FAQ: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tax Changes
Our experts explain how this major tax legislation may affect you and how policymakers can better improve the tax code.
24 min read
Featured Articles
One Big Beautiful Bill Does Better with Permanence, but Is Still Full of Temporary Provisions
Several major new tax breaks are scheduled to expire at the end of 2028, setting the stage for another tax fight to either extend them or allow them to expire.
5 min read
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
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
Budget Reconciliation: Tracking the 2025 Trump Tax Cuts
President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025.
16 min read
Making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Permanent: Economic, Revenue, and Distributional Effects
Permanently extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would boost long-run economic output by 1.1 percent, the capital stock by 0.7 percent, wages by 0.5 percent, and hours worked by 847,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
6 min read
Tax Calculator: How the TCJA’s Expiration Will Affect You
Unless Congress acts, Americans are in for a tax hike in 2026.
3 min read
Expiring TCJA Tax Provisions in 2026 Would Produce Substantial Tax Hike across the US
At the end of 2025, the individual tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) expire all at once. Without congressional action, most taxpayers will see a notable tax increase relative to current policy in 2026.
4 min read
Options for Navigating the 2025 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Expirations
Policymakers should have two priorities in the upcoming economic policy debates: a larger economy and fiscal responsibility. Principled, pro-growth tax policy can help accomplish both.
21 min read
How 2026 Tax Brackets Would Change if the TCJA Expires
If Congress allows the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (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.
3 min read
Conference on Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s Effects Shows Further Tax Reforms Needed in 2025
Lawmakers should see 2025 as an opportunity to consider more fundamental tax reforms. While the TCJA addressed some of the deficiencies of the tax code, it by no means addressed them all.
8 min read
Considering Tax Reform Options for 2025 (and Beyond)
Given that U.S. debt is roughly the size of our annual economic output, policymakers will face many tough fiscal choices in the coming years. The good news is there are policies that both support a larger economy and avoid adding to the debt.
6 min read
Another Huge Federal Deficit in Fiscal Year 2024 Despite Surging Corporate and Other Tax Collections
While federal tax collections—especially corporate taxes—have reached historically high levels, these gains have not kept pace with escalating spending, particularly on debt interest, leading to a substantial and concerning budget deficit in FY24.
6 min read
Why Are the Individual Tax Cuts Expiring?
The TCJA improved the U.S. tax code, but the meandering voyage of its passing and the compromises made to get it into law show the challenges of the legislative process.
6 min read
TCJA Family Provisions Offer Template for Tax Reform in 2025
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s changes to family tax policy serve as a reminder to avoid looking at tax reform provisions in a vacuum.
5 min read
How the TCJA Affected Legal Business Forms
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) significantly lowered the effective tax rates on business income, but the impact was not the same for C corporations and pass-through businesses.
6 min read
How Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Change Cost Recovery?
As lawmakers consider which policies to prioritize in the upcoming tax policy debates, better cost recovery for all investment should be top of mind.
7 min read
Tax Reform Offsets Shouldn’t Offset Economic Growth
Pro-growth tax reform that does not add to the deficit will require tough choices, but whether to raise the corporate tax rate is not one of them. If lawmakers want to craft fiscally responsible and pro-growth tax reform, a higher corporate tax rate simply does not fit into the puzzle.
3 min read
New Study Finds TCJA Strongly Boosted Corporate Investment
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the largest corporate tax reform in a generation, lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, temporarily allowing full expensing for short-lived assets (referred to as bonus depreciation), and overhauling the international tax code.
6 min read
How Have Federal Revenues Evolved since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?
As members of Congress prepare to address the expiration of the TCJA, they should appreciate how revenues have evolved since 2017.
4 min read
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act: Comparing and Contrasting the New Industrial Policy
While the approaches differ, they share a reliance on similar linkages: new capital investment drives productivity growth, which grows the economy and raises wages for workers.
37 min read
The Impact of GILTI, FDII, and BEAT
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) reformed the U.S. system for taxing international corporate income. Understanding the impact of TCJA’s international provisions thus far can help lawmakers consider how to approach international tax policy in the coming years.
30 min readAll Related Articles
“One Big Beautiful Bill Act” House GOP Tax Plan: Details and Analysis
Our preliminary analysis finds the tax provisions increase long-run GDP by 0.8 percent and reduce federal tax revenue by $4.0 trillion from 2025 through 2034 on a conventional basis before added interest costs.
