The Official 2026 Tax Lines for Year-End Planning: Fill the 12% Bracket to $100,800 (MFJ)

At a glance: Every year-end money move — a Roth conversion, an extra IRA withdrawal, a stock sale — is priced off five official lines, and for 2026 the IRS has published all of them in one document, Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The lines that matter most: the 12% bracket tops out at $100,800 of taxable income for a married couple filing jointly ($50,400 single); the 2026 standard deduction is $32,200 joint / $16,100 single, plus $1,650 per spouse 65+ ($2,050 if unmarried); a couple both 65 or older can shelter $47,500 before owing a dollar of tax, thanks to the new $6,000 senior deduction; and long-term capital gains are taxed at 0% until taxable income passes $98,900 joint / $49,450 single. Below: the complete tables, the stack, and the two worked examples that turn the lines into a December decision.

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Tax software knows these numbers. Broker blogs quote some of them. But every November the same question lands on this desk in a dozen forms — how much can I convert before the rate jumps? how much can we earn before we owe anything at all? — and the honest answer is never a single number. It is a small set of lines, read together: the bracket ceiling, the deductions that sit in front of it, and the two other ceilings (capital gains and Medicare's IRMAA) that run on different definitions of income. This page prints the full 2026 set exactly as the IRS published it, shows how the lines stack for a retired household, and works the two decisions the lines exist to size. Print it, or get the free one-page card at the end, and do your December math on the real lines — not on last year's, and not on a headline's.

The complete 2026 line set, from the IRS document itself

Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (the IRS's annual inflation-adjustment release, reflecting the July 2025 tax law) sets the 2026 figures. Here is the whole rate table for married filing jointly (§4.01, Table 1) — the tax shown is the total tax at the top of each bracket:

Taxable income (MFJ)	Rate on the slice above the floor	Total tax at the top of the bracket
Up to $24,800	10%	$2,480
$24,800 – $100,800	12%	$11,600
$100,800 – $211,400	22%	$35,932
$211,400 – $403,550	24%	$82,048
$403,550 – $512,450	32%	$116,896
$512,450 – $768,700	35%	$206,583.50
Over $768,700	37%	—

And for unmarried individuals (§4.01, Table 3):

Taxable income (single)	Rate on the slice above the floor	Total tax at the top of the bracket
Up to $12,400	10%	$1,240
$12,400 – $50,400	12%	$5,800
$50,400 – $105,700	22%	$17,966
$105,700 – $201,775	24%	$41,024
$201,775 – $256,225	32%	$58,448
$256,225 – $640,600	35%	$192,979.25
Over $640,600	37%	—

The same document sets the capital-gains lines (§4.03). Long-term gains and qualified dividends are taxed at 0% until your taxable income reaches the "maximum zero rate amount," then at 15% until the second line, and at 20% only above it:

Filing status	0% gains up to taxable income of	15% rate applies up to
Married filing jointly	$98,900	$613,700
Single	$49,450	$545,500
Head of household	$66,200	$579,600

Two reading notes before the planning starts. First, every bracket line in this article is a line on taxable income — what is left after deductions — never on gross income or AGI. Confusing the two is the single most expensive reading error of the season, and the next two sections exist to prevent it. Second, know what did not come from this document, because the retiree line set is assembled from three sources: the $6,000 senior deduction comes from the 2025 tax law itself (Public Law 119-21) and the IRS's Fact Sheet FS-2025-03 — it is a statute, not an inflation adjustment, so it does not appear in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. And Medicare's IRMAA tiers come from CMS, not the IRS at all. Each line below names its source.

The senior stack: $47,500 of shelter before the brackets even start

For a non-itemizing retired household, three deduction layers stand between your gross income and the bracket table. All three are 2026 figures — the first two from Revenue Procedure 2025-32, §4.14; the third from the tax law:

Layer	Single, 65+	Couple, both 65+
Standard deduction 2026	$16,100	$32,200
Age-65 additional amount (existing law)	+ $2,050	+ $3,300 (2 × $1,650)
New senior deduction, 2025–2028	+ $6,000	+ $12,000
Total sheltered before any tax	$24,150	$47,500

Read the couple's column slowly, because it is the engine of everything after it. A married couple, both 65 or older, can receive $47,500 of income in 2026 and owe zero federal income tax — and their taxable income only starts counting toward the $100,800 bracket ceiling after that $47,500 is subtracted. The age-65 add-on has a quirk worth pocketing: it is $2,050 for an unmarried filer but $1,650 per spouse on a joint return, which is why the couple's second layer is $3,300 and not $4,100. If only one spouse is 65, the couple's stack is $32,200 + $1,650 + $6,000 = $39,850. The third layer — the $6,000 per person — is the new one: how it phases out between $150,000 and $250,000 of modified AGI, and the two things it does not do, are worked in full in our $6,000 senior deduction guide. Here it matters for one reason: it is part of the room.

