IRS Publication 554 — Tax Guide for Seniors

standard deduction if you are age 65 or older at the end of the year. You are considered age 65 on the day before your 65th birthday. Therefore, you can take a higher standard deduction for 2025 if you were born before January 2, 1961.

Death before age 65. If you are preparing a return for someone who died in 2025, consider the taxpayer to be age 65 or older at the end of 2025 only if they were age 65 or older at the time of death. A taxpayer is considered age 65 on the day before their birthday.

Example. Your spouse was born on February 14, 1960, and died on February 13, 2025. Your spouse is considered age 65 at the time of death. However, if your spouse died on February 12, 2025, your spouse isn’t considered age 65 at the time of death and isn’t age 65 or older at the end of 2025.

Higher standard deduction for blindness. If you are blind on the last day of the year and you don’t itemize deductions, you are entitled to a higher standard deduction. Not totally blind. If you aren’t totally blind, you must get a certified statement from an eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist) that:

• You can’t see better than 20/200 in the better eye with glasses or contact lenses, or

• Your field of vision isn’t more than 20 degrees. If your eye condition isn’t likely to improve beyond these limits, the statement should include this fact. You must keep the statement in your records.

If your vision can be corrected beyond these limits only by contact lenses that you can wear only briefly because of pain, infection, or ulcers, you can take the higher standard deduction for blindness if you otherwise qualify. Spouse age 65 or older or blind. You can take the higher standard deduction if your spouse is age 65 or older or blind and:

• You file a joint return, or

• You file a separate return and your spouse had no gross income and can’t be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer.

You can’t claim the higher standard deduction for an individual other than yourself and your spouse. Example. This example illustrates how to determine your standard deduction using Worksheet 4-1. Jean and Terry are filing a joint return for 2025. Both are over age 65. Neither is blind, and neither can be claimed as a dependent. They don’t itemize deductions, so they use Worksheet 4-1. Because they are married filing jointly, they enter $31,500 on line 1. They check the “No” box on line 2, so they also enter $31,500 on line 4. Because they CAUTION ! are both over age 65, they enter $3,200 ($1,600 × 2) on line 5. They enter $34,700 ($31,500 + $3,200) on line 6, so their standard deduction is $34,700.