Last Updated 4 months ago
We’ve already covered why a Trump Account might be one of the simplest long-term gifts you can give an American child in our overview, Trump Accounts for Americans in Israel: What to Know, and again on our podcast. If you haven’t read that first piece, it would be best to start there: it explains the $1,000 government grant, the $5,000 annual contribution cap, the index-fund-only investment menu, and the Israeli tax questions that are still being sorted out.
This post is the practical follow-up everyone’s been asking for. The accounts are no longer a “coming soon” idea. The IRS form is live, the official app and portal are up, and the program officially launches on July 4, 2026.
So, let’s walk through exactly how to open one — and the few places where families in Israel need to pay extra attention.
Key Points
- You open a Trump Account by filing IRS Form 4547 — a short, one-page election form.
- There are three ways to file it: with your e-filed tax return, on paper, or through the online portal at form.trumpaccounts.gov (the portal route requires an ID.me-verified IRS account, which can be a hurdle from abroad).
- Filing the form doesn’t open or fund the account by itself. It reserves your election. You then wait for an activation email from Treasury and finish setup in the official app.
- No money moves before July 4, 2026 — including the $1,000 grant.
First Things First: The SSN
Before you think about forms or apps, your child needs a Social Security number that was issued before you file Form 4547: no SSN, no account — full stop.
For families in the U.S., this is rarely an issue. For families in Israel, it’s usually the issue. Getting an SSN for a child born abroad means registering the birth with the U.S. embassy (the CRBA process), and that can take time.
If your child doesn’t have an SSN yet and you want it for them in the timeline for the $1,000 grant, this is the step to start on now; everything else is quick by comparison.
The Form: IRS Form 4547
Form 4547, “Trump Account Election(s),” is the single document that does everything: it opens the account and, if your child qualifies, requests the $1,000 pilot-program contribution from the government. It’s genuinely short. There are four parts:
- Part I – your information as the parent or guardian (name, address, date of birth, SSN, contact details).
- Part II – the child’s information, your relationship to them, and a box confirming you’re authorized to open the account.
- Part III – the $1,000 election. Check this box only if the child qualifies (more on that below).
- Part IV – your signature and consent.
You can open accounts for up to two children on one form. Have more than two? Just use additional copies — there’s no limit on how many you file.
Who’s Allowed to File It
The form must be signed by an “authorized individual.” For simply opening the account, the legal guardian, parent, adult sibling, or grandparent is listed in that order of priority. A grandparent can only file if a parent or guardian isn’t available, and so on.
But here’s the part that matters for the free money: if you’re also requesting the $1,000 pilot contribution, only someone who expects to claim the child as a qualifying child (dependent) on their U.S. return that year can make the election. In practice, that means a parent. For most American families in Israel who already claim their kids as dependents, this is a non-issue, but it’s worth knowing if grandparents were planning to handle the paperwork.
Three Ways to File
- With your e-filed federal tax return. The IRS calls this the easiest route, and for our clients, it usually is. If we’re already e-filing your return, the form rides along with it. No separate identity verification on your end.
- On paper. Print Form 4547 and mail it to the same IRS address you’d use for a paper return (the “not enclosing a payment” address for your location). Slow, but it works from anywhere and needs no online account.
- Through the online portal. Go to form.trumpaccounts.gov and submit the form yourself. Note the catch: the portal requires you to sign in to an IRS online account verified through ID.me. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to create and verify it first.
For families in Israel, that last point matters. ID.me verification is the part most people abroad get stuck on — the fast, self-service path is built around a U.S.-issued photo ID and a U.S. phone number. The good news is that it can be done from Israel without either, using ID.me’s international video-verification flow. We walk through the entire process, step by step, in How to Set Up Your IRS Online Account While Living Abroad. If you’re planning to use the portal, read that first. If you’d rather skip the ID.me setup altogether, the simplest path for our clients is to let us e-file Form 4547 together with your return (no identity verification needed on your end), with the paper option as a backup.
One caveat that applies no matter which method you choose: you cannot attach Form 4547 to an amended return. It only goes with an originally filed return. So if you’ve already filed and forgot the form, file it on paper or through the portal — don’t amend just for this.
When You Have to File By
You can open an account any time before your child turns 18. The technical deadline is the end of the calendar year when your child turns 17. So, if your child turns 18 in October 2029, you’d have until December 31, 2028, to file. There’s plenty of leeway, but for the $1,000 grant, the sooner the account is open and growing, the more decades of compounding you capture.
What Happens After You File
This is the step most people don’t expect, so pay attention here. Filing Form 4547 does not immediately open or fund the account. It reserves your election. Treasury then takes over:
- You’ll receive an activation email confirming your election was processed and prompting you to finish setup. These are going out in phases between now and July 4, 2026.
- You’ll complete an authentication step and download the official Trump Accounts app (App Store or Google Play) — or manage things through TrumpAccounts.gov.
- At launch, the accounts are held at the U.S. Treasury, with the ability to roll them over to a broker later, after the child turns 18. That’s helpful for families abroad: you don’t need to set up a U.S. brokerage relationship just to get started.
One important warning, and it’s exactly the kind families overseas should hear from us: the official activation emails come only from [email protected].
Anything else asking you to “activate your child’s Trump Account,” collect a fee, or hand over banking details is a scam. There is no cost to open an account.
When in doubt, don’t click; go straight to the app or the official site.
When Money Actually Moves
Mark the date: July 4, 2026. That’s when the program launches, when contributions can begin, and when the $1,000 grant starts landing in activated accounts. Nothing — not your contributions, not the grant — moves before then. The grant only arrives after your account is activated and the child’s eligibility is confirmed.
To qualify for that $1,000, the child must be a U.S. citizen, have an SSN, be born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, be claimed by you as a qualifying child, and not already have a pilot election on file. Once the account is open, anyone —parents, grandparents, even employers, charities, and certain businesses — can contribute, up to the $5,000 per-child annual cap (employer contributions have their own separate limit). For a refresher on how those contribution rules and the gift-tax angle work, see our first article.
The Israel Bottom Line
If your child has an SSN and was born in the 2025–2028 window, opening the account is close to a no-brainer; it’s a free $1,000 seed and a clean, low-fee, U.S.-index-fund account with none of the PFIC headaches that plague most Israeli investment products in American hands. The mechanics are genuinely simple: get the SSN, file Form 4547 (the portal is usually easiest from here), watch for the real Treasury activation email, and finish setup in the app.
The one piece of restraint we’ll repeat from last time: on the opening and the grant, move now, but on large voluntary contributions, stay measured until Israel clarifies how it will tax these accounts down the road. Claiming the free $1,000 carries no Israeli downside worth worrying about; loading the account up with years of contributions before we know the Israeli treatment is a decision worth having a conversation about first.
As always, reach out if you’d like help walking through your specific situation.