Main Street Dollars

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As of Oct. 2, 2026, the Internal Revenue Service has not released its inflation adjustments for tax year 2027. The newsroom address where that announcement would normally appear returns a “page not found” error, and the agency’s list of current-month news releases, last reviewed Oct. 1, contains nothing on 2027 brackets, the standard deduction or…

Miss the October 15 extension deadline owing tax and the minimum penalty is $525, climbing 5% a month

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Thirteen days remain before the extended filing deadline for 2025 federal income tax returns passes on October 15, and the penalty schedule for anyone who misses it is blunt. The IRS charges 5% of the unpaid tax for every month or partial month a return is late, and a return that is more than 60…

A new federal tax credit worth up to $1,700, or $3,400 for a couple, starts in January in the states that opted in

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in Credits & Deductions

A taxpayer who gives cash to an approved scholarship fund in 2027 could trim a federal tax bill by up to $1,700, or by up to $3,400 for a married couple filing jointly, under a new credit that Treasury and the IRS began detailing on October 1. The catch is geographic: the credit applies only…

Both tariff rebate bills in Congress are sitting still: one has not moved since December 17, the other since September 17

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No tariff rebate payment exists in federal law, and the two House bills that carry the idea have gone nowhere since being introduced. One, H.R.6781, was referred to a committee on December 17, 2025 and has recorded nothing newer. The other, H.R.10494, was introduced and referred on September 17, 2026, and its official record shows…

No tariff dividend check exists, and no agency has published a payment page or an eligibility rule

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in Refunds

A search of the federal government’s own pages turns up no tariff dividend check. No agency has put up a payment page, an application, an eligibility rule or a payment schedule for a roughly $2,000 per-person tariff payment, and the pages read for this article do not mention one. That is a statement about what…

Taxpayers in declared disaster areas now have until November 2 or February 1 to file

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Two postponed filing dates now sit on the IRS disaster relief list: November 2, 2026 and February 1, 2027. Which one applies depends on the declared area where a taxpayer lives, runs a business or keeps the records needed to file. Many of the declarations cover named counties, not whole states. Which areas carry November…

GAO says IRS screens stopped $88 billion in invalid refunds while the agency still has no antifraud strategy

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Tax cheating costs the federal government somewhere between $116 billion and $304 billion a year, according to an estimate from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released September 25. The same report credits an IRS screening system with blocking $88 billion in invalid refund payments from 2018 through 2024. GAO also found that the agency has…

Child support, a state tax bill or a federal debt can take a refund before it arrives

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in Refunds

A federal refund can shrink for two reasons that look alike on a bank statement: the IRS changed the return, or Treasury applied part of the refund to a debt. For the second kind, the IRS names four categories: past-due child support, federal agency non-tax debts, state income tax obligations and certain state unemployment compensation…

Drought tax relief now reaches 49 states and gives ranchers four years, not two, to replace livestock

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Ranchers who sold breeding cows, dairy animals or draft stock because of drought now have four years, not two, to buy replacements before the tax on the gain comes due. The Internal Revenue Service extended that relief to 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other areas in Notice 2026-54. The change postpones…

Four new deductions worth up to $25,000 are available on 2025 returns through October 15

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