Over the past five weeks, 26.5 million Americans have filed initial claims for unemployment, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s in addition to the 7.1 million unemployed Americans reported before most of the country shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 27, 2020, the President signed the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and…
Earlier this month, I posted a story about millionaires collecting unemployment benefits. In the story, I noted that the issue of unemployment benefits remains controversial. Shortly after the post, a reader contacted me to tell me that part of the problem is that nobody wants to hear the real story of what it’s like to…
Last week, the Department of Labor released the latest unemployment figures. The good news is that the unemployment rate fell by 0.4% to 8.6% in November. The bad news is that still puts the number of unemployed persons at 13.3 million. On the one hand, I feel for those folks who want to work and…
When I was in high school, the coolest grown-up that I knew enlisted in the service. My older brother, Rob (okay, so maybe my circle of cool grown-ups was somewhat limited), joined the Navy. He drove me back to school shortly after the announcement, somehow managing to get lost between our tiny town and Durham,…
President Obama will send his new jobs creation plan to Congress later today. He’s going to pitch it first in the Rose Garden surrounded by the kinds of folks that make for good press (vets and teachers, for example) and then send it to Congress for consideration. It’s not going to be an easy road….
Sadly, a lot more taxpayers are trying to figure out the tax treatment of unemployment compensation these days… It’s helpful to understand a little bit of the history of unemployment compensation in order to understand how it functions (and how it’s taxed). The Social Security Act of 1935, also known as Public Law 74-271, created…
Some super interesting reading from the New York Times… Of the wealthiest taxpayers — those with annual incomes of $10 million or more — seventeen included income from unemployment benefits, averaging $5,765 each. Read more: Off the Charts – In 2008’s Downturn, Some Managed to Eke Out Millions
So here’s where we are on HR 4213, also called the Tax Extenders Bill or the ever-so-catchy American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010: nowhere. The bill, which has been proposed in one form or another for over six months, failed yet another test this week when a revised version failed in the…
If Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) gets his way, the cost of calling for tech support is going up. Under a new proposal, US companies would be taxed 25 cents per call outsourced to a foreign call center; there would be no fee for calls transferred to a call center inside the US. The bill would…
High unemployment rates and fewer numbers of taxpayers who owe have translated into more than just headaches for IRS: many tax preparers across the country saw a dip in 2010. Among them is H&R Block, the largest tax preparer in the country. Overall, H&R Block reported a decline in tax preparations at its tax offices….