2016 IRS Tax Brackets

Introduction

Every year, the IRS adjusts more than 40 tax provisions for inflation. This is done to prevent what is called “bracket creep.” This is the phenomenon by which people are pushed into higher income tax brackets or have reduced value from credits or deductions due to inflation, instead of any increase in real income.

The IRS uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate the past year’s inflation and adjusts income thresholds, deduction amounts, and credit values accordingly. Rather than directly adjusting last year’s values for annual inflation, each provision is adjusted from a specified base year. For more information, see Methodology, below.

Estimated Income Tax Brackets and Rates

In 2016, the income limits for all brackets and all filers will be adjusted for inflation and will be as follows (Table 1). The top marginal income tax rate of 39.6 percent will hit taxpayers with taxable income of $415,050 and higher for single filers and $466,950 and higher for married filers.

Standard Deduction and Personal Exemption

The standard deduction for single and married couples filing jointly will not increase in 2016 (Table 2). For taxpayers filing as head of household, it will increase by $50 from $9,250 to $9,300.

The personal exemption for 2016 will be $4,050.

PEP and Pease

PEP and Pease are two provisions in the tax code that increase taxable income for high-income earners. PEP is the phase-out of the personal exemption and Pease (named after former Senator Donald Pease) reduces the value of most itemized deductions once a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income reaches a certain amount.

The income threshold for both PEP and Pease will be $259,400 for single filers and $311,300 for married filers (Tables 3 and 4). PEP will end at $381,900 for singles and $433,800 for married couples filing jointly, meaning these taxpayers will no longer have a personal exemption.

Alternative Minimum Tax

Since its creation in the 1960s, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) has not been adjusted for inflation. Thus, Congress was forced to “patch” the AMT by raising the exemption amount to prevent middle class taxpayers from being hit by the tax as a result of inflation.

On January 2, 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 indexed the income thresholds to inflation, preventing the necessity for an annual “patch.”

The AMT exemption amount for 2016 is $53,900 for singles and $83,800 for married couples filing jointly (Table 5).

Earned Income Tax Credit

2016’s maximum Earned Income Tax Credit for singles, heads of households, and joint filers is $506, if the filer has no children (Table 6). The credit is $3,373 for one child, $5,572 for two children, and $6,268 for three or more children.

Methodology

Each tax parameter is adjusted for inflation by taking its base value (from legislation) and multiplying it by the current fiscal year’s average Consumer Price Index (CPI) and then dividing that by the base fiscal year’s CPI.

Each parameter is rounded to either the nearest $10, $25, or $100 (depending on the specified rounding method in the legislation, see Table 7).

For example, the base value for the top of the 10 percent tax bracket for singles is $7,000. This number is multiplied by the average CPI for fiscal year 2016 (236.749) and then divided by the average CPI for fiscal year 2002 (178.675): $7,000 x (236.749/178.674) = $9,275.18. This value is then rounded down to the nearest $25 to yield 2016’s 10 percent tax bracket of $9,275.

by Kyle Pomerleau | Oct 14, 2015

Author: Kyle Pomerleau

Source: Tax Foundation

Retrieved from: www.taxfoundation.org