Navigate the complexities of the OBBA Act to maximize personal tax credits and understand student loan discharge implications for your 2025 financial planning.
This is a course in our ongoing series on the One Big Beautiful Act passed by Congress in July 2025.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) introduced several changes to student loans and some tax provisions, though it's important to note the landscape for student loan forgiveness and related tax treatment has been in flux.
Loan Discharge and Taxability:
Forgiven student loan debt will no longer be federally tax-free after December 31, 2025, unless Congress takes further action to extend the exclusion. However, the OBBB permanently extends the exclusion from taxable income for student loans discharged due to death or total and permanent disability, provided the taxpayer includes his or her Social Security Number on their return.
Personal Tax Credit Changes:
The bill addresses numerous tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit (CTC); Other Dependent Credit; Adoption Credit; Employer Child Care Tax Credit; Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave; Education Credits (AOC/LLC); Qualified Tuition Programs (529 plans).
Each of these tax credits has various concepts to their implementation and professionals should ensure they understand all components and consult with their tax advisors.
This webinar will focus on personal tax credits and the student loan discharge program.
Lynn Fountain has over 45 years of experience spanning public accounting, corporate accounting and consulting. 24 years of her experience has been working in the areas of internal and external auditing. She is a subject matter expert in multiple fields including internal audit, ethics, fraud evaluations, Sarbanes-Oxley, enterprise risk management, governance, financial management and compliance. Ms. Fountain has held two Chief Audit Executive positions for international companies. In 2011, as the Chief Audit Executive for an international construction/ engineering firm, she was involved in the active investigation of a joint venture fraud. The investigation included work with the FBI and ultimately led to indictment of the perpetrators and recovery of $13M. Ms. Fountain is currently engaged in her own training and consulting business and is a regular trainer for the AICPA. Ms. Fountain is the author of three separate technical books. “Raise the Red Flag – The Internal Auditors Guide to Fraud Evaluations” was published by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation. -“Leading The Internal Audit Function” and -“Ethics and The Internal Auditor Political Dilemma” were published by Taylor & Francis In addition Ms. Fountain was a contributing author to the certification program exam for the National Association of Accountants. She also has certificate programs on various on-line platforms. Ms. Fountain has performed as an adjunct instructor for the School of Business for Grantham University and developed the first internal audit curriculum for the School of Business at the University of Kansas. Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas. She has her CGMA, CRMA credentials and CPA certificate (non-active).
