US tax law changelog
A timeline of the US federal and selected state tax changes that actually affected paychecks and personal returns since 2020. Editorial notes by our team on what changed in practice — not just what got passed. Useful when a client says “but last year…” and you need to remember exactly what was different about last year.
Last updated: May 26, 2026. New legislation gets entries as we read the operational text, not the press release.
2020 through 2026
May 26, 2026 · Site update
Original research series and case-studies index published
Published three pieces of original research with inline charts — our paycheck-calculator accuracy study, the 50-state $100,000 take-home ranking, and a quantitative cost analysis of the New York convenience-of-employer rule across six remote-worker scenarios. Added a case studies index with six anonymized client situations and a reader mailbag with twelve answered submissions. Goal: shift the editorial center of gravity from explainer content toward original analysis only a practitioner can produce.
May 20, 2026 · Site update
Expanded editorial coverage and new reference pages
We added seven long-form guides this spring (paystub line-by-line, federal brackets walkthrough, pre-tax vs post-tax deductions, year-end checklist, deductions vs credits, multi-state remote work, quarterly estimated tax mechanics), plus a tax glossary and this changelog. The combo calculator URLs were noindexed and the programmatic sitemap was retired so the indexed surface reflects only substantive editorial content. See our editorial policy for the workflow.
January 15, 2026 · Calculator update
All calculators updated for tax year 2026
Federal brackets, standard deduction, Social Security wage base ($176,100), and contribution limits ($23,500 401(k); $4,400 HSA self-only and $8,750 family) all rolled forward from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the SSA contribution-base announcement of October 2025. The SECURE 2.0 super catch-up ($11,250 at ages 60-63) was already in the 401(k) calculator from 2025. State withholding tables refreshed for the eight states that adjusted rates between 2025 and 2026.
July 4, 2025 · Federal
One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed
The OBBBA, signed in early July 2025, extended most TCJA individual provisions through tax year 2030 with chained-CPI indexing. Key changes that affect 2026 returns: the bracket structure (10/12/22/24/32/35/37) continues; the SALT cap rises from $10,000 to $40,000 for most MFJ households; the lifetime estate and gift exclusion lands at $15,000,000 per individual; the Child Tax Credit lands at $2,200 per child with up to $1,800 refundable. Standard deduction continues at the higher post-TCJA level. The bill also added two speculative bracket reservations for incomes above $1,000,000 that Treasury has not yet operationalized.
October 22, 2024 · Federal
IRS releases 2025 inflation adjustments (Rev. Proc. 2024-40)
Standard deduction rose to $15,000 single / $30,000 MFJ for tax year 2025. Brackets adjusted by chained CPI. 401(k) elective deferral limit increased to $23,500 (still applies in 2026 because chained-CPI wasn’t enough to move the round number). The SECURE 2.0 super catch-up for ages 60-63 took effect for the first time in 2025 at $11,250.
April 9, 2024 · Treasury reg
Final 1099-DA broker reporting regulations issued
Treasury finalized the digital-asset broker reporting regulations under IRC § 6045(g). Brokers (centralized exchanges, custodial wallets, certain DeFi platforms) are required to issue Form 1099-DA for digital-asset transactions starting with the 2025 tax year, with the first 1099-DA forms landing in early 2026. Implications for crypto-active filers: reconcile every wallet and exchange against the broker reports before filing.
January 1, 2024 · State
California SDI wage cap removed
California eliminated the wage cap on State Disability Insurance contributions effective January 1, 2024. High earners now pay 1.1% (the 2024 rate) or 1.2% (the 2026 rate) on every dollar of California wages with no annual maximum. Pre-2024, SDI capped out around $153,000 of wages. For workers earning more than that, the change is a meaningful annual increase — on a $500,000 salary, the additional SDI cost is roughly $4,100 a year compared to the prior cap.
December 29, 2023 · Federal
SECURE 2.0 provisions phased in
Several Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act 2.0 (passed late 2022) provisions came into effect during 2023 and 2024: RMD age moved from 72 to 73; the 25% RMD missed-distribution penalty (down from 50%); the new Saver’s Match (effective 2027); the high-income catch-up Roth requirement (effective 2026); the super catch-up at ages 60-63 (effective 2025). One of the broadest retirement-plan rewrites since 2006’s Pension Protection Act.
August 25, 2023 · Federal
IRS delays Roth catch-up requirement to 2026
Under SECURE 2.0, catch-up contributions by employees whose prior-year wages exceeded $145,000 were scheduled to be required as Roth (not traditional) starting in 2024. IRS Notice 2023-62 delayed the requirement to 2026 to give plan administrators time to implement. The delay landed weeks before plans had to reprogram payroll, and you can find the relief language in the Notice.
August 16, 2022 · Federal
Inflation Reduction Act signed
Created the Residential Clean Energy Credit (30% of qualified solar, wind, geothermal, battery) and the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (annual caps; 30% rate). Extended Affordable Care Act premium tax credit smoothing through 2025. Created the Inflation Reduction Act’s 15% corporate alternative minimum tax (not individual). Funded the IRS with about $80 billion over ten years, partly clawed back in later legislation.
January 1, 2022 · State
Tennessee Hall Tax fully repealed
Tennessee’s Hall Income Tax on interest and dividends, which had been phasing down since 2016, was fully repealed effective January 1, 2022. Tennessee residents now pay no state income tax of any kind. For years before 2022, retirees with significant investment income had a small Tennessee filing obligation; from 2022 forward, none.
March 11, 2021 · Federal
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) tax provisions
Expanded Child Tax Credit to $3,000-$3,600 per child for tax year 2021 only (reverted to $2,000 for 2022 and after; OBBBA later moved it to $2,200 for 2026). Made the dependent-care FSA limit $10,500 for 2021 only (reverted to $5,000). Extended ARPA smoothing on the ACA Premium Tax Credit. Issued a third round of economic impact payments. Most of the individual provisions sunset; the ones that mattered going forward were the structural ACA smoothing and the standardization of remote-work withholding nexus rules that followed.
March 27, 2020 · Federal
CARES Act payroll and individual tax provisions
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act allowed payroll-tax deferral for employers, expanded the Employee Retention Credit, suspended RMDs for 2020, opened a $300 above-the-line charitable contribution deduction, made over-the-counter medications eligible for FSA reimbursement, and authorized the first round of economic impact payments. Many provisions sunset; the OTC FSA expansion stayed.
January 1, 2020 · Federal
Redesigned Form W-4 takes effect
The IRS overhauled the W-4 for the 2020 tax year, removing personal allowances and replacing them with the current five-step structure: Step 1 filing status, Step 2 multiple jobs, Step 3 dependents and credits, Step 4 other income / deductions / extra withholding, Step 5 signature. Employees hired before 2020 are not required to fill out the new form, but a meaningful number of stale pre-2020 W-4s are still in payroll systems six years later, which is one of the most common causes of under-withholding we see.
How we maintain this page
We add entries when an underlying source document (a signed bill, a final regulation, an IRS revenue procedure or notice, a state department of revenue rate change) is published, not when it’s rumored or marked up in committee. Each entry is checked against the cited authority and is dated to the authoritative effective date, not the date our team learned about it. Corrections go to corrections@calcyet.com.
Why a changelog? Two reasons. One: tax planning that worked last year doesn’t necessarily work this year, and clients consistently underestimate how much shifts year over year. Two: when our calculators or articles cite a figure that’s been superseded, we want the reader to be able to find when and why it changed.
For deeper coverage of any specific change, the relevant article in our Insights section walks the worked examples and links to the underlying authority.