Author: Elizabeth Blessing
-
The IRS starts phasing out the new deduction for tips once a couple’s income passes $300,000, and the overtime deduction phases out at the same point
A married couple with income above $300,000 starts to lose the new federal deductions for tips and for overtime pay. The IRS says both deductions phase out at the same line: modified adjusted gross income over $300,000 for joint filers, and over $150,000 for taxpayers who do not file jointly. Below that line, the deductions…
-
Food stamps already cannot buy soda or sweetened drinks in Indiana, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Arkansas, where purchase limits are running now
Eight states have already passed the dates USDA listed for limits on what food stamps can buy, and SNAP shoppers there are living under those rules now. The states are Indiana, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Arkansas. Every one restricts a soda, soft drink or sweetened drink, and seven of the eight add…
-
Food stamp households assigned to change reporting must report a change in income at the $150 threshold, under the USDA figures that took effect this month
A food stamp household that is assigned to change reporting has one dollar line to watch: $150. USDA lists that figure in its fiscal year 2027 SNAP cost-of-living tables, the set of figures that took effect on October 1. The tables run through September 30, 2027. The table is headed “Threshold for Required Reporting of…
-
Iowa residents 60 and older could apply for heating help from October 1, and everyone else can apply from November 1 until April 30
Iowa’s winter heating help has been open since October 1 for households with someone 60 or older, and everyone else can start applying on November 1. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, takes applications for the rest of the winter, through April 30, 2027. That makes two groups and three dates:…
-
St. Louis homeowners 62 and older can apply to freeze part of their property tax bill from March 1, 2027, on homes with a market value up to $528,392
St. Louis will not take applications for its senior property tax freeze until March 1, 2027, but the rules are already posted, and they turn on one number: $528,392. The City of St. Louis Assessor’s Office says that is the most a home can be worth, in market value, and still qualify. The freeze is…
-
Ohio homeowners 65 and older in Franklin and Warren counties must get homestead exemption forms in by December 31 to cut next year’s property tax bill
Ohio homeowners who are 65 or older have until December 31 to get a homestead exemption application to their county auditor. That cutoff is the same in Franklin County, home of Columbus, and in Warren County, whose auditor works out of Lebanon. Both counties treat the end of the year as the last day for…
-
A veteran with the top disability rating and no dependents would go from $3,939 to $4,080 a month on December 1 if Congress passes the compensation COLA bill
A veteran rated 100 percent disabled, with no spouse, children or dependent parents, gets $3,938.58 a month from VA today. That rate took effect December 1, 2025. If Congress passes the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2026, the same veteran would go from $3,939 to $4,080 a month on December 1, 2026. The $4,080…
-
Social Security estimates a disabled widow or widower will average $1,022 a month in January, $35 more than now
Widows and widowers do not all have to wait until 60 to collect Social Security survivor benefits. A surviving spouse who is disabled can start at 50, a decade earlier, and the agency’s January table gives that group its own line. Social Security estimates a disabled widow or widower will average $1,022 a month in…
-
Social Security’s table puts the spouse of a retired worker at an average $1,024 a month in January, $35 more than now
Not every Social Security check is paid on the recipient’s own work. The spouse of a retired worker draws on the worker’s record, and SSA’s table of estimated average benefits puts that payment at $1,024 a month in January, up $35 from $989 now. It ties for the smallest dollar gain among the table’s main…
-
Social Security can cut an SSI check by up to a third when the recipient lives in someone else’s household, though food stopped counting toward it in 2024
Moving in with a relative can shrink an SSI check by as much as a third, and since September 30, 2024 the groceries someone else buys no longer count against it. Social Security says a payment may be reduced by up to one-third of the federal benefit rate when a recipient lives in another person’s…