The Internal Revenue Service said November 5 that married couples filing jointly will get a 2027 standard deduction of $33,200, which is $1,000 more than in 2026, while single filers will be able to deduct $16,600 (IR-2026-133). The same announcement moved the income cutoffs for each federal tax bracket and raised the maximum child tax credit to $2,300. None of this changes the return due in April 2027, because that return covers 2026 income and the new amounts apply to returns filed in 2028, but workers choosing how much to save or withhold are already living inside the 2027 brackets.
The 2027 standard deduction and tax brackets
Under the 2027 standard deduction, heads of household will deduct $24,925, married people filing separately $16,600, and personal exemptions stay at zero. The release does not give the 2026 amounts for single filers or heads of household, so the $1,000 rise for couples is the only change it confirms. It adds that the limit that once trimmed itemized deductions for high earners is gone for good, although it still reduces what itemizing is worth to someone in the 37 percent bracket.
The brackets work like a staircase, and the IRS release lists where each step begins. A single filer pays 10 percent on income up to $12,800 and 12 percent up to $52,025, and a joint return gets exactly double those cutoffs, $25,600 and $104,050.
Above that, single filers reach the 22 percent rate at $52,025 and the 24 percent rate at $109,125, while couples reach them at $104,050 and $218,250. The 32 and 35 percent rates start at $208,325 and $264,550 for a single filer, and at $416,650 and $529,100 for a couple, and the top rate of 37 percent applies only above $661,375 or $793,650. Heads of household and separate filers are missing from the page, so they will need Revenue Procedure 2026-35.
The IRS adjusts these amounts every year for inflation, which is why the cutoffs rise even when Congress changes nothing. A worker whose pay rises only as fast as prices should land in the same bracket as before, while a worker whose pay jumps faster may cross a cutoff and see the extra dollars taxed at the next rate.
Only the dollars above a cutoff are taxed at the higher rate, which is easiest to see with three examples we worked out for this article. A single worker with $50,000 in wages would subtract the $16,600 2027 standard deduction to reach $33,400 of taxable income, pay $1,280 on the first $12,800 and $2,472 on the $20,600 above it, and owe about $3,752 before credits, or roughly 7.5 percent of pay.
A single worker with $60,000 of taxable income pays $1,280 on the first $12,800, $4,707 on the $39,225 that follows and $1,755 on the last $7,975, or about $7,742 in all. A married couple earning $90,000 in wages would subtract the $33,200 joint 2027 standard deduction to reach $56,800 of taxable income, pay $2,560 on the first $25,600 and $3,744 on the remaining $31,200, and owe about $6,304. None of these figures is a prediction for a particular return, since credits and other income change the result.
Credits, gifts and other limits that changed
Families see the largest changes in the credits. The maximum child tax credit goes up $100 to $2,300, and the part that can be refunded rises by the same amount to $1,800, so a household with little tax liability may still receive it. The earned income credit for a family with three or more children reaches $8,496, compared with $8,231 now, and the adoption credit peaks at $18,250, up from $17,670.
Gift and estate rules shift as well. A person can give $20,000 to any one recipient in 2027 without filing a gift tax return, up from $19,000, and an estate’s basic exclusion grows to $15,480,000 from $15,000,000. The transportation and parking benefit reaches $350 a month, and the health flexible spending account limit rises to $3,500. The Lifetime Learning Credit phase-outs stay where they were, since the law has not indexed them since 2020.
What the release leaves out
Retirement plan and IRA limits do not appear on the IRS page, and neither does the cap on the deduction for state and local taxes. Those come in separate notices, and until they arrive our look at the Roth IRA limits for 2026 covers the current ones. A larger 2027 standard deduction also will not change a paycheck in January by itself, because employers follow their own withholding schedules and the Form W-4 each worker files.
Using the numbers now
Nothing here changes a 2026 return, so the practical use is planning. A household can estimate 2027 taxable income by subtracting the 2027 standard deduction from expected wages and seeing which bracket the last dollars land in, and someone whose income sits just above a cutoff may find that extra pre-tax saving keeps more of it in the lower bracket. For the year that is closing, our year-end tax moves checklist covers deadlines that fall on December 31, and our report on the 2027 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment shows how benefit income may feed into the same math.
What does not change
Several rules carry over untouched. Personal exemptions remain at zero, the Lifetime Learning Credit ranges are the same as before, and the seven bracket rates themselves, from 10 percent to 37 percent, stay in place, so the 2027 changes are all about the dollar cutoffs and credit amounts.
That distinction matters for anyone expecting a lower rate on a given paycheck. A wage earner who stays in the 22 percent bracket in 2027 will still pay 22 cents on each extra dollar of taxable income, and the benefit of the new cutoffs shows up only when income lands near a boundary. The IRS also notes that its inflation figures are published once a year and are not updated afterward, so a reader who wants the final number should check Revenue Procedure 2026-35 directly.
Editor’s take
The headline changes are small, about $1,000 more in the 2027 standard deduction for couples and $100 more in the child credit. The bracket cutoffs matter more over time, because they keep a raise that only matches inflation from pushing income into a higher rate. The figures are best used as a planning guide for 2028 filing, with Revenue Procedure 2026-35 checked before anyone relies on a single number.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Rules vary by filer, so confirm your situation with a tax professional.
