Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer. The standard annual contribution limit for an ABLE account (a tax-advantaged disability savings account under 26 U.S.C. §529A) is $20,000 for 2026, up from $19,000 in 2025. That is the first year the ABLE limit has ever been higher than the ordinary federal gift tax annual exclusion ($19,000 for 2026): the two figures had moved in exact lockstep every year since ABLE accounts were created, until the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed the ABLE statute’s own base year. Working beneficiaries who don’t participate in an employer retirement plan can also contribute an additional “ABLE to Work” amount, $15,650 for the continental U.S. in 2026 (higher in Alaska and Hawaii), tied to the prior year’s one-person federal poverty guideline. The 2027 figures for both are not yet announced.
What’s actually settled, vs. still open
Settled for 2026 (Revenue Procedure 2025-32, §4.34, quoted directly): “For taxable years beginning in 2026, $20,000…is included in the aggregate limitation on contributions to ABLE accounts under §529A(b)(2)(B)(i).” The same document sets the ordinary gift tax exclusion at $19,000 for 2026, the first year on record the two figures don’t match.
Open: both the 2027 standard limit and the 2027 ABLE-to-Work amount. The standard limit is governed by 26 U.S.C. §529A(b)(2)(B)(i); the ABLE-to-Work addition by §529A(b)(2)(B)(ii), which caps it at the lesser of the beneficiary’s own compensation or the prior year’s one-person federal poverty guideline under 42 U.S.C. §9902(2).
The numbers, year by year
| Year | ABLE standard limit | Gift tax exclusion | Same figure? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $17,000 | $17,000 | Yes |
| 2024 | $18,000 | $18,000 | Yes |
| 2025 | $19,000 | $19,000 | Yes |
| 2026 | $20,000 | $19,000 | No (OBBBA split them) |
| 2027 | not yet announced | not yet announced | n/a |
A limit tells you the ceiling, not the right amount
How much to put in, which account to use and what it displaces elsewhere are separate questions from the limit itself, and an adviser can work through them alongside the rest of your savings.
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Why the two figures split in 2026
26 U.S.C. §529A(b)(2)(B)(i) has always defined the ABLE limit by reference to “the amount in effect under section 2503(b)” (the ordinary gift-tax exclusion statute), but with its own substituted base year, “1996” in place of “1997.” Through 2025 that one-year difference in the base never produced a different rounded dollar figure. OBBBA §70115 changed how that substitution works starting in 2026, adding an extra year of compounded inflation to the ABLE calculation specifically, which is the entire reason $20,000 and $19,000 are no longer the same number, even though both are still built from the same underlying gift-exclusion mechanism.
The “ABLE to Work” addition works on a deliberate one-year lag: the 2026 figure ($15,650 for the continental U.S.) equals the 2025 HHS one-person poverty guideline, not the 2026 guideline, because HHS doesn’t publish a given year’s guideline until January of that year, too late for ABLE contribution planning to use it in real time.
Sources
2026 ABLE standard limit: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, §4.34, read at irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf on 2026-09-04. 2026 gift tax exclusion for comparison: Revenue Procedure 2026-25, irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-26-25.pdf, independently confirming $19,000. Statute: 26 U.S.C. §529A(b)(2)(B), read at uscode.house.gov on 2026-09-04. ABLE-to-Work figure ($15,650 continental US / $19,550 Alaska / $17,990 Hawaii): ABLE National Resource Center, ablenrc.org, read 2026-09-04; the one figure on this page sourced from a secondary rather than a directly-fetched primary document, since HHS poverty guidelines are published separately from IRS revenue procedures. No 2027 figure or forecaster projection was found for either amount as of this date.
This page is updated the day the official figure is announced, and any projection above will be struck through rather than deleted, so the record of what was projected vs. what actually happened stays visible. See the 2027 numbers hub for every figure this program tracks, projected vs. official. General information, not tax or legal advice.