Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
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…
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”…
The Earned Income Tax Credit, one of the largest federal benefits aimed at working families, sends tens of billions of dollars to eligible filers each year, yet the IRS itself describes it as routinely underclaimed. For the 2025 tax year, the credit can reach $8,046 for households with three or more qualifying children, and that…
Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has turned a series of state government accountability fights into a direct confrontation with the Legislature, one that could reshape how taxpayers track public spending. Her office identified $12,322,688 in public benefit fraud in a single fiscal year and flagged serious contracting failures in the state’s emergency shelter system. When…
The IRS now requires crypto brokers to report gross proceeds from digital asset sales on a brand-new form, but most of those forms will arrive without the one number that actually determines how much tax you owe: your cost basis. That gap between what the government knows you sold and what you actually paid creates…
The IRS released its 2026 tax bracket adjustments with little fanfare, but the numbers reflect more than routine inflation indexing. The changes trace back to a specific piece of legislation that alters how tax parameters are set, creating a split outcome: some filers stand to keep more of their income, while others face a heavier…
The new SALT deduction rules signed into law by President Trump hand most filers a higher cap on state and local tax write-offs, but households earning between $500,000 and $600,000 face a sharp and punishing phase-down that could erase the benefit entirely. This income band sits in a policy dead zone: too high to claim…
The Internal Revenue Service is warning tax filers that phone lines will likely see a sharp spike in call volume during the week of February 16, 2026, a period the agency considers one of the busiest stretches of every filing season. For millions of Americans trying to check refund status or resolve account questions, that…