One Big Beautiful Bill 101: What You Need To Know

There's a new tax law and we're here to break it down in plain English. The team dives into the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and what it actually means for your wallet, your retirement plan, and even your kids’ future! From Trump Accounts to car loan deductions to expanded standard deductions, this episode unpacks what’s changing and why it matters. Tune in for real talk, a few laughs, and actionable takeaways to help you plan smarter. 

Watch the video version, or read the transcript and show notes at thewealthmindsetshow.com/s2e17

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Chapters

• 3:03 Weekly Check-In: Couple's Massages, Ice Cream Shops, & Broken Bones...
• 6:37 A Refresher on Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017
• 11:11 What's Actually New: Trump Accounts & Vehicle Interest
• 17:10 What’s Permanent vs. Set to Expire
• 19:23 This Big Beautiful Bill Really Is Big: Congress & Concessions
• 22:30 Wrap-Up & Action Steps to Take

Transcript

You are listening to The Wealth Mindset Show, where Hixon Zuercher Capital Management's team of finance professionals, portfolio managers, and a life coach come together to tackle complex topics in finance and retirement planning so you don't have to. From investment strategies and wealth management to tax planning, retirement income, and aligning your money with your values and purpose, The Wealth Mindset Show offers the tools to thrive.

Austin Wilson:

All right. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to The Wealth Mindset Show, where our Hixon Zuercher team will have conversations on managing wealth, navigating retirement, and making smart decisions for a secure, meaningful future. I'm Austin Wilson, director of investments at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management, and I'm joined with Chase Rose, associate wealth advisor, Jess Hinks, senior wealth advisor, and Jordan Shaw, wealth advisor himself. So I'm joined with a team of advisors. So I brought the heavy hitters here, because this topic is not necessarily in my wheelhouse.

Jessica Hinks:

Or a topic we all barely understand.

Austin Wilson:

It is. I don't even think the people who wrote the bill understand what this is all about.

Jessica Hinks:

I don't think so.

Austin Wilson:

But we are talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and that is a mouthful. It's also known as the Tax and Spending Cuts Act, which is ironic because actually there's a lot of spending increases in there. That's totally a topic for another day, but really, what we're going to be talking about today, it doesn't matter what it's called, but it is how this tax bill, essentially, is the biggest portion for you as listeners, is going to impact your finances and your financial planning going forward. So we're going to start by talking about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017, because there are components of that that got tweaked or extended, a few new updates there. And then there are some new components for this as well. But we really want to hone in on how this matters to your financial planning and your future. So let's just address the elephant in the room. Who named the bill and what were they thinking?

Jessica Hinks:

Well, for the record, when I got an invitation on my calendar to this podcast, I thought we were talking about the Better Business Bureau.

Austin Wilson:

The BBB.

Jessica Hinks:

So if I seem unprepared, it's just because that's what I thought we were talking about.

Austin Wilson:

Hey, that's all right.

Jessica Hinks:

Kidding. I knew what we were really talking about, but yeah, don't like the name.

Jordan Shaw:

I think if this bill can be called Big and Beautiful, there's hope for all of us.

Austin Wilson:

We can call anything, anything.

Jordan Shaw:

Anything.

Austin Wilson:

Anything.

Chase Rose:

I will say there has been some pushback against the name. They're trying to retitle the tax bill to something else, and they're using any amount of rules that they can.

Austin Wilson:

Oh, yeah.

Chase Rose:

I think we know who exactly we're referring to.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah.

Chase Rose:

But that's fine. I don't think anyone really cares what-

Jessica Hinks:

No.

Austin Wilson:

I also think this is another example of how acronyms can go too far.

Chase Rose:

Yeah.

Austin Wilson:

Because I think in finance, we're sitting here and we live probably in the most acronym-filled world, right? Everything has an acronym. The government's not far behind. And then recently, not recently, I guess it was 2017, we had the TCJA, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Jessica Hinks:

Which I never can say. I can never say it, I always forget it.

Austin Wilson:

And now we've got the OBBB, and isn't that like...

