Updated August 19, 2026. Quick answer: the 2027 ACA figures are already official. The required contribution percentage — the number that decides whether your employer’s coverage counts as affordable — is 10.22% for plan years beginning in 2027, up from 9.96% in 2026. The applicable percentage table that sets what you pay for a marketplace benchmark plan now tops out at the same 10.22%. Both come from IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-26, issued July 21, 2026.
These two numbers do different jobs and are routinely confused. One decides whether you may claim a premium tax credit at all when your job offers coverage; the other decides how much of your own income you are expected to pay before a credit starts.
The number that decides if job coverage is “affordable”
If the cheapest self-only plan your employer offers costs you more than 10.22% of household income in 2027, that coverage is not affordable, and you and your family may be eligible for a marketplace premium tax credit instead. Below that line, the offer blocks the credit. The IRS states it plainly:
“For plan years beginning in calendar year 2027, the Required Contribution Percentage for purposes of § 36B(c)(2)(C)(i)(II) and § 1.36B-2(c)(3)(v)(C) is 10.22%.”
The threshold moved up from 9.96% for 2026, which means a household right at the edge of affordability in 2026 can find the same job offer classed as unaffordable in 2027 without anything about the job changing.
Where this sits in your own return
A published figure is a fixed point; how it lands depends on the rest of your income, your accounts and your timing, and an adviser can look at those together with you.
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The 2027 applicable percentage table, next to 2026
If you buy on the marketplace, this table is what you are expected to contribute toward the benchmark plan, as a percentage of income. The credit is the difference between that expected contribution and the benchmark premium.
| Household income, % of Federal poverty line | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 133% | 2.10%–2.10% | 2.15%–2.15% |
| At least 133% but less than 150% | 3.14%–4.19% | 3.23%–4.3% |
| At least 150% but less than 200% | 4.19%–6.60% | 4.3%–6.78% |
| At least 200% but less than 250% | 6.60%–8.44% | 6.78%–8.66% |
| At least 250% but less than 300% | 8.44%–9.96% | 8.66%–10.22% |
| At least 300% but not more than 400% | 9.96%–9.96% | 10.22%–10.22% |
Each band runs from an initial to a final percentage and is prorated across the band. The 2027 table is the regular indexed schedule, not the enhanced one: the temporary rule that removed the 400%-of-poverty ceiling and zeroed the bottom band was written with an end date of 31 December 2025, and it reached it — the detail is on the subsidy cliff page.
One adjustment the IRS decided not to make for 2027
There is a second indexing mechanism that can push these percentages up further when premium growth outruns income growth. For 2027 the IRS determined it does not apply:
“the additional adjustment provided in § 36B(b)(3)(A)(ii)(II) is not required for plan years beginning in 2027 because the Department of the Treasury (Treasury Department) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have determined that the failsafe exception described in § 36B(b)(3)(A)(ii)(III) applies for plan years beginning in calendar year 2027.”
Rev. Proc. 2026-26, section 1, footnote 2
That is a decision worth knowing about rather than a number to memorise: the 2027 table above is the whole of the adjustment, with no additional layer on top.
Why these were official in July when the rest of 2027 is not
The applicable percentage table runs on the plan-year calendar, so insurers need it before they price and file 2027 products. It is one of only a handful of 2027 federal figures that exist in the summer of 2026 — the others being the HSA limits and the Medicare Part D parameters. Everything indexed to the autumn inflation readings, including the tax brackets and the Social Security COLA, cannot exist until those readings close. The full clock is on the 2027 numbers page.
Sources
IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-26 (2027 applicable percentage table and required contribution percentage), irs.gov; IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25 (the 2026 figures), irs.gov. Statutory authority: 26 U.S.C. §36B(b)(3)(A)(i) and §36B(c)(2)(C)(i)(II).
The percentage on this page is the rule; the number that matters to you is what it comes to against your own income. Apply it to your household income to see the annual and monthly line above which your employer coverage counts as unaffordable.