Most Americans filing their 2025 tax returns will claim a standard deduction of $15,750 if single or $31,500 if married filing jointly, amounts large enough that tracking receipts for itemized deductions no longer pays off for the vast majority. Those figures, set after Congress amended the tax code through the One Big Beautiful Bill, already exceed what a typical household could accumulate in mortgage interest, state and local taxes, and charitable gifts combined. And the gap is about to widen: the IRS has announced that the standard deduction for tax year 2026 will climb to $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples.
How rising standard deductions push itemizers to the margins
The shift away from itemizing began with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted in 2017 as Public Law 115‑97. That law nearly doubled the standard deduction starting in 2018 and simultaneously capped the state and local tax (SALT) deduction at $10,000. Together, those changes made itemizing a losing proposition for millions of filers who had previously benefited from listing individual expenses on Schedule A.
The One Big Beautiful Bill extended and expanded that framework by amending Internal Revenue Code Section 63(c), which governs how the standard deduction is calculated and adjusted for inflation. Under the revised formula, the base amounts are higher and continue to rise with annual cost-of-living adjustments. For tax year 2025, the head-of-household deduction sits at $23,625. For 2026, it rises to $24,150, according to the IRS inflation adjustment announcement. Each annual increase raises the threshold a filer must clear before itemizing becomes worthwhile, effectively shrinking the pool of people for whom the effort makes financial sense.
A married couple filing jointly in 2026 would need more than $32,200 in qualifying deductions to beat the standard amount. With the SALT cap still in place and average mortgage balances generating less interest as rates stabilize, relatively few households outside high-cost metro areas or high-income brackets can reach that bar. Many taxpayers who once tracked property tax bills, medical expenses, and charitable donations now find that even diligent recordkeeping does not produce deductions large enough to justify itemizing.
IRS figures that define the 2025 and 2026 filing math
The numbers driving this trend come directly from two IRS documents. The Internal Revenue Bulletin for 2025, volume 45, confirms the tax year 2025 standard deduction amounts: $15,750 for single and married-filing-separately filers, $31,500 for joint filers, and $23,625 for heads of household. Those are the figures taxpayers will use when they file returns in early 2026.
Looking one year ahead, the IRS set the 2026 standard deduction at $16,100 for single and married-filing-separately filers, $32,200 for joint filers, and $24,150 for heads of household. The jump from 2025 to 2026, roughly $350 for single filers and $700 for couples, reflects the inflation indexing mechanism Congress embedded in Section 63(c) and then refined in the One Big Beautiful Bill. While the year-to-year increase may appear modest, the cumulative effect since the 2017 overhaul has been dramatic, lifting the standard deduction to levels that were once reserved only for households with substantial mortgage interest or very high state and local tax burdens.
For practical purposes, these official figures give taxpayers a simple decision rule. If their expected mortgage interest, SALT payments (subject to the $10,000 cap), charitable contributions, and other Schedule A items do not exceed the standard deduction for their filing status, itemizing will not reduce their tax bill. In that case, the higher standard deduction functions as both a tax benefit and a simplification tool, allowing filers to skip the paperwork and still receive a sizable reduction in taxable income.
What the higher thresholds mean for households
The steady rise in standard deductions carries different implications across income levels and regions. Middle-income households in areas with moderate housing costs are the most likely to rely exclusively on the standard deduction, as their typical mix of mortgage interest and SALT payments often falls well below the 2025 and 2026 thresholds. For them, the new amounts translate into lower taxable income and a streamlined filing experience, but little incentive to track potential itemized deductions throughout the year.
By contrast, some homeowners in high-cost states, along with higher-income taxpayers who make large charitable gifts, may still find that itemizing produces a lower tax bill. Yet even in those groups, the rising standard deduction and the unchanged SALT cap mean that the margin by which itemizing wins has narrowed. Many households that once itemized every year now toggle between the two approaches, itemizing only in years when they incur unusually large deductible expenses, such as major medical bills or a spike in deductible interest.
As the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons approach, the IRS figures underscore a broader trend: the standard deduction has become the default path for most Americans, and each annual adjustment pushes itemizing further toward the edges of the system. Taxpayers who understand where their own deductions fall relative to these benchmarks will be better positioned to choose the simpler route when it makes sense-and to recognize the less common situations in which the extra work of itemizing still pays off.
