Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Working households are being told to brace for a rare kind of tax season surprise: bigger checks from the Internal Revenue Service instead of smaller ones. The Trump administration’s latest tax adjustments are expected to translate into refunds in the ballpark of $1,600 to $2,000 for a typical worker, a shift that could briefly ease…
President Donald Trump is throwing his weight behind a new health care proposal that would send direct payments of up to $1,500 to millions of Americans, reviving the politics of government checks in a very specific, targeted way. Instead of broad stimulus, the plan is designed to help people who are paying steep premiums and…
Flexible spending accounts are getting a meaningful reset for 2026, with higher contribution ceilings and new rules that change how much tax-free money families can set aside. The shifts touch both health care and dependent care FSAs, so workers, employers, and benefits administrators all need to recalibrate before the next enrollment cycle. I want to…
House Republicans are promising a tax season payoff in 2026, telling Americans to expect refunds that are roughly $1,000 larger on average. That headline figure is eye catching, but whether any given household actually sees that kind of boost will depend on income, family size, and how the new rules interact with existing credits and…
Tax season is one of the few times each year when you can legally and predictably cut your bill to the IRS, yet many filers skip valuable credits that could put real money back in their pockets. By focusing on five often missed credits that target retirees, savers, students, homeowners and new parents, I can…
The U.S. Department of Transportation has wiped away the final $11 million slice of a record penalty tied to Southwest Airlines’ 2022 holiday meltdown, turning what was billed as a tough enforcement action into something closer to a performance bonus. The move raises a sharper question than any press release: when regulators erase a cash…
President Donald Trump has put a headline number on the table that is hard for any middle-income household to ignore: a proposed $2,000 “tariff dividend” that he says would flow directly to Americans as cash relief. The idea has sparked a wave of questions about who would qualify, how it would be paid, and whether…
The Trump administration is using the country’s largest anti-hunger program as leverage in a political and legal fight with Democratic-led states, threatening to cut off key funding unless they hand over more detailed data on millions of low-income residents. At the center of the clash is whether the federal government can demand expansive personal information…
Tax season in 2026 will look very different for older Americans filing 2025 returns, as a new wave of deductions reshapes how income, Social Security and retirement savings are treated. For people 65 and older, the changes are large enough to shift whether it makes sense to itemize, how much income to recognize and even…
The Trump administration is moving to attach a steep price tag to being caught after crossing the southern border without authorization, planning a new $5,000 “apprehension fee” that would be charged to migrants detained by U.S. agents. The proposal fits into a broader strategy that treats migration less as a humanitarian challenge and more as…