Nearly 70 Million Children Now Have Trump Accounts, and 27 Million of Them Have Already Received Money, the IRS Says

Millions of parents have a new investment account in their child’s name that they may never have opened themselves. The Internal Revenue Service says nearly 70 million Trump Accounts are now open for children, and 27 million of them have already received money from families, donors or the federal government.

The numbers come from the agency’s year-end performance release, issued Oct. 29. The account totals appeared alongside the agency’s filing-season results, including record tax collections of $5.6 trillion and a rise of more than 20% in total refunds paid. They also reflect a rule change in late September that had the Treasury open accounts automatically for most children with a Social Security number.

Why so many accounts opened at once

Trump Accounts started as an opt-in program. Parents filed IRS Form 4547 to set one up. That changed with a temporary regulation published in the Federal Register on Sept. 30, which lets the Treasury Secretary open an “auto account” for each eligible child who has a Social Security number, meets the age rules and has no account election on file from someone else.

The first round of automatic accounts was set for about Oct. 1, with more rounds to follow. In the rule, the IRS estimated it would affect about 73 million children in 44 million families and add more than 60 million children with accounts in 2026.

The IRS’s Trump Accounts FAQ describes the account as an individual retirement account for children who have a valid Social Security number and will not turn 18 before the end of the year it is set up. The Bank of New York Mellon is the program’s financial agent, and Robinhood Securities is the brokerage and initial trustee, according to the FAQ.

Where the 27 million funded accounts got their money

The IRS release does not break down the 27 million funded accounts by source. Three streams of money are known.

The first is the federal $1,000. The government contributes $1,000 for each eligible child born from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2028, the release says. In proposed regulations issued in March, the Treasury and IRS said the child must be a U.S. citizen with a Social Security number.

The second is the $250 from Michael and Susan Dell. According to Invest America’s eligibility page, the Dell deposits went to children born from Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2024, who live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $117,300 or less, starting with the lowest-income ZIP codes and stopping once 25 million children were reached. The page says all of those deposits had been made as of Friday, Oct. 9.

The third is private giving, from families and other donors. The site reported earlier on one such gift, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell’s gift of about $270 million in shares to children 11 to 17 in lower-income ZIP codes.

The $1,000 still takes a form

Automatic accounts do not mean automatic $1,000 deposits. The FAQ says parents of eligible babies must submit Form 4547 and select the pilot contribution option to request the $1,000. Parents who already requested it do not need to file again. If the child’s account was opened automatically, the parent still has to elect the contribution.

The Federal Register rule explains why. The law does not let the Treasury Secretary make the pilot election, so a parent or other qualifying adult has to make it. The site covered that requirement in its earlier look at Form 4547 and the $1,000 deposit.

For the Dell money, Invest America says families who claimed an account or filed Form 4547 before Oct. 1 remain eligible under the earlier rules and do not need to do anything more.

How parents find and claim an account

An account that the Treasury opened on its own still has to be claimed before a parent can manage it. The FAQ says parents can check whether an account exists for their child, and claim it, through the Trump Accounts app or website, with program information at trumpaccounts.gov. The help line is 866-USA-4547.

The Federal Register rule says a guardian, or a beneficiary with legal capacity, claims the account through a Treasury application or web page after verifying identity and legal authority.

Parents who get IRS Notice CP318 should follow its instructions and make sure the child’s name, Social Security number and birth date match Social Security Administration records, the FAQ says. It warns against using Form 1040-X to correct Form 4547, and notes that IRS phone representatives cannot fix elections, though callers to 866-USA-4547 can change information after claiming the account.

The money stays invested until the child grows up. Under the program’s rules described by the American Legion’s planned giving desk, the accounts convert to a traditional IRA when the child turns 18, families and others can contribute up to $5,000 a year per child, and employers can contribute up to $2,500 per dependent.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Tony Webster – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons