President Donald Trump signs the sweeping spending and tax bill known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” at the White House in Washington, July 4, 2025.
Leah Millis | Reuters
As the midterm elections approach, Republicans are struggling to maintain their slim majority in Congress and touting President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to voters.
But policy experts say some Americans have benefited more from President Trump’s tax cuts than others.
President Trump’s bill, also known as the Working Families Tax Cut, makes 2017 tax changes permanent while adding new tax breaks, including deductions for tip income, overtime pay, seniors, auto loan interest, and more. The bill also further expanded the federal deduction limit for state and local taxes (SALT) for itemized filers.
In prepared remarks before the House Financial Services Committee this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers the bill would provide tax cuts “directly to millions of low- and moderate-income Americans.”
Bessent said this week that more than 64 million tax returns claimed at least one of President Trump’s “signature new tax cuts”: deductions for tips, overtime pay, auto loan interest, or enhanced senior citizen deductions.
President Trump’s tax cuts were a popular theme at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas this month.
But these and other tax provisions have a “disparate impact on households,” meaning the impact will vary depending on a household’s unique circumstances, Joseph Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told CNBC.
“Tens of millions of Americans have taken advantage of at least one of these signature provisions, and President Trump will continue to promote this historic achievement to the American people,” White House Press Secretary Khush Desai told CNBC in an email.
Here’s a breakdown of who benefited the most from President Trump’s tax cuts, according to policy experts.
Extending President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts
President Trump’s bill would make his changes in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, including lower tax rates, an expanded basic deduction, a more generous child tax credit, and higher estate and gift tax exemptions, among other provisions.
Without the extension, about 62% of Americans would have seen a tax increase in 2026, when these provisions were scheduled to expire, according to the Tax Foundation.
Garrett Watson, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, said “clearly a large portion of the overall benefit” comes from making these tax cuts permanent compared to new deductions.
But he said this was an “extension of the status quo” and many taxpayers would not see a difference.
President Trump’s new tax credits
New deductions floated in the 2024 presidential election would be phased out or reduced based on certain income thresholds.
“All of this goes to specific taxpayers,” Watson said. “For some taxpayers, that could have made a big difference in their year-over-year tax bill.”
For example, the average tip deduction was more than $7,000, and the average senior deduction was more than $7,500, according to the latest data from the Treasury Department.
Deductions reduce the income you pay taxes on. However, if there is no outstanding balance, these tax breaks will not generate a refund. This means those with the lowest incomes are less likely to benefit from the deduction because they may not be paying any taxes, experts say.
President Trump’s bill also significantly increases the cap on the SALT deduction for itemized filers. In 2025, the SALT deduction limit increases from $10,000 in 2024 to $40,000.
The Treasury Department does not release data on SALT credit claims, but some data shows that refunds are higher in high-tax states such as California and New Jersey. Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said this could indicate that these filers received a boost from the increased SALT deduction.
Watson said the larger SALT deduction would be most beneficial to upper-middle to high-income earners, as the SALT deduction begins to phase out starting at $500,000.
How did President Trump’s tax cuts affect tax refunds?
Average tax refunds were closely monitored throughout tax season as one potential indicator of how Americans fared from the 2025 tax changes.
As of May 8, the average refund for individual returns for the 2026 filing season was $3,276, an 11.5% increase from about the same time last year, according to the latest IRS data.
However, your tax refund or outstanding balance will reflect the difference between the taxes owed and the taxes you paid throughout the previous year. These amounts can vary from year to year based on payroll withholding, income, changes in your tax situation, and other factors.
As the midterm elections approach, some policy experts say it’s difficult to predict whether President Trump’s tax cuts will have an impact on voters at the polls.
According to a Politico poll of approximately 2,100 American adults conducted in July, nearly half of Americans say they cannot explain President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
