Latest Trump Account changes: What families need to know now

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The Treasury Department announced on October 1 that it had automatically enrolled all eligible children for Trump Accounts, the new federal savings and investment vehicle for kids that went live on July 4.

Until now, parents had to proactively sign up for a Trump Account, but fewer than eight million were opened as of this summer – just a fraction of the tens of millions of children eligible to have one.

“With automatic enrollment, over 60 million more eligible children now have an account ready to be claimed,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “This is a transformative milestone in the Trump Administration’s effort to give every American child the opportunity to build generational wealth and jump-start their financial future.”

The Treasury estimates that the new auto enrollment structure will create an additional two million accounts every year.

“The shift towards automatic enrollment follows best practice from the research and reflects the fact that the previous opt-in structure was producing low participation rates,” said Madeline Brown, a senior policy associate at the Urban Institute. “The (new) rulemaking … outlines a first step, which ensures children won’t lose out on major philanthropic contributions, or the earnings on those contributions, if no one has opened an account for them.”

Even with auto enrollment, however, there is still a lot of fine print to know about if your child now has a Trump Account.

So … we’ve updated our one-stop-shop FAQ to address your most salient questions from the basics to the nitty gritty.

They are IRA-style investment accounts for eligible children. They are like traditional IRAs in that money in the accounts will grow tax deferred. But the rules for Trump Accounts differ during the so-called “growth period” – which encompasses the first 18 years of a child’s life.

The account belongs to the child, but the parent, legal guardian or other authorized adult who will serve as custodian until the child is 18.

Contributions from individuals must be made with after-tax money.

Withdrawals, which generally may not be made until the year the child turns 18,* will be taxed as ordinary income at the child’s tax rate – minus the portion attributable to after-tax contributions made over the years, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Only children who are US citizens and have a valid Social Security number may have a Trump Account. And no child may have more than one.

In terms of timing, a child must be under age 18 at the end of the year in which an account is opened for them, per the IRS.

To qualify for the one-time federal pilot contribution of $1,000, the child must be born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028.

Only an “authorized individual” may serve as custodian of a child’s account.

That individual “must be able to claim the child as a dependent for purposes of the child tax credit,” per CRS. If the child is not eligible for the $1,000 federal pilot contribution, then that individual may be a parent, legal guardian, adult sibling or grandparent.

Parents or other authorized individuals of the 60 million children whom Treasury automatically enrolled in an account must still take action.

“A parent or guardian must claim the child’s automatically enrolled Trump Account to manage it and allow for family members, friends, and employers to contribute,” according to a Treasury statement. “To claim your child’s Trump Account, download the official Trump Accounts app, available for iOS and Android.”

On that app, you will need to verify your identity and relationship to the child, review the child’s information and accept the account terms, Treasury noted.

Beyond the federal government’s one-time contribution, several parties may contribute to a child’s account. But the rules and limitations differ for each group.

Family and friends: Parents, grandparents and other individuals may make contributions. But they will not get a deduction for their contributions.

Employers: They may make pre-tax contributions to the account of an employee’s child. That money will be tax-free to the employee. The employer’s contribution may not exceed $2,500 a year per employee, not per child, said enrolled agent David Mellem. That annual limit will be adjusted for cost of living after 2027, per the IRS.

States, qualified nonprofits organizations and philanthropists: Their contributions must be made to “members of a qualified class” – that could mean, for example, all children of a certain age, or living in households below an income threshold.

Some business leaders – notably Michael Dell and Ray Dalio – have pledged through their foundations to make one-time $250 seed contributions to the accounts of children from middle- to lower-income households.

To date at least 100 outside entities – employers, foundations and states – have committed to contribute to Trump Accounts, according to a list compiled by Americans for Tax Reform. And TrumpAccounts.com, an independent, non-governmental site run by Saving For College, has created a matching calculator that lets you see what free money might be available to your children based on their birth year, your location and your employer.

The latest regulations from Treasury also spell out that rules regarding private donors offering contributions in the form of individual stocks.

Contribution limits: Family , friends and employer contributions combined may not exceed $5,000 a year for a single account. That limit will be adjusted for cost of living starting in 2027. Within that $5,000 cap, the employer portion may not exceed $2,500. As an employee you may opt to make pre-tax contributions to your child’s Trump Account, but whatever you contribute will count toward your employer’s $2,500 limit.

“For example, if the employee defers $1,200 of pretax wages into Trump Accounts, the employer can only contribute a maximum of the remaining $1,300,” enrolled agent David Mellem noted in an email.

Mellem also said if your employer has agreed to match the $1,000 federal seed money for your child, that too will count toward the employer’s $2,500 annual limit.

In contrast, contributions from governments and nonprofits will not count toward the overall $5,000 annual limit.

