Accounting
TCJA extensions or revisions: What lies ahead for 2025
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Many accountants were doubtful of Donald Trump’s chances for a successful reelection on Nov. 5, despite the fact that many also thought he would be a better candidate for the profession. With his return to the White House now confirmed, the waiting game begins to see which promises of wide-sweeping change to the tax landscape come to life.
The Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives will grant President-elect Trump an easier time in refreshing many of the expiring provisions in his 2017
“These changes reshaped tax planning for both individuals and businesses, creating new opportunities for savings,” said Arron Bennett, CEO of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee-based tax planning firm Bennett Financials.
It’s increasingly likely that Trump will seek to make certain provisions of the TCJA like the QBID permanent, as was put forward in the
Mark Luscombe, principal analyst in Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, said cementing the sunsetting provisions of the TCJA “would be very expensive” and that a more beneficial compromise for addressing deficit concerns would be “to just extend them for a few more years.”
“An extension would benefit almost all taxpayers; however, the bulk of the tax benefit would go to higher-income taxpayers,” Luscombe said.
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Regulatory uncertainty is just one question looming across the profession, however. With control of both houses of Congress,
Much of the funding granted to the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has gone towards strengthening the agency’s enforcement capabilities, which in turn generate revenue. Other funds have been used to bolster taxpayer services and to support regular operations.Andrea Harrington, a CPA and partner at the Glastonbury, Connecticut-based accounting firm Fiondella Milone & Lasaracina, said she hopes funding for the IRS is maintained, specifically directing resources towards “processing amended returns related to COVID relief provisions.””The uncertainty over what exactly will happen makes planning a bit more challenging. … We’ll be watching legislative proposals even more closely so we can pivot in our recommendations as needed,” Harrington said.
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Below is a compilation of expert insight and predictions into what the tax landscape could look like in 2025 and what professionals need to start considering during planning discussions.
IRS funding in limbo following Trump win
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In the wake of Trump’s successful bid for reelection, many accountants predict the new administration will seek to cut the IRS’s funding more so than in recent years.
Republican legislators have already seen success in efforts to
“I think IRS funding is at significant risk right now, both the annual appropriation funding as well as the remaining IRA funding,” Rochelle Hodes, Washington National Tax Office principal at the Top 25 Firm Crowe, said in an interview with AT’s
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A look at Trump promises for the 2025 tax landscape
Parker Michels-Boyce/Bloomberg
Trump’s campaign promises on taxes were numerous and sweeping, ranging from lowering the corporate tax rate and tax credits for caregivers and those purchasing domestically made automobiles, to the return of 100% bonus depreciation.
As the countdown to his second term continues, along with the approaching deadline for many parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, much is up in the air.
“No one has a crystal ball on what’s going to happen here, but certainly it’s a little bit clearer based on a Trump victory than it would have been based on a Harris victory,” Brian Newman, a tax partner at Top 25 Firm CohnReznick in Hartford, Connecticut, said in an interview with AT’s
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What are preparers worried about in the coming administration?
Al Drago/Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Accounting professionals and preparers say that a new but not wholly unfamiliar Trump administration, will bring new approaches to taxes and the surrounding regulatory environment with it.
Kelly Myers, an advisor with Myers Consulting Group, and formerly a career IRS officer with 30-plus years of experience, told AT’s
“People will be watching as they move forward on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; the biggest thing is the SALT limitation with its $10,000 cap,” Myers said.
The provisions of the TCJA are top of mind for Trump, as issues like the qualified business income deduction and a renewed R&D credit operating on a dollar-for-dollar basis are up for change.
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What is Trump focused on when it comes to taxes?
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg
President-elect Trump had an eventful first term when it came to tax policies, implementing the likes of the
The estimated price tag for extending all the provisions of the TCJA amounts to roughly $4.6 trillion, according to Rochelle Hodes, Washington National Tax Office principal at the Top 25 Firm Crowe.
“If they are allowed to expire, that would raise the tax for many individuals, which is an unattractive proposition for any president or for Congress,” Hodes said in an interview with AT. “The decision will have to be made about which will be allowed to expire, whether or not some of the provisions will be changed in order to accommodate whatever budget goals are agreed upon, then the decision and consensus will have to be made concerning offsets to pay for the resolution of expiring provisions.”
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Approaching the impending tax quagmire in 2025
Yuri Gripas/Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Bloomb
Industry professionals achieved a small measure of TCJA relief following Trump’s successful bid for reelection, as many expiring provisions are now much more likely to be renewed.
But where other legislative efforts are concerned, a
Jonathan Traub,
“You will need almost perfect unity — more so in the House than the Senate,” Traub said. “This really gives a lot of power, I think, to any small group of House members who decide that they will lie down on the train tracks to block a bill they don’t like or to enforce the inclusion of a provision that they really want.”
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Big Four firm PwC announced new agentic AI capacities, including a model that proactively identifies areas of value leakage and acts inside the tools teams already use to fix them itself.
The new solution,
The software, which is supported by PwC’s recently released
The system connects directly into ERP environments, continuously monitors key metrics, and acts inside the tools teams already use. For example, a supply chain agent might detect rising shipping costs and automatically reroute deliveries to reduce spend. Finance agents can spot and correct billing errors before they reach the customer. Clients typically see measurable efficiency gains in the first quarter, with continued improvements over time as the system learns and adapts.
“Too many transformations still rely on one-off pilots and stale data, stretching the gap from insight to impact and suffocating ROI,” said Saurabh Sarbaliya, PwC’s principal for enterprise strategy and value. “Agent Powered Performance flips the economics by distilling PwC’s industry transformation playbooks into AI agents that turn static insights into compounding gains, without rebooting each time.”
Agent Powered Performance is platform-agnostic and built on an open architecture so it can work across different LLMs based on client preferences and task-specific needs. It works with major enterprise platforms including Oracle, SAP, Workday and Guidewire.
Agent OS Model Context Protocol
PwC also
By integrating this standard, agent systems registered as MCP servers can be used by any authorized AI agent. This reduces redundant integration work and the overhead of writing custom logic for each new use case. By standardizing how agents invoke tools and handle responses, MCP also simplifies the interface between agents and enterprise systems, which will serve to reduce development time, lower testing complexity, and cut deployment risk. Finally, any interaction between an agent and an MCP server is authenticated, authorized and logged, and access policies are enforced at the protocol level, which means that compliance and control are native to the system—not layered on after the fact.
This means that agents are no longer siloed. Instead, they can operate as part of a coordinated, governed system that can grow as needs evolve, as MCP support provides the interface to external tools and systems. This enables organizations to move beyond isolated pilots toward integrated systems where agents don’t just reason, but act inside real business workflows. It marks a shift from experimentation to adoption, from isolated tools to scalable, governed intelligence.
Research Composer
Finally, a PwC spokesperson said the firm has also launched a new internal tool for its professionals called Research Composer, a patent-pending AI research agent embedded in the firm’s ChatPwC suite, designed to accelerate insight generation by combining web data with PwC-uploaded content.
Professionals will use the Research Composer to produce in-depth, citation-backed reports for either the firm or its clients. The solution is intended to enhance the quality of client work by equipping teams with research and strategic analysis capabilities.
The AI agent prompts users through a step-by-step research workflow, allowing them to shape how reports are packaged—tailoring the output to meet strategic needs. For example, a manager in advisory services might use Research Composer to evaluate white space opportunities across industries or geographies, drawing from internal reports and up-to-date market data.
Eide Bailly, a Top 25 Firm based in Fargo, North Dakota, is growing its presence in the Pacific Northwest by adding Traner Smith, based in Edmonds, Washington, effective June 2, 2025.
Traner Smith’s team includes two partners and 16 staff members and specializes in tax compliance and advisory services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eide Bailly ranked No. 19 on
Eide Bailly already has offices in Seattle, but hopes to grow further in the Pacific Northwest. “We’re pleased to welcome the talented team at Traner Smith to Eide Bailly,” said Eide Bailly managing partner and CEO Jeremy Hauk in a statement Monday. “Their expertise with high-net-worth individuals, real estate and privately held businesses aligns well with our strengths, and their client-centric approach is a perfect cultural fit. Having an office in Edmonds, Washington, is a great complement to our existing presence in Seattle. Together, we’re poised to deliver even greater value to families and businesses in the Seattle metro area.”
“Joining Eide Bailly is a natural next step for us — it provides access to deeper technical resources in areas like state and local tax, national tax, succession planning and international tax while allowing us to continue the personalized service our clients value,” said Kevin Smith, a partner at Traner Smith, in a statement.
“With this expanded support and platform, we’re excited to grow our reach, elevate what we do best, and help more clients than ever before,” said Shane Summer, another partner at Traner Smith, in a statement.
Eide Bailly has announced several other mergers in recent weeks. Earlier this month, it added
In 2023, Eide Bailly added
Top 100 firm
“We began working with Knuula in Spring 2024 to streamline our engagement letter process,” said Don Murphy, Managing Member of BMSS. “It quickly became clear that Knuula was not only a strong solution for us, but also an ideal partner in advancing industry-wide automation.”
While the specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, a spokesperson with Knuula said that, after this investment, BMSS and a collection of 21 of their partners now own 13% of the company. The investment represents not some passive revenue deal but an active collaboration between the two companies, with the spokesperson saying they will be working closely together on things like product development, new features, improvements, and networking.
The deal comes about a year after Knuula integrated with QuickFee, a receivables management platform for professional service providers, which allowed users to have engagement letters directly connecting to their QuickFee billing platform, tying the execution of the letter directly to the billing process.
“We’ve long sought to partner with a firm focused on strategic innovation in the accounting space,” said Jamie Peebles, founder of Knuula. “To develop a perfect solution for large firms, it is ideal to have a partner that is willing to work closely together and iterate quickly. This requires constant feedback between our two teams. The IT team from BMSS worked with our development team constantly and helped us iterate rapidly. We also had consistent input from partners, manager, and administrative staff to help us make valuable changes to Knuula. BMSS was a perfect partner for us.”
PwC AI agent acts proactively to preserve value
Eide Bailly merges in Traner Smith
BMSS announces investment, collaboration with Knuula
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
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