Chase Rose:

OBB-

Austin Wilson:

Isn't he a guy from Star Wars?

Chase Rose:

OBBBA.

Austin Wilson:

Oh, Obi-Wan.

Chase Rose:

OBBBA. The OBBBA.

[3:03] - Weekly Check-In: Couple's Massages, Ice Cream Shops, & Broken Bones...

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. So that is what we're talking about today. But first, let's just check in. How's everyone doing? Jordan, you went on vacation. How was your vacation with your family? And I know what you're going to say.

Jordan Shaw:

It wasn't a vacation

Austin Wilson:

Boom.

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah.

Austin Wilson:

It's a trip when it's with kids.

Jordan Shaw:

It's a trip with kids, yeah, but my wife and I, did get one day... Well, we got an afternoon of a couple of hours away from the kids. This was the highlight. But honestly, maybe you guys can help settle this internal debate that I'm personally having. We got a couples massage, which we haven't gotten in years and years. And as soon as this thing started, I'm in a dark room with my wife and there's a little bit of music going on, but I knew it was an hour long and I'm sitting there and I'm like, "Do I talk? Do I have a conversation with my wife? Do I have a conversation with the masseuse? What are the rules here?" What do you guys think? Are you supposed to talk?

Chase Rose:

I don't think you should talk to the masseuse. I think you should either be silent, or I think talking to your spouse is acceptable.

Jessica Hinks:

You speak when spoken to in that setting.

Chase Rose:

Absolutely.

Jessica Hinks:

Otherwise, face down in the pillow, Jordan.

Austin Wilson:

Is this too hard or not? Or do you want more pressure? That's probably appropriate to talk to your masseuse.

Jordan Shaw:

Exactly. You're doing great there, lady.

Austin Wilson:

Well, the other question was male or female masseuse, because that's...

Jordan Shaw:

They were both female masseuses, but at the end nothing was said. I chose not to say anything, which I don't know, good or bad.

Chase Rose:

Smart decision.

Austin Wilson:

Bonnie-Jean's like, "You said nothing the entire time."

Jordan Shaw:

I don't even think she was aware I was in the room. She was in another world. But at the end, the masseuse, I don't know how you would say it, not awkwardly, but she was just like, "Thanks for letting me work on you." But it wasn't the phrasing.

Austin Wilson:

So funny.

Jordan Shaw:

She got really close to me and I didn't know she was there until they felt her breath in my ear. She's like, "Thanks for letting me work on you."

Austin Wilson:

That's a little awkward.

Jordan Shaw:

It was awkward.

Jessica Hinks:

I have a feeling if you tried that with one of our clients, it wouldn't go over so well.

Jordan Shaw:

It would not go well. I'm in the right industry.

Austin Wilson:

I think of Friends when I think of masseuses, and I think of how Phoebe did not like to massage Monica because she made inappropriate sounds. So that's probably not-

Jessica Hinks:

Anyways, I think we should start talking about The Big Beautiful Bill.

Austin Wilson:

That's the only thing not to do that you should definitely not do. And Chase, you recently got married and are managing an ice cream shop. How's that going?

Chase Rose:

Yeah, we're staying afloat. We'll just put it that way.

Austin Wilson:

Okay. Root beer float?

Chase Rose:

Root beer float. We're staying a-root-beer-float. Absolutely. No, we haven't honeymooned yet. We got married on a Saturday. I was back here on Monday. We are not able to get away because of the ice cream shop, but we'll be well traveled in the off season, that's for sure.

Austin Wilson:

I love it.

Jordan Shaw:

Big beautiful ice cream shop.

Austin Wilson:

Big beautiful ice cream shop. Jess, anything going on with you?

Jessica Hinks:

I'm not a newlywed, nor am I getting couple massages, but we did have a ten-year anniversary and I'm starting to arrange a community picketing line so I can demand that my two-year-old and four-year-old also get a Trump account that all these other kids are getting due to this new tax bill.

