Category: Taxes Made Simple
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The IRS penalty break that erases a first late filing is being replaced by an automatic one
The IRS is retiring one of its best-known taxpayer favors. First Time Abate, the penalty waiver that has let millions of otherwise compliant filers erase a single late-filing or late-payment penalty just by asking, is being phased out in favor of a process that requires no request at all. The change affects anyone who has…
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A husband or wife who is not an American citizen can receive $194,000 in gifts this year before any gift tax applies
Married couples can generally give each other unlimited amounts of money or property without triggering federal gift tax, thanks to what’s called the unlimited marital deduction. That rule doesn’t apply, though, when one spouse isn’t a U.S. citizen. Instead, the IRS caps how much a citizen or resident spouse can give a noncitizen spouse tax-free…
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The top federal rate of 37 percent starts at $640,600 for a single filer and $768,700 for a married couple
The IRS has finalized the income tax brackets that will apply to money earned in 2026, and the headline number is where the top rate kicks in. A single filer’s income above $640,600, and a married couple’s income above $768,700, is taxed at 37 percent — the highest of the seven marginal rates in the…
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The alternative minimum tax exemption is $90,100 for a single filer this year and starts disappearing above $500,000
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…
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A drug maker building American plants pays 20 percent instead, and one that signed a pricing deal pays nothing until 2029
Two companies importing the same category of medicine can end up owing wildly different amounts at the border, and the difference isn’t luck. A pharmaceutical tariff signed in April carved out two separate escape routes from its steepest rate, and drug manufacturers have spent the months since deciding which one, if either, to take. One…
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Metal tariffs now apply to the full price of an imported product, not just the metal inside it
A rule change that took effect in the spring is still shaping how much American businesses and households pay for imported metal goods. Since early April, tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper products haven’t been calculated off the value of the metal inside a product anymore. They’re calculated off the entire declared value of the…
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Brand-name medicines imported into the United States face a 100 percent tariff from September 29 unless the maker is building here
A tariff signed into law back in April is about to widen its reach. Under a presidential proclamation covering patented pharmaceuticals, most drug companies that haven’t lined up an approved plan to manufacture in the United States are now three weeks from paying a steep new duty on branded medicines and their ingredients when those…
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A proposed $103,265 fee on skilled worker visas is open for comment
The Department of Homeland Security wants to add a $103,265 fee to certain H-1B visa petitions, and the number is drawing attention because it is larger than many workers’ annual salaries, not because it is already law. DHS published the proposal on August 25 as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and the public comment period…
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The IRS is telling workers to recheck withholding this week, because the new deductions changed the math
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…
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Employers must break out overtime on this year’s W-2, and the guidance most workers are reading has been replaced
The IRS has confirmed that starting with the W-2s covering 2026 pay, employers have to list overtime pay separately in a specific box, not just fold it into a worker’s regular wages the way they always have. That single change decides whether millions of workers can actually claim the new “no tax on overtime” deduction…
