Tax Cuts for Now. But What Happens in 2026?

published 11 January 2018

Note: The editors of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and the Kiplinger Tax Letter are answering questions about the new tax law from subscribers to our free Kiplinger Today daily email. See other reader Q&As about the new tax law, or submit your own question.

Question: Most of the individual provisions of the proposed tax law expire as of Jan. 1, 2026. What will happen in eight years?

Answer: Unless those provisions are extended, the law will revert to what existed before the new provisions were enacted. Don’t count on it, though.

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Whether or not to extend the life of the new rules will be the subject of hot political debate, just as occurred for years after passage of the George W. Bush “temporary” tax cuts of 2001. Most of those cuts were ultimately made permanent.

McCormally retired in 2018 after more than 40 years at Kiplinger. He joined Kiplinger in 1977 as a reporter specializing in taxes, retirement, credit and other personal finance issues. He is the author and editor of many books, helped develop and improve popular tax-preparation software programs, and has written and appeared in several educational videos. In 2005, he was named Editorial Director of The Kiplinger Washington Editors, responsible for overseeing all of our publications and Web site. At the time, Editor in Chief Knight Kiplinger called McCormally "the watchdog of editorial quality, integrity and fairness in all that we do." In 2015, Kevin was named Chief Content Officer and Senior Vice President.