The financial news that actually matters
The IRS has now given taxpayers something they did not have just months ago: taxpayers now have a clear way to claim four headline-grabbing federal tax breaks tied to tips, overtime, car-loan interest, and age. For workers and retirees who spent much of the year hearing broad promises about “no tax” treatment, the release of…
U.S. homebuilders are floating an ambitious idea: a national push to build as many as 1 million lower-cost houses under the name “Trump Homes.” The proposal, first reported by Bloomberg and echoed by Reuters, immediately grabbed attention because it linked two powerful forces in the housing market at once: the country’s deep affordability crunch and…
Parents who once focused mainly on 529 plans and savings accounts are increasingly taking a harder look at Roth IRAs for kids, especially when a child starts earning money early. The appeal is simple enough to explain at the kitchen table: if a child has legitimate earned income, even a few thousand dollars contributed young…
Millions of taxpayers count on their federal refund to land quickly, especially after filing electronically and choosing direct deposit. But the latest IRS oversight data shows that for a sizable group of filers, that expectation is not matching reality. Even after years of modernization efforts, millions of refunds still fell outside the agency’s normal processing…
The seven-year countdown is no longer an abstract warning buried in a government report. It is now the central fact hanging over the future of Social Security retirement benefits. According to the Social Security Administration’s 2025 trustees report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund, the part of the system that pays retirement and survivor…
The IRS has issued fresh guidance at the start of tax season that could change how millions of Americans get refunds and make payments to the federal government. The changes in the IRS new tax payment rules do not alter how people file their tax returns. It does, however, push the tax system further away…
Medicare scam calls were already a familiar nuisance for many older Americans. During the most recent open enrollment season, they became something more dangerous. Recent reporting citing Better Business Bureau complaint data found Medicare scam complaints running 40% higher than a year earlier, while federal officials were separately dealing with a confirmed Medicare.gov account incident…
Americans aged 65 and older have a new tax break to pay attention to when filing their 2025 federal returns: an extra deduction worth up to $6,000 per eligible person. For some married couples, that can mean as much as $12,000 in added deductions on one return. The catch is that the benefit of the…
National home prices in the United States have slipped into negative territory on a year over year basis for the first time since the housing market was still climbing out of its post-crisis slump. That shift does not point to a crash, but it does mark a clear break from the long stretch of annual…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has opened the door to a possible extension of the 2026 federal tax filing deadline. Taxpayers, however, are still stuck in a familiar position: preparing for April 15 while Washington leaves room for something else. That tension is what makes this filing season different. The IRS has already begun accepting 2025…