Posted on 10/09/2025 9:49:46 AM PDT by Tell It Right
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Standard Deduction 2025:
Single: $16,100
Married: $32,200
Head of Household: $24,150
35% for incomes over $256,225 ($512,450 for married couples filing jointly);
32% for incomes over $201,775 ($403,550 for married couples filing jointly);
24% for incomes over $105,700 ($211,400 for married couples filing jointly);
22% for incomes over $50,400 ($100,800 for married couples filing jointly);
12% for incomes over $12,400 ($24,800 for married couples filing jointly).
The lowest rate is 10% for incomes of single individuals with incomes of $12,400 or less ($24,800 for married couples filing jointly).
2026?......................
Yes. Each year in the fall the IRS does the tax bracket adjustments for inflation that will be applied to the next year’s taxes. So your employer’s payroll software can calculate how much taxes to take out of your January paycheck (or how much you’ll pay quarterly as a gig employer, etc.) based on year 2026 rates.
Every one of these should be 10-12%, no deductions. A consumption tax is even better.
Standard Deduction 2025:
Single: $15,750
Married: $31,500
Head of Household: $23,625
Standard Deduction 2026:
Single: $16,100
Married: $32,200
Head of Household: $24,150
No problem, we all figured it out.
But what I haven't calculated yet are other things in the OBBB for 2026. Like the new up to $1k ($2K for married) in line item deduction for church/charitable donations even if you don't itemize. So if you're in the 12% tax bracket, that saves you (for married) $2K X 0.12 = $240 in taxes if you give at least $2K to church anyway (if you go with the standard deduction. If you itemize anyway it probably won't help you.)
Your post had 2025 twice..............
So if you win one of the big lotteries you loose 35% right off the top to the Feds?
I hope to stay out of the 32% bracket by reducing withdrawals from IRA’s.
No freaking’ way! We must have a system that punishes success! From each according to his means and to each for his needs. Shaboom! Long live socialism
Ditto for IRMAA and Medicare premiums! Make the successful bastards pay their fair share!
If I was you, I'd calculate how much you'd withdraw anyway (staying within the 24% bracket), do some simple math to get a rough estimate of your AGI, then convert some of your IRA to Roth IRA (the amount converted would be however much your AGI would increase to stay in the top boundary of the 24% tax bracket). That amount in your Roth IRA would grow tax free from then on (but there's a 5 year waiting period for conversions before you can withdraw penalty free from the Roth IRA, similar to the 5 year rule for starting a Roth IRA).
Money in the Roth IRA has the benefit of not being subject to RMD's (at least not yet, though every now and then the political class talks about adding RMD's to Roth IRA's like they are to other retirement accounts). And also gives you a hedge against tax rates increasing in the future.
That's why when my wife retired at the age of 55 we converted her traditional 401K money into her Roth IRA in chunks per year. We also transferred her Roth 401K money into her Roth IRA. The Roth 401K to Roth IRA transfer is not a taxable event, but counts as contribution amounts within her Roth IRA. So even before she turned 59.5, we could have withdrawn that amount from her Roth IRA penalty free if we wanted. We still can, while we wait on her traditional 401K to Roth IRA conversions to time out through each year's 5-year conversion wait (the first conversion already has). So now we can withdraw from her Roth IRA penalty free for the amount of contributions + transfer + first year conversion (since it was in year 2020).
Likewise, since I'm just 55 but my Roth IRA is also over 5 years old, we can withdraw from my Roth IRA the total contribution amounts over the years plus the transfer amount from my old Roth 401K. In a few years, the first conversion chunk from my old 401K to Roth IRA will be 5 years old and we can withdraw that amount if we want (penalty free).
We don't have to do any withdrawals while I'm quasi-working, quasi-retired anyway, except for paying for our daughter's nursing school (which she just finished and we couldn't be prouder).
Married couples filing jointly pay 10% if they make under $24k. That’s too much. Prove they put in 55 hours a week between the 2 of them and make it zero. Would they need food stamps and medicaid? Probably. The idea is to keep them working.
Rates are still too high.
If you give to charities anyway... you can give directly from your IRA to meet miniumum withdraw requirements without increasing your taxable income.
No, 37%
Then the “progressives” campaigned for the federal income tax, something our republic’s founders (wisely) barred in the u s constitution—- the profs promised that “the average worker will never have to pay a dime” in the new tax.
(It was aimed at the “robber barons” of the steel, oil, banking, and railroad industries, only).
Maybe we should reform the tax law to return to its promise?
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