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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 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including priorities such as the Qualified Business Income Deduction and 100% bonus depreciation.

“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 Republican party platform earlier this year. Further goals included eliminating taxes on tips for restaurant and hospitality workers and other additional tax cuts.

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.

Read more: Republican election sweep emboldens Trump’s tax cut dreams

Regulatory uncertainty is just one question looming across the profession, however. With control of both houses of Congress, Republican efforts to cut the Internal Revenue Service’s funding that once saw limited success might now gain more ground.

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.

Read more: IRS reforms bring relief, but Trump win clouds future plans

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

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers in the White House

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 claw back some of the $80 billion in extra funding from the IRA, and have continued to push for further reductions in the IRS’s enforcement budget. Increased funding brought in from expanded enforcement goes towards easing the cost of the IRA, while other IRA funding is earmarked for strengthening the enforcement capabilities of the IRS among other improvements.

“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 Michael Cohn. “The only question for me on funding is, will any portion of the funding remain available for taxpayer service-related improvements at the IRS?” 

Read more: Trump win may threaten IRS funding

A look at Trump promises for the 2025 tax landscape

Donald Trump speaks at campaign rally

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 Michael Cohn. “Obviously the big point is going to be either to extend or to make permanent TCJA provisions.”

Read more: Big tax changes promised in Trump administration

What are preparers worried about in the coming administration?

Donald Trump listens to a question while speaking to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.

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 Roger Russell in an interview that he’s “curious to see how much the balance shifts” as the lack of a Republican super-majority means, “There will still be a give and take in their congressional negotiations.”

“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.

Read more: From the campaign trail to the Tax Code: Taxes under Trump

What is Trump focused on when it comes to taxes?

Donald Trump (center) speaking before a crowd on the night of Nov. 6. A series of American flags are in the background.

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

President-elect Trump had an eventful first term when it came to tax policies, implementing the likes of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and more. Amid expiring provisions, and a host of new tax proposals, the question now is which promises he can deliver on.

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.”

Read more: Trump’s victory: What it means for taxes

Approaching the impending tax quagmire in 2025

President Trump

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 recent report on policy implications under a Trump administration published by Deloitte Tax’s Tax Policy Group highlighted the regulatory hurdles and other holdups that could hamper future campaigns.

Jonathan Traub, the leader of the group, said on a panel this month that discussions in the House surrounding the current limit on the deduction for state and local taxes is an important barometer for measuring how talks could go over the coming years.

“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.”

Read more: Trump and the GOP won a huge election for taxes. Now for the tricky part

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Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

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The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.

The proposed narrow-scope amendments involve minor changes to several IAASB standards:

  • ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
  • ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
  • ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
  • ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.

The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the IAASB website by July 24, 2025.

In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.  

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Accounting

Tariffs will hit low-income Americans harder than richest, report says

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings. 

Trump has imposed the steepest U.S. duties in more than a century, including a 145% tariff on many products from China, a 25% rate on most imports from Canada and Mexico, duties on some sectors such as steel and aluminum and a baseline 10% tariff on the rest of the country’s trading partners. He suspended higher, customized tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.

Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab. Among all goods impacted, consumers are expected to face the steepest price hikes for clothing at 64%, the report showed. 

The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.

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At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

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Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist Schellman do more things with fewer people, allowing the firm to scale back hiring and reduce headcount in certain areas through natural attrition. 

Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time. 

“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said. 

One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load. 

“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai. 

Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies. 

“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.

However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area. 

“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai. 

As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales. 

“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai. 

While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves. 

“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”

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