Updated August 20, 2026. Quick answer: most of your 2027 numbers do not exist yet, and the ones that do are not the ones people search for. Your required minimum distribution is knowable now, because it runs on standing regulation rather than an annual announcement: if you were born in 1954, 2027 is your first RMD year, your denominator is 26.5, and you have until April 1, 2028 to take it. So are your 2027 HSA limits ($4,500 self-only, $9,000 family) and the Part D deductible ($700). Your 2027 tax bracket, 401(k) limit, IRA limit, IRMAA tier and Social Security COLA do not exist — not because nobody has looked them up, but because the law that sets each one measures a window that has not closed. This page computes what is knowable and gives a date for everything that is not.
Every August, tables of “2027 tax brackets” and “2027 contribution limits” appear. They are projections wearing a table’s clothes. The figures they contain cannot be right or wrong yet, because the statutory inputs are still being measured — the inflation window for the brackets runs to the 12-month period ending August 31, 2026, and the Social Security window is the third quarter of 2026. We publish no projection on this page. What follows is the knowable half, computed for you, and an honest list of the rest with the date each one arrives.
Compute the part of your 2027 that already exists
Four things about your 2027 can be worked out today. Three are official IRS or CMS figures published months ahead of the autumn cycle; the fourth is fixed by a formula written into the statute. Nothing below is estimated.
Your required minimum distribution
Choose the year you were born. This one is a real calculation: the rule behind it is standing regulation, so it does not wait on an announcement.
Your HSA and high-deductible plan limits
These are official for 2027. The IRS published them in May 2026, five months before the retirement-plan limits for the same year will exist.
Whether your employer coverage counts as affordable
Also official for 2027, and it decides whether you may take a premium tax credit on the exchange instead of your employer plan.
Your state and local tax deduction cap
Computed from the statute rather than announced: the law fixes each year after 2026 as a percentage of the year before, so 2027 is already determined.
If you were born in 1954, 2027 is your year
The applicable age for required minimum distributions is set by 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(9)(C)(v), which says in full:
“In the case of an individual who attains age 72 after December 31, 2022, and age 73 before January 1, 2033, the applicable age is 73.”
Read against the calendar, that clause picks out exactly one birth year for 2027. Someone born in 1954 turns 72 in 2026 and 73 in 2027, so 2027 is their first distribution calendar year — and a first distribution year is the only one that can be deferred, to April 1 of the following year. Deferring is a real choice with a real cost: it lands two distributions in the 2028 tax year, which can push income across a bracket edge or an IRMAA threshold that will not be announced until November 2026.
The denominator comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table at 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9(c). That table is standing regulation: it does not change with the calendar year, so there is no such thing as “the 2027 table.” At age 73 the denominator is 26.5. The full table, and the birth-year cohorts around this one, are on our RMD table for 2027.
One footnote, because the calculator above surfaces it rather than hiding it: birth year 1959 satisfies both clauses of the statute at once — it attains 73 before 2033 and 74 after 2032. The IRS proposed regulations resolve it as 73, and that is what the calculator shows, but the resolution comes from the regulation, not from the words of the statute. It first matters in 2032.
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.
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What is already official for 2027
These are published. Each one was read from the government document that sets it, not from a summary. The health figures come from a Revenue Procedure the IRS issues in the spring, and the Part D figures from the CMS rate cycle that plans have to bid against — which is why both exist long before the autumn inflation numbers.
| Figure | 2027 | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| HSA contribution limit, self-only coverage | $4,500 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| HSA contribution limit, family coverage | $9,000 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| HSA catch-up contribution, age 55 and over | $1,000 | 26 U.S.C. 223(b)(3)(B) |
| High-deductible plan minimum deductible, self-only | $1,750 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| High-deductible plan minimum deductible, family | $3,500 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| High-deductible plan out-of-pocket maximum, self-only | $8,700 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| High-deductible plan out-of-pocket maximum, family | $17,400 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| Excepted-benefit HRA maximum | $2,250 | Rev. Proc. 2026-24 |
| Direct primary care monthly fee cap, one person | $150 | 26 U.S.C. 223(c)(1)(E) |
| Direct primary care monthly fee cap, more than one | $300 | 26 U.S.C. 223(c)(1)(E) |
| Medicare Part D standard deductible | $700 | CMS CY2027 Rate Announcement |
| Medicare Part D out-of-pocket threshold | $2,400 | CMS CY2027 Rate Announcement |
| SALT deduction cap, before phase-down | $40,804 | 26 U.S.C. 164(b)(7) (computed) |
| SALT phase-down income threshold | $510,050 | 26 U.S.C. 164(b)(7) (computed) |
| ACA required contribution percentage | 10.22% | Rev. Proc. 2026-26 |
| Uniform Lifetime Table denominator at age 73 | 26.5 | 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9(c) |
| Federal estate tax exclusion | at least $15,000,000 | 26 U.S.C. 2010(c)(3) (floor only) |
Two of these deserve a note. The SALT figures are computed, not announced: 26 U.S.C. 164(b)(7) fixes each year after 2026 at 101% of the year before, and prints $40,400 for 2026. Multiplying gives $40,804. That is exact arithmetic on a printed number, and it is still not an IRS announcement — treat it accordingly. The estate exclusion is given only as a floor, because the statute’s adjustment can only increase the $15,000,000 base for deaths after 2026; the exact 2027 figure needs the indexed amount, which is not out. See the 2027 estate tax exemption.
