Title 26 › Subtitle Subtitle A— Income Taxes › Chapter 1— NORMAL TAXES AND SURTAXES › Subchapter B— Computation of Taxable Income › Part VI— ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS › § 199A
If you earn income from a business that isn't a corporation — like a sole proprietorship, partnership, or S corporation — you can deduct up to 20 percent of your qualified business income on your taxes. The deduction can't be more than 20 percent of your taxable income minus net capital gain. You also get a deduction for 20 percent of qualified REIT dividends and publicly traded partnership income. Capital gains, wages you earn as an employee, and payments your own business makes you for your services don't count as qualified business income. If your taxable income is over a threshold of $157,500 (double that for a joint return, adjusted for inflation each year after 2018), limits start to apply. The deduction for each business gets capped at the greater of 50 percent of the wages it pays employees, or 25 percent of those wages plus 2.5 percent of the cost of its depreciable property. Certain service businesses — like health, law, consulting, and investing — also lose the deduction above the threshold. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, these limits phase in over the $75,000 above the threshold ($150,000 for joint returns), and if you have at least $1,000 of qualified business income from businesses you actively run, your deduction is at least $400 (both amounts adjusted for inflation after 2026). Farm and horticultural cooperatives get a separate deduction of 9 percent of their qualified production income, and their patrons can share in it.
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Internal Revenue Code — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
26 U.S.C. § 199A
Title 26 — Internal Revenue Code
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73