Standard Deduction 2026: $16,100 Single, $32,200 Married, Plus the Extra Amounts at 65

The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and married people filing separately, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $24,150 for heads of household. Anyone 65 or older, or blind, adds $2,050 (unmarried) or $1,650 per qualifying spouse (married). On top of that, a separate $6,000 senior deduction runs from 2025 through 2028 for people 65 and older with income under the phase-out. This page sets out every amount from the IRS revenue procedure and the law itself, shows how they stack, and works through when itemizing still beats the standard deduction.

The Short Answer

• 2026 standard deduction: $16,100 single or married filing separately, $32,200 married filing jointly (and qualifying surviving spouse), $24,150 head of household. Source: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32.
• Each amount is up 2.2% from 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill set them at $15,750, $31,500 and $23,625.
• Age 65 or blind: add $2,050 if you are unmarried, or $1,650 for each spouse who qualifies if you are married. Someone both 65 and blind counts twice.
• Senior deduction: a separate $6,000 per person 65 or older for tax years 2025 to 2028. It shrinks by 6% of modified AGI above $75,000 ($150,000 joint), and you get it whether you itemize or not.
• Dependents: the greater of $1,350 or earned income plus $450, never more than the regular amount.
• 2027: the IRS has not published 2027 figures yet. It released the 2026 numbers on October 9, 2025.

The standard deduction reduces taxable income, not the tax itself. Once you know it, the 2026 tax brackets page shows what rate applies to what is left.

Find Your Standard Deduction

Pick your filing status and tick any age or blindness boxes that apply. The tool adds the 2026 basic amount and the additional amounts, then tells you whether the separate $6,000 senior deduction may also apply.

2026 Standard Deduction by Filing Status

These are the basic amounts before any age or blindness additions. The 2026 column is from section 4.14 of Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The 2025 column is the amount set by section 70102 of the One Big Beautiful Bill (Public Law 119-21) and restated in section 3.01 of the same revenue procedure.

Source: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, sections 3.01 and 4.14(1).

One rule catches married couples who file separately: if your spouse itemizes, you cannot take the standard deduction at all. IRS Publication 501 puts it plainly: "If your spouse itemizes deductions, you can't claim the standard deduction."

The Extra Amount at 65 or Blind

The additional standard deduction has existed for decades and is separate from the new senior deduction. For 2026 it is $1,650 per condition per person, rising to $2,050 if you are unmarried and not a surviving spouse. "Per condition" means a person who is both 65 and blind gets it twice. For 2025 the figures were $1,600 and $2,000.

You count as 65 for the year if you were born before January 2, 1962, because the IRS treats you as reaching 65 on the day before your 65th birthday. Blindness means either no sight at all or a certified eye-doctor statement that you cannot see better than 20/200 in your better eye with glasses or contacts, or that your field of vision is 20 degrees or less.

Basic and additional amounts from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, section 4.14(1) and (3). Totals are our arithmetic.

The Separate $6,000 Senior Deduction

Section 70103 of the One Big Beautiful Bill created a new deduction of $6,000 for each person aged 65 or older, for tax years 2025 through 2028. It is not part of the standard deduction and it is not in the revenue procedure, which is why many tables leave it out. The IRS fact sheet on the law says it "is in addition to the current additional standard deduction for seniors."

• Who qualifies: you, and your spouse on a joint return, if 65 or older by the end of the year. Married couples must file jointly to claim it, and each qualifying person needs a valid Social Security number on the return.
• How much: $6,000 per qualifying person, so $12,000 for a couple who are both 65 or older.
• Phase-out: each $6,000 is reduced by 6% of modified adjusted gross income above $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint). For a single filer it is gone at $175,000. For a couple both reductions apply, so it is gone at $250,000.
• Itemizers get it too: the IRS states the deduction "is available for both itemizing and non-itemizing taxpayers." You claim it on Schedule 1-A.
• Not indexed: the $6,000 is a fixed statutory amount and the deduction ends after the 2028 tax year unless Congress extends it.