Austin Wilson:

I know. I'm right with you there. And I guess the big news in our world is our sweet little two-year-old broke her leg, so it's not the best. You'd think it would slow her down. It really hasn't slowed her down that much. She's got a thigh to toe cast on her right leg, and it wasn't even a great story. She just slipped on toy and fell, and she's walking around on it like nothing happened. I'm like-

Jordan Shaw:

She's a trooper.

Austin Wilson:

"How are you doing that?" So Whitley, you're doing great. Hopefully we'll get that thing off you real soon.

Chase Rose:

Yeah, she's definitely listening to this, wanting to know more about the tax bill.

Austin Wilson:

She is. She's like, "Where's my Trump account?"

Jessica Hinks:

Well, thankfully she is going to get that higher child tax credit, so you can pay for that-

Austin Wilson:

She's going to get that?

Jessica Hinks:

Pay for that ER visit.

[6:37] - A Refresher on Tax Cuts & The Jobs Act of 2017

Austin Wilson:

I'm taking that. Yeah, exactly. We got some expenses going on. All right, so back to The One Big Beautiful Bill. I'm going to say that wrong probably at least once, but let's start with a refresher. Jessica, talk a little bit about the tax cuts in Jobs Act from 2017, and just a refresher on what that was and then how that is being integrated into this.

Jessica Hinks:

Sure. Well, in 2025, I finally mastered the tax law that changed in 2017 that's now changing. But in 2017, that was the largest tax code overhaul we had since 1986. And coincidentally, this was also a Trump administration pushed law back in his first administration. It was going to expire this year, but many of the provisions extended due to this new law. Most notably, it lowered marginal tax rates for most people. It nearly doubled the standard deduction, and it also increased the child tax credit, which I joked about with Miss Whitley earlier. One thing I think I almost forgot about, since I don't work with corporations on a regular basis, is that it did dramatically reduce corporate tax rates as well.

Austin Wilson:

Corporate tax rate, yeah.

Jessica Hinks:

So that was a broad summary of the 2017 law.

Austin Wilson:

So let's transition to what parts of this are getting extended or extended and adjusted here in the OBBBA?

Chase Rose:

Mm-hmm. So the tax brackets are being extended, and actually on that note, so tax brackets typically indexed with inflation. So they're increasing... The income thresholds increase every year. The 10% and the 12% ordinary income brackets are getting an additional inflation. So those will actually... You'll be paying a lower tax rate for more income that you realize. And then there's a number of other ones, such as the standard deduction, obviously that's extended and indexed for inflation.

The estate exemption that was increased with the TCGA is now set at 15 million for single people, 30 million for a joint couple. And that's also indexed with inflation. So that was one of the biggest, from an estate tax perspective, a big concern about what's going to happen in 2026. But that has been extended. Those are the big ones that I was thinking about. Also, the qualified business income deduction, otherwise known as a Section 199A, that was extended with some different rules around that as well. And then there were a lot of itemized deductions. They called them miscellaneous itemized deductions that were, not eliminated but postponed, in the TCJA. Those have officially been eliminated. So things like advisor fee deductions and a range of other deductions.

Jessica Hinks:

Teachers can deduct supplies.

Chase Rose:

Exactly. So those have been eliminated. So now there's really very few things that you can include in your itemized deductions if you want to itemize over the standard deduction.

Austin Wilson:

And with standard deductions going up, yeah, hardly anyone even does that.

Chase Rose:

With such a large standard deduction, yeah, there's really not many people that take advantage of.

Austin Wilson:

And I believe the SALT deduction, that was a hot topic when we were talking about, we had Congress going crazy over SALT deduction. Obviously people in high-tax states had a very strong opinion on that. And they finally settled on what, $40,000 with a phase out?

Chase Rose:

Yep. So it was originally 10,000 from the TCJA, increased to 40,000. That is temporary, so it still needs additional legislation, I believe up to 2030. I could be wrong, but yeah, that is... And there are phase outs, right? So the more money you make typically you'll actually get to take advantage of less of that. And so actually when you get to some of the higher tax brackets, you're actually going to be paying a much higher marginal rate than you would be getting the deduction. That's a lot more caveated topic.

