filing threshold

What is a filing threshold?

The filing threshold is the minimum amount of income you must earn in order to be required to file a federal income tax return. The amount varies depending on whether you’re under 65, your marital status, and whether you have dependent children (ie, your filing status: single, head of household, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or qualifying widow(er) with dependent children).

The IRS has a page that shows tax filing thresholds for each filing status, for people under 65 as well as those 65 and older.

In the context of the ACA, the tax filing threshold used to be relevant in terms of the individual mandate penalty, since there was an automatic exemption from the penalty if your income was below the tax filing threshold. But the federal penalty for not having health insurance was eliminated as of 2019.

The tax filing threshold is still relevant in terms of how dependents’ income is treated when a family applies for Marketplace coverage. If a tax dependent’s income is enough that they have to file a tax return, their income is counted as part of the overall household income.

What are the tax filing thresholds for 2023?

For the 2023 tax year, you had to file a tax return if your income was at least:¹

These amounts are updated annually by the IRS. The updated thresholds are generally published early in the year, before that tax filing season begins for the previous tax year.