Category: Taxes Made Simple
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The IRS set 2027 health savings account limits at $4,500 and $9,000
People saving in a health savings account already know a number that most other taxpayers won’t see for months: what 2027 looks like. The IRS has set next year’s HSA contribution limits at $4,500 for someone with self-only coverage and $9,000 for a family, according to the revenue procedure the agency published this year. It’s…
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The IRS raised the business mileage rate to 76 cents for the second half of the year
Anyone still logging business miles for the second half of 2026 at 72.5 cents apiece is leaving real money on the table. The IRS raised its standard mileage rate for business driving to 76 cents a mile for trips taken from July 1 through December 31, a jump of 3.5 cents from the rate that…
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Online sellers get an IRS 1099-K only above $20,000 and 200 transactions
Someone who sold roughly $8,000 of secondhand furniture and thrifted finds through Facebook Marketplace and eBay this year likely will not see a Form 1099-K from either platform — and under the rule now in effect, they are not supposed to. The IRS’s own guidance confirms that a 2025 federal law retroactively restored the reporting…
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The IRS now requires a 1099 only after a company pays $2,000, up from $600
A freelance graphic designer who earns $1,800 from a single client this year should not expect a 1099 form to show up in January — and should not mistake the silence for a tax-free payday. The IRS’s own instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC confirm that the reporting threshold businesses use to decide whether to…
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The IRS says overtime left off box 12 of a W-2 cannot be deducted
A worker who put in overtime hours in 2026 and finds nothing listed in box 12 of their W-2 under code TT is not looking at a paperwork oversight the IRS will quietly fix later. Updated guidance the agency issued in August closes out a one-year grace period that let some 2025 filers claim the…
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Imported goods now carry an effective tariff of 10 percent, down from 15 percent in November
The tariff rate on the average imported product is lower right now than it has been in months, and almost nobody has noticed, because it dropped as the result of a Supreme Court ruling rather than a tariff cut anyone announced with fanfare. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the country’s effective tariff rate at…
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Anyone filing 1099 forms must switch to a new IRS system by November 19
A quiet back-office deadline is about to affect anyone who has ever issued a 1099 to a contractor, tenant, or freelancer. The IRS is retiring the decades-old FIRE system that has processed most electronically filed information returns, and after November 19 it will no longer accept new filings through that platform at all. The replacement,…
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A 100 percent tariff on heavier and thermal-imaging drones takes effect in early September
Anyone shopping for a drone this fall is about to run into a price jump that has nothing to do with the manufacturer’s list price. Starting September 3, a new federal tariff adds 100 percent to the cost of importing larger drones and any drone equipped with thermal imaging, on top of whatever the retailer…
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Tariffs on Canadian liquor, cheese and cars took effect August 22 after a three-day delay
Shoppers picking up a bottle of Canadian rye or a block of imported cheddar this week are paying more than they were a month ago, and it happened because a three-day negotiating window quietly ran out. A 50 percent duty on Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motor vehicles took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern…
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New tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent now apply to goods from 60 economies
A tariff schedule that took effect five weeks ago is now the standing rule for how much extra Americans pay at the register on goods from 60 of the country’s trading partners, and it is not going away anytime soon. The Trump administration’s July 23 memorandum sets a two-tier system: a 10 percent tariff for…