The financial news that actually matters
Families inheriting property in 2026 face a federal tax system that can erase decades of capital gains in a single step, but Congress and the IRS have built reporting rules that cap how much benefit heirs actually receive. Under the statute governing inherited assets, a beneficiary’s cost basis resets to fair market value on the…
Households carrying high credit-card balances relative to their limits can see their scores drop fast, but the reverse is also true. Federal guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau confirms that credit scores weigh how close a cardholder is to being maxed out, and that crossing below widely cited utilization thresholds can produce visible score…
Millions of American car buyers are stretching their budgets further than at any point on record, with total outstanding auto loan debt hitting $1.68 trillion and a record share of new-vehicle purchasers now locked into monthly payments of $1,000 or more. The strain is not limited to luxury buyers. Rising sticker prices, elevated interest rates,…
Joann, the largest dedicated sewing and crafts retailer in the United States, is shutting down every remaining store after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than a year. The company had initially framed its January 2025 filing as a path toward a court-supervised sale, but the process shifted to…
Workers expecting a standard cost-of-living bump in 2026 can stop worrying about being pushed into a higher federal tax bracket. The IRS has widened every income-tax bracket threshold for tax year 2026 by roughly 2.7 percent, matching the same inflation measure that drives most employer pay adjustments. The result: a raise that simply keeps pace…
Coinbase is cutting roughly 700 jobs, about 14 percent of its global workforce, in a restructuring plan the company tied directly to preparing for what it called the “AI era.” Gemini separately disclosed plans to exit the United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia, eliminating up to 200 positions, or 25 percent of its staff. Together,…
Home listing prices in the United States fell 2.4% compared with the same period a year earlier, extending a streak of year-over-year declines to seven consecutive months. The drop reflects a housing market where elevated borrowing costs continue to sideline buyers, while sellers trim asking prices to attract shrinking demand. Persistent inflation, tracked through federal…
Workers who skip or shortchange their 401(k) contributions hand back employer matching dollars they have already earned the right to collect. A common formula matches 50 percent of deferrals up to 5 percent of salary, which means an employee making $60,000 a year must set aside at least $3,000 to capture the full $1,500 match….
Investors who sell a stock at a loss and repurchase the same or a substantially identical security within 30 days lose the right to claim that loss as a tax deduction. Federal statute 26 U.S. Code Section 1091 spells out the rule in blunt terms: “no deduction shall be allowed” when the repurchase falls inside…
Midsize banks across the United States stand to pay lower deposit insurance bills after the FDIC board voted on June 25, 2026, to raise the asset threshold separating “large” from “small” institutions from $10 billion to $30 billion. The change, which also trims related assessment fees, shifts dozens of banks onto less demanding scorecards and…