Author: Brian Lund
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The subsidy holding down stand-alone Medicare drug plan premiums ends after this year, and 2027 plans are priced without it
No 2027 premium has been published for any individual Medicare drug plan, and none will be until federal officials release the plan landscape in September. What has already been settled is a subtraction. On July 28, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration, the voluntary program…
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Unpaid tax still costs 7 percent, compounded daily, through the end of the year
Interest on an unpaid federal tax balance is not a fixed annual charge that sits still. The Internal Revenue Code re-derives it every three months from a market benchmark, and whatever comes out of that formula then compounds daily against the balance until the balance is gone. For the quarter that begins Oct. 1, the…
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The average American savings account pays 0.38 percent, while a one-year CD pays 1.71
The average savings account at an American bank pays 0.38 percent a year. A one-year certificate of deposit across the same universe of institutions pays 1.71 percent, roughly four and a half times as much. Both figures come from the same federal table, published the same morning, and the distance between them is the whole…
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Cross $20,000 and 200 payments on a selling app, and a stale tax ID number costs you 24 percent up front
Backup withholding is not a penalty and it is not a tax bill. It is a switch a payment platform flips when the taxpayer identification number it holds for a seller is missing or wrong, and once it is on, 24 percent of a payment comes off the top before the rest reaches the seller’s…
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Anyone who paid for YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream since April 2019 can claim part of Disney’s $50 million settlement by September 8, with no receipts
Claim forms in a $50 million antitrust settlement with The Walt Disney Company must be submitted online or postmarked by September 8, 2026. The same date closes the window for anyone who would rather step out of the settlement and pursue Disney separately. Two later dates govern when money actually moves: written objections are due…
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A fifth American bank failed on Friday, and all $67 million of its deposits moved to a buyer overnight
Pennsylvania’s Department of Banking and Securities took possession of Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank in Philadelphia on Friday, August 21, and named the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver the same day. Before the branch doors would have opened again, a second Philadelphia institution had agreed to take the entire deposit book. The bank held $67 million…
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Ten states sued to keep banks paying interest on mortgage escrow
Two OCC rules that preempt state interest-on-escrow laws took effect June 18, 2026. Ten states filed suit in Oregon federal court on August 11 asking a judge to vacate them.
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Refunds from the AT&T data throttling case are landing by Zelle for customers who never cashed the first check
The FTC is sending AT&T data throttling refunds by Zelle to people who were already sent a payment and did not cash the check or accept the PayPal transfer.
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Langeloth Metallurgical will pay $3,662,485 to 51 workers it refused to rehire
The NLRB announced a $3,662,485 settlement for 51 former Langeloth Metallurgical strikers, covering backpay, 401(k) contributions, interest, taxes and $1.275 million in front pay.
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Social Security now answers its phone in under a minute, down from 34 minutes
A great deal of Social Security advice quietly assumes the phone is unusable. Call early, call late, expect to be cut off, budget an afternoon. The agency now reports that the hold time behind that advice has effectively disappeared, which changes the calculation for anyone who has been putting off a call for a year…