Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Freshly published IRS data for the 2026 filing season shows average tax refunds running well below the levels President Trump promoted when he sold his signature tax overhaul to American families. The gap between the refund sizes Trump promised and what early filers are actually receiving has reignited debate over whether the 2017 tax cuts…
Small business owners who prepare their own tax returns often leave deductions on the table, not because the write-offs do not exist, but because the rules governing them are layered, technical, and easy to misapply. Hiring a qualified accountant does more than offload paperwork. It introduces a professional whose livelihood depends on knowing which elections,…
Los Angeles County residents are now paying more in sales tax on everything from restaurant meals to clothing, thanks to a voter-approved measure that took effect on April 1, 2025. The net increase may look small on paper, but it lands on top of rates that already rank among the highest in the nation, and…
Several state legislatures are advancing proposals that would freeze property tax bills for homeowners aged 65 and older, a direct response to rising assessments that have pushed some retirees toward the financial edge. From New York to Tennessee to New Jersey, the mechanisms differ, but the core promise is the same: lock a senior’s tax…
Roughly 70 percent of all U.S. taxpayers qualify to prepare and file their federal returns at no cost through IRS Free File, yet fewer than 3 percent of those eligible actually use it. That gap between availability and adoption represents one of the most significant missed opportunities in personal finance, costing millions of households money…
The White House is framing the upcoming tax filing season as the most generous in American history, with administration messaging suggesting that refunds tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill could jump significantly for millions of households. The law, enacted as H.R. 1, introduces new deductions for tips and overtime while raising standard deduction thresholds….
Millions of taxpayers filing their 2025 returns during the 2026 filing season are bracing for longer waits to receive their refunds, and the reasons go well beyond normal processing times. A combination of identity verification holds, legally mandated freezes on certain credits, new direct deposit rules, and math error corrections can push refund timelines from…
Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist behind Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, has floated a provocative idea: that artificial intelligence could grow the economy so dramatically that the United States could afford to eliminate income taxes for roughly 125 million lower-earning Americans. The proposal treats AI not as a mere efficiency tool but as a force…
Washington’s Senate has approved a new tax targeting residents who earn more than $1 million a year, pushing the state closer to adopting what supporters call a long-overdue correction to one of the most regressive tax structures in the country. Senate Bill 6346 would impose a 9.9% levy on individual income above a $1,000,000 standard…
President Donald Trump used Truth Social on February 17, 2026, to declare that tax refunds this filing season will be “substantially greater than ever before,” telling Americans, “Don’t spend all of this money in one place!” The boast follows months of White House messaging that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in…