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Tax year 2025 → 2026

What changed for you in 2026

Every January the contribution limits, the standard deduction, the Social Security wage base and the tax brackets move, and almost nobody is told what that means for them. Here is what moved, what each figure is now, and — once you put in an income and a filing status — what it does to your numbers.

Every figure links its sourceYour income stays in your browserEducational, not advice
Year over year

What moved

The figures below are the same for everyone, whatever they earn and however they file. Each one carries the IRS or SSA document it was read from and the day someone read it — the point being that you can check any of them without taking our word for it.

One more figure, measured in percent rather than dollars. It raises benefits already in payment rather than any limit above.

The last few years

Whether this year’s move is a big one

A limit rising is not news on its own — they nearly always do. What tells you something is the size of the step against the last few, so here are the two headline limits year by year, as far back as the IRS’s own table still shows them.

401(k) employee contribution limit

401(k) employee contribution limit for each year, and how much it moved from the year before
YearLimitMove from the year before
2023$22,500Earliest year shown
2024$23,000+$500
2025$23,500+$500
2026$24,500+$1,000

IRS — COLA increases for dollar limitations on benefits and contributions verified 28 July 2026IRS Notice 2025-67 (IR-2025-111) verified 27 July 2026

IRA contribution limit

IRA contribution limit for each year, and how much it moved from the year before
YearLimitMove from the year before
2023$6,500Earliest year shown
2024$7,000+$500
2025$7,000No change
2026$7,500+$500

IRS — COLA increases for dollar limitations on benefits and contributions verified 28 July 2026IRS Notice 2025-67 (IR-2025-111) verified 27 July 2026

Your numbers

What it means for you

The same income run through both years’ figures, so the difference is the effect of indexing on its own rather than of a pay rise. Nothing is sent anywhere: this runs in your browser.

Your details

About you

Wages before tax, and before any pre-tax contributions.

Sets the rate table and the standard deduction below.

Only changes the HSA line. An HSA needs a qualifying high-deductible health plan.

This runs in your browser. Your income is not sent anywhere and is not stored.
Federal income tax on the same income, 2025 to 2026-$279

$75,000 of wages meets $7,949 of federal income tax on 2025 figures and $7,670 on 2026. The income is held still on both sides, so what is left is the effect of indexing rather than of a pay rise.

Taxable income, 2026
$58,900
Rate on your next dollar
22%
Effective rate on gross
10.23%
Social Security tax, change
No change
Extra 401(k) room
+$1,000
Extra IRA room
+$500
Tax deferred by using that 401(k) room
$220

Deferred, not saved: money going into a traditional 401(k) is taxed when it comes back out instead.

What that adds up to

Across federal income tax and the employee half of Social Security, $75,000 of wages meets $279 less federal tax in 2026 than in 2025 — about $23.25 a month. Your pay is under the Social Security ceiling in both years, so the higher wage base costs you nothing at all.

The limits leave you $1,500 more room in tax-advantaged accounts than 2025 did: +$1,000 in a 401(k), +$500 in an IRA. Spread across the year that is $125 a month. Room is not a target: putting the extra 401(k) room in would defer $220of this year’s federal income tax.

Your next dollar meets 22%on both years’ figures, so the difference above comes from where the band edges and the standard deduction sit, not from a different rate.

Your standard deduction, 2025 to 2026

  • Standard deduction — single

    Subtracted from income before the brackets apply, unless itemising comes to more.

    2025
    $15,750
    2026
    $16,100
    Change
    +$350

What that rise is worth in tax is already inside the difference at the top of this panel, alongside the bracket move. The two are not split apart, because the engine does not separate them and a figure invented here for the split would be exactly the kind of number this page refuses to print.

Where the bands moved — single

Taxable income ceiling for each rate band, 2025 compared with 2026
Rate2025 up to2026 up to
10%$11,925$12,400
12%$48,475$50,400
22%Your next dollar lands in this band$103,350$105,700
24%$197,300$201,775
32%$250,525$256,225
35%$626,350$640,600
37%No ceilingNo ceiling

Ceilings are on taxable income — gross pay less the standard deduction — not on gross pay.

2025IRS: Federal income tax rates and brackets verified 27 July 20262026IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 verified 27 July 2026

What this arithmetic assumes

  • Federal income tax only — no state or local tax.
  • The standard deduction, not itemised deductions.
  • One salary taxed as ordinary income, with no other income, no pre-tax contributions, and no credits.
  • The employee half of Social Security tax. Your employer pays the same again, and the self-employed pay both halves.
  • Medicare tax is left out: it has no wage ceiling, so it is the same in both years for the same income.
  • The same income in both years, so what is left is the effect of indexing rather than of a pay rise.
Provenance

Where every figure came from

These are legally-defined numbers, so a wrong one here would be worse than no page at all. Each is typed in one place from the primary document, and each carries the date it was checked.

The tax years on this page also come from that data, not from your device’s clock. They move when a person has checked the new figures against the source — not at midnight on 1 January, when the calendar has changed and the numbers have not.

