Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Donald Trump is now confronting a new kind of fiscal scrutiny, as a prominent watchdog warns that his favored payouts and tax breaks could ultimately carry a multitrillion dollar price tag for the federal government. The warning frames Trump’s second term agenda not just as a political fight, but as a potential $6 trillion test…
President Donald Trump is promising that typical households will see roughly a four-figure boost in their federal tax refunds for the 2026 filing season, arguing that his new tax law will put more cash in pockets just as family budgets are straining. The White House is leaning into that message, casting the coming filing season…
Federal student loan borrowers are running out of time on a quiet but costly perk: for a few more months, most forgiven balances are shielded from federal income tax. Once that protection lapses at the end of 2025, many people whose balances are wiped out under income-driven repayment plans could suddenly owe thousands of dollars…
The standard deduction is set to climb again for the 2025 tax year, with married couples filing jointly able to shield $31,500 of income from federal income tax. That higher threshold will shape how millions of households decide between itemizing and taking the simpler flat deduction, and it will ripple through paycheck withholding, tax planning,…
New York’s latest round of inflation relief is landing in mailboxes just as families tally up the cost of their Thanksgiving tables. More than 8 million residents are slated to receive targeted “inflation refund” payments, turning a complex tax policy decision into a very tangible pre-holiday cash infusion. For households squeezed by higher prices on…
Minnesota’s decision to freeze welfare payments tied to a sprawling tax fraud case has fused two of the most combustible issues in American politics: public assistance and national security. State officials say they are confronting a scheme that diverted an estimated $1.7 billion in tax refunds, some of which investigators now link to a foreign terrorist…
Estate and gift tax rules are shifting quickly, and the window to lock in today’s generous exemptions is closing as the 2026 changes approach. I focus here on eight concrete estate tax tactics that can be executed before year-end so families can use current rules to reduce future estate tax exposure. Each strategy is grounded…
Swiss voters are heading toward a landmark decision on whether to impose a 50% inheritance tax on the country’s richest estates, yet the political and polling signals now point clearly toward rejection. The debate has exposed deep tensions between climate funding, tax justice and the country’s long tradition of low levies on wealth, even as…
Cash is still king in plenty of everyday transactions, but once you walk into a branch with a thick envelope, the rules change in ways most customers never see. The real friction point is not a single magic number, but how banks quietly treat deposits that creep toward or past $5,000 as potential compliance headaches….
Property taxes can quietly eat into a fixed retirement budget, but seniors have more tools than ever to push those bills down. By combining long-standing exemptions with new state-level reforms, older homeowners can often trim hundreds of dollars a year. I will walk through four concrete strategies that show how seniors can slash property tax…