For a retiree living on Social Security, a pension and modest IRA withdrawals, this deduction is often worth more than the age-based addition to the standard deduction. If you are planning IRA withdrawals or Roth conversions, keep modified AGI in view: each $1,000 above the threshold costs $60 of the deduction per qualifying person. Our retirement withdrawal calculator helps you plan how much to take out each year.

If Someone Can Claim You as a Dependent

A teenager with a summer job, a college student, or an adult parent who lives with you may be claimable as someone else's dependent. Their 2026 standard deduction is limited to the greater of $1,350 or earned income plus $450, and it can never exceed the regular amount for their filing status. Both figures are unchanged from 2025.

• A 16-year-old with $4,000 of wages: $4,000 + $450 = $4,450.
• A student whose only income is $500 of bank interest: $1,350 (the floor applies).
• A dependent with $20,000 of wages: capped at the single amount, $16,100.

A dependent who is 65 or older or blind still adds the extra $1,650 or $2,050 on top of that limited amount.

Standard Deduction or Itemize?

You take whichever is larger: the standard deduction, or the total of your itemized deductions (mainly state and local taxes, mortgage interest, charitable gifts and medical costs above 7.5% of AGI). Three changes from the 2025 law shift the math for 2026.

1. The SALT cap is $40,400 for 2026. The deduction for state and local income, sales and property taxes was capped at $10,000 from 2018. Section 70120 of the law raised the cap to $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026 ($20,200 if married filing separately), then 1% more each year through 2029, before it drops back to $10,000 in 2030. Higher earners lose part of it: the cap shrinks by 30% of modified AGI above $505,000 for 2026 ($252,500 married filing separately), but never below $10,000.

Source: Public Law 119-21, section 70120 (new IRC section 164(b)(7)). Rows are our arithmetic from the statutory formula.

2. Non-itemizers can deduct some charity again. Starting in 2026, people who take the standard deduction can also deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 on a joint return (section 70424). Gifts to donor-advised funds do not count.

3. Itemizers face a small charity floor. From 2026, itemized charitable gifts count only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of your contribution base, which for most people is AGI (section 70425). On $100,000 of AGI, the first $500 of giving does not count.

For most households the standard deduction still wins. A married couple both over 65 needs more than $35,500 of itemized deductions before itemizing helps, and the $6,000 senior deduction is available either way, so it never tips the decision. The households most likely to itemize in 2026 are those in high-tax states who pay large property and income taxes, now that up to $40,400 of those count, along with a sizeable mortgage. If that is you, our guide to legal ways to reduce your tax bill covers bunching charitable gifts into alternate years.

Worked Examples

These are hypothetical households, to show how the pieces stack. They use 2026 figures and assume no other adjustments or deductions.

Example 1: single, age 67, modified AGI $60,000.

• Basic standard deduction: $16,100
• Additional amount for age (unmarried): $2,050
• Senior deduction (income under $75,000, so the full amount): $6,000
• Total deductions: $24,150, leaving taxable income of $35,850.

If the same person had modified AGI of $95,000, the senior deduction would fall by 6% of the $20,000 excess, or $1,200, to $4,800. Total deductions would be $22,950.

Example 2: married couple, both 66, filing jointly, modified AGI $110,000.

• Basic standard deduction: $32,200
• Additional amount for age, $1,650 each: $3,300
• Senior deduction, $6,000 each (income under $150,000): $12,000
• Total deductions: $47,500, leaving taxable income of $62,500.

Should they itemize? Suppose they pay $6,000 of mortgage interest, $9,000 of state and property tax and give $4,000 to charity. That is $19,000, well short of the $35,500 standard deduction, so they take the standard deduction. Since that $4,000 of giving was in cash to qualifying charities, they can also deduct $2,000 of it under the new non-itemizer rule.

At $180,000 of modified AGI the couple's senior deduction would shrink: each $6,000 falls by 6% of the $30,000 excess ($1,800), leaving $4,200 each, or $8,400. Their total would be $43,900.

Part of a retiree's Social Security can be taxable, and that feeds into AGI. Our page on the 2026 Social Security COLA covers the benefit changes, and budgeting on a fixed income covers the cash-flow side.

What About 2027?

