Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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The new car loan interest break starts shrinking once income passes $100,000, or $200,000 for a couple
A new federal tax break lets some car buyers deduct the interest on an auto loan, but the deduction was never designed to reach every household that finances a vehicle. Once a filer’s income clears a specific line, the break starts shrinking, and the IRS has not spelled out publicly exactly how far the reduction…
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The home energy and electric vehicle tax credits are gone, and this is the first full year without them
Homeowners and car shoppers who spent the last few years factoring a federal tax credit into the price of a heat pump, a solar array or an electric vehicle are now shopping without one. Congress shut down three separate federal credits through the same law last year, and 2026 is the first calendar year households…
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The federal retirement match starting in 2027 stops at $71,000 for couples and $35,500 for single filers
Starting in 2027, the federal government will match half of what many low- and moderate-income workers put into a retirement account, but the match disappears entirely above a specific income line. That line isn’t one number for everyone. It shifts by filing status, and the IRS’s own income table shows married couples, heads of household…
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Washington is spending $200 million to build the systems that check Medicaid work hours
Medicaid enrollees who fall under a new work requirement will not just need to log their hours themselves. A state computer system has to catch those hours, verify them, and act on the result, and that is the unglamorous, expensive part of the rule that took effect this summer. Washington has now put a price…
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The IRS keeps charging 7 percent on unpaid taxes through the end of the year, compounded daily
The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that its interest rate on unpaid taxes will hold at 7 percent for the last quarter of 2026, and that rate compounds daily rather than sitting still once it’s set. For anyone carrying a balance from a filed return, an audit adjustment, or a missed estimated payment, that means…
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A North Carolina medical center left Blue Cross Medicare Advantage in July and leaves UnitedHealthcare at year-end
If you get your care from CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern, North Carolina, and you’re on a Medicare Advantage plan, the hospital building and your own doctor’s office are no longer treated the same way by your insurance card. One lost its in-network status two months ago. The other is on a countdown that…
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Most Mass General Brigham primary care doctors no longer take UnitedHealthcare or Blue Cross Medicare Advantage
Losing a primary care doctor is not the same problem as losing a hospital, and that distinction sits at the center of Mass General Brigham’s latest Medicare Advantage decision. Since January 1, 2026, most primary care doctors across the health system’s Eastern Massachusetts practices have been out of network for Medicare Advantage plans sold by…
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Nearly 377,000 carbon monoxide detectors can fail to sound, and the maker has not agreed to recall them
A federal safety agency is telling nearly 377,000 households to unplug and throw away a combination natural gas and carbon monoxide detector immediately, warning that it may not sound an alarm during a life-threatening gas leak. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the warning on August 20 for the 4-in-1 Plug-In Natural Gas and…
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Employer health costs are set to rise 8.2 percent next year, the steepest jump since 2003
Workers with job-based health insurance are bracing for the steepest premium increase in more than two decades. A new survey from benefits consultant Marsh projects that employer health plan costs will rise 8.2% in 2027 even after companies trim benefits to soften the blow, the largest such increase since 2003. For a household already juggling…
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Social Security is finishing off paper checks this year, and Treasury says a check is 16 times likelier to be stolen
Social Security says it plans to stop mailing paper checks to beneficiaries altogether this year, closing out a shift that began under federal law more than a year ago. For the shrinking number of retirees, spouses, and survivors who still get a check in the mailbox each month, that means the payment method itself is…
