Tax Notes & News
Updates, analysis, and notes for federal and state/provincial tax information. Use the links below to jump to the live Tax Tables for each jurisdiction, or read our in-depth articles.
Federal
Federal income tax brackets, capital gains, and standard deduction. Our tables are driven by the same data used in the calculator.
Recent notes
Four new federal deductions for tax years 2025 through 2028 (tips, overtime, car loan interest and a senior deduction), a higher SALT cap, and Trump Accounts.
TCJA rates preserved by the OBBB: 10%–37% brackets with inflation-adjusted thresholds. Standard deduction $16,100 single / $32,200 MFJ.
The OBBB made the elevated estate/gift tax exemption permanent at $15M per person ($30M per couple), indexed to inflation.
Inflation-adjusted federal brackets and standard deduction for tax year 2025.
IRS Revenue Procedure 23-34: 2024 inflation-adjusted brackets and standard deduction for single filers.
Federal articles
For 2027 the standard deduction rises to $16,600 single and $33,200 joint, the extra amount at 65 to $2,100 or $1,700, and the SALT cap to $40,804 with its phase-down starting at $510,050. The $6,000 senior deduction does not move. A 67-year-old single filer's deductions rise by $550, and a $520,000 couple with $50,000 of state and local taxes gains $1,919.
Starting with tax year 2026, §165(d) lets you deduct only 90 percent of gambling losses, still capped at winnings. A $65,000 earner who wins and loses $50,000 pays $1,100 more federal tax than the same year would have cost under the 2025 rule, while Illinois, North Carolina and Connecticut allow no gambling losses at all.
A $1,000 deduction lowers taxable income, so it is worth the filer's bracket rate: $120 at 12%, $220 at 22% and $240 at 24% for 2026. A $1,000 credit comes off the tax itself and is worth $1,000 at any of them. On the state return the two stack differently: a federal adjustment can lower state tax too, while a federal credit never reaches it.
Take whichever deduction is larger. For 2026 a single filer itemizes federally only once Schedule A tops $16,100, so $12,000 of mortgage interest, property tax and gifts loses to the standard deduction. New York and California let the same filer itemize on the state return anyway, while Georgia and Virginia tie the state choice to the federal one.
A single filer with $65,000 of wages who puts $4,000 in a traditional IRA and pays $2,500 of student loan interest has $58,500 of adjusted gross income for 2026. That cuts federal income tax by $780, and most state returns pick up the same lower figure, but Pennsylvania allows neither deduction.
State & Local Analysis
In-depth articles on state-specific tax situations, legislative changes, and interstate comparisons.
Twelve state renter programs, run for one single filer earning $65,000 and paying $1,500 a month: six pay something, led by Minnesota's $968 refundable credit, and six pay nothing because their income limits or age rules stop well short of that renter.
For tax year 2025 the IRS asked a single filer under 65 for a return at $15,750 of gross income. Twenty-four states drew their own line lower, from Pennsylvania's $33 to Kentucky's $15,650, and California drew it higher, at $22,941.
Fifteen states changed an income tax rate for tax year 2026. For a single filer on $65,000 of wages, Montana's change is worth the most and Maine's is worth nothing, and South Carolina's rate cut is worth more than twice what that filer keeps, because the same law shrank the deduction.
For 2026, 15 states and the District of Columbia sit in 30 reciprocal pairings that leave a commuter's wages to the home state alone. Without one, an Indiana resident earning $65,000 in Illinois pays Illinois's tax in full and Indiana's credit only cancels Indiana's.
For tax year 2026, a $65,000 single filer who also collects $10,000 of unemployment owes no state tax on it in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama or the District of Columbia. Wisconsin and Indiana offer a break that is gone by $32,000 of income, and Montana repealed its exclusion in 2024.
For tax year 2026, ten of the 41 states that tax wages let the federal tip deduction reduce state tax, and eight do the same for overtime. Georgia and Alabama wrote smaller deductions of their own, twelve states have said in writing that tips stay taxable, and for seventeen we found no published answer.
Planning & Explainers
Practical guides on tax planning strategies, new forms, and how to make the most of the 2026 tax changes.
Before December 31, 2026, an extra $5,000 of 401(k) deferral cuts the $65,000 single filer's federal tax by $600 and the $185,000 filer's by $1,200; harvesting $18,000 of losses saves the second filer $2,970. Pennsylvania taxes the deferral anyway; Illinois does not.
Public Law 119-21 repealed the TCJA phase-down before the 20% year arrived: property acquired after January 19, 2025 gets a permanent 100% first-year write-off. The 2026 Section 179 cap is $2,560,000, and the 20% QBI deduction no longer expires.
Itemizing pays for tax year 2026 once Schedule A clears $16,100 single or $32,200 joint. Under the $40,400 SALT cap, a single homeowner's state and local taxes clear that line by themselves in New Jersey and Illinois; in Texas and Florida the standard deduction usually still wins.
Taxpayers 65 and older deduct an extra $6,000 each through 2028, stacked on the standard deduction and the age-65 addition: for 2026 the layers total $24,150 for a single filer and $47,500 for a couple who are both 65. Each $6,000 shrinks by six cents per dollar of modified AGI over $75,000 ($150,000 joint) and is gone at $175,000 ($250,000 joint).
OBBBA §70106 set the federal estate and gift exclusion at $15 million for 2026 and struck the sunset. Twelve states and DC still levy their own estate taxes, and a $10 million estate that owes the IRS nothing owes Washington State $1,100,000.
US states
Select a state to open its rate tables for 2026.
Canadian provinces
Select a province to open its rate tables. Federal (Canada) and provincial brackets are available on the Tax Tables page.