Jessica Hinks:

And that's something I want people to understand is the SALT deduction, because I do think a lot of people won't itemize, but for people who do itemize, it's generally speaking these items that will lead your itemization. So that's your state and local taxes and then your mortgage interest. So some people get big houses and mortgage interest rates are so high right now. So this very well could apply to you. Initially, I was really mad when I actually heard about this increasing, I'm an underdog fan. I like the little people, right?

Austin Wilson:

That's right.

Jessica Hinks:

And I'm like, "The people this is going to help are rich people with huge houses or people who live in high income tax states like California and New York." I'm like, "How is that fair to everyone else?" But when I read more about that, the income limits, I found it to making things a lot more equitable. So the ultra-wealthy are not going to get this benefit.

[11:11] - What's Actually New: Trump Accounts & Vehicle Interest

Austin Wilson:

So those are some of the things that are being amended or adjusted from the original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. There are a couple of things that are actually new, and obviously we are looking at this whole thing still. It's still pretty fresh, so we're still learning this through use, as well as you are, so we're by no means experts on every single line item, but we're trying to hit the big topics that everyone's asking about right now. But the couple of things that are really new is one, the Trump account, who wants to talk about the Trump account?

Chase Rose:

Yeah, so the Trump accounts are pretty interesting. Essentially previous, or before these Trump accounts were proposed, if you were a minor and you wanted to essentially save for retirement, you could open a minor Roth IRA or something of the sorts, but you need income in order to be able to do that. And what these Trump accounts do is it allows parents or anyone to contribute to the Trump account on behalf of a beneficiary, and they do not need earned income in order to make that happen. And there are actually state and local governments and federal governments as well can contribute to these accounts without inching the beneficiary closer to the contribution limit, which is set at 5,000 currently.

But yeah, it's just a great account for kids to be able to save into, or parents to be able to save into for their kids to give them a jumpstart on retirement. Now, there are certain limitations. You have to invest in some type of index with very low expense ratio that markets towards U.S. securities. So think like an S&P 500 index fund. Obviously you can't access the funds. Once you become age 18, it essentially turns into an IRA like account. So you can take any of your contributions out penalty free, but any growth would be penalized if you're withdrawing. And it's primarily for-

Jessica Hinks:

You compare that to a Roth IRA?

Chase Rose:

Exactly, exactly. I would almost call it... It's going to be similar to a... It probably would be more like a Roth IRA. There's debates over whether it's a non-deductible IRA or a Roth IRA because it will be subject to 10 year rules will be subject to RMDs and things like that once they've become... Reach that age down the road. But yeah, it's definitely a good account. And there's also the pilot program. So any babies born in 2025, '26 and '27, there are credits available up to a thousand dollars to essentially get those dollars invested. So the government's going to give you a thousand dollars to invest in the Trump account as a head start. But again, those are only babies born in those years, but anyone under the age of 18 can have a Trump account, which is important to remember.

Austin Wilson:

We're going to take a quick pause in this episode. Before we get back to today's topic. I want to take a quick moment to share something that could really help you on your retirement journey. At Hixon Zuercher Capital Management we are all about making sure your financial life aligns with what truly matters to you. That's why we created the assessment. Are you retirement ready over at hzcapital.com/quiz? It's a quick and easy quiz that helps you figure out how prepared you are for retirement. It only takes a few minutes and you might discover some great insights into what you need to do before you retire, both in the financial and non-financial aspects. So if you're curious about how ready you are to embrace this new phase, head on over to the website and check it out. Again, that's hzcapital.com/quiz. Now let's jump back into our conversation.

And another new component of this, which Chase and I were talking about earlier, is you are able... So to encourage U.S. manufacturing, and this ties into the whole discussion on trade and on shoring and re-shoring, I guess, is a way to think about things, is to encourage consumption of American goods, specifically vehicles, you can now deduct up to $10,000 in gum limits, of course applied, of interest on vehicle loans. Now, this would only apply if you itemize of course as well, but tell us a little bit about what the math actually looks like on this, because it's just fascinating.

