Trump Accounts: the $1,000 deposit and how to claim it

An IRA for a child

Created by the 2025 tax law and opened by an election with the IRS.

Trump Accounts were created by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, enacted on July 4, 2025; the IRS now groups the law’s provisions under the name Working Families Tax Cuts. The IRS describes the account as a new type of individual retirement account for children. One can be established for any child who has a valid Social Security number and has not turned 18 by the end of the calendar year in which the election is made. Unlike an ordinary IRA, it does not require the child to have earned income: IRS Notice 2025-68 points out that contributions do not depend on compensation.

Who gets the $1,000

U.S. citizens born from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2028.

The Treasury makes a one-time $1,000 pilot program contribution to the account of each eligible child for whom an election is made. The child must be a U.S. citizen with a valid Social Security number, born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028. The deposit has to be requested: it is a box to check on the same Form 4547 that opens the account. By March 31, 2026, the IRS reported, families had signed up more than 4 million children for Trump Accounts, more than 1 million of them with an election for the $1,000.

A child born before 2025 can still have an account. The $1,000 is what they do not get.

How to open one

Form 4547, with a tax return or online.

1. Sign in to your IRS Individual Account through ID.me, or plan to file the one-page Form 4547 with your tax return.
2. Complete Form 4547, Trump Account Election(s), for the child. You need the child’s Social Security number, date of birth, and address; the IRS estimates the online process takes 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Check the status of the election in the same online account.

Under the proposed regulations, the election must be made by December 31 of the year the child turns 17. When the $1,000 is not requested at the same time, the person entitled to make the election is, in order: a legal guardian, a parent, an adult sibling, then a grandparent. Whoever makes the election generally becomes the account’s responsible party, who chooses among its investments while the child cannot.

Who can add money, and how much

Since July 4, 2026: up to $5,000 a year in total.

No contributions could be made before July 4, 2026. Since then, parents, relatives, friends, and others can contribute up to a combined $5,000 a year. An employer can contribute up to $2,500 a year to the account of an employee or the employee’s dependent; that amount counts toward the $5,000 and is not taxable income to the employee. State and local governments and charities can also make “qualified general contributions” to defined groups of children. The annual limits are indexed to inflation after 2027.

What the money is invested in

U.S. stock index funds only.

The money must be invested in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 or another index made up primarily of U.S. stocks. That makes it a long-horizon, all-stock account whose value will rise and fall with the market. To see how regular deposits could compound over 18 years at a return you choose, use the compound interest calculator; it shows arithmetic, not a forecast.

When the money unlocks, and how it is taxed

Nothing comes out before the year the child turns 18.

Withdrawals generally are not allowed before January 1 of the year the child turns 18. After that, the IRS says, the account is generally treated as a traditional IRA and follows the same rules as other traditional IRAs — so check those rules, including the ones on withdrawals before retirement age, before counting on the money for college or a first home.

Contributions are not taxed to the child when they go in. Notice 2025-68 also separates two kinds of money: what parents and others contribute creates “basis,” after-tax money that is tracked as such, while the $1,000 pilot deposit, employer contributions, and qualified general contributions do not. Keep a record of what family members put in.