Standard Deduction Calculator

The standard deduction has two parts under IRC §63(c)(1): the basic amount for your filing status and an additional amount for each box you check for age 65 or older or blindness. Pub. 501 (2025) prints the result in Table 7, and this calculator reproduces every row of it.

1. Start with the basic amount for your filing status.
2. If someone else can claim you as a dependent, limit that amount to your earned income plus a small add-on, with a floor (Pub. 501 Table 8).
3. Add the age and blindness amounts for you, and for your spouse on a joint return.
4. If your spouse itemizes and you file separately, or you were a nonresident alien for all or part of the year (unless you chose to be treated as a U.S. resident, or you are a student or business apprentice eligible for Article 21(2) of the U.S.-India tax treaty and do not itemize), the answer is zero. It is also zero on a return for less than 12 months because you changed your annual accounting period (IRC §63(c)(6)). This calculator does not check for that case.

You subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions, never both (IRC §63(a), (b)). Itemized deductions are certain personal expenses the tax law lets you list one by one. The IRS allows them only if you choose to itemize on your return (IRC §63(e)(1)). So total what you could itemize, compare it with the standard deduction this calculator gives you, and take the larger one.

Start with state and local taxes. You can count state and local income taxes (or sales taxes instead) plus property taxes (IRC §164(a), (b)(5)), up to $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026 (IRC §164(b)(6), (7)(A)). Adjusted gross income is your income after certain adjustments, from your Form 1040. Modified adjusted gross income adds back income you left out because you lived abroad or in certain U.S. territories. The cap shrinks by 30 percent of your modified adjusted gross income over $500,000 for 2025 ($505,000 for 2026), but not below $10,000. On a married-filing-separately return, use half of each figure (IRC §164(b)(6), (7)(B)).

Three other items can tip the total. Mortgage interest counts on debt you used to buy, build, or substantially improve your home, with the home as security, up to limits the Code sets (IRC §163(h)(3)). Medical and dental costs count only above 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income (IRC §213(a)). Gifts to charity count too; from 2026, only the part above 0.5 percent of your adjusted gross income (IRC §170(b)(1)(I)).

Starting with 2026, a filer who takes the standard deduction can also deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 on a joint return) to qualifying charities; gifts to a donor-advised fund do not count (IRC §170(p)). The trap: add those gifts to the standard deduction side before you compare.

Public Law 119-21 added a separate deduction of $6,000 for you, and your spouse on a joint return, if 65 or older by the end of the tax year (IRC §151(d)(5)(C)(i)-(ii)). It covers tax years beginning after December 31, 2024 and before January 1, 2029, so 2025 through 2028 for a calendar-year filer (P.L. 119-21 §70103(c); IRC §151(d)(5)(C)(i)). Each person’s $6,000 shrinks by 6 percent of modified adjusted gross income over $75,000 ($150,000 on a joint return) (§151(d)(5)(C)(iii)). A married couple must file jointly, and the return must list each qualifying person’s Social Security number (§151(d)(5)(C)(iv)-(v)).

You get it whether you itemize or not (IRC §63(b)(2), (d)(2)). This calculator does not add it in: the result above shows the standard deduction alone.