Skip to content
Independent money guidance
Clear Money Guide
Start here
Menu

Retirement Figure Changes for 2027

Clear Money Guide

On this page

Use this map to find the part of the guide you need.

Comparison tables scroll horizontally on smaller screens.

Updated November 5, 2026. Quick answer: the only 2027 retirement-account and HSA figures the IRS has published so far are the HSA and high-deductible-plan amounts, in Rev. Proc. 2026-24. Two other 2027 health figures are also official: the ACA required contribution percentage of 10.22% (Rev. Proc. 2026-26) and the Medicare Part D deductible of $700 and out-of-pocket threshold of $2,400 (CMS CY2027 Rate Announcement, April 6, 2026). On November 5, 2026 the IRS also published the tax-year-2027 inflation adjustments in Rev. Proc. 2026-35, so the standard deduction, the estate and gift figures and the refundable child tax credit now sit in the published table below; the 2027 retirement plan limits are not out. The rest of this page is a watch list with its publisher and its normal window. No figure appears in the 2027 column until we have read the instrument that sets it. That is the whole discipline of this page, and it is why it is shorter than you might expect in August.

More on the 2027 retirement figures: the total 401(k) limit for 2027, the 401(a)(17) pay limit for 2027 and the SEP IRA pay threshold for 2027.

More on the 2027 retirement figures: the key employee limit for 2027, the Saver’s Match for 2027 and the Roth catch-up rule for 2027.

Published for 2027

Figure20262027Source read
HSA contribution limit, self-only$4,400$4,500Rev. Proc. 2026-24 § 3.01(1)
HSA contribution limit, family$8,750$9,000Rev. Proc. 2026-24 § 3.01(1)
HDHP minimum annual deductible$1,700 self-only / $3,400 family$1,750 self-only / $3,500 familyRev. Proc. 2026-24 § 3.01(3)
HDHP out-of-pocket maximum, self-only$8,500$8,700Rev. Proc. 2026-24 § 3.01(3)
Standard deduction, all filing statuses$16,100 single / $32,200 MFJ / $24,150 HoH$16,600 single / $33,200 MFJ / $24,925 HoHRev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.15
Additional standard deduction at 65 (aged or blind)$2,050 single / $1,650 each spouse MFJ$2,100 single / $1,700 each spouse MFJRev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.15(3)
Estate tax basic exclusion amount$15,000,000$15,480,000Rev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.44
Annual gift tax exclusion$19,000$20,000Rev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.46
Child tax credit, refundable portion$1,700$1,800Rev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.05
Special-use valuation cap, § 2032A$1,460,000$1,500,000Rev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.45
Estate-tax deferral 2% portion, § 6601(j)$1,940,000$2,010,000Rev. Proc. 2026-35 § 3.56

Read from the IRS document itself — rp-26-24.pdf — on 2026-08-04, not from a summary. The revenue procedure states, for calendar year 2027, the annual limitation under § 223(b)(2)(A) for self-only coverage is $4,500 and under § 223(b)(2)(B) for family coverage is $9,000. If you are weighing the marginal dollar, the HSA vs Roth IRA calculator prices it.

Not yet published — the watch list

These are the figures that move every year and the pages on this site that consume them. The 2026 value is shown so you can see what is current; the 2027 value is not shown because it does not exist yet.

FigureCurrent (2026)PublisherNormal window
Social Security COLA, wage base, earnings test$184,500 wage base; $24,480 / $65,160 earnings test (2026)SSA, via the Federal RegisterAnnounced October 14, 2026: 3.6% COLA, $192,300 wage base, $25,560 / $67,920 earnings test (SSA 2027 COLA fact sheet)

A window is not a promise. The Social Security window is stated from the Federal Register publication dates of the last eight determinations, which ran from October 22 to November 3 (most recently 2024-10-25 and 2025-11-03). The IRS windows are unverified against release dates we have read. Anyone planning around a date here should treat it as “watch from”, not “expect on”.

The 2026 amounts in the watch list were verified against IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration determination published in the Federal Register on November 3, 2025 on September 29, 2026; the 2027 HSA amounts were verified against Rev. Proc. 2026-24 the same day. The Rev. Proc. 2026-35 amounts in the published table were read from irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-26-35.pdf on November 5, 2026.

A year of changes is worth one proper look

Reading what changed is the easy half; deciding what to change in response, across the accounts and the timing, is the harder one, and an adviser can go through it with you.

Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.

The Kapitalwise form opens here. You stay on this page.

What happens when you press the button

It asks about nine questions (age, investable assets, location), then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. This matching form is not tax or legal advice. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. This matching form is not tax or legal advice.

How this page updates itself

Behind this page is a machine-readable register of every volatile figure the site publishes, recording for each one the figure, the tax year, the instrument that set it, and every page that consumes it. When a new instrument is published, the register is updated once and the pages that carry the figure are located by the register rather than by search.

That matters because the alternative fails quietly. A figure like $24,480 appears in several unrelated contexts across a large site; a naive find-and-replace would rewrite pages that were never about the earnings test. The register records, per figure, how many coincidental matches were rejected — for the standard deduction that number is recorded in the register.

Downloadable datasets and the provenance behind our state-law pages are at the datasets page. Statistics pages: the statistics index. Enacted state-law changes for the current year are tracked separately at state tax changes 2026.

What this page will not do

It will not print a projected figure. Inflation-adjusted amounts are computable in advance and several publishers do print estimates in September; those estimates are usually close and occasionally wrong, and a wrong figure in a table that looks official is worse than an empty cell. An empty 2027 cell here means the instrument has not been published, not that we have not looked.

Method: methodology. Mistakes: corrections. Consuming pages include the bracket calculator, the earnings test calculator, estate tax by state and retirement taxes by state.

Before the forward figures, what is already in effect for 2026.

All the numbers, kept current. This page uses figures from our claims register — every figure we track is on one page, each with the year it applies to and a plain statement of what makes it move.

One 2027 change on the linked page is a rule rather than a number and is already certain: the Roth catch-up regulation applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026 (26 CFR 1.414(v)-2(e)(2)(i)). Most of the dollar figures are not. Your 2027 numbers sorts them and computes the ones that turn on your own inputs.

For every figure this program tracks, see the 2027 numbers hub.

See whether an adviser match is worth comparing