Contributions to Trump Accounts are invested in low-cost, broadly diversified US stock index funds or exchange-traded funds. Their expense ratio must be 0.10% or less – so for every $1,000 in an account the annual fee can’t exceed $1 a year.

Treasury said that the default investment for all accounts will be the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM), which tracks the performance of the S&P 500. It has an expense ratio of 0.02%.

Treasury also noted that “in the coming months,” parents and guardians will have a choice of four other funds into which they may allocate contributions. Those funds are the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV); Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI); State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM) and iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ETF (ITOT).

While most contributions made to Trump Accounts are required to be invested in low-cost, diversified funds, the Treasury is also permitting “large philanthropic contributions” of publicly available stock.

“The stock will be contributed to Trump Accounts for eligible children consistent with the donor’s instructions, applicable law and Treasury guidance,” according to a Treasury press release.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, for instance, announced she would donate shares of SpaceX to more than two million Trump Accounts.

Trump Accounts are housed at Robinhood, the commission-free trading and investing platform.

Parents and their kids may keep track of the investments by using an app created by Robinhood and BNY , both of which were selected by Treasury to manage Trump Accounts in their initial phase.

It depends on how much is contributed to the account every year and how well the index or exchange-traded fund in a child’s account performs.

Trump Accounts essentially become traditional IRAs when a child turns 18.

As such, money withdrawn from the account before the child reaches age 59-1/2 may be subject both to income taxes and a 10% early withdrawal tax.

But the 10% penalty won’t apply if the money is used for qualified expenses , including:

Higher education costs

Purchase of a first-time home (up to $10,000)

Birth or adoption costs (up to $5,000 per child)

Emergency expense (up to $1,000 a year)

Some medical expenses

Different contributions will be subject to different tax rules.

Contributions from individuals (parents, relatives and friends) are not tax-deductible. Instead, they are made with after-tax dollars.

Their after-tax contributions will grow tax-deferred until a withdrawal is made, which can’t happen before the year the child turns 18.

Those withdrawals – minus the portion attributed to individuals’ after-tax contributions – will be taxed like ordinary income at the child’s tax rate. Put another way, only the investment gains made on those individuals’ contributions will be taxable to the child upon withdrawal.

By contrast, contributions made by governments, nonprofits and employers will be made with pre-tax money. They, too, will grow tax-deferred until withdrawals are made. But their entire contribution plus the gains accrued will be subject to tax when the child takes money out.

It depends, because each type of account has its own rules and limitations .

As Robinhood notes in its materials, “The right account depends on the family’s goals, tax situation and timeline.”

For instance: What is the money going to be used for? If education, 529 plans may be better because they let you take the money out tax-free. Or if it’s going to be used for retirement, a Roth IRA may be more advantageous because it also allows for tax-free withdrawals – and has a higher annual contribution limit.

Making an investment in children’s future from birth is a welcome idea in many quarters.

And in the best circumstances – a child’s family can afford to contribute money every year, the parent works for an employer offering additional contributions, the stock market does well during the account’s “growth period,” etc. – a Trump Account may provide a much-needed source of funds for today’s children to help offset the costs of college and early adulthood or grow a sizeable nest egg for their later years.

But many families won’t be able to afford to make many – or any – contributions on top of those they qualify for from outside parties. One critique of the accounts is that they will disproportionately benefit families with means.

Brown from the Urban Institute , questions the utility of Trump accounts after the $1,000 pilot ends for lower-income households, since they already have low participation rates when it comes to saving for their children’s future in other tax-advantaged plans like 529s or Roth IRAs.

“About a third of families don’t have $2,000 in emergency savings, so it’s no surprise that they don’t have the means to go start saving in [other plans] for their children,” Brown said.

Another potential concern: Whether the money from a Trump Account will reduce the chances of the child or the child’s family qualifying for federal benefits and if so, which ones. The answer isn’t clear.

More guidance from federal and state lawmakers will be needed to answer questions like “If I’m 18 and pull out money from my Trump Account, will that affect my ability to get a Pell Grant?” or “Will having money in a Trump Account affect our eligibility to receive SSI payments?” said Elaine Maag, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

*The one exception: If the beneficiary is disabled, the family may rollover the money into a tax-advantaged ABLE savings account when the child is 17.

Julian Torres contributed to this report.