Jessica Hinks:

Oh my gosh, if you're paying that much an interest on a car loan, do not buy the car.

Chase Rose:

I know. So I can't take credit for this. I saw this at another source. But in order for you to maximize the $10,000 deduction that you are capped at, you would need to be making $200,000 annually or less, and you would need, assuming a 5% rate, you would need to finance a car that is valued at 200,000 or more. So that is a very -

Austin Wilson:

You only live once, man.

Chase Rose:

There's a very small group of people that's going to apply to, but you can still take the deduction for any interest you have on a U.S. assembled vehicle.

Austin Wilson:

And these are for new purchases?

Chase Rose:

These are for new. Yeah, exactly.

Jessica Hinks:

I can guarantee you, even though this will apply to half a percent of Americans, every car salesman is going to talk to 100% of their customers about it.

Chase Rose:

So I'm not in the market for a vehicle, but I like to look. I just like to see what's out there. I was just, for example, not taking any shots at this company, but I was on a GMC website the other day, and I noticed they said, "You could deduct up to $10,000 of interest."

Austin Wilson:

I know. There you go.

Chase Rose:

All right there on the front page. The first thing I saw.

Austin Wilson:

Get your fully loaded one-ton dually Denali HD... Well, it's probably still only 140, so...

Chase Rose:

Yeah, exactly.

Austin Wilson:

It's pretty crazy. But yes, you've got to have a ton of other deductions on top of that to be able to make it worth your time in itemizing, especially with the standard deduction going up.

Chase Rose:

Yeah.

Austin Wilson:

So yeah, you've got to maybe have a million-dollar house and the $200,000 car, but somehow only be making $199,000 or whatever.

Chase Rose:

Or you can give a bunch to charity as well, which there are new rules around charity that we can talk about here in a second. But yeah, definitely a very small group of people that will be able to maximize those.

Jordan Shaw:

Maybe I'll just give four vehicles worth $50,000 each.

Chase Rose:

See, I don't know... That's another... That's a great question. I don't know how many vehicles that would apply to.

Jessica Hinks:

That's a good point. I mean, you can have a lot of drivers in one family.

Austin Wilson:

I know. Everyone go get a new car.

Jessica Hinks:

You need to, yeah, look into that one check back

Jordan Shaw:

Check back next week. I don't know.

[17:10] What’s Permanent vs. Set to Expire 

Austin Wilson:

So let's talk a little bit about the fact that some things are made permanent, which what that really means is they're permanent until Congress passes another tax law, which is entirely possible and can happen at any time through reconciliation and all kinds of other things they can do. And then there's things that are set to expire on certain dates, and then there are things that are set to wind down over time. So talk a little bit about how some of those provisions are handled very differently.

Chase Rose:

Yeah, well, before we get to that, there was one other thing I wanted to make sure that we talked about as far as what's new, and then we'll get to that in just a second. So there is, for those who itemize, typically you could contribute to charity and charitable contributions would be an itemized deduction. So if you were itemizing, not taking the standard, any dollar that you contributed to a charity would increase that deduction subject to AGI limits of course. There's now a floor on that. So let's say for example, if you make a hundred thousand dollars, you can only deduct charitable contributions in excess of half a percent of your AGI.

So that would be, if you're making a hundred thousand dollars, that would be $500. The first $500, you are not getting a deduction for. Anything above that then would contribute toward your itemized deductions. And then also for those who don't itemize, this is something that was temporary during COVID in 2020 and 2021, Congress allowed you to take a deduction in addition to the standard deduction for charitable contributions that eliminated after 2021, but now that is back, so up to $2,000 per year. If you're not itemizing, your charitable contributions haven't really been doing anything for you from a tax perspective before this year. But now you can deduct up to $2,000. So a really big incentivization, is that the correct word? I don't know.

Austin Wilson:

Are there income limits on that?

Jessica Hinks:

I think just an incentive.

Chase Rose:

That's an incentive. Exactly. I can't remember off the top of my head if there are income limits on that, but I know that if you're taking the standard deduction, you're going to get a $2,000.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. That's nice. I mean, do the math on your effective tax rate on $2,000. That's a nice little couple hundred bucks or whatever back in your pocket.

