Marc Abear: OBBBA will mean less taxes for truckers to keep prices down

To The Daily Sun,

President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), approved by Congress this month. In the bill are tax breaks likely to boost trucking industry investment. The OBBBA is opposed unanimously by Democrats. It passed along party lines.

Chief among the tax provisions helping trucking companies grow their business is a permanent extension and enhancement of the 20% deduction for qualified business income (QBI). This is a provision from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cuts set to expire at the end of this year.

The QBI deduction allows trucking companies and businesses set up as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corporations to avoid being tax disadvantaged relative to large corporations. The new QBI provision expands eligibility for the deduction. It gives businesses with certain QBI levels an inflation-adjusted minimum deduction of $400.

Congress also reinstated 100% bonus depreciation. This provision applies to qualified assets acquired after Jan. 19, 2025, and placed in service before Jan. 1, 2030. It allows small-business truckers to immediately deduct the full cost of those assets, encouraging investing in new trucks and equipment.

Truck drivers should see more take-home pay because Congress made permanent the TCJA individual income tax rates, plus an increase in the standard deduction.

A permanent extension and increase of the estate tax exemption is another benefit for family-owned trucking companies allowing for more certainty in business planning and succession.

The OBBBA makes it easier for new truck drivers to obtain a commercial drivers license by expanding education savings plans to cover expenses for truck driver training. The American Trucking Associations supported the legislation as it moved through Congress.

We know supply chains require trucking. What saves truckers money helps keep all prices down. The overwhelming majority of truckers are small businesses operating 10 trucks or less.

Marc Abear

Meredith