The financial news that actually matters
Taxpayers who hand their financial records to a paid preparer and receive an unsigned return are exposed to every penalty, interest charge, and audit consequence that follows. The IRS placed ghost tax preparers at the top of its 2026 Dirty Dozen list, defining them as paid preparers who prepare a return but refuse to sign…
Social Security recipients across the country are receiving text messages that appear to come from the federal government, urging them to click a link and “verify” their accounts. The messages look official, sometimes referencing benefit amounts or account problems, and they ask for sensitive details like Social Security numbers and dates of birth. But the…
Homebuyers shopping for a 30-year fixed mortgage and the tens of millions of Americans carrying credit card balances face a summer of unchanged borrowing costs. The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet June 16 and 17, and futures markets assign roughly 97 percent odds that policymakers will hold the federal-funds rate steady. With…
Only seven ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, a fraction of the roughly 100 vessels that pass through on a typical day. The world’s single most important oil transit corridor has now been effectively shut down for 94 days, squeezing global crude supply lines and forcing tanker operators into longer, costlier alternatives. For…
Starting June 9, 2026, federal banking regulators will be barred from pressuring banks to shut down customer accounts based on political, religious, or social views. The rule, jointly finalized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, strips “reputation risk” from the supervisory toolkit that examiners use when…
Families who run small businesses and apply for federal student aid will no longer have those enterprises counted against them when colleges calculate how much help they qualify for. The 2026-2027 FAFSA form has been trimmed to 36 questions, and a new asset exclusion rule means that a family-owned business with 100 or fewer full-time…
Air travelers 18 and older who show up to a TSA checkpoint without a REAL ID or another accepted form of identification now face a $45 non-refundable fee to attempt identity verification through the agency’s ConfirmID program. The charge, which took effect on February 1, 2026, buys a 10-day window of access, but only if…
Low-income college students heading into the 2026-27 academic year will receive up to $7,395 in Federal Pell Grant aid, a figure locked in by Congress through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026. That award follows students across every institution they attend, with a hard lifetime cap of six Scheduled Awards, the equivalent of roughly 12 full-time…
Every baby born in the United States between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, who holds a valid Social Security number and U.S. citizenship is set to receive a $1,000 federal deposit into a new investment account on July 4, 2026. The Treasury Department will fund the deposits as part of a pilot program…
Bank customers who have faced account closures tied to their political beliefs or religious affiliations are about to gain a new federal protection. The FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized a rule that, according to the FDIC’s Federal Register index, takes effect on June 9, 2026, under the designation RIN…