Chase Rose:

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[19:23] - This Big Beautiful Bill Really Is Big: How Did Congress Agree & What Concessions Were Made?

Austin Wilson:

So back to the question, things that stop, things that continue and wind down, versus things that go on forever. There are all three components are built into this. It's so confusing, and this is just the way that these big... It is a big bill. This is just the way that these big bills essentially have to be to get enough votes. Because if you just said, "Oh, well, everything stops at 2026," or, "Everything stops... It's indefinite," I guess, no one's going to be on board. So you've got to have this compromise. So talk a little bit about the difference between how we're managing that.

Chase Rose:

Yeah, so in order for us to truly have that conversation, you have to think about who is passing this law, right? We have a Republican president who is the one who was in office when the TCJA was enacted in 2017. And you have a Republican-dominated Congress, right?

Austin Wilson:

Both -

Chase Rose:

You have a very small window of time to really get the tax legislation that you want passed. And so oftentimes when you're trying to convince people to come on your side of the table, you have to make... You have to...

Austin Wilson:

Concessions.

Chase Rose:

Exactly. You're going to have to come to an agreement or something of the sort. There are a number of things, like for example, we talked about the SALT deduction. There was a temporary... They could come to an agreement temporarily, but there was no agreement. So that's why we see that phase out happening at some point. The TCJA, a lot of those things were temporary and then extended permanently, because at long last, they've come to an agreement on what should happen moving forward. But then you have a number of things that were known as campaign promises on behalf of Donald Trump. He talked about the auto interest deduction. He talked about no tax on tips.

Austin Wilson:

No tax on tips and overtime.

Chase Rose:

No tax on overtime, things like that. Those are temporary, and they will phase out once Trump's out of office. So that's like when Republicans, Democrats, they're debating on what should go into this bill. The Republicans can say, "Okay, well we'll have this. Donald Trump pushed for no tax on tips while he's in office. We want him to be known for that, right?" And then after he's out of office, I don't really think they care. So that's really the biggest difference. As far as how you plan for it, it's nice not having, for example, the estate deduction or the estate exemption. It's nice not having that cliff at some point.

Jessica Hinks:

Oh yeah.

Austin Wilson:

Oh yeah.

Chase Rose:

Right. Because I'm sure you can attest to this, Jess and Jordan, a lot of the conversation up to this year has been, "Okay, yeah, this is how the law is now, but we have no idea what it's going to be in a year from now." But yeah, that's just navigating that and knowing where the law is coming from is really the reasoning behind why these are.

Austin Wilson:

I was going to say one thing that made this happen, I think, is the fact that the majorities that the Republicans hold and both houses of Congress, the Senate and the House very small.

Chase Rose:

Exactly.

Austin Wilson:

And there were Republicans in both that either didn't vote or voted against the bill because hardcore fiscal conservatives would not look at this bill favorably, because yeah, it's great tax cuts.

Jessica Hinks:

Tax cuts... Where is our revenue coming from?

Austin Wilson:

But you already are running an enormous deficit that only continues to increase. And while you are doing some spending cuts, there's also spending increases elsewhere. So ultimately you're further widening your deficit over time. So some Republicans weren't even on board with this, which is why I think there was even more compromise in certain ways, because there were saying, "Well, we need to get as many votes here as we can, because we're not counting on every single Republican to vote yes on this. And I think it was actually in the Senate, Vance actually had to break the tie.

Chase Rose:

Exactly.

Austin Wilson:

Which is like... Yeah, you didn't have any wiggle room there. Yeah. Jess, what were you going to say?

[22:30] - Wrap-Up & Action Steps to Take

Jessica Hinks:

Well, and this part wouldn't be in our area of expertise per se, but at this table, we're very much focused on how this bill is affecting the average family through their tax payments. But there's another other reason the bill is so controversial, largely through ways it dealt with Medicaid and the health system. So it's not just this issue of taxes that made it controversial, but yeah, I don't think we have all the time in the world to talk about that.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the question you may be asking as a listener is, "Well, what do I do from here? Where do I go from here? This sounds very complicated." And it is complicated, but I guess our advice would be, we know more than we did at this point last year, so we can start planning for this. But this is a great opportunity to schedule a meeting with your financial advisor, your tax advisor, whoever that may be, by the end of the year, hopefully sooner rather than later, so that you can maybe adjust some withholdings or look at all your limits that have changed maybe, because a lot of these things are backdated to January 1st, 2025, and you may have opportunities that you didn't have earlier. So look at those things there and just don't wait for a surprise to come next April. And honestly, if for most people, I think the surprise would be favorable, but we don't necessarily want to give a six month loan to the government interest free. We want to be able to control what happens with our money between here and there.

Chase Rose:

Exactly.

Austin Wilson:

Honestly, and many industry experts, and I would agree with them, would say that this bill is stimulative from a tax perspective, but people who don't plan for it probably will end up with a substantial refund in next spring that they wouldn't have necessarily had before, had nothing changed.

Jessica Hinks:

And not only extra refunds, but missed opportunities as well. I've already come across with it. A couple of elderly clients I have who are going to get that extra really large standard deduction. They're low incomes, they have fixed income, they have massive brokerage accounts. Suddenly the opportunity for gains harvesting got much bigger.

Austin Wilson:

Absolutely.

Jessica Hinks:

And you can't wait until next spring to figure that out. After December 31st it's too late.

Austin Wilson:

Yep, absolutely. So anything else about the OBBBA from you guys?

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah, one more thing I'll just add. We talked about how this is very similar in a lot of ways to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, because the administration's very similar that's enforcing it, but that actually... Well not but, it's a good thing. It makes the planning conversations very palatable. It makes them easy to understand, hopefully from our perspective, but also from the client perspective, because it's not these huge brand new concepts or ideas that are being put in place. It's extensions or changes to limits or income and things like that. So hopefully it makes for a good conversation and certainly plenty of planning can happen, but it's not something that should be overly burdensome to the average investor.

Chase Rose:

Good. Yeah, absolutely. I guess you mentioned something, Jessica, that I think is going to be really important, especially for retirees that we work with quite often, is that additional standard deduction. We talked about that increasing being indexed for inflation, all the things, but those over the age of 65, you get the additional $6,000 standard deduction every year. It was originally 1,600 in 2025. So that's a... You're looking at a $4,400 increase in the amount of income that you can realize at a good tax rate. And I am actually looking at right here on my screen there, if you're a married filing jointly couple this year, and you are taking the normal standard deduction and then your 65 deduction... Your standard deduction is 34,700. After this, it's going to be 46,700. So that's an extra $12,000 in income that you're basically getting tax free.

Jessica Hinks:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if that couple in that scenario earns 46,700 in income, you owe zero dollars in taxes, you might not even have file a return.

Chase Rose:

Exactly. Yep. Yep. That just lengthens the window that you get to do and generate income at a good tax rate.

Jessica Hinks:

By good tax rate he means free.

Jordan Shaw:

That's the best tax rate.

Chase Rose:

Exactly.

Austin Wilson:

That's the best tax rate. Awesome. Well, thank you to my esteemed colleagues, and the advisors that I go to for my tax information, for joining me on this episode today. If you found value in our conversation, don't forget to subscribe to The Wealth Mindset Show on whatever podcast player you're listening to us on. And feel free to visit thewealthmindsetshow.com for more resources. And if you're ready to invest with us, head to hzcapital.com, we'd love to talk to you. And go ahead and follow us on social media so that we can stay connected, and until next episode, have a good one. Thank you for listening. Bye.

Thank you for joining us at the Wealth Mindset Show where we tackle the complexities of finance and life planning to help you align your wealth with your values. We hope today's conversation provided value and clarity as you navigate your financial journey. Your hosts work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management, and all opinions expressed by them or any podcast guest are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. There is no guarantee that statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment and any investor attempting to mimic index performance would incur fees and expenses that could reduce returns. Securities investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principle, and there is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.