Among its key features, the proposed tax plan: Reduces existing tax brackets from seven to three, eliminating the Head of Household Filing Status and broadening tax brackets. Reduces the top marginal income tax rate for ordinary income from 39.6 percent to 33 percent.
According to Lutnick's interview with CBS News, Trump's tax policy goal is to remove federal income taxes for individuals earning under $150,000 annually. Additional proposals under discussion include: Eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits. Exempting overtime pay and tips from income taxation.
The following TCJA provisions are set to expire after 2025. Near doubling of the standard deduction, repeal of personal exemptions, and lower value of several itemized deductions, including those for: State and local taxes (SALT) Mortgage interest.
The Trump administration argues that its tariffs will promote domestic manufacturing, protect national security, and substitute for federal income taxes. The administration views trade deficits as inherently harmful, a stance economists criticized as a flawed understanding of trade.
The maximum CTC available to families will be $2,200 per child beginning in tax year 2025. Under prior law, the maximum CTC was $2,000 per child. Beginning in 2026, the maximum credit amount will be adjusted annually for inflation.
Trump Tax Plan Changes: Standard Deduction
The 2017 Trump tax law (TCJA) nearly doubled the standard deduction for all filers, and OBBB bumped them up. If you're a single filer or if you're married filing separately, your standard deduction for 2025 rose to $15,750 under OBBBA.
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.
Trump's tariffs hurt the U.S. economy by raising costs for businesses and consumers, disrupting supply chains, increasing economic uncertainty, causing job losses in trade-exposed sectors, and reducing overall GDP growth, with U.S. companies and households often bearing the higher prices rather than foreign exporters. These costs manifest as higher prices for imported goods and manufacturing inputs, decreased investment, and slower economic activity, despite goals to boost domestic production.
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.
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.
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 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.
This deduction starts in tax year 2025, meaning retirees aged 65 or older may qualify for up to $6,000, while married couples where both partners meet the age requirement can claim up to $12,000. The deduction is scheduled to remain in effect through 2028, unless Congress renews it.
Public services would be cut, other taxes and levies that fall more heavily on low- and middle-income families (including sales taxes, excise taxes, fees and fines) would be increased, or — most likely — both those things would happen.
High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes. In 2022, the bottom half of taxpayers earned 11.5 percent of total AGI and paid 3 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1 percent earned 22.4 percent of total AGI and paid 40.4 percent of all federal income taxes.
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.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Pub. L. 115–97 (text) (PDF), is a United States federal law that amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and also known as the Trump Tax Cuts, but officially the law has no short title, with that being removed during the Senate amendment process.
Income Tax Act, 2025 to be effective from April 1, 2026. The Act simplifies language, removes obsolete provisions and consolidates and restructures provisions. It Introduces concept of 'Tax Year' replacing 'Assessment Year' and 'Previous Year'.
Since World War II, according to many economic metrics including job creation, GDP growth, stock market returns, personal income growth, and corporate profits, the United States economy has performed significantly better on average under the administrations of Democratic presidents than Republican presidents.
Since taking office, Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on countries, including key trading partners, leading to predictions of inflation skyrocketing, manufacturing screeching to a halt and unemployment soaring.
Republicans argued that the TCJA's tax provisions and rate reductions would help to grow the economy and provide relief to working-class families. Opponents of the bill argued—as they still do—that the tax bill would mostly benefit “millionaires and billionaires” and increase the federal budget deficit.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in 2018 that the 2017 law would cost $1.9 trillion over ten years, and recent estimates show that making the law's temporary individual income and estate tax cuts permanent would cost roughly another $4.2 trillion through 2035.