What does not exist yet, and when it will
Thirteen figures people search for as “2027 numbers” have no 2027 value at all today. This is the table competitors fill with estimates. We give the venue and the measuring window instead, so you can tell how long the wait is and stop looking until then.
| Figure | Who publishes it | The window the law measures |
|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax brackets and standard deduction | annual IRS inflation-adjustment Revenue Procedure | the 12-month period ending August 31, 2026 (C-CPI-U, 26 U.S.C. 1(f)(6)(B)) |
| 401(k) elective deferral limit | annual IRS cost-of-living Notice (Notice 2025-67 set 2026) | the calendar quarter ending September 30, 2026 |
| IRA contribution limit | annual IRS cost-of-living Notice | the calendar quarter ending September 30, 2026 |
| Catch-up contribution, age 50-59 and 64+ | annual IRS cost-of-living Notice | the calendar quarter ending September 30, 2026 |
| Higher catch-up contribution, ages 60-63 (“super catch-up”) | annual IRS cost-of-living Notice | indexed for years beginning after 2025-12-31, base period the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2024 |
| Roth catch-up wage threshold (prior-year FICA wages) | annual IRS cost-of-living Notice | indexed from the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2023; rounded DOWN to the next lower multiple of $5,000 |
| Social Security cost-of-living adjustment | SSA determination published in the Federal Register (statutory venue) | third calendar quarter of 2026 CPI-W against the prior base quarter |
| Social Security taxable maximum (contribution and benefit base) | the same SSA Federal Register determination | published with the COLA determination |
| Medicare Part B standard monthly premium | CMS notice published in the Federal Register | the statute names September; the announced record runs Sep-Nov |
| Medicare Part B annual deductible | the same CMS Federal Register notice | announced with the premium |
| Medicare IRMAA income thresholds | the same CMS Federal Register notice as the Part B premium | 2025 MAGI is the income year; CMS announces in the first half of November 2026 |
| Medicare Part D low-income-subsidy resource limits | a separate annual CMS HPMS memorandum | after the September 2026 CPI is released by BLS |
| Federal estate tax basic exclusion — exact indexed amount | annual IRS inflation-adjustment Revenue Procedure | C-CPI-U for the 12 months ending August 31, 2026, indexed from calendar year 2025, rounded to the nearest $10,000 |
The pattern worth carrying away: the announcement dates matter more than the numbers. The IRS retirement limits and the tax brackets follow the same autumn inflation cycle; Social Security publishes in October once the third quarter closes; CMS publishes the Part B premium and the IRMAA tiers together, in the first half of November. Nothing anyone can do in August changes any of it.
One 2027 change is a rule rather than a number, and it is already certain: 26 CFR 1.414(v)-2(e)(2)(i) makes 2027 the first taxable year the Roth catch-up regulation applies, so higher earners must make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis. The wage threshold that decides who counts as a higher earner is indexed, and that number is in the table above — the rule is settled, the trigger is not.
How to check any 2027 figure you are shown
Three questions settle it, and they work on this page as well as anyone else’s.
Which document published it? A real 2027 figure has a Revenue Procedure, an IRS Notice, a CMS announcement or a Federal Register determination behind it. “Experts project” is not a document.
Has the measuring window closed? A figure indexed to inflation through September 2026 cannot be known in August 2026 by anyone, however well informed. The middle column of the table above tells you.
Is a 2026 number being shown as a 2027 one? This is the common failure. On this page every 2026 figure is labelled 2026 at the point it appears. Our 2026 figures live on the retirement numbers page, and the wider 2027 picture on the 2027 numbers hub.
If you want the detail behind a single line above, each has its own page: 2027 tax brackets, 401(k) limits, the Social Security COLA, IRMAA brackets, the Part B premium, Part D, HSA limits and the ACA affordability percentage.
Nothing on this page is advice about your own return or your own plan. If the deferral choice in your first RMD year is worth modelling against your other income, that is a conversation worth having with someone who can see the whole picture — and worth knowing what that costs before you start it.
Fifteen more 2027 figures, each with the 2026 amount, the statute, and an honest read of whether anyone has projected 2027 yet: Gift Tax Annual Exclusion 2027, IRA Contribution Limit 2027, SIMPLE IRA Contribution Limit 2027, SEP IRA Contribution Limit 2027, Social Security Wage Base 2027, Social Security Earnings Test Limits 2027, QCD Limit 2027, FSA Contribution Limit 2027, Long-Term Capital Gains Brackets 2027, AMT Exemption 2027, Saver’s Credit 2027, Medicare Part A Deductible 2027, Kiddie Tax Thresholds 2027, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion 2027 and ABLE Account Contribution Limit 2027.