PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL IS GOOD NEWS OR BAD NEWS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?
Last weekend, the US House of Representatives passed a new tax bill that President Trump is supporting and promoting. This upcoming bill must still be approved by the Senate to officially take effect. However, in recent days, people are very excited about this bill. Some people support it, some people strongly oppose it.
So what does this bill include? How will it affect people’s lives? (especially doctors in the US or those who are planning to go to the US to live and work)
So today I want to share important information about this bill that you need to know in case the law is officially implemented.
1. Extend the federal tax reduction policy
This legislation would extend federal tax breaks passed in 2018 during President Trump’s first term. If not extended, personal income tax rates will return to the higher level as before 2017, causing most Americans to bear a greater financial burden.
For example: If you are single and have an income of $250,000/year, when calculated according to the 2017 tax law, the tax you must pay to the federal government is $62,484.08. When calculated according to the tax law from 2018 to the present, this tax is only $52,252.10.
If your salary is at the US average of about $80,000/year, and you are single, federal tax under the 2017 tax law is $13,141.25, and under the 2025 tax law it will be $9,213.66.
I will leave the details of calculating these numbers below for your reference. To make the math as simple as possible, I use the situation where you are single, have no children, are in your 30s, don’t have a side business other than working for a W2 salary, and don’t have many assets:
1.1 Annual salary: $250,000 and tax filing status: single, federal income tax calculated according to 2025 tax law:
1.1.1 Determining taxable income:
- Adjusted gross income (AGI): $250,000
- 2025 standard deduction for singles: $15,000 WSJ+15Congress.gov+15Tax Foundation+15
Taxable income = AGI – Standard Deduction
> Taxable income = $250,000 – $15,000 = $235,000
1.1.2 Applying 2025 tax rates to taxable income:
| Income range (USD) | Tax rate (%) | Calculated tax (USD) |
| 0 – 11,925 | 10 | $1,192.50 |
| 11,926 – 48,475 | 12 | $4,385.88 |
| 48,476 – 103,350 | 22 | $12,072.28 |
| 103,351 – 197,300 | 24 | $22,537.44 |
| 197,301 – 235,000 | 32 | $12,064.00 |
1.1.3 Total federal income tax: $52,252.10
1.2 Salary: $250,000, tax filing status: single, federal income tax according to 2017 tax law:
1.2.1 Determining taxable income:
- Adjusted gross income (AGI): $250,000
- 2017 standard deduction for singles: $6,350 Bradford Tax Institute+6Wikipedia+6Tax Foundation+6
- 2017 Personal Exemption: $4,050 Wikipedia
Taxable income = AGI – Standard deduction – Personal exemptionAtlantic Union Bank+1WSJ+1
Taxable income = $250,000 – $6,350 – $4,050 = $239,600
1.2.2 Applying 2017 tax rates to taxable income:
|
Income Range (USD) |
Tax Rate (%) |
Calculated Tax (USD) |
|
0 – 9,325 |
10 |
$932.50 |
|
9,326 – 37,950 |
15 |
$4,293.75 |
|
37,951 – 91,900 |
25 |
$13,487.50 |
|
91,901 – 191,650 |
28 |
$27,930.00 |
|
191,651 – 239,600 |
33 |
$15,840.33 |
1.2.3 Total federal income tax: $62,484.08
1.3 Salary $80,000/year, single status, according to 2017 tax law:
1.3.1 Calculate taxable income:
| Amount | Value |
| Gross Income (AGI) | $80,000 |
| Standard Deduction Deduction) | $6,350 |
| Personal Exemption | $4,050 |
| Taxable Income | $69,600 |
1.3.2. Apply the 2017 tax schedule (for single people):
|
Taxable income |
Tax rate |
Tax payable |
|
0 – 9,325 |
10% |
$932.50 |
|
9,326 – 37,950 |
15% |
($37,950 – 9,325) × 15% = $4,296.25 |
|
37,951 – 69,600 |
25% |
($69,600 – 37,950) × 25% = $7,912.50 |
1.3.3. Total federal tax payable:
$932.50 + $4,296.25 + $7,912.50 = $13,141.25
1.4 Annual income: $80,000, filing status: single, federal income tax under 2025 tax law:
1.4.1 Determining taxable income:
- Adjusted gross income (AGI): $80,000
- 2025 standard deduction for singles: $15,000 Barron’s+3IRS+3U.S. Bank+3
1.4.2 Applying 2025 tax rates to taxable income:
|
Income Range (USD) |
Tax Rate (%) |
Calculated Tax (USD) |
|
0 – 11,925 |
10 |
$1,192.50 |
|
11,926 – 48,475 |
12 |
$4,385.88 |
|
48,476 – 65,000 |
22 |
$3,635.28 |
1.4.3 Total federal income tax: $1,192.50 + $4,385.88 + $3,635.28 = $9,213.66
These two examples show that the current tax rate is much lower than the 2017 tax rate. And if the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is not passed, then next year you and I will have to return to high tax rates like in 2017.
