“It’s a little relief, but it’s not enough relief, not at all,” she added.
Trump has repeatedly touted “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security” as a key success of his second term since his “big, beautiful bill” passed last year. Many Americans are benefiting from the tax changes in the bill: The average refund this tax season was $3,521, about $350 more than last year, according to IRS data as of March 27. The White House has said the extra cash in people’s pockets will help boost the economy.
“People are just now talking about receiving larger refunds than they ever thought possible,” Trump said April 1 during a prime-time address focused on the war with Iran. “They are getting so much more money than they thought. That’s from the great, big, beautiful bill.”
But some middle-income households are finding the benefits are smaller than they anticipated because of how certain tax cuts are structured, according to interviews with workers, accountants and tax policy analysts. Large groups, including many railroad workers and truck drivers, are excluded from the overtime tax savings. The Social Security deduction excludes both very low and higher earners. And the tips deduction is capped at $25,000 — even for couples like Cummings and her husband who both earn a big share of their wages from tips.
Meanwhile, the highest-income households are reaping the biggest gains, with about 60% of the tax savings from Trump’s law projected to go to the top fifth of households earning more than $217,000, according to the Tax Policy Center, which does research and analysis on tax legislation. In some cases, the highest-income households will see smaller tax savings as a share of their overall income, as compared with middle-income households, but the total dollar amount in their refund check will be much more: The wealthiest households could see millions of dollars in savings with bigger tax benefits on everything from private jets to multimillion-dollar inheritances.
“Our customer base is doing well,” said Barry Shevlin, CEO of FlyUSA, which has seen sales of private jets take off following the passage of the tax law.
Under changes in the tax law, private jet buyers can deduct the full cost of the aircraft from their taxes in the year it is purchased if it is used at least half of the time for business.
“There are benefits for even taxpayers who are at lower or more moderate income levels, but as a whole, there’s certainly more tax cuts as you get higher and higher up the income levels,” said Shai Akabas, vice president of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
FORSUBSCRIBERS
How the rich are getting richer under President Trump
02:31
For decades, tax policies have disproportionately benefited the richest households that make money from stocks, businesses and real estate, which are often taxed at a lower rate than salaries or hourly wages. Some avoid paying taxes on their wealth altogether. Tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term increased those benefits to the wealthy, and last summer’s changes made many of those tax cuts permanent.
“We have the richest Americans who control massive amounts of the country’s wealth, who are literally able to opt out of the tax system entirely. Meanwhile, anybody who earns a salary is paying a lot of taxes,” said Ray Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School who studies tax policy.
That tax system has been one of the factors contributing to a growing divide between rich and poor in America, which is the largest it’s been in at least a generation and is growing. The wealth for the top 1% of Americans grew at nearly three times the rate of the bottom 90% in 2025, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Trump’s policies, including those at the heart of his tax cuts, could contribute to that growing divide.
For those who are getting a larger tax refund, some workers said the gains were offset by higher costs elsewhere, like gas, groceries and health care. Others are at risk of losing food assistance and health insurance benefits from new restrictions Trump and Congress included in the tax law to offset some of the lost federal revenue from the tax cuts.
Wealthy benefit
In the wealthy enclave of Boca Raton, Florida, Jordan Waxman, a managing partner at financial advisory firm Nucleus Advisors, said he’s seen only upside in the new tax bill for his roughly 100 clients with a combined net worth of $3 billion.
Many of those clients are tech entrepreneurs and business owners, whose wealth comes from stocks, real estate or other investments that are taxed at a lower rate, if at all, compared with people who earn a salary.
Among the biggest benefits he’s seen is the expansion and extension of the estate tax, which shields inheritance worth up to $15 million for an individual and $30 million for a couple from federal taxes.
Prior to the 2024 election, his clients had been racing to find ways to protect their wealth in case Democrats took control of Washington and taxed more of people’s inheritances, something several Democrats in Congress had proposed. Since the new law was passed, he said, they can breathe a sigh of relief.
“It disproportionately helps people who, let’s face it, are not in need of that much help,” Waxman said. “By and large, as a package, the highest 10% of earners, which are my clients, essentially see their incomes rise as a result of this by a few percentage points over the next five to 10 years.”
Even outside the world of the ultra-wealthy entrepreneur, high-income earners are seeing gains. A married couple with two kids, for instance, making $2 million a year would save nearly $19,000, while the same-sized family making $85,000 a year would see a tax break of $2,680 — a larger percentage of their total income, but a fraction of the benefit in real dollars, according to an analysis by the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. One key benefit for the upper middle class is a change that allows households to deduct more of their state, local and property taxes, benefiting those who live in high-tax areas the most.
Shevlin, of FlyUSA, said his company benefited from the tax law, which included a provision called bonus depreciation that allows business owners to deduct the full cost of equipment, including a private jet, from their taxes the year it is purchased, even if it is partly used for personal trips. With Shevlin’s aircraft typically selling for around $5 million to $10 million, that tax write-off could save buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, on their tax bill.
