For tax year 2026, the 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, according to the IRS inflation adjustments issued under Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Those are the amounts that will apply to the income you are earning right now, on the return you file in early 2027.
The standard-or-itemize question sounds like accountant territory, but it is really a single comparison: does your pile of deductible expenses add up to more than the flat amount the IRS gives everyone automatically? For roughly nine out of ten households the answer is no, and the standard deduction wins without a fight. The interesting work is knowing whether you are in the other ten percent, because the 2025 tax law moved some of the goalposts.
What the standard deduction actually does
The standard deduction is a no-questions-asked subtraction from your income before tax is calculated. No receipts, no records, no extra forms. A married couple earning $90,000 in 2026 pays federal income tax on $57,800 of it, before any other adjustments even enter the picture. The 2025 law made the enlarged deduction permanent and kept it growing with inflation, which is why the numbers tick up each year.
People who are 65 or older or blind get an additional standard deduction amount on top of the base figure. And through 2028, taxpayers 65 and older can also claim a separate bonus deduction of up to $6,000 per qualifying person under the 2025 law, which phases out at higher incomes and applies whether you itemize or not, as the IRS explains on its page covering the new deductions for workers and seniors.
What itemizing means
Itemizing replaces the flat amount with the actual total of specific expenses listed on Schedule A: state and local taxes up to a cap, home mortgage interest, charitable donations, and medical expenses above 7.5 percent of your income, plus a few narrower categories. You need records for all of it. The only reason to bother is a total that beats your standard deduction, and every serious tax software runs both calculations and picks the winner automatically.
The SALT change that flips some households
For years the state-and-local-tax deduction was capped at $10,000, which kept most homeowners in high-tax states from itemizing. The 2025 law raised that cap to $40,000 beginning in tax year 2025, with small annual increases after that, though the benefit phases back down for incomes above $500,000. That single change flips the math for a meaningful slice of households: a couple paying $20,000 in property and state income taxes plus mortgage interest may now clear the $32,200 joint standard deduction comfortably after years of falling short.
If you bought a home, refinanced into years of front-loaded interest, or live in a high-tax state, 2026 is a year to actually run the comparison instead of assuming the standard deduction wins like it used to.
Charity now counts a little even without itemizing
Another 2026 change worth flagging: beginning this tax year, the law allows a charitable deduction for people who do not itemize, up to $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for joint filers, for cash gifts to qualifying charities. Itemizers face a new floor instead, with cash gifts deductible only to the extent total contributions exceed a small percentage of income. The details live on the same IRS pages covering the 2025 law’s changes. The practical takeaway: keep receipts for cash donations this year even if you have never itemized in your life.
How to run your own comparison
Make a rough list for 2026 as the year unfolds: state income tax withheld from your paychecks, property tax bills, mortgage interest (your servicer’s annual estimate works), and planned charitable giving. Add medical costs only if a major expense year is pushing you past 7.5 percent of income. Compare the total to your standard deduction: $16,100, $24,150, or $32,200. If you are close to the line, timing becomes a tool: donors sometimes bunch two years of charitable gifts into one calendar year to clear the hurdle every other year, and a January property tax bill paid in December can shift a deduction between years where local rules allow it.
One caution in the other direction: do not chase deductions for their own sake. Spending a dollar to save thirty cents of tax is still spending seventy cents. The standard deduction exists precisely so most people can skip the shoebox of receipts, take the guaranteed number, and get on with their lives. The point of knowing the 2026 figures is simpler: if your real expenses already exceed them, the tax code will pay you for fifteen minutes of arithmetic.