That is also the reason why this law is important and receives special attention from all Americans, and especially high-income people like doctors.
2. Extend the increase in family deductions (standard deduction)
Similar to federal taxes, if this bill is not passed, the standard deduction will return to the 2017 level. What does this mean? For example – if your salary is $100,000, you will be exempt from paying tax on $15,000, and only have to pay tax on the remaining $85,000.
If the bill does not pass, this deduction will drop to $6,350. This means that with a salary of $100,000, you will only be exempt from paying taxes on $6,350. You will have to pay taxes on the $93,650 portion.
3. Increase deductions for business expenses
The second highlight of the law is increasing the expense deduction level for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises. This is especially beneficial for doctors who own their own practice or have an outside business.
For example, if you are a doctor with your own practice, you may be able to deduct taxes at a higher rate for all the costs you spend on purchasing supplies, medical equipment, premises, paying staff, etc. This also applies when you do other businesses in the US such as nails, restaurants, sales, etc.
Specifically, the bill increases the deduction from 20% to 23% for qualified business income of small businesses. The bill also allows businesses to deduct the entire cost of purchasing fixed assets in the first year (100% bonus depreciation), encouraging investment in equipment and expansion of operations.
The bill also proposes to raise the deduction cap for qualified property acquisition costs under Section 179 to $2.5 million, assisting small businesses in investing in new property.
These proposals are intended to reduce the tax burden and promote growth for small businesses. small and medium-sized businesses.
For example, last year, you bought a machine for $50,000, you got a deduction of $10,000 in the first year, then with this new law, the amount you get to deduct in the first year can be up to $50,000.
This is an extremely practical policy for business people, helping to create jobs and growth momentum for the US economy.
For doctors, if you work for a public hospital without opening a business or a private clinic, this law is complete. It doesn’t affect you at all.
However, most doctors in the US will have their own business projects besides their main job to take full advantage of the cash flow from high salaries, such as real estate business, or other business services such as opening restaurants, laundry shops, social media, etc.
All of these side business projects will help them reduce an extremely significant amount of tax money to reinvest in their company.
4. Increase child tax credit
In addition to reducing the federal tax rate and increasing the corporate tax deduction, another important point in the new law is an increase in the child tax credit.
Previously, for each such child, each year you will be deducted $2,000 directly from your taxes. However, if the bill is enacted, this deduction will increase to $2,500 for each baby, helping to save a significant amount of money if you have small children. For example, with two children, my family can also save $1,000 more in taxes per year than before.
This policy is extremely practical to support American families in general, helping to reduce the financial burden and create better conditions for raising children.
5. Providing retirement accounts for children (Trump Accounts)
A unique new feature in the law is the “Trump Accounts” program – a retirement savings account for children born from 2025 to 2029 in the US.
Accordingly, each child will have the state create a “Trump accounts” account – an initial $1,000 in retirement savings. Each year, families can also contribute an additional amount to that fund for their children of no more than $5,000.
This amount will be kept in the account and half can only be withdrawn when the child is 18 years old or older, the other half will be withdrawn when the child turns 30 years old or older.
This is a way the government uses to encourage people to be smarter in their finances. how to use money and think outside the box to invest in your children in the future.
In the immediate future, the state will give $1,000, after that, families will regularly accumulate more for their children every year. This savings will not be taxed at all but will be invested by the state (similar to the social insurance fund in Vietnam).
This is also the way that wealthy families in the US have calculated and prepared the future for their children. Most rich people already have such amounts, but for the rest, low-income people in America, with the immediate burden of food, clothing and money, sometimes they cannot think that far ahead.
Now, with this accumulation, later when the children grow up, they will have a certain amount of “capital” so they can have more choices for their lives. It’s like going to college, doing business, or contributing money to buy a house.
If you regularly contribute $1,000 every year, by the age of 30, when you can withdraw 100% of this amount, the amount will not only be thirty thousand dollars but could already be up to several hundred thousand dollars! This is not a small amount of money and can completely help a child have a good start in life.
