The IRS has confirmed the standard deduction for the 2026 tax year, and the numbers are higher than what most filers saw on their last return.
Married couples filing jointly get $32,200, and heads of household land at $24,150.
Those figures come from the annual inflation adjustments the agency rolls out each fall.
They apply to tax returns filed in early 2027, so if you're filing this spring, you're still working with last year's numbers.
The bump is modest but real — roughly $300 to $600 more per filing status, depending on which one applies to you.
Here's the part that matters more than the headline number.
The standard deduction is the amount of income you can shield from federal tax without itemizing a single receipt.
If you're single and made $60,000, only about $43,900 of that is taxable after the deduction.
That's not a refund — it's a smaller bill.
The new numbers are also reviving an old question: should you still bother itemizing?
For most households, the answer keeps tilting toward no.
When the standard deduction doubled back in 2018, the share of filers who itemized fell from roughly 30% to about 10%, and it hasn't recovered.
Charitable giving, mortgage interest, and state taxes often don't add up to enough to beat the standard amount anymore.
Homeowners with big mortgages in high-tax states, people who gave a lot to charity in one year, and anyone with large out-of-pocket medical expenses may come out ahead by itemizing.
Everyone else can usually file the short form and move on.
One trap worth flagging: the extra deduction for people 65 and older.
It stacks on top of the standard amount, but the rules differ depending on your filing status and whether your spouse also qualifies.
TurboTax and H&R Block both prompt for it, but paper filers miss it constantly.
Also note that the standard deduction doesn't touch self-employment tax or the additional Medicare tax.
If you freelance, you still owe the full 15.3% self-employment tax on net earnings, deduction or not.
That surprises a lot of first-time 1099 filers every April.
For 2026 planning, the practical move is simple.
Check whether your total itemizable expenses clear the new threshold — $16,100 single, $32,200 joint, $24,150 head of household.
If they're close, consider bunching two years of charitable donations into one to push yourself over the line.
The IRS publishes the full tables in Revenue Procedure 2025-32, and they're worth a skim if your income sits near a bracket edge.
A few hundred dollars of shifted income can change what you owe.
Our take: this is a quiet win for the average filer, not a windfall.
The increase roughly tracks inflation, which means it mostly keeps you even rather than ahead.
Final Thoughts
But if you've been itemizing out of habit for years without checking the math, this is a good year to stop.