According to the Tax Foundation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law last summer represents the country's sixth-largest tax cut, and is expected to reduce federal tax revenue by $5 trillion from 2025 through 2034.
Enacted in July, Trump's legislation permanently extended his 2017 tax cuts, boosted the standard deduction, increased the child tax credit and added several temporary tax breaks.
The standard deduction increased for 2025 and 2026, and a new temporary “bonus” deduction for adults 65 and older begins in 2025. The child tax credit increased to $2,200 for the 2025 and 2026 tax years; retirement plan contribution limits for IRAs and 401(k)s also increased for 2026.
President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is slated to be in effect from 2018 to 2025. Throughout the tax years within the TCJA period, taxpayers will likely see an increase in their tax cuts. However, by 2025 when the TCJA expires, all individual tax cuts expire too.
If the individual tax cuts expire, taxpayers in all income groups would face higher and more complicated taxes. Machinery and equipment expensing is a key provision that, if allowed to expire, would especially harm capital-intensive industries like manufacturing.
Under the law, there were numerous changes to the individual income tax, including changing the income level of individual tax brackets, lowering tax rates, and increasing the standard deductions and family tax credits while itemized deductions are reduced and the personal exemptions are eliminated.
The 2025 Federal Tax Debate
Much like the 2017 tax law, the new law favors the richest taxpayers. More than 70 percent of the net tax cuts will go to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026, only 10 percent will go to the middle fifth of Americans, and less than 1 percent will go to the poorest fifth.
No Tax on Overtime is a provision that was included in a larger tax reform bill that passed in July 2025. It allows certain workers to deduct up to $12,500 in qualified overtime compensation from their taxable income on their federal income tax return. Joint filers can deduct up to $25,000.
The bottom 99% also saw an average federal tax rate increase by one percentage point from 2012 to 2013, mainly due to the expiration of the Obama payroll tax cuts, which were in place in 2011 and 2012. However, for income groups in the bottom 99%, the average federal tax rate remained at or below the 2007 level.
“President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act not only strengthened American manufacturing, but promoted job growth, drove innovation, increased hardworking Americans' take home pay, and increased U.S. competitiveness.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) or the Big Beautiful Bill (P.L. 119-21), is a U.S. federal statute passed by the 119th United States Congress containing tax and spending policies that form the core of President Donald Trump's second-term agenda. The bill was signed into law by Trump on July 4, 2025.
For tax year 2026, the standard deduction increases to $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction rises to $16,100 for tax year 2026, and for heads of households, the standard deduction will be $24,150.
Lawmakers have passed legislation called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to make the expiring tax cuts permanent, provide additional tax cuts and changes to the tax code, and reduce spending. President Trump signed the bill into law on July 4, 2025.
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on lowering the US corporate income tax rate to 15 percent. He made the same request in 2017 when Republicans passed their tax cuts, but Congress only cut the federal rate to 21 percent—down from the worldwide high of 35 percent.
Refunds should be larger in 2026 thanks to the tax policy changes under July 2025's federal H.R. 1 legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and the government's decision not to factor tax breaks into the amounts withheld from paychecks in 2025, according to an August analysis by David Kelly, chief global strategist ...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced tax rates for taxpayers across all income levels, on average. If Congress allows the TCJA to expire as scheduled, most aspects of the individual income tax would undergo substantial changes, resulting in more than 62 percent of tax filers experiencing tax increases in 2026.
increased Child Tax Credit - increased from $2,000 to $2,200 for qualified taxpayers. additional senior deduction (2025 through 2028) - additional $6,000 deduction for taxpayers 65 and older with phaseout for MAGI over $75,000 (over $150,000 for Married Filing Jointly filers)
"Read my lips: no new taxes" is a phrase spoken by American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans as he accepted the nomination on August 18.
After the decision, interest continued to accrue. As Donald Trump did not pay the judgment while he appealed the decision, by the end of 2024, the total he owed had increased to over $500 million.
The three tax breaks Trump referenced are all temporary and in effect from 2025 through 2028. They are federal breaks; state and local taxes may still apply.
Tax Foundation estimates the OBBBA reduced individual taxes by $129 billion for 2025, and outside estimates suggest up to $100 billion of that could be received as higher refunds this filing season, pushing average refunds up by up to $1,000.