The standard deduction for tax year 2027 and the income thresholds for each tax bracket had not been published by the IRS as of October 3, 2026. Last year the package that carries them came out on October 9, 2025, six days later on the calendar than today. The IRS has not said when the 2027 version will arrive, so the date is a pattern from one year to the next and not a promise.
Where the 2027 figures will show up first
The annual inflation adjustments appear twice: as a revenue procedure with the full tables and as a newsroom release that summarizes them. For tax year 2026 the release was IR-2025-103, dated October 9, 2025, and the tables sat in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. That release set the 2026 standard deduction at $16,100 for single filers and married people filing separately, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $24,150 for heads of household, left the top rate at 37 percent, put the maximum Earned Income Tax Credit at $8,231 for a filer with three or more qualifying children and raised the basic estate tax exclusion to $15,000,000.
Those are the numbers still in force for returns filed in 2027, and the IRS release says as much: the adjustments apply to tax returns filed in 2027. The 2027 equivalents will be the figures for returns filed in 2028, which is why their absence has no effect on any deadline this season. It matters to payroll departments, tax software makers and anyone projecting next year’s withholding, all of whom are working from the 2026 tables for now.
What the IRS newsroom list showed on October 3
The IRS publishes its releases in a current-month list, and the October 3 read ran from IR-2026-118, dated October 1, back through the first release of September. IR-2026-118 recruits community partners and volunteers for free tax services. IR-2026-117, also from October 1, covers the nationwide school choice program. Neither carries a 2027 dollar figure.
Only one release in the list mentions 2027 at all, and it is not a tax figure. IR-2026-116, from September 30, says due dates for eligible returns and payments may be postponed to September 30, 2027 for taxpayers affected by ongoing events in Israel. A September 8 release, IR-2026-107, opens applications for the 2027 Compliance Assurance Process, which is an enrollment program, not an adjustment table. No release in the list is titled or described as a 2027 inflation adjustment.
The revenue procedure folder has no 2027 adjustment either
The newsroom is half the picture, because the tables themselves go into the IRS’s advance-release folder for notices and revenue procedures. The newest file there on October 3 was Notice 2026-63, dated September 30. The newest revenue procedure, Rev. Proc. 2026-32 from September 4, covers automatic consent to change accounting methods for research expenditures and residential construction contracts under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. Rev. Proc. 2026-30 sets application procedures for letter rulings from IRS Employee Plans, and Rev. Proc. 2026-28 is filing relief for FIFA World Cup participating associations. None of the three contains a calendar 2027 dollar figure.
The IRS also keeps a page of retirement plan cost-of-living increases, last reviewed August 24, 2026. It still lists only 2026 numbers: a $24,500 limit on 401(k) and 403(b) elective deferrals, an $8,000 catch-up for age 50 and older, an $11,250 higher catch-up for ages 60 to 63 and a $7,500 IRA limit. No 2027 figures appear on it.
One set of 2027 figures is already out, and it is not the one in the headline
The IRS has published 2027 numbers, but for a different adjustment. Revenue Procedure 2026-24, released June 1, 2026, sets the 2027 health savings account limits: $4,500 for self-only coverage and $9,000 for family coverage, with a high-deductible health plan minimum deductible of $1,750 for self-only and $3,500 for family coverage, and an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,700 and $17,400. It also sets an excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangement amount of $2,250.
That procedure is why the headline names tax brackets and the standard deduction, and not every 2027 number. The HSA limits follow their own timetable and arrive in spring, while the bracket thresholds, standard deduction, Earned Income Tax Credit and estate exclusion travel together in the autumn package. A claim that the IRS had published no 2027 figure of any kind would be wrong on the IRS’s own record.
A pattern from one year is not a deadline
The comparison with October 9, 2025 is the only timing evidence available, and it is one data point. The 2026 release’s own title says it includes amendments from the One Big Beautiful Bill. Nothing in the 2025 release commits the agency to a date in 2026, and nothing found in the IRS newsroom or advance-release folder this week gives one.
For readers watching for the 2027 standard deduction and brackets, the two places that settled this check are the same two that will show the change first: the newsroom’s current-month list and the advance-release folder. As of the reads on October 3, 2026, neither held a revenue procedure or a release with 2027 brackets or standard deduction amounts.
Next year’s tables do not change what the current return needs
The 2027 brackets and standard deduction will matter for the return filed in 2028, while the return in play now is the one for tax year 2026, filed in 2027 under the figures in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. If that return produces a refund, tracking it is a job that begins after filing.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a refund status tracker spreadsheet and a notice decoder, along with the refund-trace steps for Form 3911 and the 3-year refund deadline, for keeping a tax-year 2026 refund in view after it is filed.
Get The IRS Refund Recovery Kit for the refund on a 2026 return →
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the absence of 2027 figures was checked against the IRS newsroom and advance-release folder on October 3, 2026, and the 2026 figures against IR-2025-103.
