
