Category: Taxes & Policy

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…

Owe the IRS money past the due date, and interest starts adding up daily, not just once a year. Fewer taxpayers realize the same rule runs in reverse: if the IRS sits on a refund too long, it owes interest back. The Same Rate Applies in Both Directions For individual taxpayers, the interest rate on…

Turning 65 changes more than a birthday on a calendar; it changes the math on a federal tax return. Filers who don’t itemize get to claim a larger standard deduction than younger taxpayers once they reach that age, a rule that has existed for decades and adjusts most years for inflation. How the Age-65 Add-On…

Workers who put in overtime this year should not expect a bigger number on their regular paycheck because of the new “no tax on overtime” break. The IRS has clarified that the provision works as a deduction claimed when a tax return is filed, not as an upfront reduction in the payroll withholding that comes…