Relief checks: 25 February summary news
US Finance News: Latest Updates
Headlines: Saturday, 25 February 2023
- US economy grew at slower rate than estimated last quarter, 2.7% instead of 2.9%
- Unemployment rate for disabled workers fell to 7.2 percent in 2022
- Initial unemployment claims fell to 192,000 last week, down 3,000 from the week prior
- Differences between a stimulus checkand a disaster relief check
- Federal government pushes to enroll seniors in SNAP benefits, formally known as food stamps, as inflation cut into retirement benefits
A few cities are piloting universal basic income to evaluate the policy and its various structures better.
Austin, Texas leads US capitals in terms of falling home prices: where else are prices falling?
2023 Tax Season
- Which states are still sending relief checks in 2023?
- Did you receive a state stimulus check? No need to report the payment as income to the IRS.
Read more from AS USA:
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Accessing your IRS tax transcripts
More information about your tax accounts can be found by accessing your transcripts. There are four types and this is how you access them.:
Tax Return Transcript: This transcript provides a summary of your tax return, including line-by-line information.
Tax Account Transcript: This transcript shows any changes made to your tax account after you filed your return, including any adjustments or payments made.
Record of Account Transcript: This transcript combines the information from both the tax return and tax account transcripts into a single document.
Wage and Income Transcript: This transcript shows the information reported to the IRS about your wages, income, and other payments.
This is how you will have the fastest tax refund
Once your tax filing has been sent it can be an anxious wait to see if you will be the recipient of a tax refund. The IRS has already briefed that refunds will be lower this year, with the data now released to support this. We are a month into tax season so if you filed your return at the beginning of the season it should have been processed.
If it hasn’t arrived yet it means you have made an error as it should take 21 days for the IRS to send your refund. Making sure all your information is correct is the only guarantee that the refund can be sent as any error will slow down the prcoess.
According to the National Council On Aging (NCOA) there were more than 5 million older adults did not have access to healthy food in 2019. More than 10% of over 65s live in poverty.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a lifeline for these people. The average SNAP benefit for a one-person senior household is $104 per month.
”We have the resources to ensure that all people can live without the threat of deprivation,” said NCOA’s Ramsey Alwin. “But we need the political will to use them.”
Details on the Georgian checks
The bill for the tax refunds has been adopted in the House of Representatives, and it will head to the Senate. Last year, the Senate approved the bill on 16 March, meaning lawmakers in that chamber may still be negotiating or revising the legislation. With March nearly here, a vote can be expected in the coming weeks.
If the law is adopted by the Senate, qualifying taxpayers can expect an electronic payment or a physical check “based on the taxpayer’s refund instructions, as indicated on the taxpayer’s tax year 2021 return.”
A bill to provide a stimulus check worth up to $500 for those who filed their 2021 and 2022 tax return has passed the Georgia House of Representatives. This renewal of a tax credit enacted last year kicked in when both 2020 and 2021 tax returns were submitted.
Now, it is up to the Georgia Senate to determine whether millions will see between $250 and $500 tacked onto their tax refund. The bill passed in the House by a huge margin, 170 to 2, which indicates a high chance of passing in the upper chamber.
The extension of this credit was a key pillar of Republican Governor Brain Kemp’s re-election campaign that he won in November. With Georgia voters delivering him the victory, Gov. Kemp is working to make good on these commitments.
Read more on who qualifies and the amounts would be distributed in our full coverage.
Inflation on downward trend but not fast enough for some economists
Since last March, interest rates have gone from near zero to the 4.50% - 4.75% range over eight meetings, the fastest increase since the 1980s. As you can see from the graph, the compartively high rates have not have as a rapid effect as wanted.
As revealed in the released Fed minutes, a faction of the organisation want further half percentage point boosts to get interest rates to a more restrictive level faster. Two members present known to be calling for such a measure were in favor, but how many is unknown.
The decision for a 0.25% increasewas cast as a “risk management measure” as policymakers try to thread the needle of taming rising prices without throwing the economy into a recession. However, should inflation remain at undesirable levels then expect the calls for harsher rates to grow.
Federal and state officials implemented a number of financial relief programs designed to support Americans through a tumultuous few years for the US economy. The three rounds of federal stimulus checks were the most well-known of these efforts but there were countless other examples throughout the pandemic emergency declaration.
Under the emergency declaration, most recipients will not be taxed on the payments that they received. But there are still some major difference between two popular forms of tax-exempt support: disaster distribution and stimulus checks.
We take a look...
More interest rate hikes expected after Fed minutes
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's January meeting were made public this week and it looks like more interest rate hikes are in store for the first half of 2023. Although significant progress has been made to bring down inflation, with price rises currently running at an annualised rate of around 6% the economy is still far above the Fed's 2% target.
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Although the tax authority has warned that they expect refunds to be smaller this year, there are opportunities for some taxpayers to receive bumper refunds if they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC).
There are also other programs that can be utilised to increase your tax refund payment...
Recession not in sight, but inflation picks up sparks fear of interest rate hikes
Good news, bad news. The US economy continues to show robust strength with consumer spending increasing by the most in two years. Additionally, personal income rose 0.6% aided by a strong surge in wages and salaries of 0.9%. January saw solid job growth and the US currently has its lowest unemployment rate in more than 53 years.
However, inflation accelerated in January to 5.4% up from 5.3% the month before according to the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The PCE is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge for determining interest rate policy. The higher-than-expected price increase sent stocks on Wall Street lower on Friday, expected to close the week with deep losses as traders worry the Fed will continue rate increases into the summer.
Good morning and welcome to AS USA
For those joining us bright and early we hope you are enjoying your Saturday morning.
The news is not particularly promising this morning as the announcement of slower than anticipated growth was received. The US economy grew at a 2.7% annual rate in the final three months of the year, less than the previous estimate of 2.9% growth in the quarter.
Aside from the macroeconomics there was little action to deal with price rises that could be celebrated this week, nor was there any announcement of plans to support those struggling the most under them.