How Much Can a Retiree Have in Income and Owe $0 Federal Income Tax in 2026? 30 Households, and Every State

Published 2026-10-10. Tax year 2026 (the return filed in early 2027).

How much income can a retiree have and pay no federal income tax in 2026?

It depends on age, filing status and Social Security, and the 2026 senior deduction raises it. A married couple, both 65 or older, with $35,000 of Social Security can take up to $34,610 from IRAs (or a pension) in 2026, $69,610 of income in all, and owe $0 of federal income tax. A single retiree 65 or older with $25,000 of Social Security can take $20,269 ($45,269 in all). The same couple at 62 can take $26,303: turning 65 adds the extra standard deduction and the new $6,000-per-person senior deduction, $8,307 of room. Long-term capital gains go further: the couple could realize $116,650 of them at $0 federal tax.

Your numbers: how much of your Social Security is taxable
Free: the taxable part of your benefits and your 2026 federal tax, from the same engine. The 2026 tax return calculator adds your state.

The households

Five households, each at six levels of gross Social Security benefits ($0 to $60,000 a year), with no other income than the IRA withdrawals (or long-term gains) being sized. Each takes the standard deduction; nobody itemizes. Ages are those reached in 2026.

• Z1: Single, 67.
• Z2: Couple, 67 and 66, married filing jointly.
• Z3: Couple, 66 and 62, married filing jointly.
• Z4: Single, 62.
• Z5: Couple, 62 and 62, married filing jointly.

IRA or pension income with $0 federal income tax

What sets the ceiling. With no Social Security, it is the standard deduction (Rev. Proc. 2025-32) plus, from 65, the additional standard deduction and the senior deduction of up to $6,000 a person, new for 2026 (the Tax Table charges $0 on the first $5 of taxable income, so the ceiling sits a few dollars above the deductions: $24,154 for a single filer 65 or older). Social Security raises total tax-free income but lowers the IRA ceiling: once benefits plus half of the other income pass the base amount, up to 85% of the benefits become taxable (IRS Publication 915), and each extra IRA dollar can also make up to 85 cents of benefits taxable, using the deductions up faster. At these incomes the senior deduction is not phased out: it starts phasing out above $75,000 of modified AGI ($150,000 joint).

Long-term capital gains with $0 federal income tax

Gains go further because the deductions absorb them first and what is left is taxed at 0% up to the top of the 0% bracket (Rev. Proc. 2025-32). The ceiling is lower with large benefits because gains also count toward the income that makes Social Security taxable, and taxable benefits are ordinary income: once they exceed the deductions, the tax is no longer $0. The 0% gain-harvesting study works through what a harvest above these ceilings costs.

The $0 state-tax ceiling, every state

For the single retiree (Z1, $25,000 of Social Security) and the couple (Z2, $35,000), the most IRA income with $0 state income tax, and with $0 federal and state tax together. On the joint return the IRA withdrawals are split evenly between the spouses (each spouse's own IRA), which matters in states that exempt retirement income per person. “None up to $500,000” means the state taxed none of it up to that amount: it has no income tax or exempts these withdrawals at this age. Local income taxes are not included.

Related: The 2026 senior deduction, decomposed · Is 0% gain harvesting free? · Ten retiree households, 51 state tax bills · 2026 standard deduction

Download the data

Every ceiling on this page, with its inputs: tax-free-retirement-income-2026.csv (the 30 federal ceilings) · tax-free-retirement-income-2026-states.csv (the 102 state ceilings; empty = none up to $500,000) · tax-free-retirement-income-2026.json (both, CC0).

Questions

How much income can a retiree have and pay no federal income tax in 2026?

It depends on age, filing status and Social Security. With no Social Security: $24,154 of IRA or pension income for a single filer 65 or older, $47,504 for a couple both 65 or older. With $35,000 of Social Security a couple both 65 or older can add $34,610 of IRA income ($69,610 in all) and owe $0.

Does the 2026 senior deduction mean no tax on Social Security?

No. It is a deduction of up to $6,000 for each person 65 or older, phased out above $75,000 of modified AGI ($150,000 joint); up to 85% of benefits can still be taxable. It does raise the income a retiree can have at $0 tax: a couple with $35,000 of Social Security has $8,307 more room at 65 than at 62.

How much in capital gains can a retiree realize tax-free in 2026?

For a couple both 65 or older with $35,000 of Social Security and no other income, $116,650 of long-term gains at $0 federal tax; with no Social Security, $146,400.

Will my state tax income that is federally tax-free?

Often. For a couple both 65 or older with $35,000 of Social Security, 14 states start taxing IRA withdrawals below the federal $0 ceiling of $34,610; 13 tax none of it up to $500,000.

Method and sources

Each ceiling is the largest whole-dollar amount with which the household's 2026 tax is $0, found by bisection with QuantCalc's open tax engines (federal 2.3.1, state 1.14.2) through the module the site's tax calculators run, and checked by a scan below it in $250 steps so that every smaller amount is untaxed too. “$0 federal income tax” is $0 on Form 1040 line 24. Every ceiling and figure was then re-checked by the C engines behind the federal and state tax APIs, from independently written requests: untaxed at the published dollar, taxed one dollar above it. Federal tax uses the IRS Tax Table below $100,000 of taxable income, as a return does. The rules this study leans on:

• Rev. Proc. 2025-32: 2026 inflation-adjusted items (incl. One Big Beautiful Bill amendments)
• 26 U.S. Code § 151
• Working Families Tax Cuts: tax deductions for working Americans and seniors
• Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits
• 26 U.S. Code § 86
• Instructions for Form 1040 (2025)

What is not modelled

• Households have no income other than Social Security and the amount being sized; interest, dividends, wages or a part-time job use up the same room.
• Federally a taxable pension and an IRA withdrawal are the same income; many states treat them differently (public pensions especially), so the state ceilings are for IRA withdrawals only.
• Each household takes the standard deduction. No credits are claimed.
• $0 income tax is not $0 cost: a Roth conversion or withdrawal can still raise Medicare IRMAA premiums two years later or reduce an ACA premium credit before 65.
• Local income taxes are not included.

An estimate, not tax advice. These are computed examples for the 2026 tax year from QuantCalc's open tax engines (federal 2.3.1, state 1.14.2). Your own return depends on facts these examples do not include. Check any decision with your tax preparer before acting.

@misc{quantcalc2026howmuchincomecanaretireehaveandpaynofede,
  title  = {How Much Income Can a Retiree Have and Pay No Federal Income Tax in 2026? The $0-Tax Ceiling by Household and Social Security, and Every State},
  author = {{QuantCalc Research}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://quantcalc.app/research/tax-free-retirement-income-2026/},
  note   = {Accessed <date>}
}