Get the free one-page 2026 Tax Lines Card — the full bracket and gains tables, the senior stack, and fill-in lines for your own room. Get the free card (PDF) → or have it sent to your inbox →.

Fill the bracket: your conversion room is the ceiling plus your deductions

The year-end move these lines size is the Roth conversion (or, for readers past RMD age, a deliberately larger IRA withdrawal): income you choose to recognize in 2026, at 2026's known rates, instead of later at unknown ones. The rule of the move is in this article's title — fill the 12% bracket to its top; do not spill into 22%. But the ceiling is on taxable income, so the gross-income room is bigger than the headline number:

Your room = $100,800 (the ceiling) + your deductions − the taxable income you already have.

Worked end to end, with the IRS's own table as the check. (Hypothetical couple, both 66, married filing jointly, 2026; round figures; all income ordinary; MAGI equals AGI.) Tom and Rachel expect $84,000 of 2026 income before any conversion — pensions, interest, and part of their Social Security. Their stack is the full $47,500, so their taxable income before converting is $84,000 − $47,500 = $36,500. Their room to the top of the 12% bracket is $100,800 − $36,500 = $64,300. Convert exactly that, and:

• Gross income becomes $84,000 + $64,300 = $148,300 — note the two numbers side by side: $148,300 of gross income, $100,800 of taxable income. The $47,500 stack is the difference, and it is why "convert until your income hits $100,800" under-converts by tens of thousands.
• The tax on the conversion is $64,300 × 12% = $7,716 — cross-checked against Table 1 itself: tax at the $100,800 ceiling is $11,600, and the tax on their first $36,500 was $3,884, a difference of exactly $7,716.
• Spilling is priced just as exactly. Convert $10,000 past the line and that slice costs 22% — $2,200 instead of $1,200, a $1,000 penalty for crossing a line that was printed in October. Every dollar of room is worth using; every dollar past it is worth a second thought.

The execution of the conversion itself — the Dec 31 deadline, the rule that the RMD comes out first, and the Form W-4R withholding trap that quietly shrinks conversions paid the wrong way — is worked step by step in our Roth conversion year-end playbook. This page's job is the sizing: get the room right and the rest is mechanics.

The second ceiling: check IRMAA before you celebrate the bracket

One caution belongs on every bracket-fill worksheet, because the bracket is not the only ceiling in the room — it is just the first one you meet. Medicare's IRMAA surcharges are figured from a different income definition (MAGI: AGI plus tax-exempt interest) and a different line: for 2026 premiums, the first surcharge tier begins at $218,000 of MAGI for a couple (CMS's 2026 premium fact sheet — a CMS figure, not an IRS one). Run Tom and Rachel against it: their conversion takes MAGI to $148,300, a full $69,700 below the tier line. At this income level the 12% bracket binds long before IRMAA does — the bracket is the operative ceiling, and the conversion that fills it exactly never trips a surcharge. But the ordering flips as income rises: a couple already carrying $200,000 of MAGI has only $18,000 of IRMAA room, far less than their bracket room, and for them the Medicare line — priced two years later, in 2028 premiums — is the one that binds. Sizing a conversion against both ceilings, lever by lever, is the work of our MAGI levers guide.

The gap-year version of the same card. The 0% capital-gains line rewards the opposite situation — a year when income is unusually low, typically between retirement and the start of Social Security or RMDs. (Hypothetical couple, both 66, 2026.) Suppose Tom and Rachel instead have a lean year: $30,000 of ordinary income and a brokerage account holding stock with large unrealized gains. Their $47,500 stack absorbs the $30,000 and leaves $17,500 of deduction unused — which means gains they realize stack on top of a negative starting line. They can realize up to $116,400 of long-term gains before their taxable income reaches the $98,900 zero-rate ceiling ($98,900 + the $17,500 of unused shelter). Harvesting $30,000 of those gains this year costs $0 in federal tax; the same $30,000 sold in a normal year at the 15% rate would cost $4,500. Their MAGI even after the harvest is $60,000 — nowhere near the IRMAA line. One discipline applies: gains count in MAGI even when they are taxed at 0%, so a harvest sized to the gains ceiling must still be checked against the $218,000 Medicare line in a higher-income year.

The single filer's card, for reference. The same arithmetic on Table 3: a single filer, 67, with $60,000 of income and the $24,150 stack has taxable income of $35,850, room of $14,550 to the $50,400 top of her 12% bracket (gross room $74,550; tax on a full fill, $1,746), and $13,600 of 0% gains room before her taxable income crosses the $49,450 zero-rate line. Smaller numbers, identical method — which is the point of printing the lines instead of the answers.

