Article
Foster Swift Trusts & Estate Law News

House Passes the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Extending the High Ceiling on Federal Estate and Lifetime Gift Tax Exclusion Amount

On Thursday, May 22, 2025, the House of Representative passed an extensive tax reform bill titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (the “OBBBA”). Under the OBBBA, the federal estate tax and lifetime gift tax exemption amount (currently set to expire after December 31, 2025) is permanently extended and increased to $15,000,000 as of 2026, indexed for inflation going forward. 

This is a significant benefit to high-net-worth individuals and families. Under current law (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”)), the federal estate tax and lifetime gift tax exemption amount was increased to $10,000,000 as of January 1, 2018, and indexed for inflation each year. As a result, in 2025, the exemption amount for an individual is $13,990,000 and $27,980,000 for a married couple. The provisions of the TCJA are scheduled to sunset after December 31, 2025. Absent passage of the OBBBA, the current exclusion amount will reduce to $5,000,000, indexed for inflation (which will be approximately $7,000,000 for an individual, $14,000,000 for a married couple). 

The OBBBA must still be passed by the Senate. However, President Trump and Republican congressional leaders have set a goal of July 4 for final approval of the bill. If the OBBBA is passed, high-net-wealth individuals and families looking to avail themselves of the benefit of the high exclusion amount afforded by the TCJA by making lifetime gifts will no longer need to complete gifts before the end of 2025.  However, gifting sooner than later may remain beneficial to take advantage of time value of money principles (i.e., asset growth that occurs post-gifting is no longer included in the taxable estate of the person who made the gift).

Jump to Page

Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC Cookie Preference Center

Your Privacy

When you visit our website, we use cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. For more information about how we use Cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Always Active

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. These cookies may only be disabled by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functional Cookies

Always Active

Some functions of the site require remembering user choices, for example your cookie preference, or keyword search highlighting. These do not store any personal information.

Form Submissions

Always Active

When submitting your data, for example on a contact form or event registration, a cookie might be used to monitor the state of your submission across pages.

Performance Cookies

Performance cookies help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage. We access and process information from these cookies at an aggregate level.

Powered by Firmseek