Category: Taxes Made Simple
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The proposed scholarship credit would reach households up to 300 percent of area median gross income, and would make a grantor spend 90 cents of every income dollar on scholarships
Whether a child can receive a scholarship paid for through the new federal scholarship tax credit comes down first to household income, and the proposed rules put the cutoff at 300 percent of the area median gross income. The same proposal tells the nonprofits that hand out the scholarships to put 90 cents of every…
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Indiana storm filers get until February 1 for 2025 returns, but the IRS says payments that were due April 15 are not covered
Indiana taxpayers who asked for an extension on their 2025 federal returns, and who live or run a business inside the storm-hit part of the state, now have until February 1, 2027 to file. The Internal Revenue Service set that date on September 2 in release IN-2026-01, covering severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding…
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The IRS says filers earning $89,000 or less can use guided Free File software at no cost
Tax season feels far away on the first weekend of October, yet the IRS keeps a free federal filing route running all year for returns that are still outstanding. The agency’s guided software option is limited to filers with an adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less, and the window for the 2025 tax year…
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Kentucky set its 2027 standard deduction at $3,470, $110 more than this year
Kentucky now has a firm number for the standard deduction that applies to tax year 2027: $3,470. The Department of Revenue announced it on September 11, 2026, as a routine inflation adjustment, and the increase over the current year is $110. No new rate, no new form and no new filing step came with it,…
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South Carolina now taxes the first $30,000 of taxable income at 1.99 percent and starts from federal adjusted gross income
South Carolina’s individual income tax is being rebuilt for the 2026 tax year, and the most visible piece is a new rate table. The first $30,000 of South Carolina taxable income is taxed at 1.99 percent, and the return no longer begins from federal taxable income. It begins from federal adjusted gross income, the number…
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Mississippi’s income tax rate on earnings above $10,000 drops to 3.75 percent in 2027
Mississippi’s individual income tax schedule steps down again on January 1, 2027. For tax year 2027 the state is scheduled to tax taxable income above $10,000 at 3.75 percent, one quarter of a percentage point below the 4 percent set for 2026. The first $10,000 of taxable income is taxed at zero in every year…
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A 1 percent federal tax has applied to cash sent abroad since January, under rules Treasury has not finalized
A federal tax of 1 percent has been collecting on certain money sent abroad since the first day of 2026, even though the Treasury Department’s rulebook for it is still a draft. The charge lands on senders who hand cash to a transfer company, and it is added at the counter rather than reported on…
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The $2,000 tariff rebate bill has sat in three House committees since September 17 with no cosponsors
H.R. 10494, the American Tariff Rebate Act, was introduced in the House on September 17, 2026, and the official record shows nothing since. It proposes a $2,000 credit per filer, and it is parked in three House committees with no cosponsors attached. Nothing in it has been enacted, no agency has a payment page for…
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The new scholarship tax credit is nonrefundable, so a household with no federal tax bill gets nothing from it until it owes tax, and unused credit carries forward only five years
A tax credit can sound like a gift and still carry a gate. The Treasury Department and the IRS published temporary regulations on October 2 for a new federal scholarship tax credit, and the credit is nonrefundable: it can wipe out federal income tax that is owed, but it can never be paid out as…
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Final Treasury rules for the car loan interest deduction take effect November 9, with a $10,000 cap and a requirement that vehicles be assembled in America
Treasury and the IRS have published final regulations for the car loan interest deduction, and the rules become effective on November 9, 2026. The deduction itself is not new this autumn: the law behind it already covers interest on qualifying loans taken out after the end of 2024. What the regulations add is the fine…