The financial news that actually matters
Ramil Ventura Palafox, the founder of PGI Global and CEO of Praetorian Group International, sold investors on the promise of daily returns from crypto and foreign-exchange trading. Federal regulators say those returns never came from real trading profits. Instead, the SEC has charged Palafox with orchestrating a $198 million fraud scheme built on membership-package sales…
Albert Saniger, the founder and former CEO of the shopping app Nate, told investors his product used artificial intelligence to complete online purchases automatically. He raised over $42 million on that promise. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission now allege the technology never worked as described, and that the real engine behind the…
The IRS has confirmed that the annual gift-tax exclusion for 2026 holds steady at $19,000 per recipient, the same figure that applied in 2025. That means any individual can transfer up to $19,000 to as many separate people as they choose during the calendar year without reducing the lifetime estate and gift tax exemption or…
Willow TV subscribers who believe the streaming service shared their viewing data without consent have a narrow window to collect payment from a privacy settlement tied to the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. The deadline to submit a no-proof claim is July 21, and eligible subscribers do not need to show receipts, screenshots, or…
Roughly nine out of ten U.S. tax filers take the standard deduction rather than itemizing, and for years that choice meant forgoing any write-off for charitable giving. Starting with tax year 2026, those filers can subtract up to $1,000 in cash donations to qualified charities from their taxable income, or $2,000 for married couples filing…
Households facing steep bills for surgeries, chronic prescriptions, or long-term care have a federal tax break available, but only if their total unreimbursed costs clear a specific income-based threshold. Under federal law, taxpayers who itemize deductions on Schedule A can subtract qualified medical and dental expenses that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income. Congress…
Berkshire Hathaway’s combined cash, cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasury bill holdings hit $381.7 billion as of Sept. 30, 2025, a figure that more than doubles the conglomerate’s previous all-time high. The balance sheet entry, drawn from a quarterly SEC filing, represents the largest liquid reserve ever assembled by a single publicly traded company. For…
Macy’s plans to shut 150 of its namesake stores over three years, with roughly 50 locations expected to close by the end of 2024. The retailer disclosed the strategy in a regulatory filing and an accompanying press release titled “A Bold New Chapter,” framing the cuts as a way to concentrate resources on fewer, higher-performing…
Americans who leave a job during or after the calendar year they turn 55 can pull money from that employer’s 401(k) plan without paying the 10 percent early-distribution penalty that normally applies before age 59 and a half. The rule, written into federal tax law at 26 U.S. Code Section 72(t)(2)(A)(v), is often called the…
Families with qualifying children will see a larger federal tax credit starting with their 2026 returns. Congress set the child tax credit at $2,200 per qualifying child under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, replacing the prior amount and building in an automatic annual inflation adjustment. The IRS has already begun publishing 2026 figures tied…