Jeff Bezos has suggested that the roughly 50% of individuals with AGI of $54,000 or below pay no federal income tax (see Gabrielle Olya, “Jeff Bezos Wants $0 Federal Income Tax for Anyone Earning Under $54K – Would You Benefit?,” MoneyLion, 5/22/26 (I’m quoted in this article)).Senator Booker proposes the Keep Your Pay Act, to
San Jose State University Blogs
Latest from San Jose State University
19th Anniversary of the 21st Century Taxation Blog
Today is the 19th anniversary of starting this blog! And I’m pleased to have it be #15 on this list of 100 Best Tax Blogs to Follow in 2026.I’d like to focus this post on space taxation. I’ve been interested in space exploration since I was in grade school. I wrote an article on
Time to Increase the Annual Gift Exclusion Amount?
IRC Section 2503(b) provides an exclusion from gift tax of any gift (other than a gift of a future interest in property) for the first $10,000 given to someone by the giver (taxpayer). This amount is adjusted annually for inflation and for 2025 and 2026 is $19,000. So, if you give $15,000 to your grandchild
Dept. of Labor FLSA Ruling and New Overtime Deduction
The OBBBA added IRC §225 allowing a deduction of up to $12,500 ($25,000 if MFJ) for qualified overtime compensation. This pay is defined as paid under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in excess of “regular pay”. Only the excess is overtime and generally overtime is paid when an eligible worker works over 40 hours
Time Running Out To Claim Refunds Owed for 2022 – WHY?
Every year in mid-March, the IRS issues a news release about time running out to claim refunds owed to people for four year earlier where the statute of limitations is going to close on April 15. The latest is IR-2026-37 (3/20/26) stating that time is running out to claim $1.2 billion in refunds for 2022.
Tax Scams Continue to Grow; IRS Simplifies Reporting of Scams
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p6138.pdfIn February, the IRS announced a new online reporting tool for suspected tax fraud, scams, and illegal activities. Smartly, the link is on the main page (in the dark blue line):
This month, the IRS released the 2026 Dirty Dozen list of various scams to watch out for, such as fake charities seeking your
Minnesota Examines Tax Expenditures
Tax expenditures are special rules in a tax system that are not part of a “normal” tax. For example, special deductions, exclusions and credits in our Federal Tax system generally are tax expenditures. This includes the exclusion for employer-provided health insurance (the largest tax expenditure at $296 billion costs per year per the Treasury Department
Should All Gains on Home Sales Be Tax Free?
Since 1997, a significant tax break is the ability to exclude up to $250,000 of gain on sale of your principal residence if used 2 years of the 5 years prior to sale ($500,000 gain exclusion if married filing jointly and both spouses meet the 2 years of use requirement). This exclusion can be used
Trump Accounts – Interesting Idea
https://www.trumpaccounts.gov/
The OBBBA created yet one more savings vehicle for parents and other relatives of children under age 18 to consider. While the new provisions are lengthy and a bit complicated, a good deal of understandable information is being pushed out by Treasury/IRS (such as https://www.trumpaccounts.gov/) and it is an interesting savings vehicle worth
Let’s stop hiding the income and outlay pie charts in an instruction booklet few read
Pie Charts from Form 1040 Instructions for 2025see links below to get to a larger versionI’ve written and blogged on this topic before,* but I think it is worth repeating …IRC §7523 enacted in 1990 requires the IRS to include pie charts with explanation in the Form 1040 instruction booklet – actual text at §7523(a)