The financial news that actually matters
Covers tax deadlines, filing updates, government changes, and important financial calendar events. It ensures readers stay updated with time-sensitive financial requirements.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, gave federal banking regulators one year to finalize the rules that will govern who can issue payment stablecoins in the United States. That clock is now ticking toward its final months, and the FDIC has already approved a proposed rule covering reserves, redemption, risk management,…
Roughly 150 million individual tax returns will land at the IRS for the 2026 filing season, and the vast majority of those filers will skip Schedule A entirely. The agency confirmed that the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly will rise to $32,200 for tax year 2026, up from $31,500 in 2025. Single filers…
Graduate students entering programs this fall face a hard new ceiling on how much they can borrow from the federal government each year. Starting July 1, 2026, new graduate and professional-degree borrowers will be limited to $20,500 annually in federal Direct Loans, a sharp reduction from the previously available amounts that often covered most or…
Roughly one in five workers who earn enough to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit walk away from the money every year. For Tax Year 2022, the national participation rate stood at 80.8%, meaning 19.2% of eligible taxpayers never filed a claim. That gap has persisted for more than two decades, and with the…
Workers expecting a standard cost-of-living bump in 2026 can stop worrying about being pushed into a higher federal tax bracket. The IRS has widened every income-tax bracket threshold for tax year 2026 by roughly 2.7 percent, matching the same inflation measure that drives most employer pay adjustments. The result: a raise that simply keeps pace…
Workers who get married, welcome a baby, or pick up a second job during the year often discover the consequences months later, when a tax return reveals hundreds or even thousands of dollars owed to the IRS. The agency itself warns that these common life changes can throw paycheck withholding out of alignment with actual…
Workers saving through a 401(k), 403(b), or most 457 plans can set aside up to $24,500 in 2026, a $500 increase over the 2025 cap. The IRA contribution limit rises to $7,500 for the same tax year. Both changes, driven by the annual cost-of-living adjustment process, give savers slightly more room to shelter income from…
Investors who sold stocks, bonds, or other assets at a loss during 2025 face a hard ceiling when they file their federal returns: net capital losses can reduce ordinary income by no more than $3,000 in a single tax year, or $1,500 for those married filing separately. That cap, set by federal statute decades ago,…
Taxpayers who requested extra time to complete their 2025 federal returns gained a paperwork reprieve until Oct. 15, 2026, but the IRS did not move the payment clock by a single day. Any balance owed was still due by the original April filing deadline, and interest started running from that date for anyone who fell…
Taxpayers who paid late-filing penalties on federal returns due between 2020 and 2023 face a narrow window to recover those charges. The IRS already granted automatic relief for many penalties tied to 2020 and 2021 returns, but filers who missed that round or who believe disaster-related postponement rules cover later tax years must act before…