The financial news that actually matters
A married couple earning $90,000 this year will owe federal income tax on only $57,800 of it. The reason: the standard deduction for joint filers jumped to $32,200 for tax year 2026, up $2,200 from last year’s $30,000. Single filers now subtract $16,100 (up from $15,000), and heads of household get $24,150 (up from $22,500)….
A New Jersey homeowner paying $18,000 in property taxes and $14,000 in state income taxes has been writing off barely a third of that bill on her federal return since 2018. Starting with the 2026 tax year, she can deduct every dollar of it. The federal cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions is…
June 15 is 24 days away, and for anyone who earns money without an employer withholding taxes, that date is a hard payment deadline. Miss it by even one day and the IRS begins charging an underpayment penalty on June 16, plus interest that compounds daily. Worse, this particular penalty comes with a catch that…
When open enrollment for 2026 marketplace plans began, millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance encountered a jarring reality: monthly premiums had spiked, sometimes by hundreds of dollars, even though nothing about their health or income had changed. The culprit was not a sudden surge in medical costs. It was the expiration of…
Millions of Americans who paid late-filing or late-payment penalties on their 2020 or 2021 federal tax returns may be owed that money back by the IRS. The catch: the deadline to claim it is July 10, 2026, now fewer than 50 days away, and the IRS has done little to spread the word. The IRS…
Roughly 3.7 million parents hold federal PLUS loans, and every one of them who has not yet consolidated faces a deadline that could reshape their finances for decades. June 30, 2026, is the last day a Parent PLUS borrower can consolidate into a Direct Consolidation Loan and keep access to income-driven repayment and Public Service…
Millions of taxpayers who paid failure-to-pay penalties on their 2020 or 2021 federal returns may be owed refunds they have never collected. In late 2023, the IRS announced it would automatically reverse those penalties for filers whose assessed balance was under $100,000, a direct response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But more…
The following scenarios are hypothetical composites, not based on specific interviews, but they reflect circumstances documented in federal labor and nutrition data for adults ages 55 through 64. Picture a 60-year-old warehouse worker in rural Ohio who picks up 25 hours a week but can’t get more shifts. A 57-year-old home health aide in Mississippi…
Fill up a midsize SUV once a week this summer, and the proposed federal gas-tax holiday would save you about $1.60 each trip. Over five months, that adds up to roughly $35, less than what most families spend on a single weeknight takeout order. The bill behind those numbers landed in the Senate in May…
When married couples sit down to file their 2026 federal tax returns early next year, they will be able to shield $32,200 of income from taxation before a single bracket kicks in. That is $2,200 more than the 2025 standard deduction of $30,000, and it marks the largest single-year increase to this cornerstone tax provision…