1. GOP candidates fight for spotlight in 2nd debate Seven Republican candidates clashed in their second 2024 presidential primary debate Wednesday, battling for attention as they trail far behind front-runner Donald Trump. Trump skipped the forum and tried to upstage it with an event in Michigan.… Read More »10 things you need to know today: September 28, 2023
Calls will go unanswered and mail will get no response under the IRS contingency plan for the first five days of a federal government shutdown. The plan, released Thursday, calls for furloughs of two-thirds of IRS staff if the government shuts down, resulting in “significant… Read More »Unanswered calls, backlog of mail: IRS plan for government shutdown
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge increased by 0.1 percent in August and fell to a 3.9 percent annual increase, continuing a steady fall since April, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The “core” personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index is down from a 4.3 percent… Read More »Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rises 0.1 percent in August
A thorough financial analysis and risk assessment of debt security assets and bank equity values shows the threat of bank failures was in plain sight. Interest rate increases result in unrealized losses for held-to-maturity debt security investments, but these losses do not appear in the… Read More »Identifying and analyzing the risks of ‘risk-free’ securities
Conventional wisdom about putting money in qualified accounts (401(k), 403(b) and IRA are examples) for decades has been to defer your tax liability on those assets for as long as possible and get growth in those accounts unhindered by taxes. If you can wait and… Read More »Deferring Taxes Until Retirement? You May Want to Rethink That
The government is threatening a shutdown this week, leaving many to wonder how Social Security would be affected, one of the many questions of how a government shutdown could affect you. One answer is simple: You will continue to receive your Social Security checks even if… Read More »How Social Security Would Be Affected By A Government Shutdown
The special per diem rates that a taxpayer uses in substantiating the amount of ordinary and necessary business expenses incurred while traveling away from home under the per diem substantiation method (set out in Rev. Proc. 2019-48) will be higher starting Oct. 1, as provided by… Read More »Special per diem rate for business travel rises
Credit rating firm Moody’s warned that a shutdown of the U.S. federal government would be “credit negative” for the U.S. Why it matters: Moody’s is the last of the big three credit rating firms that still bestows the cherished “triple-A” rating on the U.S., which indicates… Read More »Government shutdown could hurt U.S. credit rating, Moody’s warns
Last year, we witnessed a significant year-over-year increase in CPI inflation, reaching a high of 9.1% in June — the highest in four decades. Since then, we have observed a consistent decline in inflation for the past 12 months. Although it’s improving, inflation remains a… Read More »Inflation and Retirement: Five Ways to Soothe Your Worries
The IRS is developing a contingency plan for a probable government shutdown, the union that represents the Service’s workers said in a statement Friday. One potential concern of a partial or full IRS shutdown is how taxpayers who received an extension in April would file… Read More »IRS developing contingency plan as government shutdown looms