2027 Inflation Adjustments for Real Estate Sellers: What Moves When the IRS Releases Them

As of September 30, 2026 the IRS has not published the 2027 inflation adjustments. The last two releases came in October: Rev. Proc. 2025-32 arrived with news release IR-2025-103 on October 9, 2025, and Rev. Proc. 2024-40 with IR-2024-273 on October 22, 2024. This post lists the numbers a real estate seller should watch, the ones that never move, and how to plan a closing that straddles the year end. We will update it the day the revenue procedure is out.

How the annual adjustment is built

Section 1(f) tells the Secretary to prescribe the following year’s tables “not later than December 15” of each year. The index is the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, measured as the average over the 12-month period ending on August 31. So the inflation data behind the 2027 figures was already final before this post was written; what remains is arithmetic and rounding. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 says its items are “generally determined by reference to section 1(f)” and reflects the Code “as in effect on October 9, 2025”, which is why last year’s release also carried the first-year changes from Public Law 119-21.

The 2026 numbers that will be re-set for 2027

These are the figures for taxable years beginning in 2026, with the section of Rev. Proc. 2025-32 or the news release where each sits. Every one of them is indexed and will change.

• Long-term capital gains: the 0% band ends at $98,900 for joint filers and $49,450 for single filers; the 15% band ends at $613,700 joint and $545,500 single (section 4.03). Above those amounts the rate is 20%. The 2026 edge is explained on the planned 20% threshold page.
• Ordinary brackets: the 37% rate starts above $768,700 joint and $640,600 single (IR-2025-103). Depreciation recapture on personal-property components is taxed at ordinary rates, so these brackets matter to sellers of furnished or equipment-heavy property.
• Standard deduction: $32,200 joint, $16,100 single, $24,150 head of household (section 4.14).
• Alternative minimum tax exemption: $140,200 joint, $90,100 unmarried (IR-2025-103).
• Section 179 expensing cap: $2,560,000 (section 4.24).
• Annual gift exclusion: $19,000 per recipient (section 4.42).
• Estate and gift basic exclusion: $15,000,000 for 2026. Section 2010(c)(3), as amended by Public Law 119-21, indexes that amount for calendar years after 2026 from a 2025 base, rounded to the nearest $10,000. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 confirms the exclusion “will be adjusted for inflation for calendar year 2027 and future years.”

The full set, including items outside this list, lives on the planned 2026 tax numbers page, which is the page that gets rewritten when the 2027 procedure lands.

The numbers that will not move

• Net investment income tax. Section 1411 charges 3.8% on the lesser of net investment income or modified adjusted gross income above $250,000 joint, $200,000 single and $125,000 married filing separately. The statute contains no inflation adjustment. Each year of indexing elsewhere pushes more sellers over a line that stays where it was written.
• The 25% ceiling on unrecaptured section 1250 gain in section 1(h). It is a rate, not a threshold, so there is nothing to index. See does a 1031 defer depreciation recapture.
• The 45-day identification and 180-day exchange periods in section 1031(a)(3). They are fixed day counts.

The 2027 cycle has already started

The IRS has issued one 2027 item: Rev. Proc. 2026-24 sets the 2027 health savings account limits at $4,500 for self-only coverage and $9,000 for family coverage. That procedure is on its own statutory schedule and tells you nothing about the brackets, but it confirms that the 2027 figures are being produced on the usual timetable. The IRS newsroom listing for September 2026 contains no release on the general adjustments.

A hypothetical closing that straddles the year end

Suppose a married couple has $150,000 of other taxable income and will realise a $500,000 long-term gain on a rental, after the recapture layer. Total taxable income of $650,000 sits above the 2026 15% ceiling of $613,700, so about $36,300 of gain is taxed at 20% rather than 15%. If the 2027 ceiling rises by a hypothetical $15,000, the same sale in January would move $15,000 of gain from 20% to 15%, saving $750. The net investment income tax does not move: $400,000 of modified adjusted gross income above $250,000 times 3.8% is $15,200 in either year.

The point of the example is proportion. Indexing shifts hundreds of dollars; the fixed thresholds cost thousands; a completed exchange defers the whole amount. Run your own numbers with your CPA before choosing a closing date for tax reasons.

What to do now

1. If your closing could land in December or January, have your CPA model both years using the published 2026 thresholds and a flat assumption for 2027, then revisit when the revenue procedure is out.
2. If the gain pushes you over the 15% ceiling or the net investment income line in either year, the exchange decision matters more than the timing decision. Start with what a 1031 exchange is and the tax hub.
3. Check the IRS newsroom in October and compare the new figures against the 2026 numbers page, which we update on release day.
4. If a sale is already in motion, request a proposal so the replacement path is mapped before the 45-day clock starts.

Sources

• Rev. Proc. 2025-32, 2026 inflation adjusted items
• IR-2025-103, IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 (October 9, 2025)
• IR-2024-273, IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2025 (October 22, 2024)
• Rev. Proc. 2026-24, 2027 HSA inflation adjusted amounts
• 26 U.S.C. section 1 (subsections (f) and (h))
• 26 U.S.C. section 1411
• 26 U.S.C. section 2010
• 26 U.S.C. section 1031