While healthcare and social service providers, the solar and renewable energy industry and individual counties and municipalities are grappling with the many varied repercussions of the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” some financial planners are applauding key aspects of the 800-page budget document recently signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Given how wide-ranging the legislation is, it may take a while for everyday tax filers — including seniors with significant retirement savings — to understand how the details impact them.

“A lot of people know some things are changing, but they don’t know what,” said Justin Halverson, a partner with Great Waters Financial in Shoreview, which specializes in retirement planning.

For “high earners, and even seniors that aren’t high earners, there’s good news there,” Halvorson said. “High earners, they’re getting the expanded tax brackets made permanent. They’re getting the state and local tax deductions.”

While projections vary, budget experts with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget have estimated the legislation will add $3 trillion to the national debt, at least $663 billion directly related to new tax cuts, the extended clean fuel tax credit, health savings account expansions, factory expensing and “Trump accounts” for kids.

Like Halvorson, Kristine Tidgren, director of Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, has taken a deep dive into those and other tax changes.

Here’s a quick overview of what some of those tax savings are, from birth to estate hand-offs.

Trump accounts

Kids born between 2024 and 2028 are eligible to receive a $1,000 investment deposit from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. The goal is to encourage young people to save money. In addition, parents can put up to $5,000 per year in a tax-deferred diversified fund on behalf of their children under the age of 8, with the aim of watching the funds grow like an Individual Retirement Account, or an IRA for kids. Employers, nonprofits and government entities also can contribute, up to different limits.

The standard deduction

During the first Trump presidency, the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 nearly doubled the standard deduction that individual filers could claim on their taxes, making itemized deductions less of a priority for many. The Big, Beautiful Bill makes permanent those standard deductions, as well as the 2017 ordinary income tax brackets, which is a relief to some in the financial planning industry who feared they would revert back as scheduled in 2026.

“If that went backwards, we had a lot of planning in place for if that were to happen,” Halvorson said.

Instead of being cut in half again, the standard deductions went up somewhat, growing from $15,000 to $15,750 for singles, and from $30,000 to $31,500 for married couples filing jointly.

Tips and overtime

The legislation creates temporary tax deductions through the year 2028 for up to $25,000 in qualified tips and up to $12,500 in overtime pay, both with income restrictions.

The SALT deduction

The State and Local Tax — known as SALT — deduction has long allowed taxpayers who itemize deductions to subtract certain state and local taxes, including property taxes, from their federal income before they calculate their tax liability. The SALT cap deduction, which was previously $10,000, has been temporarily raised to $40,000, with annual 1% increases scheduled through 2029.

“That’s going to primarily benefit higher-wage earners,” Halvorson said.

The senior deduction

Individual tax filers 65 or over can add up to $6,000 to their standard deduction through the year 2028, provided they’re not earning more than $75,000, or $150,000 for a married couple. That figure tapers out gradually for higher incomes, disappearing entirely for individuals earning more than $175,000 and couples earning more than $250,000.

That should be of special interest to seniors who have retired from the workplace but have yet to dip into their IRA or another retirement investment account.

“That’s a big one for seniors — a $6,000 senior deduction that can help reduce taxable income,” Halvorson said. “Either it’s going to lower their taxes, or it’s going to give them opportunities to do things that are strategic, like ROTH conversions or spend-downs.”

Estate tax exemption

As Baby Boomers and those of the Greatest Generation pass on, many are leaving a house — or two, or more — to their children and grandchildren. The greatest wealth transfer that the nation has ever seen is just over the horizon, and it just got easier to pass along those funds without paying hefty estate taxes. The Big, Beautiful Bill makes permanent, as of 2026, a $15 million-per-person estate tax exemption that was scheduled to revert to a lower amount. For couples, the exemption will be $30 million, indexed each year to inflation.

Health savings account expansions

The Big, Beautiful Bill expands the uses of health savings accounts in a handful of ways.

Employees enrolled in high-deductible health plans can waive the deductible and use their HSAs to cover the costs of telehealth without impacting their HSA eligibility, a benefit that the government allowed during the pandemic and then extended several times on a temporary basis. It’s now permanent, according to Stinson Law.

Eligibility for HSAs has expanded to employees who hold bronze-level or catastrophic care medical plans. Other changes allow HSAs to cover direct primary care services that charge a flat monthly fee. In addition, the annual limit for a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA) increases from $5,000 to $7,500 at the end of this year.

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When he first started Go Girl Flag Football, longtime Rosemount football coach Jeff Erdmann was simply trying to grow the sport at a grassroots level.

Not in his wildest dreams did he imagine that summer league would result in the Rosemount girls flag football team getting to represent Minnesota on the national stage.

That’s the reality for Rosemount this week as it will compete at the NFL Flag Football Championships in Canton, Ohio. The competition will take place from Thursday to Sunday with coverage on ESPN.

“There are going to be some great teams here,” Erdmann said. “We’re excited to see how we do against them.”