There have also been studies showing that, if a child only receives $1,000 from the government without any additional support from the family, by the age of 20, he will also have $8,308, and if he continues to 60, this can go up to $574,397!
6. Cut back on Medicaid
This can be considered the part that has the most mixed opinions in this new law.
“Oh, the government is no longer humane anymore, if we do that, there will be many people without health insurance, affecting their health and quality of life, etc….”
But it must be said again and again. Everything must have its reason. It’s not like a government apparatus with so many dirty minds suddenly makes such decisions!
So what is the real reason behind this decision?
Medicaid – government insurance – has historically been an effective way to support medical costs mainly for low-income people, but also for pregnant women, newborns, and people with disabilities.
Medicaid is an extremely humane state policy. However, in reality, there are many people who deliberately take advantage of this policy for personal gain.
Therefore, this new bill will add the condition that if you are under 54 years old, have a 7-year-old child, and are able to work, you must work at least 20 hours a week – this can be working, studying, or even volunteering in the community. The State will also regularly review to limit fraud and circumvention of the law.
As a doctor, I have encountered many cases of breaking the law like this during my work.
There are young men with healthy arms and legs, no serious illness, who refuse to work, putting themselves in the low/no income category to receive state Welfare benefits and enjoy many medical incentives such as buying insurance, medical examination and treatment, doing all tests, procedures, and buying medicine completely free of charge!
Not only that, they also receive a lot of benefits such as – SNAP food stamps (money vouchers to buy food), rent, living expenses allowance – electricity, gas, water, etc.
While other citizens are working hard and paying taxes to help the country develop, these healthy men just sit at home and eat, are lazy to work, and fall into evils – smoking, gambling, drinking, and addiction.
There are people who initially do not have the disease but over time become ill (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood fat, cirrhosis, etc.) because of those bad habits, and naturally become a significant burden to society. Some people initially have a curable disease, but do not cooperate with treatment – to find an excuse to ask for medical money.
Of course this is just a subset of people on Medicaid, not everyone is. In fact, there are many vulnerable people who really need the practical support that the Medicaid program provides, such as the elderly, pregnant women, newborns, or people unfortunately suffering from serious illnesses. They are the ones who deserve benefits.
Only healthy young people of working age who are lazy and deliberately refuse to work so as not to have income and receive such benefits deserve condemnation.
Therefore, this cut of Medicaid is like a wake-up call that the state rings for them to live responsibly towards themselves and society, to know how to try their best to go to work, create value for themselves and make their own lives better instead of just letting the state keep raising them like that.
But let’s say it again and again, people have become dependent partly because of the old policies of the previous government.
Specifically, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the federal government provided a subsidy of $600/week for unemployed people – lasting from March to July 2020. After that, the subsidy was reduced to $300/week, for an additional 2 months. Then it was extended for nearly 2 more years, that is until the end of 2021.
In addition, each state also provides an additional subsidy of $200-500/week depending on the state, for a total of $500-800/week, which is $2000-3200/month. This subsidy level is higher than the average salary a working person earns.
Such good benefits have completely eliminated the motivation of many people to work and earn money.
“Why do you have to go to work when you don’t have to work and the state will take care of you from A to Z? Why go to work, stay at home and register to receive unemployment benefits, go to work and only get $1-2,000 a month, stay home every week and get up to $800, so why bother working?”
Therefore, from then until now, many people have a dependent mentality, do not want to find a job, and no longer have the motivation to work. Therefore, this is also the reason why the Trump administration wants to push people to live more responsibly.
If you are young and healthy enough to work, you must go to work, not stay at home and become a burden to society. He also created more jobs for American society through taxing other countries, thereby bringing manufacturing companies back to America, creating more jobs and opportunities for such people.
Although this is the most controversial policy in this law, if you put yourself in the position of a working citizen paying taxes in the US, you will completely understand the government’s decision.
The money that the state spends to subsidize these people does not come from nowhere, it comes from taxes – taxes of American citizens who have to work, sweat, and shed tears to contribute. This blood money is given away to people who are diligent and lazy to break the law, which inevitably causes a lot of frustration.
In summary, this new tax law of President Trump brings many financial benefits to the American people, through income tax reduction, increased deductions for business expenses, family deductions, the “Trump Accounts” program, and limiting waste, fraud, and abuse of social welfare programs.
And you, what do you think about this law? Please comment to let me know!
Dr. Christina Nguyen
Phoenix Medical Academy.
