Trump Accounts: 60 million US children to get automatic enrollment, some eligible for $1,000

The US Treasury Department will automatically create Trump Accounts for up to 60 million eligible children in the United States. The automatic enrollment will begin on October 1, 2026, under new temporary regulations issued by the Treasury Department. Trump Accounts to automatically enroll up to 60 million US children. (REUTERS)The Treasury’s new guidance was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, September 30. CBS News reported this based on the Treasury guidance. The new rules take effect on September 30, while the actual automatic enrollment process will begin the following day, October 1. Trump Accounts for kidsBefore this rule change, parents or legal guardians had to actively sign up for a Trump Account on behalf of an eligible child. Enrollment was therefore not automatic. Under the new system, the government will create accounts for eligible children without requiring a parent or guardian to complete a separate enrollment process in most cases. The Treasury Department expects automatic enrollment to add about 2 million more Trump Accounts for each birth-year group of eligible children. Why are accounts automatic?The government also expects automatic enrollment to make the accounts more attractive to people and organizations that want to contribute money to children’s accounts. The Treasury said some potential donors prefer their contributions to reach all eligible children, rather than only children whose parents know about the program and actively sign up. According to the Treasury notice, automatic enrollment could increase the value of group or class contributions by billions of dollars each year, with the money spread across Trump Accounts belonging to tens of millions of children. Trump Accounts are tax-deferred investment accounts created under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill tax and spending law. Also read: Trump $500 Obamacare refund checks: Who will get the ACA payments in 30 states?Who gets $1,000?US citizens born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, are eligible for a $1,000 contribution from the federal government to their Trump Account. The Treasury Department said this in its fact sheet on the program. The $1,000 payment is a government seed contribution, meaning the money is put into the child’s account to help start the investment account. Children born outside the 2025-2028 birth window can still have Trump Accounts if they are under 18 years old and otherwise meet the requirements. However, children born outside that four-year window will not receive the government's $1,000 seed contribution. Who can add money?Other people and organizations can still put money into eligible children's accounts. Friends, relatives and employers can contribute up to $5,000 per year to an account. Wealthy donors have also committed large amounts of money to the program, potentially putting additional funds into children's Trump Accounts. Michael and Susan Dell previously pledged $6.25 billion for Trump Accounts belonging to children born between 2016 and 2024 who live in ZIP codes where the household median income is below $150,000, according to CBS News. More than 50 companies have also offered to contribute to Trump Accounts for children of their employees. How did sign-up work?The Trump Account program originally required parents or guardians to take action before an account could be opened. Parents or guardians previously had to submit IRS Form 4547 through the Trump Accounts mobile app to open an account for an eligible child. The Trump Accounts mobile app launched on July 4. Parents could also sign up for the accounts while filing their taxes or through the IRS website. The government later withdrew its earlier Trump Account regulation because it did not provide a system for the Treasury secretary to automatically enroll large numbers of children. New rules for Trump AccountsThe Treasury and IRS said they reviewed public comments and worked through the legal and operational issues connected to automatic enrollment before creating the new system. The agencies said they have now developed a structure that allows broad automatic enrollment while protecting taxpayers' return information, according to the new regulations. The Treasury said the new system will remove the need for most individuals to personally create an account for their children. When the Trump Accounts first launched, the government did not offer broad automatic enrollment because of administrative challenges, according to the Treasury. Public comments later showed strong support for automatically enrolling eligible children using information already available to the government. Also read: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq today: Why are US stocks rising after cooler inflation data?How will kids be enrolled?The Treasury said commenters supported using information from tax returns, Social Security Administration records and other government records to identify eligible children. Some commenters warned that requiring parents or another adult to actively opt in could reduce participation. The Treasury specifically said automatic enrollment could help children from families who do not file taxes, families that are unfamiliar with tax procedures, and families that have limited time or resources to complete a separate enrollment process. Why automatic enrollment mattersCommenters also argued that a child should not miss out on contributions or investment growth simply because an adult did not complete the required enrollment step. The Treasury summarized this concern by saying eligible children "should not lose the opportunity" to receive contributions and potential investment growth just because no adult completed an election. The key change is that parents will no longer have to take the first step in most cases for an eligible child to receive a Trump Account. The new system is therefore expected to expand participation significantly, with the Treasury estimating that up to 60 million children could be automatically enrolled. What happens next?For eligible children born from 2025 through 2028, the automatic account comes with the potential for the $1,000 federal seed contribution. For children born between 2016 and 2024, the program can still receive contributions under the applicable rules, including large private donations, but they do not qualify for the federal $1,000 seed money because they were born outside the government's specified 2025-2028 birth window. The Treasury expects automatic enrollment to increase the number of accounts available to donors and make it easier for contributions to reach children who might otherwise never be enrolled. Overall, the rule changes the Trump Accounts program from one that largely depended on parents actively signing up to one where the government will automatically create accounts for eligible children starting October 1.