Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The Internal Revenue Service is lifting the standard mileage allowance for 2026 to 72.5 cents per mile, a small but meaningful bump that will ripple through expense reports, tax returns, and payroll systems across the country. The move builds on a sharp increase for 2025 and reflects the agency’s ongoing effort to keep pace with…
President Donald Trump’s signature tax package, the One Big Beautiful Bill, is about to collide with the first filing season that fully reflects its changes, and many working households are being told to expect more cash back at tax time. Accountants and policy analysts say the mix of richer credits, new deductions and adjusted withholding…
Working Americans are being told to brace for an unusually big cash bump, with federal tax changes and special deposits combining into refunds that could reach roughly $2,000 per household. That kind of money can plug holes in a strained budget or jump‑start longer term goals, but it will not stretch far if it disappears…
Older taxpayers now have access to some of the most generous standard deduction rules on record, and the stakes are high for anyone trying to stretch retirement income. The federal tax code offers an extra deduction once you reach age 65, and recent law changes have layered on a new “senior bonus” that can sharply…
American households are being told to brace for something unusual next filing season: a wave of much bigger tax refunds than they have seen in years. The shift is being driven by a new tax law, changing withholding patterns and a White House that has explicitly promised a historic payout moment for filers. At the…
The Trump administration is dangling a new round of direct payments, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promising that any fresh stimulus would focus on households earning less than $100,000. The proposal, framed as a dividend from higher tariffs, is pitched as a way to cushion Americans from rising prices while turning trade policy into a…
A worker with a strong professional career can hit a point where a paycheck starts to feel like a penalty. Someone earning a $600,000 salary can see roughly half of every extra dollar siphoned away in combined federal, state and payroll taxes, while a fortune measured in the hundreds of billions can legally grow with…
Odell Beckham Jr. has turned a locker-room conversation into a national argument about what it really means to be rich. When he says a $100 million deal can feel tight once taxes, fees, and lifestyle hit, he is not asking for sympathy so much as describing a math problem that most people never see up…
The United States has quietly closed a tax case that officials describe as the largest ever brought against a single person, with the estate of billionaire tech executive Robert Brockman agreeing to pay $750 million to the federal government. The settlement ends a sprawling fraud saga that stretched across offshore havens, complex trusts and a…
Tax pros are bracing for a very different filing season in early 2027, when Americans settle up for tax year 2026. New rules tied to President Donald Trump’s signature tax package are expected to lift many households’ refunds by roughly $1,000, but the gains will be uneven and highly dependent on how and where you…