EPS 48 - One Big Beautiful Bill: Last-Chance Tax Breaks Before 2026

Congress just passed what they’re calling the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — and 2025 is officially your do-it-now year for tax planning.

In this solo episode, Jerry breaks down what everyday listeners (especially seniors, working families, and folks living on tips or overtime) need to know before big changes hit in 2026. We’ll talk about the new $6,000 senior deduction, how charitable giving is going to get less generous, what “no tax on tips and overtime” really means, and why reporting all your income still protects your future Social Security and your ability to qualify for a mortgage.

Jerry also walks through the temporary $10,000 car-loan interest deduction, child tax credit improvements, energy credits that end after 2025, and advanced topics like opportunity zones, Trump accounts for kids, and estate & gift planning for higher-net-worth listeners.

Finally, we wrap with a practical year-end checklist: funding IRAs and 401(k)s, watching out for wash sale rules, taking required minimum distributions, and using these rules to educate, empower, and enlighten your own money decisions.

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• child tax credit 2025–2026
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• opportunity zones and capital gains
• Roth IRA and traditional IRA contributions 2025
• Roth conversions and backdoor Roths
• RMD rules age 73
• tax loss harvesting and wash sale rule
• LGBTQ personal finance podcast
• Pink Money Podcast Jerry Williams

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Transcript

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This podcast is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Remember to seek competent tax, legal, and investment advice that is unique to your personal situation. Hey everybody, and welcome to the Pink Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jerry Williams, and we talk about all things related to money from a queer perspective. And today I'm going to talk about some of the things that you should do before the end of the year, and also talk about some upcoming changes that are going to take place in 2026 as a result of this new bill they passed in Congress. They nicknamed it the one big beautiful bill, something like that. But anyway, there's some changes that are happening. I think that it's just always good to be aware of them. And some things that I'm just going to suggest are give you maybe some tips and suggestions that you do before the end of the year to take advantage of what is currently in place, and maybe it'll be more helpful to you than what's going to possibly take place next year, which may be taking away some of the things that we kind of like having and not going to be there anymore. So anyway, well let's get to it and let's see. There's a lot of things, and I'm going to talk about most everything that I can within a certain amount of time. There's some things I think I'll just post out in a companion piece because I don't think I'll do some things really truly justice because I'm going to, you know, glance over them or just really keep it at a high level. And some things I think that if I can spell it out in a little bit more detailed and a more detailed fashion through a companion post, I think I'll just do that instead. But anyway, let's get to it. This big one big beautiful bill, as they call it, the biggest end of the year takeaway is 2025 is really going to be your last chance for several generous tax breaks. Many provisions will shrink or they'll change starting January of 2026. So 2025 really becomes your do-it-now year, especially for charitable giving, for itemizing your deductions, for state and local tax deductions or salt deductions. There are certain energy credits and also estate and gift planning that's going to be affected. So the standard deduction is going to increase for 2025, meaning for single people, the standard deduction is going to be set$15,750 for married married filing jointly. It'll be$31,500. Really, what that means is it makes itemizing harder because a lot of what we were able to take tax deductions for, we're not able to do that any longer. And often if you itemize for the average person, it just really doesn't make any sense anymore because the standard deduction is much higher. So it really behooves you to just do the standard deduction. It makes your taxes more simple and faster, and you get a bigger bang for your buck. Is that always the case? No. You could run it both ways, see what's work, see which way works out better for you, or have your tax advisor do it. But more and more the standard deduction seems to be the way to go. But you know, uh there's some things that are going to possibly help you do your taxes and make it work more for you, even if you itemize or even if you take the standard deduction. