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Here are the Projected 2009 Federal Income Tax Brackets ^[3], projected in the same way and by the same people as did the last projection.

Last September a bunch of places started giving previews of the 2008 IRS tax brackets prior to the IRS revealing them, such as Kiplinger’s ^[4] and the WSJ ^[5], and I wanted to compare them to the actual 2008 tables. All in all, it appears that the calculations made by the experts were spot on when compared to the figures revealed by the IRS. It makes sense though because the calculations were based on government released inflation figures. Here are the official IRS tax bracket numbers:

2008 IRS Tax Brackets

2008 IRS Deduction, Exemption & Limit Changes

Finally, all the 2008 deduction and exemption values were published by the IRS ^[6] in October, here are the notable increases (or unchanged values):

• Personal and dependency exemptions increase $100 to $3500 each.
• Standard deduction for married couples filing jointly increases $200 to $10,900. Singles and married filing separately increases $100 to $5,450. Heads of households get a $150 increase to $8,000.
• Maximum earned income tax credit (for low/moderate income workers and families with 2+ children) increases from $4716 to $4824. The income limit for this increased to $41,646.
• The maximum Hope credit increases $150 to $1,800.
• Roth IRA contribution limit phase outs begin at $101,000 (+$2k) for singles and HoH, $159,000 (+3k) for married.
• 401(k) and 403(b) contribution limits remain unchanged at $15,500.
• Annual limit for most defined contribution plans increases to $46,000 from $45,000.