Category: Changes and Deadlines

Filers in a growing list of communities hit by wildfires, storms, and typhoons this year do not have to worry about the usual fall and winter tax deadlines. The IRS has been rolling out disaster declarations throughout 2026 that push affected taxpayers’ filing and payment due dates all the way to February 1, 2027. For…

Turning 65 does more than open the door to Medicare. It also changes the math on a federal tax return, because the IRS gives older filers a bigger standard deduction than younger taxpayers get. Anyone who does not itemize deductions and reaches 65 by the end of the tax year can claim this extra amount…

Anyone who tracks miles for a small business, a side gig, or unreimbursed volunteer driving needs to watch the calendar as closely as the odometer this year. The IRS has split its 2026 standard mileage rate in two, and driving logged after June 30 is worth more on a tax return than driving logged earlier…

The Trump administration has opened a temporary window for beef producers overseas to ship 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings into the United States without paying the usual import duty, an effort aimed squarely at the record price of ground beef. The proclamation, signed August 26, is explicitly framed by the White House as…

Two separate research groups that track the cost of this year’s tariffs have landed in roughly the same place: an estimated $840 to $900 in extra costs for the average U.S. household in 2026. Neither figure is a bill anyone actually receives. Both are projections of how much higher prices on tariffed goods are likely…

A new set of import tariffs took effect this summer, adding a 10 percent duty on a long list of goods coming from Canada, Mexico, India, the United Kingdom and more than a dozen other trading partners. The action comes from a presidential memorandum signed July 23 and published in the Federal Register five days…

Congress has sent a short-term funding bill to the president’s desk that would keep federal agencies and food stamp benefits running through December 11, but as of this writing it has not yet been signed into law. The measure cleared the House on a lopsided 370-48 vote and the Senate weeks earlier, putting the country…

President Trump has told Congress that most of the government’s roughly two million civilian employees will get no base or locality pay increase in January 2027, even as junior members of the armed forces are in line for raises as large as 7 percent. The determination came in a letter the president is required to…

Assisted living can run tens of thousands of dollars a year, and few residents realize the IRS allows a meaningful slice of that bill to be written off as a medical expense. Publication 502 spells out when assisted-living and similar long-term care costs qualify as deductible, and the answer hinges less on where someone lives…

Two homeowners with identical houses on opposite sides of a state line can end up with very different property tax bills, and a homestead exemption is often the reason why. The program exists in some form in most states, yet it remains one of the more overlooked ways a homeowner can lower an annual tax…