Tax filing season opened on January 27. But, as a result of a slew of Trump Administration initiatives, the IRS must try to manage what it anticipates will be 140 million individual returns under severe new constraints. A short-staffed agency may struggle to process returns in a timely way. Taxpayers may find it harder to get advice or filing assistance. And the potential loss of expertise in information technology and cybersecurity could put both agency efficiency and taxpayer information at risk. To start, the IRS is operating with a temporary acting commissioner. Former agency chief Daniel Werfel resigned on inauguration…

We have been moving across the Midwest and investigating what are the most expensive ZIP codes in each state. Recently, we looked at the most expensive ZIP codes in Ohio, which revealed that the suburbs around Cincinnati dominate that list. We also analyzed the most expensive ZIP codes in Michigan, which showed just how wealthy and expensive some of those lake front areas can be. Here, we’re going to turn to Indiana and its most expensive ZIP codes. Read on to find out the most expensive ZIP codes in Indiana in 2025, based on the latest data from Zillow’s home…

For the past few months, we’ve been analyzing ZIP codes in terms of their home values, and going state by state to identify the most expensive ones. Through a deep analysis of monthly home values, plus financial data from the Census Bureau, we’ve identified the most expensive ZIP codes in Rocky Mountain states such as Montana, Colorado, and Utah, among others. Now, we’re turning to the most expensive ZIP codes in Wyoming. So, read on to find out the most expensive ZIP codes in Wyoming in 2024, relying on data from Zillow’s home value index and the Census Bureau. The…

While it’s hard to keep track of all the different scams Americans have to deal with in their everyday lives, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revealed that total losses to fraud nationwide topped more than $10 billion dollars in 2023. Final fraud statistics for 2024 aren’t quite out yet, but FTC data shows some alarming trends in terms of the types of scams that are out there. For example, online job scams were huge in 2024, as well as employment scams taking place via text. Other popular scams last year involved criminals impersonating government officials, gift card scams, phishing…

Consumer Stress Is On The RiseRising auto repossessions and a growing rate of minimum credit card payments offer signs consumers may be getting stretched. Those figures complicate the notion that the consumer is relatively healthy, a warning sign for the broader economy. Two new reports out this past week show some cracks in the consumer’s finances. The number of credit card holders making only minimum payments on their bills has jumped to a 12-year high, a study by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve found. The level of cardholders only making minimum payments rose to 10.75% in the third quarter of 2024,…

Republican lawmakers are considering a number of proposals that could effectively increase taxes on students enrolled in school, as well as millions of student loan borrowers already in repayment. The plans, which have not been finalized and are still under review, could become part of a major tax bill that GOP leaders hope to pass through the reconciliation process, which would allow a party-line vote that bypasses the Senate filibuster, which normally would require Democratic support to overcome. Republicans hold slim majorities in both the House and the Senate. GOP lawmakers want to extend and potentially expand expiring tax cuts…

On January 29th former Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of at least 15 years for the 71 year old Menendez. His co-defendants real estate developer Fred Daibes and Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana were sentenced to 7 years and 8 years in prison respectively. Menendez was convicted in federal court last July on 16 counts including bribery, extortion, honest services wire fraud, obstruciton of justice, conspiracy and acting as an agent of Egypt. The essence of the charges against Menendez were that he and his wife received hundreds…

GOP Proposal Could Tax Graduate Student Scholarships and Fellowships Republicans are floating a 50-page list of ideas to help offset the cost of planned tax cuts. The list includes a proposal to eliminate the tax-exempt status of graduate student scholarships and fellowships, which the GOP calculates would produce $54 billion in additional federal revenue. Taxing all graduate scholarships and fellowship income would reduce the financial support that graduate students rely on for their education, significantly increasing their financial burden. It could profoundly impact students’ ability to finance their studies, particularly for those in fields with limited access to private funding.…

The BOP’s challenges have only intensified since Trump’s inauguration, which coincided with the resignation of Director Colette Peters. In the absence of permanent leadership, Acting Director William Lathrop has issued a flurry of directives to address sweeping policy shifts, including a mandatory return to in-office work, a hiring freeze, and the identification of probationary employees and those on administrative leave. These measures have left many BOP staff grappling with uncertainty. The deferred resignation offer has added to this turmoil. Employees were instructed to simply type “Resign” in reply to the email if they wished to accept the offer, with little…

Twenty-two years before he bet his company on bitcoin, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor sat down for a long interview with Forbes during which he invoked Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Churchill, Caesar and Lincoln. At that point, in 1998, the company was a Wall Street darling, thanks to its dot-com-era software suite. MicroStrategy was doing just $100 million in sales, but Saylor envisioned a day when its technology would be used by “everybody on the planet.” He was 33 and couldn’t see the coming March 2020 crash or that MicroStrategy stock would languish for two decades. From Forbes, September 7,…