What Dentists Need to Know About New Tax Laws in 2026 By Wesley W. Lyon II, CPA, CFP
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ollowing the 2024 election, the Republicans ended up controlling the House of Representatives, the Senate and White House. This avoided a major congressional showdown, instead culminating in President Trump signing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” July 4, 2025. I’m not a political person, nor do I name laws — my goal is to report the facts to you as they impact your life. With that in mind, keep reading to learn more about the tax law changes most likely to impact your livelihood.
Many Current Tax Law Provisions Made Permanent The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) made many changes to tax law back in 2017. However, most of the changes impacting individual taxpayers, such as dentists, were only temporarily enacted since the bill was passed through reconciliation. These temporary provisions were set to expire at the end of 2025, reverting to the former tax law beginning Jan. 1, 2026. The latest law changes make many of these provisions permanent, rather than allowing them to expire. 1. Lower tax rates: The TCJA lowered the tax rates for six of the seven federal income tax brackets. These rates are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. These rates are now permanent with no future expiration date. 2. Increased standard deduction and elimination of personal exemptions: The TCJA doubled the standard deduction taxpayers receive in hopes of simplifying returns. You can either choose to itemize your deductions on Schedule A or take the standard deduction. By increasing the standard deduction, the government hoped to reduce the number of taxpayers choosing to itemize their deductions. To offset this change, the law also eliminated personal exemptions, which was a deduction for each taxpayer and dependent. Both these provisions are now permanent in the
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law, with the standard deduction continuing to increase with inflation each year. 3. Qualified business income (QBI) deduction: The QBI deduction is an additional 20% deduction on the profits of your business, excluding C Corporations. This provision phases out as your income exceeds $394,601 and historically has been eliminated once your income reaches $100,000 more than the base threshold. However, the new law extends the phase-out range another $50,000 to a total of $150,000, allowing even more dentists to take advantage of the QBI moving forward. 4. Estate tax exclusion limits: The TCJA doubled the estate tax exemption limit when passed, which has now climbed close to $15 million per spouse with inflation adjustments. The new law sets the threshold at $15 million per spouse beginning in 2026, rather than reverting to the pre-TCJA limits of $5 million per spouse. 5. Increased section 168(k) bonus depreciation: Bonus depreciation was previously increased to 100% but began declining in 2023 at a rate of 20% per year. The new law brings bonus depreciation back to 100%. Many doctors may not have noticed this change, as equipment can be written off fully under Section 179 of the tax code. However, large sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are deducted under a combination of Section 179 and Section 168(k). This change allows up to 100% of the cost of an SUV with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 6,000 lbs. or more to be fully deducted up to your business use percentage in the first year.
Changes to Tax Law With the One Big Beautiful Bill weighing in at over 800 pages, I’m not going to cover every change. Instead, I have picked out some