The IRS has not yet published the 2027 standard deduction. It announces next year's inflation adjustments each fall: the 2026 figures came out on October 9, 2025 in news release IR-2025-103. As of October 4, 2026, the IRS newsroom shows no 2027 release. We will update this page when the IRS publishes the 2027 revenue procedure; until then, treat any specific 2027 standard deduction you see elsewhere as an estimate.

A few 2027 items are already fixed by law rather than by inflation:

• The $6,000 senior deduction stays at $6,000 for 2027 and 2028, with the same $75,000 and $150,000 thresholds.
• The SALT cap rises to 101% of the 2026 figure, which works out to $40,804, and the phase-down threshold to $510,050. The IRS will confirm the exact figures.
• The $1,000 / $2,000 non-itemizer charitable deduction is permanent and not indexed.

Sources & Methodology

• IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32: the 2026 standard deduction (section 4.14(1)), dependent limit (4.14(2)), additional amount for age or blindness (4.14(3)), and the restated 2025 standard deduction (3.01).
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-40: the 2025 additional amounts for age or blindness ($1,600 / $2,000) and dependent limit, which the 2025 law did not change.
• Public Law 119-21: section 70102 (standard deduction), 70103 (senior deduction), 70120 (SALT cap), 70424 (non-itemizer charitable deduction) and 70425 (0.5% floor).
• IRS Fact Sheet FS-2025-03: the senior deduction's per-person basis, phase-out and availability to itemizers.
• IRS Publication 501: the age-65 rule, the blindness definition, and the married-filing-separately rule.
• IRS Publication 502: the 7.5%-of-AGI threshold for itemized medical expenses.
• Schedule 1-A (Form 1040): shows the senior deduction phase-out applied to each spouse.
• IRS news release IR-2025-103: the October 9, 2025 announcement of the 2026 figures.

Method notes. Totals that combine basic and additional amounts, phase-out results and the SALT table rows are our arithmetic using the statutory formulas. The examples are hypothetical and ignore credits, other deductions and state tax. The 2027 SALT figures are computed from the 101% rule in the statute and are not yet confirmed by IRS guidance.

This article is for general information and is not financial or tax advice. Figures are from IRS revenue procedures, IRS publications and Public Law 119-21, checked against the primary sources on 2026-10-04. Your own deduction depends on your filing status, age, income and other items on your return; use IRS instructions or a tax professional for filing decisions.

FAQ

What is the standard deduction for 2026?
$16,100 for single filers and married filing separately, $32,200 for married filing jointly and qualifying surviving spouses, and $24,150 for heads of household, per IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. These apply to 2026 returns filed in 2027.

What is the standard deduction for seniors over 65 in 2026?
A single filer 65 or older gets $16,100 plus $2,050, or $18,150. A married couple filing jointly with both spouses 65 or older gets $32,200 plus $1,650 each, or $35,500. Separately, each person 65 or older may also deduct up to $6,000 under the senior deduction, subject to the income phase-out.

Is the $6,000 senior deduction part of the standard deduction?
No. It is a separate deduction for 2025 through 2028, claimed on Schedule 1-A, and you can take it whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. It is in addition to the extra $1,650 or $2,050 standard deduction for age.

At what income does the senior deduction phase out?
It falls by 6% of modified AGI above $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers. A single filer loses it entirely at $175,000. On a joint return each spouse's $6,000 is reduced, so a couple loses it entirely at $250,000.

What was the 2025 standard deduction?
$15,750 single, $31,500 married filing jointly and $23,625 head of household, as raised by the One Big Beautiful Bill. The earlier published $15,000, $30,000 and $22,500 figures are superseded.

What is the standard deduction for a dependent in 2026?
The greater of $1,350 or earned income plus $450, but no more than the regular standard deduction for the dependent's filing status.

What is the SALT cap for 2026?
$40,400 ($20,200 married filing separately). It shrinks by 30% of modified AGI above $505,000 but not below $10,000. It only matters if you itemize.

Has the IRS released the 2027 standard deduction?
Not as of October 4, 2026. The IRS usually publishes next year's inflation adjustments in October or November; the 2026 figures were released on October 9, 2025.

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"Standard Deduction 2026: $16,100 Single, $32,200 Married, Plus the Extra Amounts at 65." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/standard-deduction-2026/