The financial news that actually matters
Covers tax laws, government policies, fiscal changes, and financial regulations. It explains how policy decisions affect personal income, businesses, and the economy.
A retiree living on a modest income does not automatically owe tax just because an old brokerage account finally shows a gain worth selling. Federal tax law includes a bracket where long-term capital gains are taxed at nothing at all, and a retiree whose taxable income falls low enough in a given year can sell…
Selling a primary residence can still shelter up to $250,000 of profit from tax, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, exactly as the exclusion has read since Congress wrote it into the tax code nearly three decades ago, in 1997. What has changed is everything around that number. Home prices in most of…
Freelancing, consulting, or running a small side business after leaving a full-time job changes how Medicare premiums can be handled at tax time, because they no longer have to count as an ordinary personal expense. The self-employed health insurance deduction lets that retiree subtract the premiums directly from income before reaching taxable income, the same…
Roughly 20 million Medicaid enrollees across more than 40 states are approaching a coverage test that did not exist a year ago. Under a provision of the 2025 federal tax and spending law, most non-disabled adults ages 19 through 64 who qualify for Medicaid through the program’s expansion group must now show at least 80…
President Trump signed a short-term funding bill on September 2 that keeps federal agencies open through December 11, avoiding a shutdown that would otherwise have begun when the 2027 fiscal year opened on October 1. The law, H.R. 6500, does not settle federal spending for the year; it buys Congress roughly ten more weeks to…
A federal pilot program now lets Medicare enrollees who previously had no coverage for weight-loss injections buy certain GLP-1 medications for a flat $50 a month. The option, which opened July 1, 2026, has already been used by roughly 500,000 seniors who together saved $216 million in its first two months, according to the Trump…
A rule that used to stop at age 54 now follows a food-stamp recipient into the early 60s. Under the tax and spending law Congress passed in July 2025, adults ages 55 through 64 who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and do not have a child in the home must now document at least…
Owing the IRS more than can realistically ever be paid back does not automatically mean a lifetime of collection notices and levies. A federal program lets a taxpayer who genuinely cannot pay in full ask the IRS to accept less than the total amount owed, closing the account permanently once the reduced sum is paid….
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, raised the federal cap on the state and local tax deduction from $10,000 to $40,000, a fourfold increase that applies retroactively to the 2025 tax year. For homeowners in high-tax states who itemize deductions, the change reopens a write-off that had been…
A claim that Social Security benefits are no longer taxed has circulated widely since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in mid-2025. The law does deliver a real tax break to many people 65 and older, but it is narrower than the “no tax on Social Security” framing suggests. The benefits themselves…
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