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美国财政部于 10 月 1 日宣布，已自动为所有符合条件的儿童注册了特朗普账户，这是联邦政府于 7 月 4 日正式推出的面向儿童的新型储蓄和投资工具。

此前，家长必须主动申请特朗普账户，但截至今年夏天，开设的账户不足八百万个——仅占数千万符合资格拥有该账户的儿童的一小部分。

“通过自动注册，超过6000万符合条件的儿童现在拥有了可以领取的账户，”财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示。“这是特朗普政府努力让每个美国儿童都有机会积累世代财富并开启他们财务未来的一个重要里程碑。”

财政部估计，新的自动注册机制每年将新增 200 万个账户。

“转向自动注册符合研究的最佳实践，也反映了之前自愿加入机制导致参与率低下的事实，”城市研究所高级政策研究员玛德琳·布朗表示。“（新的）规则制定……概述了第一步，确保即使没有人为孩子开设账户，他们也不会错失大额慈善捐款或这些捐款的收益。”

即使设置了自动注册，如果你的孩子现在拥有了一个特朗普账户，仍然有很多细则需要了解。

所以……我们更新了我们的一站式常见问题解答，以解答您从基础知识到细节的最重要问题。

这些账户是为符合条件的儿童设立的类似个人退休账户（IRA）的投资账户。它们与传统的IRA账户类似，账户中的资金可以享受延税增长。但特朗普账户的规则在所谓的“成长期”（涵盖儿童生命的前18年）有所不同。

账户属于孩子，但由父母、法定监护人或其他授权成年人担任监护人，直至孩子年满 18 岁。

个人捐款必须使用税后收入。

根据国会研究服务处的说法，一般情况下，孩子要到 18 岁那年才能提取资金*，提取的资金将按孩子的税率作为普通收入征税——减去多年来税后缴款所对应的部分。

只有拥有有效社会安全号码的美国公民子女才能拥有特朗普账户。而且每个孩子只能拥有一个账户。

根据美国国税局的规定，就时间而言，儿童在开户当年年底必须未满 18 岁。

要获得联邦政府一次性提供的 1000 美元试点补助，孩子必须在 2025 年 1 月 1 日至 2028 年 12 月 31 日之间出生。

只有“授权人员”才能担任儿童账户的保管人。

根据国会研究服务处 (CRS) 的规定，该人士“必须能够将该儿童作为受抚养人申报，以便享受儿童税收抵免”。如果该儿童不符合获得 1000 美元联邦试点补助的资格，则该人士可以是父母、法定监护人、成年兄弟姐妹或祖父母。

财政部自动为 6000 万儿童注册了账户，但这些儿童的父母或其他授权人员仍需采取行动。

美国财政部在一份声明中表示：“家长或监护人必须认领孩子自动注册的特朗普账户，才能管理该账户并允许家人、朋友和雇主向账户充值。要认领您孩子的特朗普账户，请下载官方的特朗普账户应用程序，该应用程序适用于iOS和Android系统。”

财政部指出，在该应用程序上，您需要验证您的身份和与孩子的关系，查看孩子的信息并接受账户条款。

除了联邦政府的一次性拨款外，其他一些机构也可以向孩子的账户捐款。但不同机构的规则和限制各不相同。

家人和朋友：父母、祖父母和其他人可以捐款，但他们的捐款不能享受税收减免。

雇主：他们可以向员工子女的账户进行税前缴款。这笔钱对员工来说是免税的。注册税务师大卫·梅勒姆表示，雇主每年为每位员工（而非每个子女）缴纳的金额不得超过 2,500 美元。根据美国国税局的规定，该年度限额将在 2027 年后根据生活成本进行调整。

各州、合格的非营利组织和慈善家：他们的捐款必须捐给“合格群体成员”——例如，这可能意味着所有达到一定年龄的儿童，或者生活在收入低于一定门槛的家庭。

一些商业领袖——尤其是迈克尔·戴尔和雷·达里奥——通过他们的基金会承诺向中低收入家庭的儿童账户一次性捐赠 250 美元作为启动资金。

据美国税务改革协会（Americans for Tax Reform）编制的名单显示，迄今为止，至少有100个外部实体——包括雇主、基金会和州政府——承诺向特朗普账户捐款。此外，由“大学储蓄”（Saving For College）运营的独立非政府网站TrumpAccounts.com还创建了一个匹配计算器，可以根据孩子的出生年份、居住地和雇主信息，计算出您的孩子可能获得的免费资金。

财政部最新规定还明确规定了私人捐赠者以股票形式提供捐款的规则。

缴款限额：家庭、朋友和雇主的缴款总额每年不得超过 5,000 美元（仅限单个账户）。该限额将从 2027 年起根据生活成本进行调整。在这 5,000 美元的限额内，雇主缴款部分不得超过 2,500 美元。作为雇员，您可以选择以税前方式向您孩子的特朗普账户缴款，但您的缴款将计入您雇主 2,500 美元的限额。

“例如，如果员工将 1200 美元的税前工资存入特朗普账户，雇主最多只能存入剩余的 1300 美元，”注册代理人大卫·梅勒姆在一封电子邮件中指出。

梅勒姆还表示，如果你的雇主同意为你的孩子匹配 1000 美元的联邦种子资金，那么这笔钱也将计入雇主每年 2500 美元的限额。

相比之下，政府和非营利组织的捐款将不计入每年 5,000 美元的捐款限额。

特朗普账户的资金将投资于低成本、广泛分散的美国股票指数基金或交易所交易基金（ETF）。这些基金的费用率必须低于0.10%——也就是说，账户中每1000美元的年费不得超过1美元。

