The financial news that actually matters
A taxpayer whose 2025 return showed $80,000 in total federal tax can make the IRS underpayment penalty vanish for 2026 by doing one thing: paying at least $88,000 through withholding and estimated payments over the course of the year. If the actual 2026 tax bill lands at $200,000, the $112,000 shortfall triggers no penalty at…
Congress has doubled the reporting threshold for 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC forms from $600 to $2,000, and the change is already law. Starting with payments made during the 2026 calendar year, businesses will no longer be required to file a 1099 for a contractor unless they pay that person at least $2,000. For the millions of…
A borrower with a 610 credit score walking into a mortgage lender’s office last month would have hit the same wall that has stood since the mid-2000s: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not purchase a loan with a representative FICO below 620, so most lenders would not write one. As of April 22, 2026,…
A family earning $45,000 a year and writing a tuition check for a freshman at a state university can file a federal tax return next spring and receive up to $1,000 in cash from the IRS, even if the household owes nothing in federal income tax. That payment comes from the American Opportunity Tax Credit,…
A retired teacher in suburban Phoenix sells the house she bought in 1987, pockets a six-figure gain, and moves into a smaller condo. Two years later, her Medicare Part B premium jumps by nearly $1,000 for the year. She has not gone back to work. Her pension has not changed. The only thing different on…
Somewhere in Texas right now, a home health aide earning $26,000 a year is eligible for a federal tax credit that could put more than $2,500 back in her pocket. She will probably never claim it. Texas has one of the lowest Earned Income Tax Credit participation rates in the country, and nationally, roughly one…
A married couple in Austin sells the house they bought in 2018 for $350,000. The closing price in 2026: $825,000. Their gain on paper is $475,000, and under federal tax law, every dollar of it can be excluded from income tax. A single neighbor with the same numbers would owe federal tax on $225,000 of…
About 16 million Americans filed Schedule SE with their federal tax returns in recent years, according to IRS Statistics of Income data. Every one of them confronted the same math: because no employer exists to split the payroll tax bill, freelancers, gig workers, independent contractors, and sole proprietors owe the full 15.3% self-employment tax on…
A taxpayer who e-filed a federal return on January 27 and chose direct deposit could have seen the money in a bank account by Valentine’s Day. A taxpayer who dropped a paper return in the mail the same week might still be waiting in late March. That gap is not a glitch. It is the…
For the past eight years, roughly nine out of ten federal tax filers have gotten exactly zero tax benefit from their charitable donations. The reason was simple math: the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act nearly doubled the standard deduction, which made itemizing pointless for most households. You could write a $500 check to your…
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