The financial news that actually matters
Tens of millions of taxpayers who paid late-filing or late-payment penalties to the IRS during the COVID pandemic may be entitled to get that money back. But there is a hard deadline approaching: July 10, 2026. After that, the three-year statute of limitations will close on these claims for good. The penalties in question were…
Sixteen days from now, on June 15, 2026, the IRS expects the second quarterly estimated tax payment of the year. For the roughly 27 million Americans who file Schedule SE for self-employment income, according to IRS filing statistics, there is no employer handling withholding on their behalf. If they underpay or skip the deadline entirely,…
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, expanded SNAP work requirements to cover adults up to age 64 and narrowed the definition of who qualifies as a caregiver. As of June 2026, states are still rolling out enforcement for the newly covered age group, and many recipients between 55…
A 72-year-old single retiree living on $60,000 a year in Social Security and pension income stands to subtract an extra $6,000 from her taxable income on her 2025 federal return, a break that could save her more than $1,300 in taxes. A couple in their late 60s pulling in $200,000 from IRAs and investments will…
If you filed your federal tax return through the IRS Direct File tool last year, that option is gone. The IRS has shut down Direct File for the 2026 filing season, pulling the plug on the only government-built, no-cost electronic filing channel that let people prepare and submit returns without touching commercial software. The move…
Until last summer, a married couple worth $30 million was staring at a potential federal estate-tax bill that could have topped $6 million. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had temporarily doubled the estate-and-gift-tax exemption, but that doubling was set to expire on January 1, 2026, snapping the per-person shield back to roughly $7…
Most Americans will never fill out a Schedule A for their 2026 taxes. The IRS has set the standard deduction at $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, $16,100 for single filers, and $24,150 for heads of household, increases that push the threshold even further beyond what typical households spend on mortgage interest, state taxes, and…
For seven years, a homeowner in Bergen County, New Jersey, paying $15,000 in annual property taxes could only write off $10,000 of that bill on a federal return. The other $5,000 simply vanished into the tax code. That changed when President Trump signed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill into law. Starting with the 2025 tax…
A taxpayer who owes $5,000 and never files a return will rack up $250 in penalties every month. A taxpayer who owes the same amount, files on time, but cannot pay will owe just $25 per month. That tenfold difference is baked into the Internal Revenue Code, and as the filing deadline for 2025 returns…
A freelance graphic designer who earned $8,000 in April and May 2026 owes roughly $2,400 in federal estimated taxes by June 15. If she misses that deadline by even one day, the IRS starts charging an underpayment penalty at an annualized rate of 8%, compounded daily, with no grace period, no warning letter, and no…