Year-over-year
2026 Standard Deduction Increase: What It Saves
Between tax years 2025 and 2026 the standard deduction rose by $350 for single filers, $700 for joint filers and $525 for heads of household. Those are small numbers, but their value depends entirely on the marginal rate that would otherwise have applied to that slice of income.
This tool applies the increase to your 2026 marginal bracket and reports the approximate federal income tax saved. It is a marginal estimate, not a full two-year tax comparison, because 2025 bracket thresholds are not part of the IRS figures used on this site.
Calculator
Official 2026 figures used here
| Marginal rate | Single (+$350) | Joint (+$700) | Head of household (+$525*) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $35 | $70 | $53 |
| 12% | $42 | $84 | $63 |
| 22% | $77 | $154 | $116 |
| 24% | $84 | $168 | $126 |
| 32% | $112 | $224 | $168 |
| 35% | $123 | $245 | $184 |
| 37% | $130 | $259 | $194 |
How to read the result
A deduction reduces taxable income, so its cash value equals the deduction multiplied by the rate that would have applied to those dollars. A $350 increase saves $77 for someone in the 22% bracket but only $35 for someone in the 10% bracket.
If the increase straddles a bracket boundary, the true saving is a blend of two rates. The result panel detects that case and splits the calculation across both brackets rather than applying a single rate to the whole amount.
The head of household column is labeled as illustrative because the IRS guidance used here publishes bracket thresholds for single and joint filers only. The $525 deduction increase itself is an official figure; the rate applied to it is shown as an approximation.
Two details explain why the estimate is modest. The adjustment is an inflation-indexed change to a single deduction, not a new credit, so its cash value is capped by the marginal rate rather than being worth its face amount. And when the increase straddles a bracket boundary, part of it saves tax at the lower rate and part at the higher one; the result panel splits that band instead of applying one rate to the whole amount. That split is also why the flat-rate reference table above is a quick guide rather than a precise answer near a threshold. Households close to a boundary should rely on the calculated result.
Questions people ask about this figure
How much did the 2026 standard deduction rise?
By $350 for single and married filing separately, $700 for married filing jointly, and $525 for head of household.
Is the saving the same as a tax credit?
No. A credit reduces tax dollar for dollar. A deduction reduces taxable income, so its value is scaled by your marginal rate.
Why not compare full 2025 and 2026 tax bills?
Doing that correctly requires the 2025 bracket thresholds, which are not in the IRS release used as the data source here. This tool limits itself to the deduction change.
Related calculators
Every figure on this page appears in the official release listed below. The values were checked against those pages on 2026-11-14. Where a release states a threshold but does not publish a rate, this site reports the threshold and does not estimate the missing value.
- IRS: Tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 — Revenue Procedure 2025-32 / IR-2025-103