The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last week released an annual update on its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Strategic Operating Plan. The guide was originally published in April 2023 and outlines the agency’s plans to improve tax administration services following the passage of the IRA in 2022, which will provide the IRS with tens of billions in additional funding over the next decade. The funding will go toward modernizing the IRS’s technology infrastructure, attaining a more diverse workforce, and increasing fairness in enforcement. The Thursday morning update focused heavily on increasing the audit rates of wealthy taxpayers and large corporations. Here…
Author: insighter
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom, as his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 continues, at Manhattan state court in New York City, U.S., May 6, 2024. Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters This is developing news. Check back for updates throughout the day. A judge on Monday delivered a dire warning to Donald Trump: Stop violating the court’s orders, or you will be thrown in jail. “The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail.…
The U.S. government may be coming to take a larger bite out of corporate profits, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett wants to be prepared. When asked at Saturday’s annual shareholder meeting why he sold 115 million shares of Apple over the past quarter, the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ predicted companies like his could find themselves handing more of their earnings to Uncle Sam. And he for one is fine with the idea. “With present fiscal policies, I think something has to give. And I think higher taxes are quite likely,” he said, lecturing other companies for constantly scrutinizing the tax code for…
Nine out of 10 companies with office space say they’ll require employees to return to the workplace this year, according to a survey by Resume Builder. That means the commute is longer than walking from your bedroom to your desk. The way you start your morning can make or break your day, and what happens on your daily commute is just as impactful, says Leah Santa Cruz, co-head of meditation for the meditation app Balance. “A calm, peaceful ride to work or wherever you’re headed gives you a little bubble of time,” she says. “It’s perfect for thinking about what…
Fast food has become increasingly expensive — and some consumers are changing their spending habits because of it. Fast-food chains such as Chick-Fil-A and Taco Bell are included in the limited-service meals and snacks category in the consumer price index report, which shows prices are up nearly 28% from 2019 to 2023. The full-service meals and snacks category, which covers sit-down restaurants with servers, meanwhile, has increased about 24% and overall CPI was up by about 19% in the same time period. “There were increased commodity costs. We’ve seen those start to normalize,” said Stephens analyst Jim Salera. “But what…
A common question we see every year is “can you take out more student loan debt than you need?” It sounds crazy, but some people want to take advantage of the low fixed costs and loan forgiveness options than may come in the future. With the rising costs of tuition, fees, and college living expenses, financing a college education is becoming increasingly difficult. The fact remains that many students will apply for student loans. And while loans provide essential financial support, they come with significant responsibility and long-term implications. So how much do you really need? How much should you…
Immigration has become a defining issue in the 2024 elections and a major challenge in many U.S. cities. Over the past several years, wars and armed conflict, violent persecution and desperate poverty have displaced millions of people worldwide and propelled the arrival in the U.S. of thousands seeking protection, mainly at the U.S.-Mexico border. Large cities such as New York, Miami, Denver, and Boston are struggling to house new arrivals and meet their basic needs. Cities are looking for ways to support these new arrivals—some for a short time, others for months, years or permanently. I study forced migration, government…
A $400 million increase in federal funding is available for security in places of worship, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Sunday. The boost in money comes as concerns rise over threats against Jewish and Muslim communities, fueled in part by the Israel-Hamas war. Places like synagogues and mosques could apply to use the money to hire security personnel or install cameras under the new increase in funding to the existing federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, Schumer, a Democrat, said from New York City. “We’re going to keep funding so that no synagogue or other religious institution is going to have…
Photo of a person making a mobile payment. Ant International Chinese fintech major Ant Group is looking to boost its global presence via its digital offering, Alipay+, as it seeks to connect mobile payment apps around the world. “What we found is that people want to use their home e-wallets when they travel abroad. So they don’t want to have to load their card into another app that they don’t know as well,” Douglas Feagin, senior vice president of Ant Group, an affiliate of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, told CNBC. The group’s global arm, Ant International, introduced Alipay+ in 2020, allowing…
You’d be forgiven for using your favorite web browser day in and day out without really delving too deeply into its more esoteric features—especially since Microsoft Edge has plenty of well documented productivity power-ups to play with. There are a few Edge features, however, that have been flying under the radar. That’s a shame, since they’re each super helpful. Let’s take a closer look. Mobile to PC file upload You’ve got a photo on your phone. You’re using your PC to send an email and you want to attach the photo. Using the Mobile Upload feature makes it dead simple.…
More than 90% of stablecoin transaction volumes aren’t coming from genuine users, according to a new metric co-developed by Visa Inc., suggesting such crypto tokens may be far away from becoming a commonly used means of payment. The dashboard from Visa and Allium Labs is designed to strip out transactions initiated by bots and large-scale traders to isolate those made by real people. Out of about $2.2 trillion in total transactions in April, just $149 billion originated from “organic payments activity,” according to Visa. Visa’s finding challenges stablecoin proponents’ argument that the tokens, pegged to an asset like the dollar,…
The news about the Israel-Hamas war is filled with reports of Israeli families huddling in fear from relentless rocket attacks, Israeli tanks, and artillery flattening buildings in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of kidnapped hostages imprisoned in subterranean tunnels, and millions of people driven from their homes by fighting. But beyond the visceral violence lies a hidden layer of the war—an online conflict. We are scholars of cyberwarfare who have cataloged and analyzed the various cyber operations conducted during the war by Hamas, Israel, and other nations and hacking groups supporting one side or the other. The data paints a picture…