The financial news that actually matters
Homeowners who tap their property’s equity for cash face a tax rule that trips up filers every spring: the IRS allows a deduction for interest on a home-equity loan or line of credit only when the borrowed funds pay for buying, building, or substantially improving the residence that secures the debt. That restriction, rooted in…
Thousands of Colgate-Palmolive retirees who were shortchanged on pension benefits will share in a $332 million settlement that the consumer-goods giant agreed to pay. The deal, which resolved claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, received final court approval in January 2026. Of that total, $99 million went to cover plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees…
Workers who earn more than $200,000 in a calendar year owe an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax on every dollar above that line. But the withholding mechanism built into the tax code does not kick in until a single employer pays that worker past the $200,000 mark, creating a gap that catches job-switchers and dual-income households…
Workers over age 50 who earned more than $150,000 from their employer last year will lose the option to shelter their 401(k) catch-up contributions from taxes upfront. Starting in 2026, those higher earners must direct catch-up dollars into after-tax Roth accounts if their plan offers the feature. The Treasury Department and the IRS finalized the…
Households earning well above the median but far below the ultra-wealthy bracket are increasingly paying a tax that Congress originally aimed at high earners. The Net Investment Income Tax, set at 3.8 percent, kicks in once modified adjusted gross income tops $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers. Those dollar thresholds have not…
Retirees who hold employer stock inside a 401(k) have access to a tax break that most never claim. When company shares are distributed as part of a qualifying lump-sum payout, federal law allows the net unrealized appreciation on those shares to be taxed later at capital-gains rates rather than as ordinary income at the time…
Depositors who hold a mix of single, joint, retirement, and trust accounts at one FDIC-insured bank can each qualify for a separate $250,000 layer of federal deposit insurance, effectively multiplying their protection well beyond a quarter of a million dollars without ever switching institutions. The federal statute that governs this structure, 12 U.S.C. Section 1821,…
American homeowners will pay an average of $3,057 for property insurance this year, capping a 12% national price surge in 2025 that hit hardest in Georgia, New Mexico, Nebraska, and California, where double-digit increases are projected to continue into 2026. The acceleration is not uniform: those four states face steeper hikes than the rest of…
Investors sitting on large unrealized gains in publicly traded shares face a choice every time they plan a charitable gift: sell the stock and donate the cash, or transfer the shares directly to the charity. The second path, when the stock qualifies, eliminates the federal capital-gains tax on the appreciation and still lets the donor…
Homeowners who sell a primary residence can shield up to $250,000 of capital gain from federal income tax, or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. Those dollar caps were written into federal law in 1997 under 26 U.S.C. Section 121 and have never been adjusted for inflation. With home values sharply higher than they were…