When Do Trump Tax Cuts Expire? SALT in 2029, Deductions in 2028

Wondering when the Trump tax cuts expire? For most individual provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the answer is now: they don’t. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, made the vast majority of the individual TCJA provisions permanent, removing the January 1, 2026 sunset that had been on the books for years. A few pieces still carry expiration dates. The raised cap on state and local tax deductions runs only through 2029, and four new deductions created by the 2025 law (for tips, overtime pay, car loan interest, and seniors) end after 2028.

What Is Now Permanent

The following TCJA provisions no longer have a sunset date:

The seven-bracket individual income tax rate structure (10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37%)
The nearly doubled standard deduction
The suspension of personal exemptions
The child tax credit, now increased to $2,200 per qualifying child
The Section 199A pass-through business deduction
The higher alternative minimum tax exemptions and phaseout thresholds
The roughly doubled estate and gift tax exemption, now set at $15 million per person for 2026

Each of these was scheduled to revert to pre-2018 rules on January 1, 2026. That reversion is off the table.¹

What Still Expires, and When

The SALT Deduction Cap Reverts After 2029

The TCJA originally capped the combined deduction for state income taxes and local property taxes at $10,000. The OBBBA raised that cap to $40,000 for tax years 2025 through 2029, with a $20,000 limit for married individuals filing separately. The cap increases by 1% each year through the window.²

An income-based phaseout applies. The $40,000 deduction begins shrinking for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income above $500,000 ($250,000 for married filing separately) and phases all the way down to the old $10,000 limit for higher earners.² After 2029, unless Congress acts again, the cap reverts to $10,000 for everyone.

Four New Deductions Expire After 2028

The OBBBA created four deductions that were not part of the original TCJA. All are available only for tax years 2025 through 2028, and each has income-based phaseouts.³

Tips deduction: employees and self-employed workers in occupations that customarily receive tips can deduct up to $25,000 in qualified tips per year, phasing out above $150,000 in modified AGI ($300,000 for joint filers).
Overtime deduction: workers can deduct the premium portion of overtime pay (the extra half in time-and-a-half, for example), capped at $12,500 ($25,000 for joint filers), with the same $150,000/$300,000 phaseout.
Car loan interest deduction: buyers of new, American-assembled vehicles purchased after December 31, 2024 for personal use can deduct up to $10,000 per year in loan interest, with a phaseout beginning at $100,000 in modified AGI ($200,000 for joint filers).
Senior bonus deduction: taxpayers age 65 and older can claim an additional $6,000 deduction on top of the existing senior increase to the standard deduction, or $12,000 for married couples where both spouses qualify.

If you’re planning around any of these breaks, plan for them to end on schedule. Congress could extend them, but nothing in the law does that automatically.

What the Permanent Provisions Look Like in 2026

Individual Income Tax Rates

The seven brackets remain in effect indefinitely. For the 2026 tax year, single filers face these thresholds:

10% on income up to $12,400
12% on $12,401 to $50,400
22% on $50,401 to $105,700
24% on $105,701 to $201,775
32% on $201,776 to $256,225
35% on $256,226 to $640,600
37% on income over $640,600

For married couples filing jointly, the thresholds are roughly double, with the 10% bracket covering income up to $24,800 and the top 37% rate beginning above $768,700.¹ Thresholds adjust annually for inflation, but the rate structure itself is locked in. Before the OBBBA, rates were set to climb back to the pre-2018 schedule of 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%.

Standard Deduction and Personal Exemptions

The nearly doubled standard deduction is permanent. For 2026, it is $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, and $24,150 for heads of household, with annual inflation adjustments going forward.¹

The personal exemption, worth roughly $4,050 per person before the TCJA eliminated it, is not coming back. The OBBBA made the suspension permanent. Large families that would have claimed exemptions for several dependents under the old system may still come out slightly behind where the pre-TCJA rules would have put them.

Child Tax Credit

The credit increased from $2,000 to $2,200 per qualifying child under 17, effective for 2025 onward, and is now permanent with inflation indexing starting in 2026.⁴ Without the OBBBA, the credit would have dropped back to $1,000 per child on January 1, 2026.

The refundable portion, known as the additional child tax credit, lets families with little or no tax liability receive up to $1,700 per child as a refund.⁴ The $500 credit for other dependents, such as elderly parents or adult children with disabilities, is also permanent.

Pass-Through Business Deduction

Owners of S corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships can continue to deduct 20% of qualified business income under Section 199A.⁵ The OBBBA made the deduction permanent and widened the phase-in thresholds that gradually limit it. For eligible small businesses, the deduction rate rose from 20% to 23%, and a minimum $400 deduction now applies to taxpayers with qualified active business income. The income limitations that restrict the deduction for certain service-based businesses like law firms and medical practices remain in place, but apply over a wider income range than before.

Estate and Gift Tax Exemption

The doubled exemption, which had been set to drop back to roughly $7 million per person after 2025, is now permanent at a higher figure. For 2026, the basic exclusion amount is $15 million per decedent, indexed for inflation going forward, and a married couple can effectively shield $30 million from federal estate tax.⁶ The rate on amounts above the exemption remains at 40%. Families that rushed to make large lifetime gifts in 2024 or early 2025 out of concern about the sunset no longer face that pressure.

Alternative Minimum Tax

The higher AMT exemption amounts and phaseout thresholds introduced by the TCJA are permanent. For 2026, the exemption is $90,100 for single filers and $140,200 for married couples filing jointly, with phaseouts beginning at $500,000 and $1,000,000 respectively.¹ High-income taxpayers who claim large SALT deductions or exercise incentive stock options should still check whether the AMT applies.

Planning Ahead

The provisions with countdowns are the ones to watch. If your 2026 through 2029 tax planning depends on the $40,000 SALT cap, or if you’re counting on the tips, overtime, car loan interest, or senior deductions between now and 2028, build your plan around those end dates rather than the assumption of an extension. For the rate structure, standard deduction, child tax credit, pass-through deduction, estate exemption, and AMT, the 2026 tax year looks much like 2025, with only routine inflation adjustments changing the numbers.

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One Big Beautiful Bill
2
Internal Revenue Service. How to Update Withholding to Account for Tax Law Changes for 2025
3
Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act: Tax Deductions for Working Americans and Seniors
4
Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit
5
Cornell Law Institute. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)
6
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax