President Donald Trump’s campaign tax pledges — no taxes on tips and overtime pay, plus new tax breaks for car buyers and seniors — are the centerpiece of a multitrillion dollar package that will serve as Republicans’ signature legislative effort.

In a draft version of the tax bill released on Monday, House Republicans highlighted the president’s populist priorities in a package that would enact those cuts through 2028. The bill would also make the lower individual tax rates Trump signed in 2017 permanent.

The bill addressed a tax issue that has been dividing lawmakers since it was first restricted by Trump in 2017: the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction. The plan raises the SALT limit to $30,000, but with limits for individuals earning more than $200,000 or couples making twice that. 

The proposal, notably, doesn’t include a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans, after weeks of debate among Republicans about whether to raise levies on millionaires. The bill would permanently extend the 37% top rate for individuals that was set in Trump’s 2017 tax law. That’s despite Trump telling House Speaker Mike Johnson as recently as last week that he wanted a 39.6% rate for individuals making more than $2.5 million.

“The president loves the bill. He met with Jason Smith on Friday and it’s a great first step,” top Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters Monday, referring to the House Ways and Means Committee Chair who led the effort to craft the tax bill. 

The package — which Trump has dubbed his “one big, beautiful bill” — is the totality of his legislative agenda. The bill is officially scored as losing $3.7 trillion in revenue over 10 years, within the $4.5 trillion limit lawmakers set for themselves. 

The cost of the bill was constrained by phasing out many renewable energy subsidies and by the SALT limit itself. Without congressional action, SALT would be uncapped after this year, so putting a $30,000 limit on the write-off creates a $900 billion revenue stream to offset some of the cuts. Additionally, many of the new tax breaks — such as no taxes on tips — are only proposed to last for four years, further tamping down costs.

Narrow Republican margins in the House mean that the president needs nearly unanimous support from his party to pass the bill.

The plan will take a big step toward advancing through the House as soon as this week, with the House Ways and Means Committee scheduled to begin debate on it on Tuesday.

Johnson told reporters Monday that the House is on track to pass the legislation by Memorial Day. It would then go to the Senate where it could be subject to major revisions.

Among provisions up for debate: the amount to increase the nation’s borrowing authority. The House bill calls for a $4 trillion increase, smaller than the Senate’s preferred $5 trillion level. Lawmakers are hoping to push any additional votes on raising the debt ceiling until after the 2026 midterm elections. 

Promises made

The draft language includes several of the unorthodox proposals that were central to Trump’s campaign message: no taxes on tipped wages — an idea he said came from a waitress — and eliminating levies on overtime pay. The plan also calls making the interest on car loans deductible, similar to how mortgage interest can be written off. But the car buyers can only claim the break on American-made vehicles, underscoring Trump’s desire to boost U.S. manufacturing.

Trump had also campaigned on ending taxes on Social Security benefits, but that runs afoul of the budget rules Republicans are using to pass the bill. Instead, the bill provides a $4,000 bonus for seniors on top of the regular standard deduction.

One of the thorniest issues — the contentious standoff over increasing the SALT deduction — may still be up for debate. Some lawmakers representing high-tax areas want an even bigger tax break, as much as $124,000 for joint filers, a far cry from the $30,000 cap included in the legislation.

The package lays out new levies. It would impose a new tax on private foundations of up to 10% and a new tax on foreign remittance of 5%, subject to exemptions. Also on the hook for tax increases: wealthy private universities, which could see an increase in the levy on endowments from 1.4% to as high as 21% on investment income.

Multinational companies would get an extension of current lower rates on foreign profits, marking a win for corporate America.

Tax breaks benefiting the renewable energy sector are also set to be scaled back. Popular production and investment tax credits for clean electricity would be phased out by the end of 2031, and new requirements against using materials from certain foreign nations would be added. The $7,500 consumer tax credit for the purchase of an electric vehicle would be fully eliminated by the end of 2026. 

Monday’s draft bill came after the tax-writing committee released some initial provisions late Friday. Those included raising the maximum child tax credit to $2,500 from $2,000 and increasing the standard deduction, both retroactive to 2025 to put more money in voters’ pockets before the 2026 elections. 

The bill also raises the estate tax exemption to $15 million and increases the 20% deduction for closely held businesses to 23%.

While the bill would include roughly $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, that wouldn’t come close to covering the roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts outlined in the plan, meaning it would likely add to deficits in the coming years.

Republicans have pointed to tariffs as a key source of revenue to help offset the deficit impact from the tax bill, and data out Monday showed customs duties jumped to a record $16 billion in April. The revenue won’t be officially scored as paying for the bill since the text doesn’t enact the emergency Trump tariffs into law.

Following Monday’s agreement between Beijing and Washington to deescalate the trade war, the Yale Budget Lab estimated all tariffs to date in 2025 would bring in roughly $2.3 trillion over the next decade if they remain in place, after accounting for the negative economic effects from higher levies.

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants today updated its CGMA Professional Qualifications Syllabus for 2026 to emphasize finance business partnering and applied problem solving.

The upgraded syllabus enhances certain competencies and behaviors like finance business partnering, analytical thinking and strategic planning in response to the growing demand for finance professionals to apply critical thinking skills. It also expands its scope to include content on financial technology, like generative artificial intelligence, and sustainability, like green finance, environmental costing and disclosures under IFRS S1 and S2.

“With a focus on finance role simulations embedded in our Case Study exams, the CGMA Professional Qualification allows finance professionals to quickly develop and apply cognitive, digital, and technical skills needed as finance business partners,” Stephen Flatman, vice president of education and professional qualifications, management accounting at the AICPA & CIMA, said in a statement. “Our unique problem-solving educational approach helps them provide expert advice, support decision-making and create value for organizations.” 

The syllabus changes do not impact those taking CGMA exams in 2025. Additionally, the structure and format of the exam is not changing — there are no elements being added or removed.

Study materials will be launched in October to help students prepare for the May 2026 exams. CIMA has also created over 50 hours of free study materials.

“This year’s update to the CGMA Professional Qualification syllabus sets it apart from traditional accounting and finance education, which still focuses heavily on preparing information, controls, and compliance – tasks increasingly automated by technology,” Andrew Harding, CEO of management accounting at the AICPA& CIMA, said in a statement. “The CGMA Professional Qualification is designed for the future of finance; created by finance professionals to equip future finance professionals with skills they need to be value creators.” 

Required minimum distributions can be a touchy subject for retirees and their financial advisors, requiring them to liquidate assets that they may prefer to keep in the market. Frustration around RMDs is often compounded by the tax consequences they present, but advisors say one little-known strategy could help ease the burden — especially as investors wait for stocks to fully recover from a tariff-driven downturn.

The strategy hinges on the unique flexibility of tax withholdings on retirement account distributions. 

The idea of withholding income taxes from a retirement account distribution isn’t new. Retirees often withhold a set percentage, say 20%, of a distribution for taxes. For example, a retiree can say, “Distribute $20,000 from my IRA, withhold 20% for taxes and send the net $16,000 to me.” But what many advisors miss is the ability to delay tax payments until the end of the year, according to Keith Fenstad, vice president and director of wealth planning at Tanglewood Total Wealth Management in Houston, Texas.

READ MORE: Using tax-aware long-short vehicles to track down alpha

Through this strategy, retirees can take smaller monthly or quarterly distributions without any tax withholding and then make a much larger tax withholding on a distribution toward the end of the year. Thanks to flexible RMD tax payment rules, end-of-year tax withholdings can cover distributions that were made much earlier in the same year.

“Even if that request is made in December, the $4,000 of taxes withheld is spread across the previous quarterly tax payment periods,” Fenstad said.

Kicking the tax can down the road

Delaying tax payments on RMDs can offer a few key advantages, according to Fenstad. For some clients who simply don’t want the headache of making multiple tax payments throughout the year, delaying tax withholdings on RMDs can simplify the process.

“We have clients who might withhold 60%, 70% of their RMD just to cover all their taxes,” Fenstad said. That way, “They don’t have to fool with quarterly estimates.”

This approach can also help address a potential underpayment penalty resulting from a previously missed estimated tax payment, he said. Delaying tax withholdings on RMDs could be an especially useful strategy for certain clients who expect their investments to continue to recover from April’s market low, Fenstad said.

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Mark Stancato, founder and lead advisor at VIP Wealth Advisors in Decatur, Georgia, described the strategy as a “calculated risk.”

“Delaying the timing of an RMD until later in the year can be an effective way to improve tax efficiency during a market downturn — but the details matter. The key question to ask is where the tax payment is coming from,” he said. “If taxes are withheld directly from the RMD distribution, delaying until year-end may reduce the number of shares that need to be sold — especially if the market recovers. That can help clients avoid locking in unnecessary losses. But if the market declines further, they could end up selling even more at lower prices.”

Other advisors say that delaying tax withholdings can be a helpful strategy regardless of how the market is performing.

“Waiting to sell shares to pay the tax because of a belief that the market will rise is a market timing decision,” said Sammy Grant, principal at Homrich Berg in Sandy Springs, Georgia. “But even if a client or advisor believes the market will experience further declines, waiting to pay the tax due on early-year distributions until year-end is a wise decision. This more pessimistic client can liquidate enough to pay the tax today while leaving the proceeds in a money market inside the IRA, earning 4%-plus for the remainder of the year.”

Not all advisors are on board

Tim Witham, founder of Balanced Life Planning in Villa Hills, Kentucky, said that delaying RMD tax withholdings is a common strategy among some advisors. However, he explained that this approach is often not ideal for many high net worth clients, as they are typically required to take larger distributions than they need for their living expenses. Instead, Witham and other advisors suggest using in-kind withdrawals from a retirement account to a brokerage account to limit a client’s tax liability.

“In a down market, rather than selling funds for IRA distributions, I have coached clients to push securities out of their IRAs in-kind to a brokerage account,” Witham said. “For example, if a small-cap fund in your IRA is down 20%, you can take that fund from an IRA to a brokerage account. … When the fund rebounds, it will do so outside of the IRA, where, if held over a year, the gain would be eligible for long-term capital gains treatment, rather than ordinary income that would occur as a result of an IRA distribution.”

READ MORE: Forget retirement buckets. Advisors prefer these withdrawal strategies

“This strategy puts control with the client and advisor in a down market, rather than hoping for a market rebound by year-end,” he added. “As we all know, hope is not a strategy.”

Other advisors say that navigating a down market through such strategies simply isn’t necessary if a client is invested properly in their retirement accounts. 

“We advise our clients who have reached the magical age of required minimum distributions that there should be a minimum of five years’ worth of distributions invested in liquid high-quality short-term fixed income,” said Michael DeMassa, founder of Forza Wealth in Sarasota, Florida. “In other terms, at least 20% of the IRA should be accessible for required minimum distributions and not subject to stock market volatility. During times of market stress, we can make distributions from the fixed income allocation and not be forced to sell equities at the wrong time.”