Bastion Stability · Briefing Paper No. 1 Tax year 2026 edition
Bastion Stability
Edited by Kasper Soren

Briefing Paper No. 1 · Free to subscribers

The 2026 Retiree Tax Map

Twelve provisions that changed what American retirees owe — each with the exact dollar threshold, the income line where it starts disappearing, and the year the window closes for good.

Most coverage of the 2025 tax law told you it was big. This one gives you the numbers.

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§ A

Why this document exists

The 2025 tax law did something unusual. It made one set of rules permanent and gave another set an expiry date — and the ones with expiry dates are precisely the ones aimed at people over sixty-five.

That combination creates windows. A deduction that exists in 2026 and 2027 and is gone in 2029. A deduction cap four times its old size that reverts to the old size in 2030. A charitable rule that changes shape on 1 January 2026. If you are drawing down retirement accounts, deciding when to convert, or working out whether to itemise for the first time since 2018, the year you act in is now worth real money.

The Tax Map is the reference sheet for those windows: what each provision says, who it applies to, which number matters, and when it stops. No opinions, no projections — just the current state of the rules, in one place, in language you do not need a professional to decode.

§ B

The twelve provisions

Below is the full table of contents, with the headline figure for each rule. The document itself adds who qualifies, what the provision replaced, what to do about it, and the date it expires.

  1. 01The senior deduction. $6,000 per person aged 65 or over, $12,000 for a qualifying couple. Begins phasing out at $75,000 modified AGI (single) and $150,000 (joint), and is gone entirely above $175,000 / $250,000. Available whether you itemise or not. Tax years 2025 through 2028 only.
  2. 02The SALT deduction cap. $40,000 for 2025, up from $10,000, rising roughly 1% a year through 2029 — then back to $10,000 in 2030. Reduced for modified AGI above $500,000.
  3. 03Rates made permanent. The 2017 brackets no longer expire. For 2026 the top rate of 37% starts at $640,600 (single) and $768,700 (joint). What that removes is the artificial deadline on Roth conversions — and what it replaces it with.
  4. 04The estate and gift exemption. $15,000,000 per person from 2026, inflation-indexed thereafter, with no scheduled sunset. The annual gift exclusion stays at $19,000.
  5. 05The new charitable floor for itemisers. From 2026, charitable gifts are deductible only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of adjusted gross income. Why this quietly rewards giving two years' worth in one year.
  6. 06The charitable deduction for non-itemisers. Up to $1,000 (single) and $2,000 (joint), beginning in 2026 — the first such deduction since 2021. Gifts to donor-advised funds do not qualify.
  7. 07Qualified charitable distributions. Up to $111,000 per person in 2026, direct from an IRA, counting toward your required distribution and never entering your adjusted gross income. Why AGI control is worth more in 2026 than it was in 2024.
  8. 08Required minimum distributions. Age 73 today, age 75 from 2033. How permanent brackets change the case for taking more than the minimum in your sixties.
  9. 09Workplace plan limits for 2026. $24,500 elective deferral, plus $8,000 catch-up at 50 or over, or $11,250 at ages 60 to 63 — $32,500 and $35,750 all in.
  10. 10IRA limits for 2026. $7,500 plus a $1,100 catch-up at 50 or over. Roth contributions phase out between $153,000 and $168,000 (single) and $242,000 and $252,000 (joint).
  11. 11The health savings account. $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family for 2026, plus $1,000 at age 55 — and the Medicare enrolment date that ends eligibility for good.
  12. 12Trump accounts for children and grandchildren. Up to $5,000 a year until age 18, with a one-time $1,000 federal contribution for children born 2025 through 2028.

Also included

The Closing Windows calendar

One page. Everything above, sorted by the date it stops rather than the order it was written: what is new on 1 January 2026, what disappears after 2028, what changes in 2029, and what snaps back in 2030. Put it where you keep the tax file.

§ C

Where the numbers come from

Every figure in the Tax Map is traceable to a primary source.

  • IRS inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 — standard deduction, brackets, estate exclusion, gift exclusion.
  • IRS retirement plan limits for 2026 — deferral, catch-up, IRA and phase-out figures.
  • IRS guidance on health savings account limits for 2026.
  • The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed 4 July 2025 — the senior deduction, the SALT cap schedule, permanence of the 2017 rates, the charitable floor and the non-itemiser deduction, and the new accounts for children.
  • Congressional Research Service analysis for the non-partisan reading of provisions where interpretation matters.

Where a provision is still awaiting regulatory guidance — and one or two are — the document says so rather than guessing. That is the whole point of it.