The S&P 500 index of major U.S. stocks continued a 7-week decline on Friday to fall 20 percent since January, officially meeting the definition of a bear market. The index hit 3837 on Friday afternoon, down from a January high of around 4800 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 30,830, dropping more than…
Author: Tobias Burns
IRS to pay 5 percent interest to individuals with delayed tax refunds
The IRS will start paying 5 percent in guaranteed interest to individuals with delayed tax returns beginning in July, up a percentage point from the last interest rate hike that took effect in April. The agency will also pay 4 percent interest on delayed corporate tax returns, 5 percent on underpayments on tax returns and…
Export bans abroad threaten to push sky-high food prices even higher
Soaring food prices both in the U.S. and abroad have prompted countries to ban exports of core agricultural commodities, causing domestic food prices to further increase and leading agronomists wondering what additional crops could face supply constraints on their way to grocery stores. Food inflation in the U.S. is already at a 40-year high, with the annual index…
Democrats pounce on latest tax perk for the rich: falling audit rates
A new report from the government’s internal watchdog found that richer taxpayers are benefitting the most from a broader decline in audit rates by the IRS, adding impetus to criticism that the U.S. tax system favors the wealthy, and possibly bolstering a White House push to increase taxes on the wealthy. During the 2010s, audit…
IRS probe finds nearly $2 billion in coronavirus stimulus-related fraud
IRS investigators have uncovered more than $1.8 billion in fraudulent activity related to federal COVID-19 stimulus funds, the agency said Wednesday.Two years after the Trump administration pa…
Push to make daylight saving time permanent has longtime backers
The Senate’s swift passage of a proposal to make daylight saving time permanent caught members and the public off-guard this week and led to plenty of cheering on social media about ending the “spring ahead” and “fall bac…
IRS to hire 10,000 new employees to squash tax return backlog
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to add 10,000 new employees to its payroll, hiring 5,000 in the next few months and an additional 5,000 by the end of next year, to tackle the backlog of tax returns and unanswered…