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…
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…
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…
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…