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but when I get to it, you'll see what I mean. Anyway, there's gonna be massive incentives to make charitable deductions before 2026. So starting in 2026, the charitably charitable deductions will lose value. It's gonna be reduced by half a percent of your adjusted gross income or your AGI. So for high income taxpayers that are in the 37% tax bracket, they will lose about 5.4% of their itemized deductions. And this new floor then makes contributions harder to deduct. So an end-of-the-year planning tip is for this year, maybe make bundled donations or prepay multi-year charitable gifts that you can spread out then, and or there are donor-advised funds, or you can make large one-time gifts. In a donor-advised fund, you're essentially pooling your money together with other people, and then it goes through this as a conduit to the institution, institution. So you're not giving directly, obviously, you're giving indirect, but you can avoid some of these pitfalls that would occur if you were doing a direct donation to the institution. Something to look at, it's just an idea. These have been around, it's not anything new, but donor advice funds, in my mind, are just a simpler and easier way. But if you like giving directly, maybe for whatever reason, you're gonna get a name on the building or whatever. You know, it is something to take into consideration. I would suggest contacting the institution you want to uh possibly give to or whatever endowment fund that you normally give to. And I'm sure that they're making provisions for this and can be a good place to get some additional information, but always work with your tax advisor, your investment advisor, your planner, and see what they may suggest to you as well. Those are just some few tips and things to take into consideration. But there are other temporary deductions that are going to disappear after 2028, meaning there are there is a$6,000 additional deduction for seniors if you're 65 years and older, and that's just helpful, right? Doesn't mean it's a credit, meaning if you don't use a total$6,000 yet you get some money back. Let's say you use five, doesn't mean you get$1,000 back. It just means it's an extra$6,000 on top of your uh standard deduction. So that's helpful for seniors. It just means more money goes back into your pocket. There's also deductions for tips and overtime income. You've heard about that. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime. It's not really what it means. In fact, I'm gonna detail that more in a companion piece. And all I'll say about that is it doesn't mean that you don't report all your taxes. It doesn't mean that you don't have to report your overtime. It just means that it behooves you to report all of your taxes, all of your overtime, all of your taxes, all of your tips and all of your overtime, because in the long run, there's a certain amount that you can deduct, and there's a certain amount that you won't have to pay taxes on, but it doesn't mean it's excludable. Because if you cheat yourself and don't report all your income, it hurts you in the long run. Because if let's say you want to buy a house and your income has been under-reported for all these years, then the bank asks you for three years of tax returns and it doesn't look like you made very much money, you might not get the loan that you want. So the other thing that hurts you is, you know, may not hurt you now, but later on when you take social security, again, if you've been under-reporting your income all these years, you're gonna get a very small social security check. So it may not be that meaningful to you now if you're in your 20s or 30s, but over time, of course, it adds up. And then again, you might really be shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak, if you've been underreporting your income all these years. So it behooves you to report all your income, pay taxes on it accordingly. And that way, when you do decide to buy your house, you apply for Social Security, you get the biggest bang for your buck. And that's just going to benefit you in the long run. In terms of the overtime, I think a lot of people hear that. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, you know, and that's just sounds good, and that's all it is, is it's a sound bite, it's a slogan. It doesn't really mean all that in the details because if you're making, let's say, 30 bucks an hour and you get paid time and a half, so you get your time, your$15 and a half, which is just$7.50. The$7.50 is what you're actually paying. Taxes on, pardon me, the total amount obviously is the$37.50, but it's only the$750 that is included in terms of the total amount that you can take a tax deduction on. So you will report or your employer reports all of your overtime. It's just broken out so that the half amount, the$750, is the total amount that you can deduct off of your taxes. So it might not sound as great as no tax, but it's just the way that you go about doing it. And then once again, the devil's in the details, see competent tax advice. Your employers have this year to get their act together to make sure they're reporting accurately and according to the IRS standards. And it may not be this year that they are ready to do all this. So there's a grace period for them for 2025, but they have to be able to be able to do this correctly being 2026. That means to you as well, doesn't mean that you can't do your own accounting and your own record keeping, which you should do. There's a tax form out there. I believe I even posted this on my resources tab on pinkmoneypodcast.com or it's on the companion tab as well. Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna repost it just so it's out there. So I'll scroll into a little bit more detail for you so you can see that. But use these devices or your own tools to do your own record keeping and record and repost. Record this accurately and re and submit it to the IRS accurately as well. Enough about that. So let's move on from there. As I said, there's a six thousand dollar deduction for sixty-five is an older estate and gift exemptions are permanently higher for 2026. That means$15 million for an individual,$30 million million dollars for married. It's indexed for inflation, but there's no sunset. That avoids what they call the estate tax cliff, and a lot of planners plan accordingly for that. And so they're gonna make changes according to this. So it may be that your planning needs to be adjusted somewhat. So