The short answer
The easiest way is the official Trump Accounts app, on the App Store and Google Play. You fill out the claim form (IRS Form 4547) right in the app, verify your identity, and once the IRS confirms your child is eligible, you finish claiming the account there too.
That’s how we opened accounts for both of our kids this summer, and it was incredibly easy.
What you’ll need
- About you: Your legal name (exactly as it appears on your Social Security card), Social Security number, date of birth, address including county, mobile phone, and email
- About each child: Their legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and your relationship to them. One claim form covers up to two kids.
One tip: do it in one sitting. If you close out before you reach the identity check, your progress isn’t saved.
What happens after you sign up?
Once the IRS confirms eligibility, you get an email and an in-app notification with the next steps to finish claiming the account. It isn’t always instant, since your information has to be matched to your child’s record. After that, you have full access in the app: contributions, statements, and tax documents.
If your child was born from 2025 through 2028, make sure you elect the $1,000 Treasury deposit when you sign up. If it isn’t elected, the deposit doesn’t come.
Who can open one?
If you’re only opening the account, the person who can file goes in this order: a legal guardian, then a parent, then an adult sibling, then a grandparent. If you’re also electing the $1,000, the person filing has to plan to claim the child as a qualifying child on their tax return.
Each child gets one account. If your spouse already filed, a second filing gets rejected, and the first filer becomes the account’s “responsible party.”
Not an app person?
You have other options: the Trump Accounts web portal, the IRS website, or Form 4547 filed with your tax return. Two things to know if you go the paper route: Form 4547 doesn’t go with an amended return (1040-X), and typed or digital signatures aren’t accepted on a paper form.
Where that leaves you
Opening the account is the easy part. What you do with it from there comes down to what you want the money to do, and that’s where we can actually help.
For how these accounts work once they’re open, and how we’re using ours, see Trump Accounts: What Parents Should Know.
You know where to find me.
Sources
- Claiming in the Trump Accounts app or web portal, information required, up to two children per form, identity verification, progress not saved before verification, email and in-app notification after IRS confirms eligibility: Trump Accounts Support Center, “Complete the claim form”
- Finishing the claim in the app, matching delays, full management access: Trump Accounts Support Center, “Claim an account”
- App availability on the App Store and Google Play: U.S. Treasury press release, May 28, 2026
- Who can file and in what order, qualifying-child requirement for the $1,000, one account per child, no 1040-X, paper signature rules: Saving for College, “How to Open a Trump Account with IRS Form 4547”
- IRS Form 4547, Trump Account Election(s)