The short answer
Up to $5,000 a year per child. An employer can chip in up to $2,500 of that, and contributions can keep going until the year your child turns 18.
Who can contribute?
Almost anyone: parents, grandparents, other family, friends, and employers. All of it shares the same $5,000 limit, with a couple of exceptions.
- Employer money: Up to $2,500 a year, tax-free to you, and it counts toward the $5,000.
- What doesn’t count: Contributions from government programs or charities don’t count against the $5,000.
- Inflation: The $5,000 limit is set to be indexed to inflation starting in 2028.
A quick example
Say your employer puts $2,500 into your child’s Trump Account this year. That leaves $2,500 of room for everyone else.
If the grandparents want to add $1,000 for a birthday, that comes out of the same $2,500, which leaves you $1,500. (Worth a quick family group text before December.)
When do contributions stop?
Contributions opened July 4, 2026, and they stop in the year your child turns 18. After that, the account follows IRA rules.
That makes the early years count. A child born this year has close to two decades of contributions ahead. A child who’s already 15 has only a few.
How do you put money in?
The easiest way is the official Trump Accounts app, which is how we opened our kids’ accounts. You can link a bank account, make one-time contributions, or set up recurring ones, so the deposits keep happening without anyone having to remember.
How is the money taxed?
What you put in yourself goes in after tax, so it comes back out tax-free. Everything else (the growth, the $1,000 Treasury seed, any employer money) is taxed as ordinary income to your child when it comes out, and there’s generally a 10% penalty on top before 59½, with the usual IRA exceptions.
Where that leaves you
How much to put in comes down to what you want the money to do, and what else is competing for the same dollars: the 529, your own retirement, the mortgage. That’s where we can actually help.
For the full rundown, including how we’re using ours at home, see Trump Accounts: What Parents Should Know.
You know where to find me.
Sources
- Who can contribute, employer contributions counting toward the $5,000, government and charity contributions excluded, inflation indexing from 2028, contributions until the year the child turns 18: Charles Schwab, “What to Know About Trump Accounts”
- Funding, linking a bank account and recurring contributions in the Trump Accounts app: MyChesCo, “Treasury Launches Trump Accounts App as Child Investment Program Expands” (July 2026)
- $5,000 limit, $2,500 employer limit, taxation of withdrawals: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, “Trump Accounts: A Primer for Parents”