OBBB 2026 vs Pre-OBBB Tax Comparison Calculator
Compare your 2026 tax under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB, P.L. 119-21 signed July 4, 2025) vs pre-OBBB rules — many TCJA provisions were extended or made permanent, the estate exemption ROSE to $15M (did NOT halve), and several deductions were modified. Critical for tax planning given persistent confusion about the original 2025 TCJA sunset framing.
What OBBB Actually Did
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB, P.L. 119-21) was signed July 4, 2025. It made many TCJA provisions permanent (instead of letting them sunset Dec 31, 2025): seven-bracket structure with 37% top rate, higher standard deduction, $10k SALT cap, QBI 20% deduction for pass-through income, and the alternative minimum tax exemption increase. Most critically, the estate exemption was RAISED to $15M per individual for 2026 (up from $13.6M in 2024) — NOT halved to $7M as many pre-OBBB articles still suggest.
Income Bracket Changes
OBBB locked the seven-bracket TCJA structure permanently with inflation indexing. Without OBBB, the pre-TCJA brackets (10/15/25/28/33/35/39.6%) would have returned. For most middle and upper-middle households, this saves several thousand dollars annually — a $250k taxable income MFJ saves ~$5-7k/year under OBBB vs the pre-TCJA sunset scenario. The top bracket savings (37% vs 39.6%) are particularly significant for high earners.
Estate Tax Boost
Estate exemption rose from $13.6M (2024) to $15M (2026) under OBBB — affecting roughly the top 0.2% of estates. Pre-OBBB sunset would have dropped exemption to ~$7M (CPI-adjusted 2017 levels). For an estate of $20M, that's a difference of $3.2M ($8M taxable at 40% vs $13M taxable at 40%). Generational wealth planning shifted dramatically after OBBB passed — many of the rushed 2024 GRAT/SLAT setups proved unnecessary.
What Did NOT Change
The $10k SALT cap remained at $10,000 (not raised despite blue-state lobbying). The mortgage interest deduction stayed at $750k for new mortgages. The child tax credit stayed at $2,000 per child with refundable portion up to $1,400 (NOT increased to $3,000-3,600 as proposed in early drafts). Personal exemption stayed at $0 (eliminated by TCJA). State-by-state filing changes are NOT part of OBBB — those continue independently at each state level.
Sources: irs.gov OBBB 2026 guidance, P.L. 119-21 text, jct.gov OBBB analysis. Last updated: May 2026.