9 min read
One, Big, Beautiful Bill: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
From generous tax breaks to costly trade-offs, the House GOP’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill has a little of everything. It’s a sweeping attempt to extend key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act before they expire in 2026—but what’s actually in it?
SALT Cap Workarounds for Some Pass-Through Entities Are Threatened by One, Big, Beautiful Bill
For owners of pass-through businesses, the reconciliation package (1) raises the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, (2) denies the benefit of pass-through entity-level taxes that had previously worked around the SALT cap for such pass-through businesses, and (3) increases the Section 199A deduction for qualifying pass-through entities.
4 min read
Where the Republican Tax Bill Falls Short
The House of Representatives just passed President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” marking a critical step in the Republican tax agenda. At first glance, the bill might appear to complete the legacy of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). But it falls short of emulating the TCJA’s core strengths in two key respects: it doesn’t prioritize economic growth, and it doesn’t simplify the tax code.
A More Generous SALT Deduction Cap in the Big, Beautiful Bill Would Cost Revenue and Primarily Benefit High Earners
Letting the SALT cap slip further upwards would undercut the TCJA’s long-term legacy, worsening the fiscal outlook of the tax package and providing an unneeded benefit to higher earners.
4 min read
The One Big Beautiful Bill, Explained
We break down the House GOP’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill—a sweeping tax package designed to extend key parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act before they expire in 2026.
Three Corporate Tax Hikes That Would Undermine TCJA’s Improvements to Competitiveness
As lawmakers consider options for budgetary offsets, they should prioritize competitiveness and economic growth, as a heavier corporate tax burden will undermine the core purpose and achievement of the TCJA.
24 min read
A Stable Tax Code Would Ease an Uncertain Economy
Lawmakers have a prime opportunity to achieve a more stable economy through the debate about the tax code that is now ramping up.
House Tax Package Could Double Economic Growth Impact by Prioritizing Permanence for TCJA Business Provisions
As the current tax package stands, the House’s use of temporary policy is leaving most of the economic growth opportunities on the table.
2 min read
House “One Big Beautiful Bill” Riddled with Temporary Tax Policy
As lawmakers continue to debate the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” they should abandon temporary and complex policy in favor of simplicity and stability.
4 min read
Though Tax Hikes Will Be Avoided, the House Bill Misses the Bigger Picture
The tax bill prioritizes politics over economic growth, writes Daniel Bunn.
Disallowing Business SALT Raises Significant Revenue for Reconciliation but Slows Economic Growth
Pairing permanent TCJA individual tax cuts with new limits on business SALT deductions would shrink the economy, reduce American incomes, and increase the federal budget deficit, undermining the policy goals of TCJA permanence.
3 min read
The Tax Code Should Not Be a Game of Hide-and-Seek
Lawmakers should push against efforts to lift the SALT cap, and they should keep an eye toward bringing additional transparency to the tax system.
Raising the Top Income Tax Rate Would Offset Economic Benefits of TCJA Individual Permanence
Raising the top income tax rate would raise several hundred billion dollars but would offset most of the pro-growth effects of making the TCJA’s individual tax provisions permanent by reducing incentives to work and invest.
5 min read
Taxing Life Insurance
As Congress attempts to prevent the expiration of major Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, it needs to find ways to pay for them. Ideally, it should use the least economically harmful means possible.
3 min read
Oregon Considers Decoupling from the Federal Tax Code
The proposed changes to federal tax code conformity in Oregon are a good example of a change that could significantly reshape the state’s tax code in the future, despite being framed as temporary technical adjustments.
4 min read
Scrapping these Green Energy Tax Subsidies Could Save the Inflation Reduction Act
Congressional Republicans are looking for ways to pay for extending the tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Repealing the green energy tax subsidies expanded or introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act is an appealing option.
The Truth About Tariffs—Fact-Checking Trump’s Trade Claims
Do tariffs really level the playing field, or are they just bad economics? In this emergency episode, we fact-check the Trump administration’s claims that retaliatory tariffs make trade fairer.
The Global Tax Deal, Tax Cuts, and Tariffs—5 Major Tax Debates
What are the biggest tax stories shaping policy today—and what do they mean for you? In our 100th episode, we break down the five biggest tax stories, from the global tax deal to the looming expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Growth Should Be a Key Consideration if Corporate SALT Is Limited
Lawmakers should prioritize pro-growth tax policies and use the least economically damaging offsets to make the legislation fiscally responsible. If lawmakers choose to use C-SALT, they should carefully consider the economic trade-off with permanent, pro-growth tax cuts that support investment and innovation in the US.
7 min read