Relief checks 2023 | Summary news 20 April
US Finance Feed: Latest Updates
Headlines: Thursday 20 April, 2023
- The rate of families with an unemployed member fell three percent from 2021 to 2022 to 4.7 percent
- Workers in Alaska, New Jersey, and Wyominghave been hit hardest by layoffs this year
- Federal Tax Day has passed for most, but counties in eight states got a extension
- Miss tax deadline? Find out why you should still file as soon as possible and how.
- Housing prices continue to fall, is it a good time to buy?
- Mortgage rates drop for fifth consecutive week. 30-yr fixed-rate average at 6.27%
- Social Security and Medicare Trustees warn of respective funds depleted by 2031 and 2033
- Various states will continue to issue inflation relief checks and generous tax refunds in April
- Social Security April payment schedule: when can you expect your payment?
Related stories:
President Biden touts job creation under his watch
Unemployment is at 3.5 percent, near a 50-year low. And all — for minorities as well. For African unemployment is — African American unemployment is down low. Hispanic. Across the board.
Nearly 800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs. The fastest growth in 40 years. (Applause.)
Digging through the sofa to find some spare change? Well you might be able to get a lot more than a few coins. The IRS announced that nearly 1.5 million people across the country have unclaimed refunds for tax year 2019. Here’s who can get it and the deadline to claim it.
The latest report on inflation in the United States showed the pace of rising prices slowing, that is good news for Americans who have been struggling with a higher cost of living. Fortunately for the roughly 70 million recipients of Social Security benefits the Social Security Administration automatically raises monthly benefits to account for inflation.
Here is the payment schedule for the rest of the Social Security beneficiaries, corresponding to the checks for the month of May.
Tax filers will be eager to know if and when they will be receiving a tax refund. The IRS will be sifting through the tens of millions of tax returns on a first-come-first-served basis.
Typically the IRS is able to distribute a tax refundwithin 21 days so long as the return is filed electronically. Those who file with paper may have to wait up to six months to receive their refund.
After you retire, you might receive payments for work you did before you started to receive Social Security benefits. Usually, those payments will not affect your Social Security benefit if they are for work done before you retired.
Republicans have presented a proposal to reduce spending in order to secure their votes to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion. The 320-page plan dubbed ‘Limit, Save, Grow, Act of 2023′ would cut spending by $4.5 trillion over the next ten years.
Among the features of the proposal, it would block the Biden administration’s plans to provide up to $20,000 in student debt forgiveness. Furthermore, it would hamstring the Department of Education’s ability plans to provide relief through other policies and take actions further actions.
The United States offers a number of social programs to aid low-income residents, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which focuses on food assistance.
SNAP is a federal program run by the US Department of Agriculture but administered by the states who usually depend on county governments to enroll beneficiaries and manage the program. Households receiving SNAP are sent an EBT card, which functions like a debit card, and each month money is added to an account associated with the card that can only be used to purchase certain food and household products. The amount varies depending on the number of people who live in the home and the state in which the beneficiary lives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government approved an increase of $95 for SNAP recipients to better provide crisis relief. However, this increase ended on 1 March after almost three years. As inflation continues to drive up food prices, these dollars are sorely missed by many households enrolled in SNAP.
Read our full coverage for details on which SNAP beneficiaries will see a small increase in their benefit amount.
The 2023 tax filing season runs from 23 January to 18 April this year. Approximately 168 million Americans are expected to submit a 2022 tax return, the vast majority of which could receive a tax refund.
One of the ways that taxpayers have to get money back from the Internal Revenue Service is by using tax credits, some of which are refundable, meaning any money beyond what you owed in taxes gets tacked onto your tax refund. The Earn Income Tax Credit (EITC) is just one of those.
Fox News legal troubles not over yet
Fox News settled its legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday. The voting machine company sued the media outlet for $1.6 billion in a defamation lawsuit claiming that the executives and hosts knowingly broadcast election lies involving Dominion.
