The newly enacted law has been criticized for disproportionately benefiting the ultra-wealthy. But billionaires aren’t necessarily thrilled.

On Friday, President Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill Act into law after a drawn-out political battle centered on criticism that it takes from the poor to make the rich even richer. But billionaires haven’t popped the champagne.

“They are not jumping for joy. Nor do they feel that this new bill was all for them,” says estate planning attorney Alan Gassman of his billionaire clients.

Among the many measures packed into the nearly 900-page bill is one in particular that sources say is beneficial to billionaires: something called “bonus depreciation,” which makes corporate boats and jets 100% tax-deductible the same year they are purchased. The bill made that provision, which was originally part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, permanent.

Even before the bill was passed, Gassman says his clients were taking advantage of the temporary 2017 provision. “I do have clients who, every year, were buying a $10 million boat to get a $10 million tax deduction and then converting the boat to personal use the next year.” Gassman explained that, under the provision, this practice is perfectly legal starting the calendar year following purchase by paying “rent” to your own company for use of the yacht or plane. “It’s too good to be true and it’s true,” he adds. He figures that more billionaires will take advantage of the provision going forward.

Another measure tucked into the bill benefits companies that are building spacesports–whose beneficiaries include Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of rocket company SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of rocket firm Blue Origin.The provision allows the use private activity bonds, interest on which is tax-free to investors, to fund space-related infrastructure. These special municipal bonds may enable companies to borrow money at lower interest rates. (The Financial Times first reported on this benefit.) “Spaceports will be treated the same as airports, which currently have access to tax-exempt financing,” says Triet Nguyen, vice-president of strategic data operations at municipal bond data and software firm DPCDATA. Nguyen says it’s not possible to quantify the financial impact of the provision on companies like SpaceX without knowing the terms of their private financing deals.

Exactly how much billionaires will save on their taxes as a result of the new bill isn’t clear. The Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan committee of the U.S. Congress, estimates that, by 2027, the top 0.1% of taxpayers, of which the country’s estimated roughly 900 billionaires are merely a subset, will collectively save $60 billion in federal taxes. The Big Beautiful Bill Act makes permanent the reduction in the top marginal tax rate from from 39.6% to 37%, which was first enacted as part of President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While it increases spending on border security and energy production, it imposes cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

At least one billionaire (other than President Donald Trump) is optimistic.“I think the additional income and the new jobs created are going to help all Americans,” says New York supermarket and real estate tycoon John Catsimatidis, who Forbes estimates is worth $4.5 billion.

Catsimatidis says those who will benefit the most from the new spending bill will be “the people who receive tips, all the hard-working people who do overtime.” Unlike the permanent provisions favoring the wealthy, both the tip and overtime tax exemptions are set to expire at the end of 2028.

One reaction from some billionaires has been concern about how the newly passed bill will add to the country’s towering national debt, sources say. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill is projected to increase the federal deficit by $3.4 trillion by 2034.

“I don't think my billionaire clients are all that excited about [the bill],” says Gassman. “If anything, they're just upset that the deficit's going to be so high.”

Musk, the world’s richest person, has been harping about the fact that the bill dramatically increases the deficit, citing it on X as his core motivation for his plan to establish a new political party. On Sunday, July 6, Musk shared a post on X that reads “Tax cuts are worthless if the government keeps overspending.”

Gassman told Forbes that one of his billionaire clients, who is based in Europe, was planning to move to the U.S. but decided not to because of this person’s concerns about economic instability. Other clients are moving more of their wealth offshore to “more stable economies,” he says.

"Capital is beginning to move out of the US–evident in the dollar’s weakness this year," says Anna Macdonald, investment manager at Scotland-based Aubrey Capital Management. “Investors are increasingly recognising that compelling opportunities exist elsewhere.”

Senator Bernie Sanders called the act “a gift to the billionaire class,” citing its projected tax breaks for the super wealthy. But several of the measures in the bill are more likely to benefit multi-millionaires than billionaires. For example, the bill raised the estate tax exemption to $15 million for single filers and $30 million for married couples, meaning the rich can now leave more to their heirs before the estate incurs any tax.

“It favors the wealthy,” says estate and tax planning attorney Martin Shenkman of the provision, “but if you have a billion-dollar net worth, the $15 million exemption is inconsequential to you.”

Another measure in that same camp is the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, which was raised from $10,000 to $40,000, meaning more local taxes can be deducted from taxpayers’ federal tax bills. Tax and estate planner Robert Keebler says the $30,000 boost “has virtually no impact on people worth a billion or more,” but it might come in handy for wealthy people with more modest net worths.

“This bill is really good for people with net worths of $10 to $30 million. I don't think it does that much for the billionaires,” says Gassman. “I don't know that my billionaire clients are any better off today than they were three weeks ago.”