Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has framed his Fiscal Year 2027 budget around a binary choice: either Albany approves new taxes on wealthy residents and corporations, or every property owner in the city faces a steep rate increase. The framing is deliberately provocative, designed to pressure state lawmakers by putting the political cost of…
The standard deduction keeps growing, and with it, the number of Americans who skip itemizing entirely. For tax year 2026, a batch of inflation adjustments and new legislative provisions means that non-itemizers have more ways than ever to cut their tax bills. Here are 13 breaks that reduce taxable income or generate credits without a…
A federal court ruling has raised a high-stakes question about pandemic-era tax relief: whether a mix of disaster authority and Treasury regulations effectively paused certain federal tax-filing and payment deadlines for more than three years during COVID-19. Under that reading, the gap ran from March 2020 through mid-2023, and corporations and other taxpayers are now…
Washington Senate Democrats are advancing a bill to reverse the state’s recent estate tax increases, a move that directly challenges the logic of the federal GOP’s decision to permanently raise the estate tax exemption to $15 million. The effort, carried out through SB 6347, has drawn little public attention despite clearing a key committee vote,…
Oregon Senate lawmakers are advancing a bill that would disconnect the state’s tax code from three federal tax breaks, a move the Legislative Revenue Office projects would net an additional $311.6 million for the state’s General Fund in the 2025-27 biennium. SB 1507 is now in its engrossed form after clearing the Senate Finance and…
The Internal Revenue Service has opened the 2026 filing season for 2025 returns, and first-time filers face a hard deadline: the 2025 tax return is due on April 15, 2026 according to IRS Publication 17. For anyone filing for the first time, the real risk is not just missing that date but making basic errors…
Millions of American taxpayers are discovering that this filing season comes with a punishing twist: smaller refunds, surprise balances due, and long waits for money they already counted on. Instead of the usual early-year cash cushion, many households are confronting unexpected bills and penalties just as high prices continue to squeeze budgets. Behind that shock…
Millions of Americans earning money through payment apps and online marketplaces face a shifting set of IRS reporting rules that could trigger compliance letters if they fail to act. The Form 1099-K, which tracks payments processed through platforms like Venmo, PayPal, and Etsy, has been at the center of a years-long regulatory tug-of-war over how…
Early tax filers are collecting noticeably larger refund checks this season. Through the first week of February 2026, the average IRS refund climbed to $2,290, up 10.9% from $2,065 at the same point a year earlier. The jump reflects both new tax code provisions taking effect for the 2025 tax year and the typical early-season…
A proposed federal regulation published on December 23, 2025, could change how the government intercepts stimulus-style payments, tax refunds, and other federal disbursements to collect outstanding debts. The rule arrives as roughly 1 million taxpayers await special Recovery Rebate Credit payments of up to $1,400, and as speculation grows around a possible $2,000 “tariff dividend”…