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Key insights from the Business Tax Policy Barometer for November 2025

EY Americas
EY Americas

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

5 minute read 11 Dec 2025
Related topics
Tax

Businesses weigh OBBBA, tariffs, deficit reduction, and AI adoption as key tax policy priorities and challenges.

The Tax Council (TTC) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) produce the Tax Policy Barometer, providing insights on the business community’s perceptions on a variety of business tax and other key policy issues. This 25th Barometer tracks the views reported from November 3, 2025 through November 12, 2025, and assesses perceptions on issues such as tax policy, tariffs and trade, policy uncertainty, prospects for deficit reduction and generative artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in tax departments.

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Key results:

 

Near-term tax policy priorities:

 

41% of respondents indicated that One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) implementation was their top tax policy priority for the next 12 months. 25% of respondents reported international tax as their top priority.

 

Net impact of the OBBBA and trade frictions/tariffs:

 

81% of respondents report that the net impact of (i) the OBBBA and (ii) the current trade frictions and rise in tariffs is either net neutral or net negative for their business. A slight majority (56%) report that it is net negative and a quarter report that it is net neutral.

 

Tariff deescalation:

 

A slight majority of respondents (58%) anticipate that the current trade frictions will deescalate by 2028 and nearly all respondents (94%) anticipate that they will deescalate by 2029. This implies that respondents do not anticipate that the current increase in tariffs will be a permanent revenue source.

 

Addressing long-term fiscal imbalance:

 

68% of respondents do not anticipate there will be major legislation to reduce the deficit/debt by 2030. For those who do, a majority (67%) anticipate the legislation would reduce the deficit by at most 10% to 15%.

Click here to read the full report.

About The Tax Council

The Tax Council (www.thetaxcouncil.org) is a Washington, DC-based non-profit, membership organization promoting sound tax and fiscal policies since 1966. Our membership is comprised of (but not limited to) Fortune 500 companies, leading accounting and law firms, and major trade associations. The Tax Council’s mission is to provide leadership in the tax and fiscal policy arenas, to contribute to a better understanding of complex tax laws and regulations through informational forums and to advocate sound tax and fiscal policies that encourage capital formation and preservation in order to enlarge productive investment and generate national economic growth. We provide a regular forum (luncheons and conferences) for our members to meet with key tax policy decision makers from the U.S. Congress to discuss important current tax issues; sponsor an annual three-day Spring Tax Policy Conference; and develop tax policy information and positions for public dissemination. The Tax Council is affiliated with the Tax Council Policy Institute (TCPI), a non-partisan and non-profit 501(c)(3) education and public policy research organization. For more information, please visit www.tcpi.org.

Summary 

The November 2025 TTC-EY Tax Policy Barometer explores business perspectives on tax policy, trade uncertainty and fiscal challenges. It covers priorities such as implementing the OBBBA, international tax developments including Pillar Two, and expectations around tariff trends. The report also addresses policy uncertainty’s impact on decision-making, prospects for deficit reduction, and the growing role of generative AI in tax departments.

About this article

EY Americas
EY Americas
Multidisciplinary professional services organization
Related topics
Tax

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