Federal brackets, deductions and indexing

Ordinary income fills these brackets. Qualified dividends and long-term gains sit on top and use the separate 0, 15 and 20 percent thresholds in Capital gains, dividends and investment taxes.

A person counts as 65 in the calendar year they turn 65, based on birth year. A spouse’s age counts only on a joint return. In the year a partner dies, the joint return still includes their addition.

For tax years 2025 through 2028, each person 65 or older also gets a $6,000 senior deduction. You get it whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. Each person’s $6,000 is reduced by 6% of modified AGI above $75,000, or $150,000 on a joint return. Modified AGI here is adjusted gross income including gains. These amounts are fixed in the law and do not index. Married couples must file jointly to claim it, so a married-filing-separately plan gets none. From 2029 the deduction ends.

Each year’s factor is the inflation rate your plan uses for the prior calendar year, from a fixed rate or a curve (see Market, inflation and wage assumptions). The factor follows calendar years, not the plan’s start date. A plan starting in 2030 applies 2026 through 2029 inflation to its first year, and a partial first year still uses full-year figures. In success-odds and historical runs, the thresholds follow each simulated path’s inflation.

Income that grows exactly with inflation keeps roughly the same real federal income tax, except where a fixed threshold applies. Income that grows faster moves into higher brackets. A flat nominal income is taxed less each year: $100,000 of joint wages owes $7,640 of federal income tax in 2026, $7,509 in 2027 and $7,374 in 2028 at 3% inflation.

Each child under 17 at the end of a tax year earns a $2,200 credit in 2026. After 2026 the amount grows with your plan’s inflation assumption, rounded down to a multiple of $100. It shrinks by $50 for each $1,000, or part of $1,000, of modified AGI above $400,000 on a joint return or $200,000 otherwise. Those thresholds are fixed in dollars.

The credit reduces federal income tax, including tax on capital gains, but never below zero. It doesn’t reduce payroll tax or the net investment income tax.

Custom federal brackets replace the ordinary-income brackets for every filing status, including after a change of filing status. A custom standard deduction replaces the basic amount; the age 65 addition and the senior deduction still apply. Capital gains rates and thresholds, the net investment income tax, the alternative minimum tax and credits follow current law. Roth conversions that fill a bracket and a tax target set to a bracket use your brackets, matched by rate. A saved target or conversion rule whose rate your brackets lack fills only brackets taxed at or below it, with a warning.

Enter amounts in today’s dollars. By default they grow with your plan’s inflation from the plan’s start, like your other amounts; uncheck Grow custom federal amounts with inflation to keep them fixed in every year. Leave the last bracket’s upper bound blank for a top bracket with no limit.

The figures reflect the 2025 tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made the current rate schedule permanent. CoastMath applies the changes that law schedules: the senior deduction stops after 2028, and the state and local tax cap drops back to $10,000 in 2030. To model a different schedule, enter your own; see Federal brackets, deductions and indexing.