It’s fitting that Rosemount will be the representative from Minnesota considering it was a part of a pilot program put on by the Vikings last year that also featured Minnesota teams La Crescent-Hokah, Pine Island and Houston.

The smashing success of that pilot program paved the way for more than 50 teams to compete this year, with Mahtomedi defeating La Crescent-Hokah to win the state championship last month at TCO Stadium.

“Honestly, seeing the growth of the sport at such an exponential level has been more than we could’ve hoped for,” said Emily Weinberg, coordinator of youth and high school football for the Vikings. “It’s been really inspiring to see how much passion there is for it across the state. I can’t even predict what next year is going to look like. We’re so excited about where we’re at, and where we’ll continue to go.”

It’s a good bet Rosemount will be smack dab in the middle of the conversation as the sport continues to make strides in Minnesota. The group earned the opportunity to compete at the NFL Flag Football Championships by winning the Vikings Regional Tournament in Blaine on May 10.

“That was a great experience for us,” Erdmann said. “We lost our first game, and it was fun to see how we responded to that. We knew we were the underdogs, and we ended up coming back and beating the No. 2 seed and the No. 1 seed to get here. Those are the moments that they are going to remember forever.”

As she reflected on her journey through the sport, Rosemount quarterback Talia Vescio brought up how it all started back in middle school when she decided to sign up for the Go Girl Flag Football. Now she and her teammates are preparing to step into the spotlight.

“We’re ecstatic,” Vescio said. “This is probably the most excited I’ve ever been for something. It’s unbelievable to me how much growth there’s been in such a short amount of time. We’re glad we get to be a part of it.”

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By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Travelers giddy about being able to keep their shoes on while walking through TSA checkpoints at the airport again may have something else to look forward to: changes to how much liquid they can carry.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday during a conference hosted by “The Hill” that she is questioning “everything TSA does” and spoke of possible changes to the amount of liquids travelers can tote in their carry-on baggage.

“The liquids, I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be,” Noem said. “We have put in place in TSA a multilayered screening process that allows us to change some of how we do security and screening so it’s still as safe.”

She gave no details about precisely what those changes might be or how quickly travelers could expect to see them.

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Under the Transportation and Security Administration’s current guidance, travelers can carry liquids in travel-sized containers 3.4 ounces or less per item in their carry-on bag. Those containers must be placed in a one-quart resealable plastic bag. Bigger containers must go in checked baggage, though there are exceptions for medications and baby formula.

Noem announced on July 8 that travelers were no longer required to take their shoes off while going through screening after a pilot program showed TSA had the equipment needed to keep airports and aircraft safe while allowing people to keep their shoes on.

That policy had been in place since 2006, several years after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001.

The limits on liquids were triggered by a 2006 incident where authorities foiled a plot to used liquid explosives smuggled aboard carry-on luggage to blow up planes.

Noem also laid out her vision for the future of airport travel during the talk Wednesday.

“Hopefully, the future of an airport, where I’m looking to go is that you walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and go right to your plane,” Noem said. “It takes you one minute.”

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell says a local Florida sheriff’s office isn’t doing enough to protect his multimillion-dollar beachfront property from trespassers and is asking a judge for an order commanding deputies to do so.

The petition filed last month by Littrell’s company in a Florida Panhandle county touches on a perennial tug-of-war between usually-wealthy oceanfront property owners and beach-loving members of the public, especially in Florida, which has 825 miles of sandy beaches.

Under Florida law, any sand on a beach below the high tide water mark is public. Many homeowners own the sand down to the average high-water line, though some counties over the decades have passed local ordinances that let the public use otherwise private beaches for sunbathing, fishing and walking if people have historically had access for those purposes.

Property records show that Littrell’s company purchased the property in Santa Rosa Beach in Walton County in 2023 for $3.8 million.

A spokeswoman for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that the office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“The Walton County Sheriff’s Office prides itself on handling every situation, call for service, or interaction with professionalism using a customer service approach,” public information officer Lindsey Darby said in an email. “This has always been our philosophy and will remain so moving forward.”

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In the petition, Littrell’s company said that chairs, umbrellas and small tables had been put out on the beach, as well as “No Trespassing” signs, to mark it as private property. But that effort had been in vain “as numerous trespassers have set out to antagonize, bully, and harass the Littrell family by regularly, every day, trespassing,” according to the petition.

The sheriff’s office has refused requests to remove trespassers or charge them, and the family has had to hire private security, the petition said.

Walton County, which has become home to several famous property owners besides Littrell over the past two decades, has been at the center of a recent fight between private property owners and the public over access to beaches.

A 2018 Florida law that stemmed from a Walton County ordinance blocked any local government from passing ordinances dealing with public beach access until affected homeowners were notified, a public hearing was held and a court had determined whether a private beach was historically open to the public.

Florida lawmakers this year approved legislation that restored control back to local authorities, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law last month in Santa Rosa Beach, the beach town where Littrell’s house is located.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.