Main Street Dollars

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The IRS’s program for building a tax return on someone else’s behalf closed 592,800 cases in fiscal year 2025, more than double the 252,100 it closed two years earlier. The jump reflects a pandemic-era program coming back online rather than a new crackdown, but the mechanics matter to anyone who has gone a year or…

The IRS has flagged 73.2 million potential nonfilers across five tax years

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in Rule Changes

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says the IRS is sitting on 73.2 million individual cases in which someone appears to owe a tax return for one of the last five years and has not filed one. Most of that backlog built up while the agency’s usual nonfiler notices sat idle for years at…

Stores that ring up a banned SNAP item get one warning, then lose the program

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in Government Programs

A grocery or convenience store that sells a restricted item to a SNAP shopper in a waiver state does not lose its ability to accept food benefits on the first mistake. U.S. Department of Agriculture policy gives every retailer a 90-day grace period after a state’s restriction takes effect, then one warning letter for a…

Government funding runs out December 11, a month after the midterms

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The federal government will keep running past its usual September 30 funding deadline after Congress passed, and President Trump signed, a short-term spending law that carries agencies through December 11. Lawmakers timed the bill so the next funding fight lands roughly a month after the November midterm elections rather than before them. The measure passed…

The Census Bureau releases the 2025 income and poverty numbers Tuesday morning

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The U.S. Census Bureau will publish its 2025 income, poverty and health insurance figures this Tuesday morning, September 15, opening the release with a live public webinar at 10 a.m. Eastern. The report comes from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the same annual survey that produces the nation’s official poverty rate…

A family of four can earn $61,050 and still qualify for WIC this year

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A household of four can bring in as much as $61,050 a year and still qualify for WIC under the income guidelines now in effect. That’s the number the USDA published for the period running from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, and it surprises a lot of families who assume WIC is only…

Adult day care meal payments rose 16 cents, to $4.76 for lunch or supper

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in Government Programs

The federal government just published its yearly update to how much it reimburses adult day care centers for feeding the people in their care, and the free lunch or supper rate is going up 16 cents. That sounds small on its own, but it is one of several small, CPI-driven adjustments that ripple through a…

Canada’s new tariffs hit American appliances, dairy and electronics, covering $27.6 billion of goods

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Canada’s counter-tariffs on American goods took effect this month, and the list reads like a cross-section of everyday manufacturing and grocery-aisle staples. The Canadian government says the new tariffs mirror, dollar for dollar, a tariff the United States imposed on Canadian goods weeks earlier. For businesses on both sides of the border that sell into…

AT&T is charging $10 more a line on retired unlimited plans, showing up on August bills

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in Utilities & Energy

AT&T customers who never switched off an older unlimited plan are seeing a new line item on their bill this month. The change, spelled out on AT&T’s own support site, adds a flat monthly charge to a set of retired wireless plans, with the amount depending on how many lines share the account. Customers who…

Dental prices fell in August while hospital and prescription prices did not move at all

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