Category: Taxes Made Simple
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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…
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A working family with three children can claim up to $8,231 from the earned income credit for 2026
Working families with children stand to gain thousands of dollars from a single line buried inside a routine IRS inflation announcement, and most of them will not see it mentioned anywhere until they sit down to file. For tax year 2026, the maximum Earned Income Tax Credit for a family with three or more qualifying…
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The IRS posts refund status 24 hours after an e-filed return and four weeks after a paper one
Every filing season, the same question drives more traffic to IRS.gov than almost any other: where is my refund? The IRS answered it again this week in a routine reminder about its online tools, and buried in that reminder is a specific, checkable timeline for when a refund actually shows up as trackable in the…
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Employer health coverage counts as affordable in 2027 even if it eats 10.22 percent of a worker’s income
The IRS has quietly reset one of the most consequential numbers in the Affordable Care Act, and most workers will never see it printed on a pay stub or a benefits enrollment packet. Starting with health plans that begin in 2027, an employer can require a worker to spend up to 10.22 percent of household…
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The IRS now issues a tax compliance report lenders and employers can verify
Proving to a landlord, lender, or employer that you’re current on your taxes has usually meant handing over a tax transcript or a copy of a return and hoping the person on the other end knows how to read it. The IRS has now built a purpose-made document for exactly that situation, one that carries…
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The IRS keeps its free guided tax software open until October 15 for incomes up to $89,000
Taxpayers who asked for more time to file their 2025 return still have a hard deadline ahead of them, and the IRS is using its late-August reminder to push people toward filing now instead of waiting until the last week. Free, guided software remains open for a large share of extension filers, but the income…
