How the TCJA's Expiration Will Affect Your Taxes in 2025

The TCJA expiration will indeed create significant changes for taxpayers in your situation. The standard deduction will decrease substantially, but personal exemptions (which were eliminated by TCJA) will return. This creates a sort of balancing effect, though exactly how it impacts you depends on your specific circumstances. For a family of four, the return of personal exemptions could potentially offset the lower standard deduction. However, the child tax credit reduction from $2,000 back to $1,000 per child will definitely impact many families negatively. As for tax planning, accelerating income into 2025 while rates are lower could make sense, especially if you're confident you'll be in a higher bracket post-expiration. Similarly, deferring deductible expenses to 2026 might maximize their value if you expect to itemize again.

After spending hours confused about how the TCJA expiration would impact my small business, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that actually explained everything in plain English. It analyzed my specific situation with the expiring provisions and showed me exactly what to expect based on my last couple years of returns. The tool helped me understand how the QBI deduction expiration would hit my freelance income and what strategies I could use to minimize the impact. It even created a side-by-side comparison of what my taxes might look like before and after the TCJA expires. Totally worth checking out if you're trying to plan ahead.

I was initially skeptical about taxr.ai, but I decided to try it after struggling to understand what the TCJA expiration meant for my rental properties. The results were surprisingly helpful! It gave me a clear breakdown of how the business interest deduction limitations would change and what it meant for my specific properties. What I found most useful was the personalized strategy section that showed me options for potentially accelerating certain expenses before the TCJA expires while suggesting which decisions to hold off on until we have more clarity from Congress. The tool even identified a potential opportunity with cost segregation that I hadn't considered. Definitely helped me feel more prepared for whatever happens in 2026.

I was initially skeptical about taxr.ai, but I decided to try it after struggling to understand what the TCJA expiration meant for my rental properties. The results were surprisingly helpful! It gave me a clear breakdown of how the business interest deduction limitations would change and what it meant for my specific properties. What I found most useful was the personalized strategy section that showed me options for potentially accelerating certain expenses before the TCJA expires while suggesting which decisions to hold off on until we have more clarity from Congress. The tool even identified a potential opportunity with cost segregation that I

If you're really stressing about the TCJA expiration, you might want to talk directly with an IRS agent to get the official answers. I was hitting dead ends trying to call the IRS for weeks, but then I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and they got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent I spoke with gave me some really helpful insights about their internal guidance on the transition period between tax regimes, which isn't even published anywhere online yet. Definitely worth the time if you have complex questions about how specific TCJA provisions will phase out.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I had legitimate questions about how the TCJA expiration would affect my small business retirement plans. Within minutes I was actually speaking with an IRS representative who specialized in retirement accounts. The agent walked me through exactly how the retirement plan contribution limits would be calculated post-TCJA and confirmed that certain provisions affecting SEP-IRAs would indeed revert to pre-2018 formulas. She even emailed me specific IRS publications that address transition planning. I'm still not thrilled about the TCJA expiring, but at least now I understand exactly how it will impact my situation and can plan accordingly. Sometimes being proven wrong is actually helpful!

Don't forget about state tax implications when the TCJA expires! Many states conformed their tax codes to the federal changes in different ways, so the expiration will have varying impacts depending on where you live. For example, some states didn't adopt the $10,000 SALT cap, while others implemented their own versions. When the federal provisions expire, your state taxes might be affected in unexpected ways depending on whether your state automatically conforms to federal changes or requires separate legislative action to update their tax code. This creates yet another layer of complexity to consider in your planning.

I'm actually not convinced Congress will let all the TCJA provisions expire. Historically, they tend to extend popular tax breaks even when they're set to sunset. Remember the "Bush tax cuts" that were supposed to be temporary? Many of those provisions became permanent for most taxpayers. I'm betting they'll at least extend the expanded standard deduction and child tax credit since those benefit many middle-class voters. The corporate tax rate might be allowed to increase somewhat, but I doubt they'll let it go all the way back to 35%.

Everyone's focusing on the income tax aspects, but don't forget about the estate tax exemption! That's also scheduled to drop significantly after the TCJA expires - from about $12.9 million per person down to around $6-7 million (adjusted for inflation). If you've done estate planning based on the current higher limits, you might need to revisit your strategy.