FAQ: The One Big Beautiful Bill, Explained
Our experts explain how this major tax legislation may affect you and how policymakers can better improve the tax code.
24 min readPresident Trump has proposed a number of tax proposals, including imposing a universal baseline tariff on all US imports, imposing a 60 percent tariff on all US imports from China, making the individual and estate tax cuts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) permanent, maintaining the 21 percent corporate income tax rate, and making all tip income tax-exempt. From analyzing the economic impact of US tariffs and retaliatory actions to the upcoming TCJA expirations, Tax Foundation experts continue to serve as trusted thought leaders, providing research, modeling, analysis, and commentary on how the Trump tax proposals would impact U.S. competitiveness, economic growth, government revenue, and everyday taxpayers. The posts below include our research and analysis on a variety of Trump tax proposals. You can also explore our economic modeling via Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code and our 10 Tax Reforms for Growth and Opportunity. See Trump’s latest trade actions with our Tariff Tracker and explore the latest tax developments and analysis our Budget Reconciliation Tracker.
Our experts explain how this major tax legislation may affect you and how policymakers can better improve the tax code.
24 min read
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes many of the individual tax cuts and reforms of the TCJA permanent. It improves upon the TCJA by making expensing for R&D and equipment permanent. However, for the most part, it does not include further structural reforms, and instead introduces many new, narrow tax breaks to the code, adding complexity and raising revenue costs.
7 min read
We estimate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would increase long-run GDP by 1.2 percent and reduce federal tax revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade on a conventional basis.
11 min read
The Trump tariffs are the largest US tax increase as a percent of GDP since 1993 and amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,500 in 2026.
45 min read
President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025.
18 min read
Unless Congress acts, Americans are in for a tax hike in 2026.
3 min read
We estimate Trump’s proposed tariffs and partial retaliation from all trading partners would together offset more than two-thirds of the long-run economic benefit of his proposed tax cuts.
12 min read
Exempting overtime would unnecessarily complicate the tax code, increase compliance and administrative costs, and reduce neutrality by favoring certain work arrangements over others.
5 min read
“No tax on tips” might be a catchy idea on the campaign trail. But it could create plenty of headaches, from figuring out tips on previously untipped services to an unexpectedly large loss of federal revenue.
6 min read
Using tariff policy to reallocate investment and jobs is a costly mistake—that’s a history lesson we should not forget.
6 min read
President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of entirely replacing the federal income tax with new tariffs. Recently, he has said that when tariff revenues come in, he will use them to replace or substantially cut income taxes for people making under $200,000.
8 min read
Given the poor state of the budget process and worsening debt trajectory, lawmakers should move boldly and quickly to address the issue, including via a fiscal commission process. Issues to consider should include reforms to both spending and taxes.
42 min read
The Trump tariffs are the largest US tax increase as a percent of GDP since 1993 and amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,500 in 2026.
45 min read
Our modeling indicates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will boost economic growth but increase deficits, leading to record high debt in 2028 that rises to 124 percent of GDP by 2034.
7 min read
Since April, the tariffs that have been implemented in practice are mostly, but not exclusively, lower than what was originally threatened.
5 min read
Under nearly any design option, sending out $2,000 payments to Americans would increase, not decrease, the federal budget deficit. A better way to provide relief from the burden of tariffs would be to eliminate the tariffs.
4 min read
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on November 5 to determine whether the president’s emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) include the power to impose tariffs.
6 min read
The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is certainly big, but is it “beautiful”? Many provisions in the OBBBA will have noticeable impacts on individual taxpayers, including some that are beneficial to your wallet.
4 min read
The Supreme Court is deciding a case over whether the President can impose sweeping tax increases on imported goods. It’s a multi-trillion-dollar question with enormous implications for the US economy, taxpayers, and limitations on emergency powers.
5 min read
Expensing for manufacturing structures is a significant step forward for the tax treatment of structures, but it could be improved in several ways.
7 min read
New evidence shows the scale and distribution of compliance costs for EU firms affected by Pillar Two, i.e., the “Global Minimum Tax.”
6 min read
Several goods have experienced notably large price increases, including apparel, coffee and tea, cameras, and furniture.
4 min read