Once a year

Get this again when the new figures land

How it works

What the arithmetic does and does not do

The comparison holds your income still across both years. That is the only way to answer “what changed for me”: a real person’s pay moved too, and mixing the two would credit the IRS with their raise. What is left is the effect of indexing — wider bands and a larger standard deduction usually mean slightly less federal income tax on an unchanged salary, while a higher wage base means slightly more Social Security tax for anyone earning above the old ceiling.

It is federal income tax and the employee half of Social Security, on one salary, with the standard deduction and no credits. The full list of simplifications is printed under the result rather than summarised here, so what you read is what the engine actually assumed. Contribution limits are limits, not targets: the page reports how much more room there is, never that you should use it.

The rest of the picture
Common questions

Questions about what changed this year

What actually changed for 2026?

The contribution limits, the standard deduction, the federal band edges and the payroll ceiling all moved. 401(k) employee contribution limit is $24,500 for 2026, $1,000 more than the $23,500 that applied in 2025. IRA contribution limit is $7,500 for 2026, $500 more than the $7,000 that applied in 2025. Social Security wage base is $184,500 for 2026, $8,400 more than the $176,100 that applied in 2025. The rate tables and the standard deduction changed as well, and both are shown against 2025 for your filing status in the panel on this page.

How much more can I put into a 401(k) in 2026?

401(k) employee contribution limit is $24,500 for 2026, $1,000 more than the $23,500 that applied in 2025. 401(k) catch-up, age 50 and over is $8,000 for 2026, $500 more than the $7,500 that applied in 2025. 401(k) catch-up, ages 60 to 63 is $11,250 for 2026, unchanged from 2025. That is the limit on money from your own pay across 401(k), 403(b) and most 457 plans. Anything your employer puts in sits outside it, and the ages 60 to 63 catch-up replaces the age-50 one rather than adding to it.

Did the standard deduction go up?

Standard deduction — single is $16,100 for 2026, $350 more than the $15,750 that applied in 2025. Standard deduction — married filing jointly is $32,200 for 2026, $700 more than the $31,500 that applied in 2025. The panel on this page uses whichever filing status you pick, and what the rise is worth in tax is already inside the difference it reports.

Did health account limits change for 2026?

HSA contribution limit, self-only cover is $4,400 for 2026, $100 more than the $4,300 that applied in 2025. HSA contribution limit, family cover is $8,750 for 2026, $200 more than the $8,550 that applied in 2025. Health FSA salary reduction limit is $3,400 for 2026, $100 more than the $3,300 that applied in 2025. Health FSA carryover into the next plan year is $680 for 2026, $20 more than the $660 that applied in 2025. An HSA needs a qualifying high-deductible health plan and counts your employer's contributions towards the limit; an FSA needs no particular plan, but only the carryover above survives the end of the plan year, and only where the plan offers one.

Did Social Security benefits and the wage base move?

Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is 2.8% for 2026, after 2.5% for 2025. That is what benefits already in payment went up by. The ceiling on the tax that funds them moved as well. Social Security wage base is $184,500 for 2026, $8,400 more than the $176,100 that applied in 2025. Earnings above that ceiling are not subject to Social Security tax at all, so a higher one means more tax on an unchanged salary for anyone earning above the old ceiling — which is why the panel on this page adds that line to the income-tax line instead of reporting only the one that fell.

Why do some of these figures move and others jump?

Most are indexed: the law ties them to a measure of inflation, and the IRS or the SSA publishes the new amount each autumn. Not all of them are. The estate and gift basic exclusion for 2026 was set by Congress outright in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act rather than adjusted for inflation, with indexing resuming the year after — so its jump is an act of legislation and not a reading of the CPI.

Is this year's increase large by recent standards?

The 401(k) employee limit moved +$500 in 2024, +$500 in 2025, +$1,000 in 2026. The years are shown side by side above, each citing the document it was read from. The line stops where it does because the IRS's own multi-year table carries four years and drops the fifth, and a longer one would have to cite a page that no longer shows the number.

Have all the 2026 figures been published?

Yes. Every figure on this page has been published by the IRS or the SSA, and each links the document it was read from and the day a person read it. The agencies publish on different schedules — HSA limits in May, brackets in October, retirement limits in November — so for part of each year a figure is genuinely missing, and when that happens it is left blank here rather than filled in with last year's number.

A limit went up. Should I contribute more?

This page does not say, and cannot. A limit is a ceiling on what is allowed, not a recommendation about what is wise, and what is wise depends on your income, your debts, your emergency savings and your plan's rules — none of which this page knows. It reports how much more room there is and what using the extra 401(k) room would defer in tax. The decision is yours, and for one that matters, a qualified tax professional is worth the fee.

Where do these numbers come from, and when were they checked?

Each is typed once from the primary IRS or SSA document and carries a link to it and the date a person read it — 9 documents in all, listed under "Where every figure came from" on this page. The tax years come from that same data and never from your device's clock: they move when someone has checked the new figures against the source, not at midnight on 1 January when the calendar has changed and the numbers have not.