Category: Taxes Made Simple
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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…
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Six Washington wildfire counties got the same February extension and a refund protection
If you live or run a business in one of six Washington counties, the IRS just gave you until February 1, 2027 to file returns and pay taxes that would otherwise have been due this fall. That part follows a well-worn disaster-relief script. The overlooked part is a separate, newer rule that changes how much…
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Storm-hit households in 21 Indiana counties now have until February to file and pay
Carroll County lost power lines and roads to straight-line winds. Parts of Marion County flooded. By the time the storms that started on August 11 finished moving through Indiana, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had a disaster number attached to the damage, and the IRS had a new deadline for the people living with the…
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Anyone with income the IRS never withheld from owes the next installment September 15
A retired teacher pulling $2,400 a month from an IRA, a rideshare driver who cleared $5,100 in July, and a household that collected $3,800 in dividends and capital gains this summer have nothing in common on paper — except that none of them had a dollar withheld from that money. Under IRS rules, all three…
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The limit on repaying too much health insurance subsidy is gone for the tax year now underway
Every year, millions of people who buy health coverage through the ACA marketplace estimate their income months before they actually earn it, then find out at tax time whether the subsidy checks sent to their insurance company all year matched reality. Through 2025, if that estimate came in too low and the subsidy paid out…
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Treasury finalized the car loan interest deduction, and it only covers vehicles assembled in the United States
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…
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The IRS put a verified tax compliance report inside the individual online account
The Internal Revenue Service has begun issuing a digitally authenticated Tax Compliance Report that taxpayers can download directly from their IRS Individual Online Account, ending the routine of mailing off for a transcript just to prove a clean filing history. The report tells a lender, a licensing board or a landlord whether someone filed on…
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The IRS will charge 7 percent on unpaid tax and pay 7 percent on a late refund in the quarter starting October 1
The Internal Revenue Service says the interest meter on unpaid taxes is staying exactly where it has been: 7 percent a year, compounded daily, through the final three months of 2026. The agency confirmed the fourth-quarter rates on August 21, and for anyone carrying a tax balance into the fall, or still waiting on a…
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Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom pay a lower American tariff than most economies because they ban forced-labor imports
Beginning July 24, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection started collecting a new tariff on imports from 60 economies, and the size of the bill turns on one thing: whether that economy bans the import of goods made with forced labor. Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom landed in the cheaper of two brackets, paying…
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The IRS laid out how to give another person legal authority over a parent’s federal tax matters
The IRS spent late August laying out, in plain terms, the different ways a taxpayer can hand someone else legal standing to deal with a federal tax matter. For a family helping an aging parent manage Social Security paperwork, income-linked Medicare premiums, or a stack of unopened IRS notices, the distinction between two commonly confused…
