Three federal tax credits that helped bring down the price of an electric or hybrid vehicle are no longer available to most buyers, and the change is not a proposal working its way through Congress — it is settled law that has already taken effect. The New Clean Vehicle Credit, the Used Clean Vehicle Credit,…

Two federal agencies have proposed making taxpayers sign a new perjury declaration before they can collect the refundable portion of four common tax credits, tying eligibility for that money to citizenship or immigration status for what would be the first time inside the individual tax code. The rule is not in effect, and no return…

Most tax breaks in the federal code force a choice: itemize specific expenses on Schedule A, or take the standard deduction and skip the itemizing altogether. The Internal Revenue Service has now confirmed that the new enhanced deduction for people 65 and older breaks that pattern. A taxpayer doesn’t have to give up the standard…

Married couples doing their own tax math this filing season are running into a provision that didn’t exist on returns before 2025: an extra deduction set aside for people 65 and older, doubled when both spouses qualify for it. The Internal Revenue Service laid out the mechanics in a tax tip published this February, and…

Most tax breaks that shrink with income do it so gradually that nobody notices the exact point where they hit zero. The new deduction for taxpayers 65 and older isn’t built that way. The law behind it sets a specific, calculable income level where the break disappears completely, and for a single filer that level…

December 31, 2026 does something no other date on the calendar does for this deduction: it decides, based on nothing but the day someone was born, who gets the new $6,000 senior deduction on their next return and who has to wait another year to qualify. The rule tests a taxpayer’s age on the very…

Ray and Carol have filed separate federal tax returns for eleven years, ever since an old business debt convinced their accountant it was safer to keep their finances legally apart. Both are past 65, both collect Social Security, and both assumed a new tax break for seniors would apply to them the same way it…

Every fall, the IRS quietly updates dozens of tax thresholds for inflation, and buried in that list is the exemption amount for the alternative minimum tax — a second, parallel calculation that some taxpayers have to run alongside their regular return. For tax year 2026, the agency has locked in new numbers for both the…

The IRS put out a reminder this week, timed to National Payroll Week, telling workers to pull up their last pay stub and check whether the right amount of federal tax is coming out. It’s the kind of notice that’s easy to scroll past, but this year it lands differently: the new deductions for overtime…

A driver who buys a Toyota Camry built in Georgetown, Kentucky can now count the loan interest toward a $10,000 federal tax deduction. A driver who buys the same Camry trim built in Aichi, Japan cannot — same price, same interest rate, same monthly payment. That is the line Treasury and the IRS drew on…