The financial news that actually matters
Households with modest taxable income can sell stocks, mutual funds, or other assets at a profit and owe zero federal income tax on those gains, provided the investments were held longer than one year. Federal law draws a hard line at that one-year mark, and the IRS confirms that some or all net capital gain…
Married couples filing jointly will be able to claim a $32,200 standard deduction on their tax year 2026 returns, the IRS confirmed in news release IR-2025-103. The higher figure, shaped by inflation adjustments written into the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21), keeps the standard deduction well above what most households can piece…
Patients on high-deductible health plans who pay for Ozempic based on its sticker price are set to see their monthly costs drop by roughly a third. Novo Nordisk announced it will cut the U.S. wholesale acquisition cost of Ozempic by approximately 35%, bringing the list price to $675 a month starting January 1, 2027. The…
Workers who let their employers send too much money to the IRS each pay period are effectively lending the federal government cash at zero percent interest, sometimes for months. The IRS itself acknowledges the cost: when withholding exceeds what a filer owes, that person loses the use of the money until the refund arrives. Under…
Taxpayers who file 2025 returns expecting a routine direct deposit may instead find their refunds locked in place. The IRS plans to temporarily freeze refunds claimed on 2025 returns during the 2026 filing season until filers supply valid direct-deposit details or explicitly request a paper check. The policy, confirmed by the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an…
Francesca’s, the women’s apparel and accessories chain with approximately 460 locations across the United States, has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and launched store-closing sales at every remaining store. Three liquidation firms are managing the wind-down, and they have already injected $22 million in fresh merchandise into the closing locations to accelerate sales….
Americans reported losing nearly $1 billion to scammers posing as their banks in 2025, making bank impersonation the single largest driver of business-impersonation fraud tracked by the Federal Trade Commission. That figure sits inside a broader $3.5 billion in total imposter-scam losses reported last year, a sharp jump from $2.95 billion in 2024. The FBI…
Millions of workers who logged extra hours in 2025 can now subtract a portion of that overtime pay from their taxable income, but the size of the break depends on how much they earn and how carefully they do the math. The IRS set the maximum deduction at $12,500 for single filers and $25,000 for…
Workers between the ages of 60 and 63 can now set aside up to $11,250 in catch-up contributions to their 401(k) plans, a higher tier created by the SECURE 2.0 Act that took effect in 2025 and holds steady for 2026. That amount is 150% of the standard catch-up limit available to employees aged 50…
Workers saving for retirement watched their account balances shrink last quarter even as they funneled record amounts of money into their plans. The average 401(k) slipped 4% to $141,000, a decline driven by equity-market losses that overwhelmed historically strong contribution levels. At the same time, wages and salaries kept climbing across the U.S. economy, raising…