Category: Rule Changes
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Treasury would hold Trump Account money in index funds charging 0.1 percent at most
The federal government wants to put a hard ceiling on what Wall Street can charge to manage the retirement-style savings accounts it opened for millions of American children. Under a proposed regulation from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, money sitting in a child’s Trump Account could only go into a stock index…
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A new 1 percent tax on cash sent abroad loses its penalty grace period after this quarter
Every dollar a U.S. resident sends home in cash, a money order or a cashier’s check has carried a new federal tax since New Year’s Day this year, and the companies that collect it have been operating under real slack from the IRS while they build the systems to do it correctly. That slack runs…
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The IRS lists 71 occupations that qualify for the tip deduction, and it stops at $25,000
Tip income only qualifies for the federal “no tax on tips” deduction if the job that earned it appears, by name, on a specific federal list — and that list just got longer than a lot of workers realize. Treasury and the IRS finalized the roster this spring at 71 occupations spread across eight industry…
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The home energy and electric vehicle tax credits are gone, and this is the first full year without them
Homeowners and car shoppers who spent the last few years factoring a federal tax credit into the price of a heat pump, a solar array or an electric vehicle are now shopping without one. Congress shut down three separate federal credits through the same law last year, and 2026 is the first calendar year households…
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Marketplace customers who underestimate their income now repay every dollar of the subsidy
Every fall, people who buy their own health coverage through the ACA Marketplace tell the government what they expect to earn the following year, and that estimate decides how much of their premium tax credit arrives early as a lower monthly bill. Guess low and then earn more than expected, and the extra subsidy has…
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The IRS keeps charging 7 percent on unpaid taxes through the end of the year, compounded daily
The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that its interest rate on unpaid taxes will hold at 7 percent for the last quarter of 2026, and that rate compounds daily rather than sitting still once it’s set. For anyone carrying a balance from a filed return, an audit adjustment, or a missed estimated payment, that means…
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Propane tanks and fire extinguishers would join the metal tariffs at rates up to 50 percent
A federal proposal that started as a national-security measure on raw steel, aluminum and copper is now reaching into ordinary hardware-store shelves. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security published a notice on August 6 proposing to add 14 new categories of everyday metal goods — including propane cylinders, fire extinguishers, electric conductor cable…
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The IRS gave wildfire victims in seven Washington counties until February 1 to file and pay
Six counties in central and eastern Washington, three tribal nations, and one additional county are now working under a federal tax deadline that has effectively moved five months. The IRS announced August 31 that taxpayers affected by wildfires that began July 31 have until February 1, 2027, to file and pay most federal returns that…
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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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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…
