Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Federal income tax on Social Security benefits is one of those rules that quietly reshapes retirement budgets, yet many people only discover how it works when a surprise bill lands in April. The core rule is simple but unforgiving: depending on your total income, up to a large share of your monthly checks can be…
Florida’s push to eliminate property taxes is being sold as a simple way to make housing more affordable, but the math points to a far messier outcome. If the plan moves ahead, home prices are likely to jump, financing could get trickier, and the very tax shift meant to help residents might leave the market…
Florida’s push to wipe out property taxes on primary homes is being sold as a break for stretched homeowners, but the same policy could quickly inflate the very prices buyers are already struggling to afford. If the plan moves forward, the state’s housing market would not just get cheaper to own each year, it could…
California’s latest tax fight centers on a union-backed proposal to raise roughly $100 billion from a one-time levy on the state’s richest residents, a group estimated at just a few hundred people. The measure would test how far voters are willing to go to protect health care and education by concentrating a massive new tax…
President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul reshaped the financial incentives that long encouraged wealthy Americans to give large sums to charity, and nonprofit leaders are already bracing for a shift in who writes the checks. If big donors scale back because the tax code is less generous to itemizers, the question is whether middle income households,…
The Trump administration is moving to shut off a little understood but politically explosive corner of the tax code, targeting refundable credits and other tax-based benefits that officials say have been flowing to people who are in the country illegally. The Treasury Department’s new push, framed as a crackdown on “abuse,” could reshape how undocumented…
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…
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….