Q: What are the 2022 income tax brackets and other tax figures?

A: Higher inflation means that many 2022 cost of living adjustments increased more than usual. Here's an overview of numbers affecting individual taxpayers.

Individual income tax rates

Tax-bracket thresholds increased for each filing status, which means it will take a larger income increase to push you into the next bracket:

2022 ordinary-income tax brackets
Tax rate	Single	Head of household	Married filing jointly or surviving spouse	Married filing separately
10%	$0 - $10,275	$0 - $14,650	$0 - $20,550	$0 - $10,275
12%	$10,276 - $41,775	$14,651 - $55,900	$20,551 - $83,550	$10,276 - $41,775
22%	$41,776 - $89,075	$55,901 - $89,050	$83,551 - $178,150	$41,776 - $89,075
24%	$89,076 - $170,050	$89,051 - $170,050	$178,151 - $340,100	$89,076 - $170,050
32%	$170,051 - $215,950	$170,051 - $215,950	$340,101 - $431,900	$170,051 - $215,950
35%	$215,951 - $539,900	$215,951 - $539,900	$431,901 - $647,850	$215,951 - $323,925
37%	Over $539,900	Over $539,900	Over $647,850	Over $323,925

Standard deduction

For 2022, the standard deduction is $25,900 (married couples filing jointly), $19,400 (heads of households), and $12,950 (singles and married couples filing separately).

AMT

Like the regular tax brackets, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) brackets are annually indexed for inflation. Here are the 2022 brackets:

2022 AMT brackets
Tax rate	Single	Head of household	Married filing jointly or surviving spouse	Married filing separately
26%	$0 - $206,100	$0 - $206,100	$0 - $206,100	$0 - $103,050
28%	Over $206,100	Over $206,100	Over $206,100	Over $103,050

The AMT exemptions and exemption phaseouts are also indexed. The exemption amounts for 2022 are $75,900 for singles and heads of households and $118,100 for joint filers. The phaseout ranges for 2022 are $539,900–$843,500 (singles and heads of households) and $1,079,800–$1,552,200 (joint filers). Amounts for separate filers are half of those for joint filers.

Retirement plans

Most but not all retirement-plan-related limits increase for 2022:

Type of limitation	2022 limit
Elective deferrals to 401(k), 403(b), 457(b)(2) and 457(c)(1) plans	$20,500
Annual benefit limit for defined benefit plans	$245,000
Contributions to defined contribution plans	$61,000
Contributions to SIMPLEs	$14,000
Contributions to IRAs	$6,000
“Catch-up” contributions to 401(k), 403(b), 457(b)(2) and 457(c)(1) plans for those age 50 and older	$6,500
Catch-up contributions to SIMPLEs	$3,000
Catch-up contributions to IRAs	$1,000
Compensation for benefit purposes for qualified plans and SEPs	$305,000
Minimum compensation for SEP coverage	$650
Highly compensated employee threshold	$135,000

Gift and estate taxes

The unified gift and estate tax exemption and the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption are both adjusted annually for inflation. For 2022, the amount is $12.06 million.

The annual gift tax exclusion increases to $16,000 for 2022.