Fox News and its parent company agreed to pay a record $787 million to avoid a six-week trial that could have seen its celebrity hosts and CEO Rupert Murdoch take the stand. In the lead-up to the trial Dominion released damning evidence to prove that Fox knew that there was no proof to the allegations of election tampering by the Dominion nor its voting machines.
The media outlet is still facing an even larger defamation lawsuit, $2.7 billion, from Smartmatic, a voting software company. Many of the same accusations of election fraud were directed at Smartmatic by Fox and allies of Trump. A trial for that case isn’t expected until 2025, but Tuesday’s settlement could make it easier for the voting software company to make Fox capitulate.
Fox Corp saw its market value drop 2.5% on Wednesday by the start of trading. While it did recover somewhat, it was still down 0.35% at the end of trading.
The latest report on inflation in the United States showed the pace of rising prices slowing, that is good news for Americans who have been struggling with a higher cost of living. Fortunately for the roughly 70 million recipients of Social Security benefits the Social Security Administration automatically raises monthly benefits to account for inflation. Here's a look at payments in May.
Sent in your 2022 tax return and wondering where you refund is at?
The vast majority of tax filers in the United States receive a refund each year. At the IRS, tax returns are processed on a first-come-first-served basis and this year the agency has been able to nearly keep pace with returns as they arrive having processed over 99% of the over 101 million declarations submitted as of 7 April.
The IRS has sent out over 69 million refunds this year for a total of nearly $199 billion. If you're wondering where your refund is, the IRS has a tool called ‘Where’s My Refund?’ that allows taxpayers to check the status of their refund
Panic buying leaves southern Floridan stations without gasoline
Last weather a major downpour over Fort Lauderdale caused historic flooding and disrupted the shipment of gasoline. The problem has persisted which led to shortages across southeastern Florida. That in turn resulted in panic buying that left over half the gas stations in the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area without gas. More deliveries are resuming and there are hopes that things will be back to normal within a week.
While the 18 April tax deadline applies to most taxpayers around the United States, certain filers in counties affected by severe weather events in eight states will be exempt for varying amounts of time. They have been given automatic extensions that range from 15 May to 16 October 2023.
The counties in question are located in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, New York and Tennessee.
The deadline to file an income tax return and pay any taxes due for 2022 was 18 April 2023. Yes, that date has come and gone and if you made the deadline, odds are that you are waiting for your refund if you haven’t received it already.
However, if you missed the deadline and forgot to file for an extension, don’t panic just yet. You may fall into one of four categories, those who aren’t required to file a tax return, are owed a refund, got an automatic extension due to a disaster declaration or you owe taxes that still need to be paid.
Find out what you should do if you din't file your taxes on time.
Claim your tax refund or forfeit it to the Treasury
The IRS gives taxpayers three years from the relevant Tax Day to claim a tax refund from the agency. This is the last year to claim a refund from 2019 if you had money that was owed to you but you failed to file a tax return. The IRS is holding onto an estimated $1.5 billion that went unclaimed.
Normally, that would be 18 April but due to the extension given during the covid-19 pandemic in 2019 taxpayers will have until 17 July 2023. After that date any money that was owed to you will be gone forever and put in the US Treasury coffers.
Last year, economists, business leaders, and some politicians pointed to “The Great Resignation” as a reason to worry about the tightness of the labor market. With unemployment hitting a historic low and the demand for labor remaining high, some workers opted to quit their job to find a new one that offered better pay or conditions. The rate of voluntary separations, or quits, has started to fall, and now layoffs (or involuntary separations) are on the rise.
Compared to two the first two months of 2022, quits have fallen by 9.2 percent, while layoffs have increased by thirteen percent.
Read our full coverage for the latest on which states have seen the greatest number of layoffs so far this year.
Mortgage rates on the upswing, higher projection for year-end
Mortgage rates zoomed to beyond 7% in October last year, then slid back into the area of 6% levels in February 2023.
