The IRS National Standards for expense allowances are fixed monthly dollar amounts the government treats as reasonable spending on food, clothing, personal care, housekeeping supplies, and out-of-pocket healthcare when it decides how much of your income should go to a tax debt or to creditors in bankruptcy. For 2025 through June 2026, a single person is allowed $744 a month for food, clothing, and miscellaneous items; a family of four is allowed $1,921.1Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Allowable Living Expenses National Standards Healthcare has its own separate standard. Everything else on your budget is measured against either these figures or a related set of Local Standards.
What the National Standards Cover
The main National Standard bundles five categories into one monthly number: food, housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, and a miscellaneous catch-all.2Cornell Law School. IRS Expenses The figure is the same in every state. It scales with household size.
The current monthly allowances, effective April 21, 2025 and in force until June 2026, are:1Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Allowable Living Expenses National Standards
- One person: $744 ($497 food, $93 clothing, $154 miscellaneous)
- Two people: $1,315
- Three people: $1,577
- Four people: $1,921
- Each additional person beyond four: add $394
One feature works strongly in your favor. You are allowed the full standard amount whether or not you actually spend it. A single filer who spends $500 a month on food and personal items still gets the full $744.3Internal Revenue Service. National Standards: Food, Clothing and Other Items The pressure comes in the other direction. If you spend more than the standard, you have to prove the higher amount is necessary, and the miscellaneous piece is a hard cap with no room to argue above it.
The Separate Healthcare Allowance
Out-of-pocket healthcare is calculated per person rather than per household:4Internal Revenue Service. National Standards: Out-of-Pocket Health Care
- Under 65: $84 per person per month
- 65 and older: $149 per person per month
This allowance covers costs insurance does not pay, such as copays, prescriptions, glasses, and hearing aids. Health insurance premiums are handled separately as an actual expense, so the two stack.5Internal Revenue Service. Collection Financial Standards A couple both under 65 is allowed $168 a month for out-of-pocket costs on top of what they actually pay in premiums. These amounts also run through June 2026.4Internal Revenue Service. National Standards: Out-of-Pocket Health Care
What the National Standards Do Not Cover
Housing, utilities, and vehicle costs are not part of the National Standards. Those larger expenses fall under Local Standards, which vary by county for housing and by Census region for vehicle operating costs.6Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Allowable Living Expenses Housing Standards Housing allowances differ dramatically by location, from roughly $1,533 for a single person in a rural county to $3,481 in Alameda County, California. Vehicle ownership is a flat national figure ($662 a month for one car), but with an important twist: if you own your car outright, the ownership allowance drops to zero because the IRS caps it at your actual payment.7Internal Revenue Service. Local Standards: Transportation Look up your county’s housing figure and your region’s operating cost in IRS Publication 1854 before you file anything.
How Household Size Is Set
Household size drives the number more than any other input. Each added person raises your food, clothing, and miscellaneous allowance, adds a healthcare allowance, and can bump you into a higher housing bracket.
The IRS starts with the dependents listed on your most recent tax return.2Cornell Law School. IRS Expenses If your household has grown since you last filed, you can push back with birth certificates, lease agreements, or school enrollment records. It is worth the paperwork. Moving from a two-person to a three-person household adds $262 a month in food and clothing alone, and the housing gap can be larger.
How the IRS Applies the Standards in Collection Cases
When you owe back taxes and cannot pay in full, the IRS uses these standards to work out what you can afford each month. You fill out Form 433-A, the Collection Information Statement, reporting actual income and expenses line by line.8Internal Revenue Service. Form 433-A, Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals A reviewer then compares your actual numbers against the published standards.
The math is simple. Allowed expenses are added up across all categories, subtracted from your monthly income, and the leftover is what the IRS expects you to pay. That same figure drives Offers in Compromise, where the total settles your debt for less than you owe, and Installment Agreements that set your monthly payment. Every dollar you can protect through an allowable expense is a dollar the IRS does not collect.
Some line items are evaluated at actual cost rather than against a standard: health insurance premiums, court-ordered payments like child support, child and dependent care, current-year tax withholding, term life insurance, and payments on secured debts.8Internal Revenue Service. Form 433-A, Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals Expect to document each one.
The Six-Year Rule
One exception loosens things considerably. If you can pay off your entire tax liability, including penalties and interest, within six years and before the Collection Statute Expiration Date, the IRS will allow your actual expenses without applying the usual necessary expense test. Under this rule, even minimum payments on credit cards and student loans can be allowed, which the standards otherwise disallow. The amounts still have to be reasonable, and you have to stay current on future tax obligations, but you are not made to justify each expense in the ordinary way.9Internal Revenue Service. Campus Procedures for Securing Financial Information If your debt is small enough to clear inside six years, raise this rule directly.
Claiming More Than the Standard
The standards are defaults, not ceilings. You can claim higher food, housekeeping, clothing, or personal care expenses if you show they are necessary for your family’s health and welfare or for producing income.3Internal Revenue Service. National Standards: Food, Clothing and Other Items A medically required diet is the type of case the IRS is more willing to accept. The agency has said it will allow reasonable amounts above the standards when the standard is genuinely inadequate.10Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1854 Bring documentation.
How Bankruptcy Uses the Same Standards
The bankruptcy means test uses the IRS standards to decide whether you qualify for Chapter 7 or belong in a Chapter 13 repayment plan. On Form 122A-2 for Chapter 7 or Form 122C-2 for Chapter 13, you subtract the National Standards for food, clothing, miscellaneous items, and out-of-pocket healthcare from your current monthly income, along with the Local Standards for housing and transportation.11United States Courts. Official Form 122A-2 Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation The form specifically instructs filers to use the IRS standard amounts “regardless of your actual expense.”12United States Courts. Official Form 122A-2 Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation
The means test only applies if your income exceeds the median for your state and household size, and those medians vary widely.13U.S. Trustee Program/Dept. of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size When it does apply, the remaining monthly amount after subtracting allowed expenses is multiplied by 60 and measured against statutory thresholds and against 25% of your nonpriority unsecured debt to determine whether a presumption of abuse arises.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13 The U.S. Trustee reviews the forms, and the whole reason for using standardized figures is to keep higher-income filers from characterizing generous spending as necessary.
Two features of bankruptcy differ from IRS collection practice. First, the bankruptcy code lets you claim up to 5% above the food and clothing standards if you can show the higher amount is reasonable and necessary. For a family of four, that’s about $96 a month. Small on its own, sometimes enough to change the outcome. Second, to rebut a presumption of abuse you must show “special circumstances,” and the code names only two examples: a serious medical condition or a call to active duty in the Armed Forces.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13 Courts read that standard narrowly. Ordinary financial hardship rarely qualifies.
When the Standards Are Updated
The IRS normally revises the National Standards each spring based on Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The next update, originally scheduled for April 2026, has been postponed to June 2026 due to delays in data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. The April 2025 figures remain in effect until then.5Internal Revenue Service. Collection Financial Standards
Use the version in effect on the date you file. Both the IRS and bankruptcy courts evaluate expenses against the standards in effect on your filing date, and submitting Form 433-A or a bankruptcy means test with outdated numbers can force a rejection or a recalculation. Pull the current tables from the IRS website before you sign anything.