Thirteen days remain before the extended filing deadline for 2025 federal income tax returns passes on October 15, and the penalty schedule for anyone who misses it is blunt. The IRS charges 5% of the unpaid tax for every month or partial month a return is late, and a return that is more than 60…

No tariff rebate payment exists in federal law, and the two House bills that carry the idea have gone nowhere since being introduced. One, H.R.6781, was referred to a committee on December 17, 2025 and has recorded nothing newer. The other, H.R.10494, was introduced and referred on September 17, 2026, and its official record shows…

Two postponed filing dates now sit on the IRS disaster relief list: November 2, 2026 and February 1, 2027. Which one applies depends on the declared area where a taxpayer lives, runs a business or keeps the records needed to file. Many of the declarations cover named counties, not whole states. Which areas carry November…

Tax cheating costs the federal government somewhere between $116 billion and $304 billion a year, according to an estimate from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released September 25. The same report credits an IRS screening system with blocking $88 billion in invalid refund payments from 2018 through 2024. GAO also found that the agency has…

Ranchers who sold breeding cows, dairy animals or draft stock because of drought now have four years, not two, to buy replacements before the tax on the gain comes due. The Internal Revenue Service extended that relief to 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other areas in Notice 2026-54. The change postpones…

The House passed H.R. 9500, the Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act, by a vote of 408-17 on Sept. 16, 2026. The bill would open the tax code’s theft-loss deduction to people who lost money to scams, and it now moves to the Senate. It is not law. Nothing in the bill takes effect unless…

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, is the last day of IRS postponement relief for people affected by the terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Filing and payment deadlines that fell between Sept. 30, 2025 and Sept. 30, 2026 were pushed to today for covered taxpayers. The IRS has posted no extension in its…

A new tax form is taking shape for a narrow group of long-term care insurance customers, the ones whose retirement plan is involved in paying premiums. Draft IRS instructions for Form 1099-LPS, the Long-Term Care Premiums Paid Statement, say insurers that issue certified long-term care coverage will report premiums and charges starting with tax year…

Since Jan. 1, 2026, a 1% federal excise tax has applied to money sent abroad when the sender pays with cash, a money order, a cashier’s check or a similar physical instrument. President Trump’s 2025 tax law created it, and the sender owes it. A transfer funded from a bank account or with a U.S.-issued…

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reports that IRS management said the agency will not refuse a paper check as payment in calendar year 2026, and that the IRS will keep using two lockbox locations for checks and money orders until December 2027. The findings appear in report 2026-108-054, dated September 16, 2026.…