The Big Beautiful Bill: Parsing the Promise and Peril Behind Washington’s Latest Tax Overhaul

Article | June 23, 2025

Authored by Your Firm LLC

Congress is once again attempting to redraw the nation’s tax map. The so-called “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” a 1,000-page epic that narrowly cleared the House and now awaits Senate scrutiny, would touch nearly every corner of the Internal Revenue Code. For business owners weighing capital investments, and individuals planning everything from retirement to charitable gifts, the stakes are unusually high.

An Invitation to Spend—Fast

One of the proposal’s boldest strokes is a return to 100 percent bonus depreciation, retroactive to January 19, 2025 and stretching through 2029. If enacted, companies could expense the full cost of machinery, technology, and other qualifying property in the year those assets are placed in service. “Nobody should wait until the ink is dry to model scenarios—retroactive provisions can reshape last year’s tax liability overnight,” says Bill Smith, tax lead at MBN & Company, who has already convened client workshops to identify expenses that might be pulled forward.

The bill would also double the Section 179 expensing cap, lifting it to $2.5 million and tying future increases to inflation. For smaller firms that once tiptoed around the existing limits, that additional ceiling could encourage bolder investments—and reduce the need for complicated depreciation schedules. Meanwhile, a four-year suspension of the controversial requirement to amortize domestic research costs would breathe life into innovation budgets that have been under pressure since the 2017 rules took effect.

Pass-Throughs Regain the Spotlight

The long-running debate over the merits of pass-through entities versus C-corporations would enter a new phase if the bill becomes law. The measure not only makes the 20 percent Qualified Business Income deduction permanent but also boosts it to 23 percent beginning in 2026. That shift could widen the effective tax gap between S-corps, partnerships, and their C-corp counterparts, yet interest-expense limitations and state-level conformity remain wild cards. “Entity choice is suddenly back on the table,” Smith warns. “Owners should run multiple revenue and exit scenarios before deciding to switch—or stay put.”

Simplification or Second-Guessing?

In a nod to simplification, the package would raise the Form 1099-NEC filing threshold from $600 to $2,000, potentially sparing small companies a stack of year-end paperwork. It would also eliminate federal income tax on most tip and overtime income through 2029. Yet payroll departments will need fresh coding to segregate that income, and the proposal’s tweaks to green-energy credits add a new layer of eligibility tests tied to “foreign entities of concern.”

Household Finance Gets a Makeover

For individuals, the headline is the permanent extension of the expanded standard deduction, with a temporary $1,000 to $2,000 bump through 2028. Residents of high-tax states would see relief as the SALT deduction cap rises from $10,000 to $40,000 for taxpayers earning under $500,000, although verifying income thresholds could complicate year-end planning. The Child Tax Credit would climb to $2,500 for the same four-year window, and the estate and gift exemption would reset to $15 million per individual in 2026—indexed for inflation thereafter—reshaping multigenerational wealth strategies.

The Role of Advisors: Turning Pages into Strategy

With retroactivity looming over capital purchases and research outlays, the margin for error is slim. MBN & Company’s tax department has launched a task force that marries compliance expertise with cash-flow modeling, entity structuring, and estate analysis. “Our job is to translate 1,000 pages of legislation into three clear decisions: what to do immediately, what to monitor, and what to shelve,” Smith says.

Among the firm’s early action steps: revisiting 2025 capital budgets to capture bonus depreciation, re-examining payroll software for tip and overtime adjustments, and running side-by-side projections of pass-through versus corporate taxation under various revenue bands. For high-net-worth families, gift-planning sessions now include contingencies that account for a higher exemption, shifting SALT limits, and the sunset of certain credits.

A Moving Target Demands Quick Feet

The Senate could pare back, reshape, or even expand portions of the House bill, and any differences must be reconciled before a final vote. Yet experienced practitioners know that waiting for absolute certainty can be costlier than early, informed positioning. Whether the Big Beautiful Bill emerges this summer or stalls into election season, taxpayers who model scenarios now will be better equipped to seize opportunities—or deflect surprises—later.

For those seeking tailored guidance, MBN & Company’s Tax Services Group stands ready to turn legislative uncertainty into a strategic roadmap. The bill may be big and beautiful, but clarity rarely arrives on its own.