Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Taxpayers in declared disaster areas now have until November 2 or February 1 to file
Two postponed filing dates now sit on the IRS disaster relief list: November 2, 2026 and February 1, 2027. Which one applies depends on the declared area where a taxpayer lives, runs a business or keeps the records needed to file. Many of the declarations cover named counties, not whole states. Which areas carry November…
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GAO says IRS screens stopped $88 billion in invalid refunds while the agency still has no antifraud strategy
Tax cheating costs the federal government somewhere between $116 billion and $304 billion a year, according to an estimate from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released September 25. The same report credits an IRS screening system with blocking $88 billion in invalid refund payments from 2018 through 2024. GAO also found that the agency has…
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Child support, a state tax bill or a federal debt can take a refund before it arrives
A federal refund can shrink for two reasons that look alike on a bank statement: the IRS changed the return, or Treasury applied part of the refund to a debt. For the second kind, the IRS names four categories: past-due child support, federal agency non-tax debts, state income tax obligations and certain state unemployment compensation…
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Drought tax relief now reaches 49 states and gives ranchers four years, not two, to replace livestock
Ranchers who sold breeding cows, dairy animals or draft stock because of drought now have four years, not two, to buy replacements before the tax on the gain comes due. The Internal Revenue Service extended that relief to 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other areas in Notice 2026-54. The change postpones…
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Four new deductions worth up to $25,000 are available on 2025 returns through October 15
Until Thursday, October 15, a 2025 federal return can still carry four deductions that are new for tax year 2025. They cover tips, overtime, interest on a car loan and age 65 and older, and the largest single cap is $25,000. All four reduce taxable income, and all four are claimed on a new form,…
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The IRS has retired IRS2Go for an app that shows a refund, a balance and an identity-theft PIN
On September 25 the IRS announced that a new app, called simply the IRS app, replaces IRS2Go. The app is free on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and its listed services include checking a refund, viewing an available balance and retrieving an Identity Protection PIN. Five more services round out the eight the…
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Fresh vegetables are forecast to cost 5.7 percent more this year
Of the food categories in USDA’s September price outlook, only beef is forecast to climb faster than fresh vegetables. The Economic Research Service predicts the fresh-vegetable index will average 5.7 percent higher in 2026 than in 2025, and it labels that figure a forecast. The year is not over, so the number can still move.…
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The FCC has paused Verizon’s copper landline shutdown in nine states
Verizon cannot count on a quiet exit from copper landlines in Arizona, Delaware, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. According to the trade publication Inside Towers, the Federal Communications Commission pulled Verizon’s application to retire that legacy service out of the automatic-grant process on September 25, 2026. The FCC…
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Diesel costs $2.63 a gallon more than a year ago, and gasoline is up $1.35
Two subtractions explain the headline. On-highway diesel averaged $6.382 a gallon in the week ending September 28, 2026, against $3.754 a year earlier, a gap of $2.628. Regular gasoline averaged $4.465 against $3.118, a gap of $1.347. Both figures come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly survey. The arithmetic, line by line The EIA’s…
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New Fair Market Rents take effect today and reset what every housing voucher pays
HUD’s Fair Market Rents for fiscal year 2027 take effect today, October 1, 2026. The rents are the benchmark behind every Housing Choice Voucher payment standard, so a new set matters to the households holding vouchers, the landlords renting to them and the local housing agencies that sit in between. The notice gives one national…