it doesn't mean it has to be done right here, right now, but it is something that you want to be prepared for. So set an appointment with your estate planning attorney or your tax advisor or all three, and you guys figure all that out and work so that it works to your benefit. Again, all these institutions are all aware of this and they're gonna make plans and they're gonna give you the best advice. So an end of the year tip if you're a high net worth donor, consider making large lifetime gifts that start in 2026 for the maximum effect. If you have a uh Grat or a discounted giving and trust-based income planning, you want to take advantage of this as well and work with your trust company. But especially if there's a trust that you have, then you want to be fully aware of how this is going to affect it. Your tax rates will stay lower permanently. The 37% tax bracket remains. There's no revision to 39.7. The alternative minimum tax exemptions remain higher, although there are phase outs that start at a half million dollars for single person for their income and a million dollars of income if you're married. Also, the salt cap rises, the state and local taxes deduction meaning for 2025 up to$440,000. That's up from$10,000. There's a gradual increase from 2026 through 2029 for incomes under a half million dollars. Unfortunately, in 2030, this snaps back to 10,000. So this is just temporary. What that means, if you're planning for this year, the state and local tax is relevant to you, meaning you want to pay as much in deductible state, local, and taxes in 2025 as possible. And even your trust, that trust income take can take advantage of a separate salt tax treatment as well. There are energy tax credits that are ending, as I mentioned. This is gonna be the last year to claim any home energy improvements and new home energy credits as well. These have to be in service by 1231, 2025. So, again, if you're gonna buy any new energy efficient appliances, put in, you know, upgraded installation, you were gonna put in energy efficient windows, all that good stuff, and enjoy a little bit of a tax break from that. That's not gonna happen after this year. So it's unfortunate, but you might want to expedite some of those uh home improvements and do this this year and do it now rather than later. I've seen lots of ads on TV where they say, you know, you can defer your payments for a year, what have you, you know. So that may be something to take a look into. Another thing that's coming down the pike that we don't know a whole whole lot about are these Trump accounts, as they call them. There's there, these are new children's savings vehicles. So beginning next year, there's a$5,000 per year amount that you can put into a Trump account for kids. There's a government pilot program that will add$1,000 for children that are born between 2025 and 2028. A caveat is that you can't withdraw the money until they're 18. So it's kind of similar to a custodial IRA, but in an IRA, you have to have earned income. Even the kid has to have earned income. So maybe they're a child movie star or what have you, but you can't just put money from grandma, grandma, and grandpa into an IRA. It has to be earned income. And this kind of a Trump account, yeah, can it can be, as far as I know, given by anybody. But it's just$5,000 cap, has to be in there till they're 18 versus an IRA or even a uh$529 plan or a Coverdale where it's supposed to be in a college savings account, only used for qualified educational related expenses, but you can get to the money versus this, where doesn't seem like you can get to the money. How they're gonna police that, I have zero idea. I don't know if they're gonna ask for a birth certificate or just say no, you can't get it. I really don't know how you invest the money, I don't really know. And how this thousand dollars gets added, when it gets added, I don't really know. I don't think anyone knows. A lot of the investment companies don't know. The devil's always in the details, and the details just don't exist. So if you wanted to go ahead and just say, hey, this sounds like a great idea, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. I'd say hold off until you really get the information that you need to make the most informed decision before you decide to move forward. Just my opinion. There's also new opportunity zones that are starting after 2027, and these there's more zones that are going to be uh opened on a rolling ten-year basis. So an end-of-the-year tip, if you have capital gains in 2025, you could consider maybe doing an installment sale and invest gains in 2026 into new funds. Or if there's an existing 2017 qualified opportunity fund, those gains can be recognized in 2026 and will still keep the exclusion rollover. And what that really means is this is applicable probably to people who are accredited investors, meaning people who essentially have a million dollars more on in uh investable assets outside of their home. And these are a lot of these are existing type funds, but some are, you know, like I said, gonna be new. But these are really designed to help people invest in areas that are designated as an opportunity zone. And a lot of these are run by big companies like Goldman Sachs, but there's different ones through like a fundrise opportunity fundrise opportunity fund. That's probably one of the more public-facing ones, and they do investments in like workforce housing, Sunbelt Real Estate, commercial developments, build-to-rent communities. But there's other ones that do retail office redevelopments, infrastructure improvements in these designated zones. But these places have raised billions of dollars, and of course, there's opportunity