The 2026 Tax Figures That Changed, and the Ones That Did Not

Every year a batch of tax figures move with inflation and a batch stay exactly where they were. Knowing which is which is the difference between planning on real numbers and planning on last year’s.

Here are the ones that matter most for individuals, small business owners and Americans abroad.

The standard deduction rose, and 2025 was rewritten

For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $24,150 for heads of household.

The more important detail is behind you. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised the 2025 figures retroactively, to $15,750, $31,500 and $23,625. Guidance published in late 2024 still quotes $15,000 and $30,000, and those numbers are now wrong. If you are finishing a 2025 return on extension, it is worth checking which set it was built on.

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is now $132,900

Americans working abroad can exclude up to $132,900 of foreign earned income for 2026, up from $130,000 in 2025. Whether that beats the Foreign Tax Credit is unchanged in principle, but the ceiling it is measured against is not.

The exclusion is per qualifying person, so spouses who each qualify in their own right each get the full amount. The housing expense cap moved with it, from $39,000 to $39,870.

The Social Security wage base moved again

The 12.4% Social Security portion of self-employment tax applies up to $184,500 for 2026, up from $176,100 in 2025. Above that ceiling only the 2.9% Medicare portion continues, with no upper limit.

The combined 15.3% rate has not changed, and neither has the $400 of net earnings that triggers it. If you pay quarterly estimated taxes, the new ceiling is what moves your first instalment.

What did not move at all

Several reporting thresholds are written into statute rather than indexed to inflation, so they stay put year after year. The FBAR threshold is still $10,000 in aggregate foreign account value at any point in the year.

Form 8938 thresholds are also unchanged: $200,000 at year end or $300,000 at any time for someone living abroad and filing single, doubled for joint filers. They catch people out precisely because they never move while everything around them does.

How Exemplary Helps

Exemplary works from the figures that apply to the year being filed, not the year it is filed in. That matters more than usual right now, because 2025 was changed after the fact and a lot of published guidance has not caught up.

Planning on a number that moved last year is one of the quieter ways to overpay.