财政部表示，所有账户的默认投资将是追踪标普500指数表现的道富SPDR投资组合标普500指数ETF（SPYM）。该ETF的费用率为0.02%。

财政部还指出，“未来几个月”，家长和监护人可以选择将资金分配到另外四只基金中。这些基金分别是：iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)；Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)；State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM) 和 iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ETF (ITOT)。

虽然向特朗普账户的大部分捐款必须投资于低成本、多元化的基金，但财政部也允许对公开交易的股票进行“大额慈善捐赠”。

根据财政部的新闻稿，“这些股票将按照捐赠者的指示、适用法律和财政部的指导，捐赠给符合条件的子女的特朗普账户。”

例如，SpaceX 总裁格温·肖特韦尔宣布，她将向超过 200 万个特朗普账户捐赠 SpaceX 的股份。

特朗普的账户托管在免佣金交易和投资平台 Robinhood 上。

家长和他们的孩子可以使用 Robinhood 和 BNY 开发的应用程序来跟踪投资情况，这两家公司都被财政部选中，在初期阶段管理特朗普账户。

这取决于每年账户的存款金额以及孩子账户中的指数基金或交易所交易基金的表现。

当孩子年满 18 岁时，特朗普账户基本上就变成了传统的个人退休账户 (IRA)。

因此，在孩子年满 59 岁半之前从账户中提取的资金可能需要缴纳所得税和 10% 的提前取款税。

但如果这笔钱用于符合条件的支出，则无需缴纳 10% 的罚款，这些支出包括：

高等教育成本

首次购房补贴（最高 10,000 美元）

生育或收养费用（每个孩子最高 5,000 美元）

紧急支出（每年最高 1000 美元）

部分医疗费用

不同的捐款适用不同的税收规则。

个人（父母、亲戚和朋友）的捐款不能抵税，而是用税后收入进行的。

他们的税后缴款将享受税收递延增长，直到提取为止，而提取必须在孩子年满 18 岁那年才能进行。

这些提款——扣除个人税后缴款部分——将按子女的普通收入税率征税。换句话说，只有个人缴款所产生的投资收益在提款时才需由子女纳税。

相比之下，政府、非营利组织和雇主的供款将使用税前资金。这些供款在提取前也将享受税收递延增长。但当孩子提取资金时，其全部供款及其累积收益都将需要缴税。

这要看情况，因为每种类型的账户都有自己的规则和限制。

正如 Robinhood 在其资料中指出的那样，“合适的账户取决于家庭的目标、税务状况和时间安排。”

例如：这笔钱将用于什么用途？如果用于教育，529计划可能更合适，因为它允许您免税提取资金。如果用于退休，罗斯个人退休账户（Roth IRA）可能更有优势，因为它也允许免税提取，而且年度供款限额更高。

从孩子出生起就投资他们的未来，这在许多人看来都是一个值得欢迎的想法。

在最好的情况下——例如，孩子的家庭每年都能负担得起捐款，父母的雇主提供额外捐款，股市在账户的“增长期”表现良好等等——特朗普账户可以为今天的孩子们提供急需的资金来源，帮助他们抵消大学和成年早期的费用，或者为他们晚年积累一笔可观的养老金。

但许多家庭除了能够从外部机构获得的资助外，恐怕无力再支付任何费用，甚至根本无力支付其他费用。对这些账户的批评之一是，它们将不成比例地使富裕家庭受益。

城市研究所的布朗质疑，在 1000 美元试点项目结束后，特朗普账户对低收入家庭的实用性如何，因为这些家庭在其他享有税收优惠的计划（如 529 计划或罗斯个人退休账户）中为子女未来储蓄的参与率本来就很低。

布朗说：“大约三分之一的家庭没有 2000 美元的应急储蓄，所以他们没有能力开始为孩子进行（其他）储蓄计划也就不足为奇了。”

另一个潜在的担忧是：来自特朗普账户的资金是否会降低孩子或其家庭获得联邦福利的资格，如果会，又会降低哪些福利的资格。答案尚不明确。

城市研究所高级研究员伊莱恩·马格表示，我们需要联邦和州立法者提供更多指导，以回答诸如“如果我18岁，从我的特朗普账户中取出钱，这会影响我获得佩尔助学金的能力吗？”或“在特朗普账户中有钱会影响我们领取社会保障补助金的资格吗？”之类的问题。

*唯一例外：如果受益人残疾，当孩子年满 17 岁时，家庭可以将这笔钱转入享有税收优惠的 ABLE 储蓄账户。

Julian Torres对本报道亦有贡献。