here to make money, and that's what the whole point is. So you're helping, but you're also, you know, doing something for yourself. But they don't take everybody. You have to be, again, an accredited investor, and there's rules regarding that. But they these do exist out there, they have been out there, and there's opportunity, you know, no pun intended, but opportunity for yourself as well that you might want to take advantage of if you're able to, right? If you fit into that status. Anyway, let's move on from that. But really, again, from these provisions, the thing that I think that is going to be helpful to the average person, not only is there, like I mentioned, this$6,000 uh senior bonus deduction, but there's also a up to$10,000,$10,000 car loan interest deduction. It's only for US made cars. It's just also a temporary one that ends in 2028. It does help if even if you don't itemize. So that's nice, right? And if you were gonna buy a car and you've been waiting, this might be the time to do it because if you were gonna finance it, hey, you're able to take a$10,000 tax deduction on that. So that's a really nice incentive. I always believe in taking advantage of what I would call free money from the government. I mean, there were years and years ago, I want to say it was 2008, maybe even before that, one or two years before that, where the government was giving, I think it was six thousand dollars, and part of that was you had to repay it, but I believe it was 2008, nine, where they gave you eight thousand dollars and that didn't have to be repaid, and you know, that was just free money. So, not that they're gonna give you ten thousand dollars, that's not what I'm saying, but hey, in a way, you know, if they're giving you ten thousand dollars as an interest deduction, that's a pretty big benefit to me. And if you're gonna pay cash, you might want to just leave that cash parked in your account, take out a loan, and take the deduction, right? Let the money ride and continue to grow. Why take it off, take it out, and you know, cash in if you don't have to. There's the other thing that is probably for the average person, and that's the child tax credit. And that's a benefit because it becomes more refundable. There's also higher phase-out limits, and that just helps more middle-income families. It's not a you know a huge expansion, but it's still beneficial to you, right? Because if you're able to take advantage of it, then you know why not? If you have children and the government is gonna essentially give you money and it's one of those refundable tax credits, then that is a huge win. And that doesn't always happen. And so I'm really kind of surprised that the Congress was able to get together and pass this, which is really, really nice. You know, they uh there's another element to this where their paid family leave credit increased, and that just means employers who offer paid leave under FMLA FML FMLA rules get bigger federal tax credits, which encourages more businesses to provide that benefit. There's also credits for businesses for employer provided child child care. So companies that offer child care assistance, they get enhanced credits, and that makes it cheaper to support working parents. That's really super nice. I mean, I think any time again more of this any of these laws that businesses want to take advantage of because it helps their employees, it helps everybody all the way around, I I couldn't think of anything better, really. And I hope that those kind of things stay in place really essentially forever, if not even get better, because it just keeps more people working and puts more of your own money into your own pocket and leaves it there because we all know how expensive childcare is. And if you were if you wanted to get out of the home and you wanted to work and you really felt like you couldn't because childcare is so expensive, this may be helpful to you, right? You may not be able to do a full a full-time job, but you may be able to get out of the house a little for a little while, and that's pretty cool. That'll help you keep your sanity, right? But anyway, back to what I was saying about some of these different types of investments in like these opportunity zones. They're just opportunities that you can take advantage of if you fit into that world, as well as some of these smaller things for the average person. So you should go ahead and learn more about all this because it's gonna benefit you in the long run. And I would say that your tax advisor and your financial planner are gonna be some of the best people to guide you through this because there's a lot to it. I gave you just some of the highlights, and there's obviously more that goes into this than I even said, but again, we would be here probably forever if I went on and on and on about all of this. So I'm gonna put a lot of this into a companion piece so that you can read through it. I think that'll be really helpful, especially as it relates to donations and donor advice funds. And again, you should speak directly to the institution that you're wanting to give money to, you know, Princeton, MIT, Duke, Northwestern, you know, whatever school. You really want to be careful and do it the right way and get the best advice so that you they get the money that you want to give, and you get to benefit yourself as well, tax-wise. I think that's about as much as I want to cover right now because I don't want to get repetitive, but there's a lot to it. One, a couple other things I'm gonna mention is like I mentioned, uh the 2.8% increase for Social Security and for federal retirees, but that also dovetails to me into making your contributions for your IRA, whether it's your Roth or