The 2026 age table, first

This is the number people come for, so here it is before anything else. In Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the IRS sets the eligible long-term care premium limits for taxable years beginning in 2026. This is the most of a qualified long-term care policy's premium that can be counted as a medical expense, per insured person, based on attained age before the close of the tax year:

  • Age 40 or less: $500
  • More than 40 but not more than 50: $930
  • More than 50 but not more than 60: $1,860
  • More than 60 but not more than 70: $4,960
  • More than 70: $6,200

The limit is per person, so spouses each use their own age band. A couple aged 72 and 68 filing jointly would work from $6,200 and $4,960 separately, not from a single household figure.

What that sentence does not say

Read the words carefully, because the common misreadings all cost money.

These amounts are caps on what counts as a medical expense. They are not a credit, not a refund, and not an amount subtracted from your tax bill. A medical expense only helps if you itemize deductions, and then only to the extent your total medical expenses exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income. For a household with $100,000 of adjusted gross income, the first $7,500 of medical expenses does nothing; only what is above that line counts. For many people the practical answer is that the deduction changes nothing at all. For some — higher premiums, lower income, a year with substantial other medical costs — it changes a real amount.

The policy also has to be tax-qualified. Premiums for a contract that is not a qualified long-term care insurance contract do not count under this rule at all. That is a question about the specific contract, and it is a reasonable thing to ask before you buy rather than in April.

How 2026 compares with 2025

The limits are indexed and they moved up. Under Revenue Procedure 2024-40, the 2025 limits for the first three age bands were $480, $900 and $1,800, against $500, $930 and $1,860 for 2026. The per diem limitation also rose, from $420 a day in 2025 to $430 a day in 2026. Small movements, but they are the reason a figure without a year attached is not worth citing — the 2025 table is already wrong for a 2026 return.

The other IRS number: what the policy pays you

There is a second rule in the same revenue procedure, and it works in the other direction — it governs the money coming out rather than the premium going in. For calendar year 2026, the per diem limitation under section 7702B(d)(4) for periodic payments from a qualified long-term care contract is $430 a day.

This matters if your policy pays a flat amount rather than reimbursing bills. Benefits up to that daily figure are generally received without tax; amounts above it can become taxable unless your actual costs justify them. Policies that reimburse against real expenses are treated differently. Which kind you own is worth knowing before a claim, and it is covered in what long-term care insurance covers.

How the caps sit against what policies actually cost

Comparing the caps with published premium averages is the quickest way to see whether this rule is likely to matter to you. The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance's 2026 price index, last updated 28 July 2026, assumes $165,000 of initial benefit per person and lists these industry averages — averages, not quotes:

  • Single man, 55, in select health: $950 a year level, $2,200 with 3% growth, $3,710 with 5%.
  • Single woman, 55: $1,500 level, $3,750 at 3%, $6,400 at 5%.
  • Single woman, 60: $4,450 a year.
  • Couple, both 65, combined, 3% compound growth: $7,030 a year.

A 55-year-old sits in the band capped at $1,860 for 2026, so a $1,500 level premium could count in full while a $3,750 premium with growth could not. The same person at 62 would sit in the $4,960 band instead. That is the pattern worth noticing: the cap rises with age roughly as premiums do, which softens the arithmetic of buying later — but only for people who clear the 7.5% floor and itemize, and never enough to outweigh what waiting does to price and eligibility. We take that trade-off apart on when you should buy long-term care insurance and on how much long-term care insurance costs.

Questions to take to your tax professional

The Jordan Insurance Agency is not a tax adviser and does not give tax advice. What we can do is tell you what the rule says and hand you the right questions:

  • Do I itemize, and do my total medical expenses clear 7.5% of my adjusted gross income this year?
  • Is this specific contract a tax-qualified long-term care insurance contract?
  • Which age band applies to each of us for this tax year, based on attained age at the close of the year?
  • Does my situation — self-employment, a business entity, a health savings account — change how these premiums are treated? Those paths have their own rules, and they are your tax professional's territory, not ours.
  • If my policy pays periodically rather than by reimbursement, how does the $430 per diem limitation apply to me?

Keep the tax tail from wagging the dog

A deduction is a discount on a decision, never a reason for one. The decision is about exposure. The CareScout Cost of Care Survey for 2025, released in March 2026, put the national median for a private nursing home room at $355 a day — $129,575 a year — and assisted living at $6,200 a month. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projected in 2022 that 56% of Americans turning 65 today will need long-term services and supports, for an average of 3.1 years. And Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care when help with daily living is the only care needed — see whether Medicare covers long-term care. Whether the policy is worth buying is argued through on whether long-term care insurance is worth it; the tax caps are a line item inside that answer, not the answer.

How The Jordan Insurance Agency helps

We will tell you plainly which contracts are tax-qualified, what the current IRS limits are with the year attached, and how the per diem rule interacts with the way a given policy pays. Then we will tell you to take it to your accountant, because that is their job and not ours. What we do is the insurance part: designing coverage that fits the exposure and comparing it across several companies.

The Jordan Insurance Agency is an independent, licensed insurance agency based at 3540 Toringdon Way, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28277. You can reach us at (704) 926-7565, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern. Because we are independent we represent multiple carriers rather than one, so we can lay your real options side by side instead of steering you toward a single company. A consultation with a licensed agent is free.