What Is the 2026 Standard Deduction? ($32,200 Married, $16,100 Single — More If You're 65+)

The 2026 base amounts (OBBBA already included)

These amounts come from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, and they already reflect the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's permanent increase — the revenue procedure explicitly incorporates P.L. 119-21 §70102. A calculator (or blog post) that adds a further "OBBBA bump" on top is double-counting. Note the two quirks in the add-on column: a qualifying surviving spouse gets the joint base amount but the $1,650 (not $2,050) add-on rate, and married filing separately uses the single base amount with the married add-on rate.

These are the same base amounts the rest of the site's 2026 tools subtract — the OBBBA data file and the shared tax-year file are checked against each other at build time, so the figure shown here is exactly the one the tax bracket calculator and take-home pay calculator apply. The table shows only the base amount and the per-condition add-on unit; the sections below work through the three ways that base can change: the age-65 and blindness add-ons, the smaller limit for a dependent, and the optional senior bonus stacked on top.

Where the standard deduction sits in your return

The standard deduction is the subtraction between adjusted gross income and taxable income: taxable income is AGI minus either this flat amount or your itemized deductions, whichever you choose, and the bracket schedule then runs on what remains. It is the figure most returns use, and the only path this tool computes — it does not total itemized deductions or judge which path is larger. The age-65 and blindness add-ons in the next section exist only on the standard-deduction path; choose to itemize and they fall away. The separate $6,000 senior bonus is the exception: it is claimed on Schedule 1-A and is available whether or not you itemize, which is why it sits in its own layer rather than inside these figures and never reduces AGI or MAGI. To watch the amount here feed the bracket math, carry it into the federal income tax calculator; for how OBBBA reshaped this and the other 2026 deductions, read What OBBBA Changes on Your 2026 Return.

Age 65+ and blind: the §63(f) add-ons stack per person

Each condition — 65 or older at year-end, legally blind — adds one unit, and one person can count both. A single 67-year-old gets $16,100 + $2,050 = $18,150; if also blind, $16,100 + $2,050 × 2 = $20,200. A married couple both 67 gets $32,200 + $1,650 × 2 = $35,500 — and could reach four add-ons if both were also blind. These add-ons only exist if you take the standard deduction rather than itemizing.

The add-on unit tracks marital status, not the base amount. Unmarried filers who are not surviving spouses — single and head of household — add $2,050 per condition; married filers, married filing separately, and qualifying surviving spouses add $1,650. So a single filer who is 65 and blind adds $4,100 in all, while married filing separately pairs the single base with the married unit: a $16,100 base plus $1,650 for one condition is $17,750. A qualifying surviving spouse keeps the joint base — $32,200 plus $1,650 is $33,850. The calculator counts your conditions, adds your spouse's only when the status is married filing jointly, and the whole-year test is your status and age at December 31, 2026.

Claimed as a dependent? A different, smaller limit

A person who can be claimed as a dependent gets the greater of $1,350 or earned income + $450, capped at the base amount for the filing status. With $800 of earned income that is max($1,350, $1,250) = $1,350. Earn enough and the limit climbs until it hits the normal base amount.

The limit rises with earned income but never past the base amount. With $5,000 of earned income it is max($1,350, $5,450) = $5,450; with $30,000 the uncapped figure would be $30,450, so it stops at the $16,100 single base — $16,100. Because this limitation replaces the whole computation, the tool does not layer age-65 or blindness add-ons onto a dependent's amount; those are out of scope here.

The optional third layer: the $6,000 senior bonus

Separate from everything above, taxpayers 65+ get a temporary $6,000-per-person deduction for 2025–2028 (IRC §151(d)(5)) — not part of the standard deduction, available even to itemizers, and phasing out above $150,000 of MAGI for joint filers. Tick the senior-bonus checkbox in the calculator to see the three layers together. For a couple both 67 with MAGI $150,000 the bonus is still full: $32,200 + $3,300 + $12,000 = $47,500 off income. Raise that MAGI to $200,000 and the per-person bonus falls to $3,000 — $50,000 of excess costs $6,000 across the couple — so the stack becomes $32,200 + $3,300 + $6,000 = $41,500. The full phase-out math, the per-person married-couple reading, and the eligibility rules live on the senior bonus deduction calculator, and the wider set of 2026 changes on What OBBBA Changes on Your 2026 Return.

One honest limitation: the stack view is not modeled for qualifying surviving spouses. Select that combination and the calculator shows the engine's own message — "The senior-bonus stacking view is not modeled for qualifying surviving spouses — compute the $6,000 senior deduction separately."

How to read the result

The figure the calculator returns is a subtraction from income, not a tax and not a refund. It lowers the taxable income the brackets act on, so what it is worth to you is your marginal rate applied to the deduction — not the deduction itself. The result box names the base amount, any §63(f) add-ons, and, when you ask for it, the senior-bonus layer; the first two move together as your standard deduction, while the third is tallied separately because it is not part of that figure. See how the standard deduction then feeds the bracket math in the federal income tax calculator, or read how tax brackets actually work.

Three limits are worth holding in view. The amounts assume you are taking the standard deduction; a filer who itemizes uses Schedule A instead and loses the aged/blind add-ons, though not the senior bonus. A married-filing-separately filer whose spouse itemizes generally gets a $0 standard deduction, which this lookup does not detect — it computes the base figure either way. And the whole computation is federal only: it decides nothing about state standard deductions, which follow their own rules. The rest of the site's explainers are gathered under Guides.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Every figure above traces to a primary source (constants verified 2026-08-18):

• Base amounts, aged/blind add-ons, dependent limit — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments under §63(c) and §63(f)), which explicitly incorporates the amendments made by P.L. 119-21 §70102.
• The separate $6,000 senior deduction — IRC §151(d)(5), added by P.L. 119-21 §70103; see the IRS OBBBA deductions overview.

Not tax advice: an educational lookup for federal tax year 2026 (returns filed in 2027) — no state tax, no AMT modeling, no NIIT. It does not model aged/blind add-ons for dependents, nonresident-alien or short-year limitations, or the rule for a married-filing-separately filer whose spouse itemizes (generally a $0 standard deduction — see IRS Publication 501). Consult a tax professional for your situation. Values are processed locally in your browser and never transmitted. See the methodology page.