What were the federal medical expense deduction thresholds for 2025 vs 2026?
Executive summary
Federal reporting and IRS guidance in the provided sources show the federal itemized medical expense deduction floor remains 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for both tax years 2025 and 2026 (IRS Topic No. 502 and multiple tax guides) [1][2]. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 made the 7.5% floor permanent, and tax-writer and tax-advice sites consistently treat 7.5% as the applicable threshold for 2025 and 2026 [3][4].
1. What the law says now: the 7.5% floor is the federal standard
The Internal Revenue Service’s guidance on medical and dental expenses states that, when you itemize, you may deduct only the amount of qualified medical expenses that exceeds 7.5% of your AGI, and that language is the primary federal reference in the materials provided [1][5]. Consumer-facing tax explainers — NerdWallet, TurboTax summaries, and other tax guides in the results — restate that same 7.5% AGI floor for 2025 and into 2026 [2][6][7].
2. Why 7.5% is treated as permanent in coverage
Multiple tax commentary pieces point to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 as the moment Congress fixed the 7.5% threshold, ending the repeated short-term “extenders” that had created uncertainty; those commentators therefore treat the 7.5% floor as the governing rule for both 2025 and 2026 [3][4]. Tax reporters and guides published in 2025 explicitly say taxpayers can deduct unreimbursed medical expenses above 7.5% of AGI for both years [8][9].
3. What the IRS’s 2026 inflation adjustments document does (and does not) change
The IRS’s 2026 inflation-adjustment announcement covers more than 60 tax provisions — for example, Medical Savings Account limits, Earned Income Tax Credit amounts, and FSA contribution caps — but the snippeted IRS notice in the search results does not state any change to the 7.5% medical expense floor; the document highlights other indexed amounts for 2026 instead [10]. Available sources do not mention a change to the 7.5% threshold in that IRS release [10].
4. Practical effect for taxpayers: the “double hurdle” problem
Tax outlets warn taxpayers that even with a 7.5% floor, most people won’t benefit because they must itemize — and the standard deduction (which is indexed and higher each year) often exceeds itemized totals. For 2025 the standard deduction amounts are cited as higher than pre-TCJA years and are projected to rise again for 2026 in the reporting, which makes it harder for many taxpayers to itemize and reach the medical-cost floor [2][11]. That combination — high standard deduction plus a 7.5% AGI floor — is why guides recommend “bunching” medical payments or timing elective care when feasible [12][7].
5. Where reporting agrees and where it varies
All provided IRS and mainstream tax-guide sources in your set agree on the 7.5% AGI threshold for the relevant years [1][2][5]. Independent tax blogs and services included in the results reiterate the same point and attribute permanence to the 2021 law [3][4]. No source in the set provides a contrary federal percentage (for example, 10% or 2%) for the federal deduction; some state tax guides do note state-level differences (for example, New Jersey) but that is outside the federal threshold question and is noted by NerdWallet [2].
6. Limits of the available sources and open questions
The materials you provided are consistent but limited: IRS Topic No. 502 and Publication 502 describe the 7.5% floor [1][5], and several 2025–2026 tax guides echo that. The IRS 2026 inflation-adjustment release lists many indexed amounts but, in the snippets provided, does not address changing the medical expense percentage [10]. If you want absolute confirmation directly from the IRS that Congress did not alter the medical deduction percentage for 2026 beyond the 2021 change, consult the full Revenue Procedure or a later IRS notice; those specific full-text documents are not present among the provided sources [10].
7. Bottom line for 2025 vs 2026
Based on the provided IRS guidance and the tax-industry coverage assembled here, the federal itemized medical expense deduction threshold is 7.5% of AGI for both tax year 2025 and tax year 2026, and commentators treat that threshold as permanent following the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 [1][3][4]. If you need a citation directly to a 2026 IRS statement that reiterates the 7.5% rule, that specific confirmation was not included among the snippet excerpts of the IRS inflation-adjustment release in the sources supplied here [10].