Category: Taxes and Retirement

The maximum SNAP (Food Stamps) benefit for a family of four in fiscal year 2026 is $994 per month — up from $975 last year. If you're a single adult, the max is $298/month. But 2026 is a more complicated year for SNAP than most. The One Big Beautiful Bill…

If you turn 73 or 75 this year (depending on when you were born), the IRS wants you to start pulling money out of your traditional retirement accounts — whether you need it or not. Skip it, and the penalty is steep: 25% of whatever you should have withdrawn. This…

With the Coronavirus shutting down several public institutions and forcing teleworking for millions of government employees, the IRS has announced, under the national emergency provision to tackle the Coronavirus, that they will postpone the April 15 tax-payment deadline by 90 additional days. This will affect and likely help millions of…

Per Trump's order (see below) to suspend employee payroll taxes for 2020 and defer them to 2021, many eligible workers will enjoy a temporary boost to their paychecks in 2020. See this article for more details on how this is implemented per IRS guideline. The employee payroll tax break is equivalent…

As the IRS notes, 9 out of 10 filers get their refund within 21 days of an accepted e-filed return. But that also means roughly 1 in 10 filers — over 15 million people in a typical season — wait longer than that. If you're past 21 days (or 6…

Quick answer for anyone searching: the personal exemption is permanently gone. The $4,050-per-person deduction last existed on 2017 returns, was suspended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) from 2018 through 2025, and Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made the elimination permanent in 2025. It's not coming…

The Roth IRA contribution limit for 2026 is $7,500 — up from $7,000 in 2025. If you're 50 or older, you can add a $1,100 catch-up contribution (now indexed for inflation under SECURE 2.0), bringing your total to $8,600. The income phase-out ranges have also shifted up slightly for 2026.…

Reviewing your free IRS tax transcript is a technique a lot of filers use to get an update on their return processing and refund status, particularly when Where's My Refund (WMR) or the IRS2Go app isn't showing much beyond "still processing." While the IRS's official line is that a tax…

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS that helps filers with tax problems they can't resolve through normal channels, or who've exhausted standard IRS contact options without a real answer. Every state has at least one local TAS office, independent of the regular IRS office.…

Despite ongoing processing delays the IRS is continuing to process and pay tax refunds. However there are still a lot of folks seeing delays in getting their refund payment despite the Where is My Refund (WMR) IRS tool showing that the return has been approved (2 bars) and/or refund sent (3…

Every year I get the same handful of questions from readers gearing up for the next filing season: when can I file, how do I file for free, how much will I get back, and why does the IRS take so long to pay it. This year's answers lean forward…

If your refund feels smaller than you expected, you're not imagining it being out of step with the news — average refunds are actually up this filing season, which can make an unchanged or lower refund of your own feel especially confusing. Nationally, the average federal refund reached $3,397 as…

If you owe the IRS or your state after filing, paying by card costs you a convenience fee of roughly 1.75% to 2.89%, depending on the processor and card type. That's the number that should drive this decision, not the rewards points. Cash flow gets tight for a lot of…