Who benefits from a lame-duck extension of the child credits and TCJA business tax breaks? TPC’s Howard Gleckman reviews a new Tax Policy Center analysis that finds the distribution of benefits from extending several key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and the 2021 American Rescue Plan would vary widely, depending on which proposals are enacted. If Congress extends all of the credits and breaks, the biggest beneficiaries would be low-income households with children, mostly thanks to the restoration of the fully refundable child tax credit.
Interest rates may climb higher than investors expect next year. Federal Reserve officials are signaling plans to raise their benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage point at their meeting next week, reports The Wall Street Journal, but the Fed could continue to raise rates into 2023 if wage pressures or inflation in the labor-intensive service sector don’t abate.
The IRS has a new one-stop webpage to kickstart your tax filing season. The page outlines a tax filer’s ‘to-do’ list, starting with creating an IRS account. It also highlights what’s new for 2023 and how 2022 tax returns could be affected. Changes include the return of some tax credits to 2019 levels, the end of stimulus payments, and the expiration of above-the-line charitable deductions.
California taxpayers are slow to activate their Middle-Class Tax Refunds via debit card. The California Franchise Tax Board is paying $25 million to Money Network of Wisconsin to provide debit cards to up to 13 million Californians. Residents would activate the card by entering six digits of their Social Security number. That would open an account at New York Community Bank, which issues the cards. . The Board says debit cards are the most efficient way to deliver tax refunds since mailing checks could take six months. Some Californians, however, are concerned about privacy and the potential for identity theft.
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