The 2026 standard deduction is the amount the IRS lets you subtract from adjusted gross income before any tax bracket applies, and for a single filer it is $16,100. It is not a refund and not a credit — it removes income from the calculation, which is why its value depends on which bracket that income would have been taxed in.
The 2026 amounts, by filing status
| Filing status | Standard deduction (2026) |
|---|---|
| Single | $16,100 |
| Married filing separately | $16,100 |
| Head of household | $24,150 |
| Married filing jointly (or surviving spouse) | $32,200 |
These are the figures published in Rev. Proc. 2025-32 for tax years beginning in 2026, and they match what IRS Tax Topic 551 lists for the same year. The joint amount is exactly twice the single amount; the head of household amount sits between them because it carries a dependent.
Where the 2026 number comes from
The standard deduction is subject to the annual inflation adjustment in §4 of the revenue procedure, so the 2026 figure is not the 2025 figure — it is revised each year together with the brackets. For 2026 the increased amounts are also permanent rather than scheduled to expire: Publication 15-T states that its 2026 withholding tables were updated for P.L. 119-21, “including the permanent extension of the increased standard deduction.”
Two consequences follow, and both matter more than the exact dollars:
- The deduction and the bracket boundaries move together, so the deduction cannot push you into a lower bracket — it moves the whole calculation down.
- Because it is deducted before the brackets, it is worth your marginal rate, not your average rate.
What the 2026 amount is actually worth
Take the deduction away and the same income is taxed from the first dollar. The difference is the tax value of the deduction:
| Filer | Income | Taxable income | Tax with deduction | Tax without | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $78,000 | $61,900 | $8,330 | $11,872 | $3,542 |
| Head of household | $95,000 | $70,850 | $8,488 | $13,801 | $5,313 |
| Married filing jointly | $130,000 | $97,800 | $11,240 | $18,024 | $6,784 |
| Single | $156,000 | $139,900 | $26,174 | $30,038 | $3,864 |
Read the saving column against the deduction:
- $3,542 is 22% of $16,100. The whole single deduction sits inside the 22% band for that income.
- $5,313 is 22% of $24,150. Same rate, larger deduction. Head of household reaches 22% sooner because its 12% band ends at $67,450 of taxable income instead of $50,400.
- $3,864 is 24% of $16,100. The higher earner gets more per dollar deducted, because the dollars would have been taxed at 24%.
- $6,784 is 21.07% of $32,200. This is the one anomaly, and it is arithmetic, not an exception: removing the joint deduction pushes $29,200 of income past the $100,800 top of the 12% band into 22%, so part of the deduction saves 12% and part saves 22%. The tax without the deduction is $2,480 + $9,120 + $6,424 = $18,024, not $11,240 plus a flat 22%.
Run your own income through the income tax calculator to see which band your deduction lands in.
Four places the 2026 figure reaches
1. Your paycheck. Employers do not ask employees for their deduction — the 2026 amount is embedded in the percentage-method tables of Publication 15-T. A single filer paid $1,500 a week has $78,000 annualized, $61,900 of taxable income after the $16,100 deduction, $8,330 of annual tax and therefore $160.19 of federal income tax withheld per week, alongside $93.00 of Social Security and $21.75 of Medicare. That is a net of $1,225.06 out of $1,500. Verify your own stub with the withholding calculator.
2. The 0% long-term capital gains bracket. Long-term gains are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% depending on where taxable income falls — and taxable income is measured after the standard deduction. The 0% band runs to $49,450 of taxable income for a single filer and $98,900 for a joint return, so a filer with no other income can realize $65,550 of long-term gains ($49,450 + $16,100) with no federal capital gains tax, or $131,100 on a joint return. Any W-2 or interest income eats that room first. Model it in the capital gains calculator; IRS Tax Topic 409 covers how the gain itself is measured.
3. Estimated payments. If you pay quarterly, the deduction is already assumed in the annualized-income method the worksheets use — do not subtract it twice, and do not skip it. The estimated tax calculator applies it once, at the annual level.
4. Not the Net Investment Income Tax. The 3.8% NIIT threshold is a fixed $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for joint filers and is not adjusted for inflation, so the standard deduction does not move it. A filer who crosses the threshold pays the surtax on the lesser of net investment income or the excess over the threshold regardless of the deduction.
What the standard deduction does not reduce
This is where most of the confusion about “the 2026 deduction” comes from — four taxes ignore it entirely:
- Social Security, at 6.2% of wages up to the $184,500 wage base in 2026. Charged on gross wages, before any deduction.
- Medicare, at 1.45%, plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 single or $250,000 joint.
- Self-employment tax. Self-employed earnings are multiplied by 92.35% and then taxed at 15.3% — an effective 14.13% — and the standard deduction does not touch that base. It only reduces the income tax on top. The self-employment tax calculator separates the two layers.
- State income tax. Each state sets its own standard deduction or none at all.
Using the 2026 figure correctly on your return
- Take one deduction per return, not per job. Two W-2s still produce a single $16,100 deduction — but each employer withheld as if it were your only job, which is where surprise balances come from.
- Compare against itemized deductions. Mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to the cap, charitable gifts and medical expenses above the threshold are the main items; you take whichever total is larger. Tax Topic 501 walks through the choice.
- Subtract it after adjustments, not before. Order is: total income → adjustments → adjusted gross income → standard deduction → taxable income → brackets.
- Do not apply it to self-employment or FICA. Those are computed on their own bases.
- Round nothing by hand. The IRS tables and the calculators already round consistently; recomputing from the bracket table by hand is where most small discrepancies appear.
The 2026 amounts are in Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §4.14, with the summary in IRS Tax Topic 551, the itemizing comparison in Tax Topic 501, the capital gains rates in Tax Topic 409, and the withholding treatment in Publication 15-T.