Tax preparers for wealthy customers claim 'a lot of happy clients' because of Trump

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U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., October 31, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Tax preparers with wealthy clients are having a good time this year thanks to President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful bill, according to NPR.

New York-based tax and estate consultant Gary Phillips says as tax season approaches, the mood is upbeat among his clients because of the extension of tax breaks approved by Trump and the Republican-led Congress mainly benefit “high-net-worth and high-income people.”

"We have a lot of happy clients," says Phillips, who handles taxes, trusts and estates at Cole Schotz P.C. "There's more certainty now."

NPR reports the changes approved by lawmakers in July “lock in a friendlier tax climate for affluent Americans with lower rates and generous exemptions.” And while middle-income households may see some modest relief, “the lion's share of the benefits will flow to those with substantial earnings, investment income, or large estates.”

Married couples filing jointly and making more than $200,000 or $250,000 is “around the point where a lot of these provisions start to kick in,” but that’s really just the start, with much bigger savings waiting further up the tax bracket.

Zane Sanchez, a tax manager with the accounting and business advisory firm Snyder Cohn, told NPR a pass-through exemption for business-owners, which Congress made permanent, is “a major win for entrepreneurs and high-net-worth people” by allowing income from businesses to "pass through" to the owner's personal tax return, reducing the top tax rate for qualifying business income from 37 percent to 29.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Tony Nitti, a national tax partner at EY Private, which focuses on advising entrepreneurs, private businesses, and their owners, said Trump’s “bonus depreciation” tax incentive allows businesses to immediately deduct 100 percent of the cost of qualifying assets. This includes machinery, computers, equipment and vehicles, instead of depreciating them over several years.

"Not everybody can go out and buy a private jet — but if you can, now that private jet is deductible in year one," Nitti told NPR.

Wealthy Americans will also get the benefit of a higher lifetime exemption for estate and gift taxes thanks to Trump and Congress making permanent a $15 million per individual exemption and a $30 million exemption for married couples — up from the previous $13.99 million and $27.98 million limits. They also substantially increased the federal deduction for state and local taxes from $10,000 to $40,000.

But NPR reports another benefit for the wealthy is an increased exclusion for capital gains from the sale of qualified small business stock (QSBS) issued after July 4, 2025. The previous cap of $10 million has been raised to $15 million for companies with assets up to $75 million.

If investors hold stock for five years they can receive the full 100 percent exclusion, and Phillips said if you sell $10 million of qualifying stock with the entire amount treated as a taxable gain, "you wouldn't owe any federal capital gains tax.”

“That's about a $2 million savings right there," Phillips said.

Read the NPR report at this link.

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