your traditional, don't forget you have to the end of this year to make a full contribution for this year. You do have the ability to stretch that out into April of next year. Do you want to? I guess that's up to you. Remember, you can only take a tax deduction on traditional contributions, meaning it that depends on your income. Like, and there's so many rules about that that that requires a whole nother companion piece to it as well. Same thing with making contributions to a Roth, there are income phase out limits, as well as if you want to do a Roth conversion, you want to do that by 1231. If you can't contribute to a Roth, there's what are called backdoor conversions. So that is a whole nother animal in and of itself. You want to also be aware of making your full contributions if you can to your 401k, your 403B, or your or your TSP. The deadlines for those are December 31st. Again, keep in mind for a 401k, 403B, or TSP, you can only make$23,000 if you're under$50. If you're over$50, then you can make$30,500 in terms of contributions. Health savings accounts, just I'll touch on them briefly. You can put in$4,150 for an individual,$8,300 as a family. There's a$1,000 catch up once you're over$55. So it's still the only uh triple tax advantage account on the planet in terms of a health savings account. Not every institution offers them. To me, they're becoming a little bit harder, harder to find, but they do exist out there. Tax loss harvesting, something else I usually touch on. So sell your losers, offset any gains, it does reduce your tax liability, and you can reinvest in similar, not identical assets to avoid wash sale rules. And what I mean by that is if you sell something, let's say, in December because it's a loss, and then you buy back in in January thinking you're gonna avoid the wash sale, it doesn't. Because again, that's the whole 30-day time frame. It doesn't matter which year, it just means that if you sell an investment at a loss and then buy the same or substantially identical investment back within 30 days, so before or after that sale, that's the wash sale. And the IRS will disallow that loss. So you don't lose it forever, it just gets added to the cost basis of the new shares and holding period gets carried over. But it doesn't matter again if it's in December that you sell and then you buy back in January. The the rule doesn't care what calendar, it only cares about that 30-day window. So if you sell it again, there's no wash sell issue, right? Because you made money. It just in terms of the loss that you're trying to, you know, get around, and you're not really gonna get around by it again if you buy back in within that window. So it's just a myth that I think sometimes gets perpetuated thinking if I sell in December and buy back in January, I can claim the loss and avoid the wash sale. Uh-uh. It doesn't work like that at all. So just be careful and don't do something that's really not going to benefit you because the IRS is really wise to wash sales and your investment company also. What I've seen, they always will report that as a wash sales as well. Doesn't mean that you have to abide by that, but you know, again the IRS is gonna make you abide by it. So I'll leave that alone. What else? Anything else? Oh, your required minimum distribution. If I didn't say that already, I will say that again. Don't forget you have until the end of the year to make that. Another one that there's a lot of rules there, and not gonna go into all that because just remember if you're over 73, you need to take your required minimum distribution from all of your accounts. And I'm not talking about the Roth, right? But there's also one uh rules that apply if you're a beneficiary of an IRA. Again, more rules that apply. Not going to go into that either. Another thing that is a good companion piece that I'll put out there. A lot of things that you just, you know, maybe again it doesn't apply to you. Maybe you just want to read more about it. And I'll put as much as I can out there that I think makes sense without going into, you know, creating an encyclopedia out there for you. It's just some high level information. So, nevertheless, let me close this out and let you get back to your holidays and you're celebrating. I hope you're celebrating. I hope you're celebrating with friends and family and enjoying the time of the year because it's a great time. And don't overspend, but just find ways to keep your peace of mind and enjoy your time with friends and family. I think that's really the biggest gift you can give to anybody. And like I said before, you know, if you're not your true self, become your true self and just give the gift to you yourself of coming out. That's wise. You know, we can't control Congress, we can't control the tax laws when all their twists and turns. We can control how we plan, how we prepare, and how we protect ourselves. You know, we want to make smart moves before the year end. You want to fund your retirement, harvest your losses, take advantage of the senior deduction when it launches, time your charitable gifts wisely. And if you want clean energy improvements for your home, do it now because those incentives, like I said, will disappear. And at the end of the day, you know, my money, my mission here with this podcast is to help educate you, to empower you, and to enlighten you. You know, we take one step, one story, one episode at a time, and I hope that you're enjoying everything that I can teach you and uh give you, and a lot of this information that you find on the website. I hope that you find it helpful and enjoyable and you get something from it. Other than that, I think I'll leave it there and I will talk to you next time.