The standard deduction — where federal income tax actually starts
Tax year 2026 · federal income tax and FICA only
Threshold (single)
$16,100
Rate below
7.65%
Rate above
17.65%
You keep less
$824
of the next $1,000
What actually happens here
- Everybody gets the standard deduction taken off their income before tax is worked out. For a single person that is $16,100, and below it no federal income tax is owed at all. Payroll tax is a different story — Social Security and Medicare start at dollar one, which is why the rate below the line is about 7.65% and not zero. Above it the rate is about 17.65%.
- This line falls below the point where Social Security stops. So payroll tax applies on both sides of it and adds to whatever the income tax rate is doing. The combined figure above the line is about 17.65%, which is a good deal more than a bracket table alone would lead you to expect.
- No marriage penalty at this line. The joint figure, $32,200, is exactly double the single one, $16,100. A couple therefore reaches it at the same income each as a single person would. Most people assume that holds all the way up the scale. It does not.
- The standard deduction is a flat allowance deducted from gross income before the brackets apply, $16,100 for a single filer. It produces a genuine zero-rate region for income tax purposes, but not for payroll tax: FICA is charged from the first dollar of wages, so the combined marginal rate below the threshold is about 7.65% and above it about 17.65%. Any model that treats the deduction as making low earnings untaxed will understate the burden at the bottom of the distribution by the full FICA rate.
- Positioned below the Social Security wage base, this boundary carries the full OASDI charge on either side. The combined federal and payroll marginal rate above it is about 17.65%. The gap between that figure and the headline bracket rate is constant across the sub-wage-base region and is the single largest omission in most published marginal rate comparisons.
- This threshold doubles exactly for joint filers: $32,200 against $16,100 for a single filer. The boundary is consequently neutral with respect to marital status, imposing no penalty and conferring no bonus on a two-earner couple with evenly split income. The property is not preserved across the whole schedule, and the point at which it breaks is the origin of the federal marriage penalty for higher earners.
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 Texas salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
The tax with a ceiling
A $75,000 Texas salary
| Wage base | $184,500 |
|---|---|
| Social Security rate | 6.2% |
| Medicare surtax begins | $200,000 |
Social Security stops at the wage base. Medicare does not, and gains a surtax higher up.
The part never taxed
A $75,000 Texas salary
- Never taxed$16,100
- Taxable$58,900
| Share of your pay | 21.47% |
|---|---|
| Taxable after it | $58,900 |
Federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare start at the first dollar you earn.
The same threshold, for all four filing statuses
The prose above speaks for a single filer, because four sets of figures in one sentence is unreadable. This is where the other three live. "Kept" means take-home out of the thousand dollars immediately below and immediately above the line.
| Filing status | Threshold | Rate below | Rate above | Kept below | Kept above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $16,100 | 7.65% | 17.65% | $924 | $824 |
| Married filing jointly | $32,200 | 7.65% | 17.65% | $924 | $824 |
| Head of household | $24,150 | 7.65% | 17.65% | $924 | $824 |
| Married filing separately | $16,100 | 7.65% | 17.65% | $924 | $824 |
What this page does not cover
- Federal only. These numbers cover federal income tax and the Social Security and Medicare charges, and stop there. The standard deduction is set federally, so adding one state's rates would make every figure specific to that state rather than to the threshold itself. Add your own state's rate on top if it has one. For a single filer that line sits at $16,100.
- One filer, ordinary wages, nothing deducted before tax — that is the case shown. Put money into a workplace pension or a health savings account and you move further from the standard deduction than these figures suggest. Bonuses, freelance income and investment returns each follow their own rules and are not covered here. For a single filer that line sits at $16,100.
- What you owe and what gets withheld are two different things. Payroll systems apply the rules one pay period at a time, so they routinely misjudge the standard deduction — most obviously when someone holds two jobs, since neither employer can see the other's wages. It all settles when the return is filed. For a single filer that line sits at $16,100.
- This page models federal income tax and FICA and excludes state and local income taxes entirely. Since the standard deduction is a federal construct, introducing a single state's rates would render each figure jurisdiction-specific and no longer descriptive of the boundary. Combined marginal rates in income-taxing states exceed those shown by the applicable state and local rates, which this site computes separately per state. The single-filer figure is $16,100.
- Figures assume a single source of wage income, the standard deduction, and no elective pre-tax contributions. Retirement and HSA deferrals reduce taxable wages and shift the filer relative to the standard deduction. Supplemental wages such as bonuses are withheld at a flat statutory rate that frequently differs from the filer's marginal rate, and self-employment and investment income fall under separate regimes not modeled on this page. The single-filer figure is $16,100.
- The distinction between annual liability and periodic withholding matters at the standard deduction. Withholding is computed per pay period without reference to other employment, so a filer with concurrent employers is systematically under-withheld against a wage-based threshold, while mid-year pay changes distort the timing in either direction. Reconciliation occurs at filing; nothing here predicts the pattern of an individual pay stub. The single-filer figure is $16,100.
Questions people ask
Does crossing this line change things gradually or all at once?
Differently from a bracket. The standard deduction turns on or off at a point rather than phasing a rate in, so the reasoning that makes brackets harmless does not transfer.
Is this line twice as high for a married couple?
Exactly twice, here. The standard deduction is set so that a couple meets it at double the single figure, which means marrying neither helps nor hurts at this particular line — two single filers and one couple face proportionally the same position.
Does it matter which filing status I use for this?
Status changes the line, but the ordering is not the obvious one here. It has to be read against the rest of the return rather than on its own.
Is this threshold marginal or discrete in effect?
This threshold is not a marginal rate boundary. Its effect at the crossing point is determined by its own statutory mechanics — commencement, cessation or a cap — rather than by the bracket structure, so marginal-rate reasoning does not transfer to it.
How does this threshold scale for joint filers?
The joint threshold is exactly twice the single threshold, so this provision is marriage-neutral: aggregate position depends only on combined income, not on its distribution between spouses. ⚠️ Neutrality at this threshold does not imply neutrality elsewhere in the schedule.
How does filing status affect this threshold?
Threshold values vary by filing status, and married-filing-separately is not the lowest at this provision. Status selection affects multiple provisions jointly, so it cannot be determined from any single threshold's ordering.