While the weekly average has been trending down for five weeks in a row hitting 6.27% last week, they're now on their way back up. Prospective homeowners might be wondering how the outlook for the housing market will turn out to be this year. Our coverage has some answers.
Last year, prices began to rise rapidly, and to support residents in combat inflation, various states began sending out relief checks. Although inflationary pressure in the market has weakened in recent months, the delivery of support will continue in April.
Read our full coverage for details on which residents can expect a check or refund.
Home prices to set the tone for 2023 inflation
The housing market will be a big factor in determining how the rate of inflation will go for the year.
According to Forbes, this is because the cost of homes makes up almost 60% of the Consumer Price Index. House prices are also rising at a rate of 8.2% a year.
Housing starts second highest in nearly 40 years; supply glut helps drive down rents
A building boom has begun with 608,000 new projects with five or more units in February, an increase of 14.3% and the second highest since 1986. According to Redfin data only April 2022 exceeded the recent new housing starts recorded.
As well there was a record number of completed residential projects in buildings of the same characteristic, jumping 72% from this time last year. At 509,000 units, with the exception of February 2019 was the highest since 1987.
The additional supply has created a glut which helped bring down rent prices to a median US asking rent of $1.937, which was also aided by biting inflation and economic uncertainty. This is the first year over year decline since March 2020, with the median US asking rent dropping 0.4% last month. However, rents in March 2022 were 17.5% above the year prior.
Across the Golden State, many residents are struggling to keep up with the rapidly increasing cost of rent and housing. From 1986 to 2023, the lowest rental vacancy rate recorded was 3.6 percent in 2016. This indicator looks at the percent of total rental properties on the market that are available and without tenants. Last month, this rate reached the second lowest level recorded, clocking in at 3.9 percent.
Read our full coverage for details on how the low supply of vacant rentals impacts prices in the market.
The 2023 tax season has ended for most filers in the United States, and the IRS is already preparing for 2024.
On 18 April, the tax authority announced that filers can “use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator to help update the amount of tax to have taken out of their 2023 pay.” While some may think that making such a calculation is a job for next year, the IRS disagrees and encourages workers to be proactive.
Read our full coverage for details on how to use the tool and what benefits it provides.
Banks lose deposits as customers look for higher yields
Several banks have reported deposit outflows in the first quarter, compared with the fourth quarter, after customers sought the refuge of "too-big-to-fail" institutions and money market funds for higher returns.
The closure of two regional banks in March shook investor confidence and set off fears over deposit safety after small banks shed $177.5 billion in deposits in March from the previous month, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
These lenders will be compelled to lift deposit rates to attract customers, analysts worry, raising costs of one of the cheapest sources of funding.
(REUTERS)
Wall Street mostly unchanged as investors receive corporate performance news
The S&P 500 ended virtually unchanged on Wednesday while the Dow dipped as investors digested a mixed bag of corporate earnings, including upbeat reports from medical technology companies, countered by weakness in Netflix shares.
The Dow was weighed down by declines in Walt Disney and UnitedHealth Group shares following results from rivals in their respective industries.
Major equity indexes have been largely stable during the early stages of a first-quarter earnings season that investors expect to show tepid results.
"Corporate results are being seen as being in large part company-specific news versus market news," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth. "If that keeps us relatively calm and unchanged for now, while the sample set of reporters is still quite small, I think that's a positive."
Investors are looking for signs in corporate results that inflation may be driving up costs or hurting consumer spending, amid fears the economy may be on the cusp of a downturn.
(REUTERS)
Welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the latest financial news
Tax Day has come and gone. The deadline to submit your tax returns and pay any taxes due to the IRS was 18 April. If you missed the deadline, you still have until November to file and the sooner the better to avoid incurring further penalties and interest.
We'll bring you information that can help and if you already filed, changes to keep in mind for next year and get ready early.
Plus we will give you the latest figures on the economy and other financial news.