What these lines are NOT

• They are not the lines on the return you filed last spring. These are the figures for tax year 2026 — the return you will file in early 2027. The 2025 return used its own (slightly lower) lines.
• The $6,000 layer is temporary. The senior deduction exists for tax years 2025–2028 and then expires unless Congress acts. The $47,500 stack is a four-year feature of the landscape; plan conversions and gain harvests that depend on it inside the window.
• The IRS lines move every year. Brackets, standard deductions and gains thresholds are inflation-adjusted annually — next October's revenue procedure will print a new set, and this page will be updated to match. A worksheet built on 2025's lines misprices a 2026 decision by hundreds of dollars.
• State tax is a separate map. Everything here is federal. Your state's brackets, deductions and treatment of retirement income sit on top, and they do not move in step with Washington's.
• A bracket is not a verdict. Filling the 12% bracket is usually right for this desk's readers; it is not automatically right. A conversion also raises MAGI for the senior-deduction phase-out and for IRMAA two years out, and it cannot be undone — the lines tell you the price of the move, not whether your household should make it.

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Keep the lines on one page: the free 2026 Tax Lines Card prints both bracket tables, the capital-gains lines, the senior stack for your filing status, and fill-in lines for your own conversion and gains room. Get the free card (PDF) → or have it emailed to you →. Every free worksheet this desk publishes lives on the Worksheets page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the top of the 12% tax bracket for 2026?

$100,800 of taxable income for married filing jointly, and $50,400 for a single filer (Revenue Procedure 2025-32, §4.01, Tables 1 and 3). At the joint ceiling the total tax is $11,600; every dollar of taxable income above it is taxed at 22% until $211,400.

What is the standard deduction for seniors in 2026?

The base is $32,200 joint / $16,100 single. Add the long-standing age-65 amount — $1,650 per spouse on a joint return, $2,050 if you file unmarried — and, for 2025–2028, the new $6,000 senior deduction per person 65 or older. A couple both 65+ who do not itemize deduct $47,500 in total; a single filer 65+ deducts $24,150.

How much can I convert to a Roth and stay in the 12% bracket?

Your room is the $100,800 ceiling (joint) minus the taxable income you already expect — and your deductions come off before the ceiling applies. A both-65+ couple with $84,000 of other income has $36,500 of taxable income and can convert $64,300 at 12% ($7,716 of tax), taking gross income to $148,300. Run your own numbers on the free card.

How much capital gain can I take at 0% in 2026?

Long-term gains are taxed at 0% while your total taxable income stays under $98,900 joint / $49,450 single. Because unused deductions absorb income first, a low-income couple can often realize far more than $98,900 of gains in a gap year — $116,400 in the worked example above — but every dollar of gain still counts toward Medicare's MAGI line.

Are these the tax lines for the return I file in 2026 or in 2027?

2027. These are the tax-year 2026 lines, published by the IRS in October 2025, and they govern the return you file in early 2027 — and, more usefully, every income decision you make between now and December 31, 2026.

Will filling the 12% bracket raise my Medicare premiums?

Not at the income levels in this article's examples: a couple that fills the bracket exactly reaches MAGI of about $148,300, well under the $218,000 first IRMAA line for 2026. But income above that line — from conversions, gains or anything else — sets your premium tier two years later, so households near $218,000 should size the conversion against the Medicare ceiling, not just the bracket.

Sources & official figures

• Internal Revenue Service — Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments, reflecting Public Law 119-21): §4.01 Table 1 (joint brackets: 10% to $24,800, tax $2,480; 12% to $100,800, tax $11,600; 22% to $211,400, tax $35,932; 24% to $403,550; 32% to $512,450; 35% to $768,700; 37% above) and Table 3 (single: 10% to $12,400; 12% to $50,400, tax $5,800; 22% to $105,700); §4.03 (capital-gains maximum zero-rate amounts $98,900 joint / $49,450 single; maximum 15% amounts $613,700 / $545,500); §4.14 (standard deduction $32,200 joint / $16,100 single; age-65 or blind additional amount $1,650, or $2,050 if unmarried and not a surviving spouse): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf
• Internal Revenue Service — Fact Sheet FS-2025-03, "Deduction for Seniors" (the $6,000 additional deduction per person age 65+, tax years 2025–2028; $12,000 for a couple where both qualify; phase-out over modified AGI of $75,000 single / $150,000 joint): https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/one-big-beautiful-bill-act-tax-deductions-for-working-americans-and-seniors
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles fact sheet (November 14, 2025): the first IRMAA tier for 2026 begins above $109,000 of MAGI for an individual and $218,000 for a married couple (as verified in this desk's IRMAA brackets guide).

Last updated: October 25, 2026 — figures checked against IRS and CMS sources on October 25, 2026.

Disclaimer: The Retirement Desk publishes education, not financial, tax, or legal advice. The bracket, deduction and gains figures are the IRS's published 2026 amounts; the worked examples are labelled hypotheticals with round incomes and stated assumptions (all-ordinary income except where gains are the subject; MAGI equal to AGI). Whether to convert, withdraw or harvest — and how much — depends on your own return, your state, and your Medicare picture.

Filed under: Retirement Taxes · Year-End Planning — The Retirement Desk, the situation-first retirement money desk for Americans 60–75.