The financial news that actually matters
Replace five drafty windows and install a heat pump in the same year, and the federal government will hand you up to $3,200 off your tax bill. That is not a rebate check in the mail. It is a dollar-for-dollar credit against the income tax you owe, covering 30 percent of what you spend on…
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)….
Millions of gig workers, freelancers, and casual online sellers will not receive a surprise 1099-K tax form this year. Congress repealed the $600 reporting threshold that had loomed over users of PayPal, Venmo, Etsy, eBay, and rideshare apps since 2021, restoring the original standard: third-party payment platforms must report your earnings to the IRS only…
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…
A buyer financing a $38,000 pickup truck at 7.5% interest will pay roughly $5,700 in loan interest during the first year of the loan. Starting with 2025 tax returns, that full amount could come straight off the buyer’s federal tax bill, thanks to a new deduction for auto-loan interest tucked into the One Big Beautiful…
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…