Relief checks news summary | 20 February 2023
US Finance: Latest Updates
Headlines: Monday, 20 February 2023
- Department of Labor announces penalties for 13 companies found violating child labor laws
- Real wages fell by 0.2 percent in January for a year-over-year decrease of 1.8 percent
- Retail sales beat expectations, increasing 3% in January
- Wall Street leaders predict 'soft landing' of US economy: what does this mean for workers?
- Inflation data for January shows 6.4% price increase year-on-year
- IRS reports a ten percent decrease in the average refund size compared 2022
- Michigan to send $180 inflation relief checks: Who qualifies and when will they arrive?
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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Due to the monumental nature of issuing so many payments, the agency spreads out when they are sent depending on date of birth, type of benefit and when a recipient first signed up for Social Security.
This creates a situation where every so often certain beneficiaries receive more than one payment in a calendar month. March will be one of those months, along with June, September and December in 2023. Another group of beneficiaries always gets double payments as they receive both Social Security and Supplemental Support Income.
Around 16.5 million Americans received payments from either Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at the beginning of 2023.
Social Security payments for disability benefits have on average by roughly $119 per month, which works out to an additional $1,428 per year. Those who receive Supplemental Support Income saw the maximum amount they could receive jumped by $73 per month, while for couples the gain was $110.
The 2023 Child Tax Credit is available to parents with dependents under 17 as of 31 December 2022 and who meet certain eligibility requirements. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan made big changes to the credit for one year that helped many families by allowing them to receive half of the value of the credit over six months rather than as a bulk sum when they file their taxes.
We take a look at the Child Tax Credit for this year, and who is eligible to receive the support...
LINDSAY DEDARIO / REUTERS
NHTSA asks Tesla for more information after deadly car crash in California
Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system have been under scrutiny by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in recent years. On Monday it asked the electric vehicle manufacturer to provide additional information as the result of a deadly crash involving a Tesla S model and a Contra Costa County fire department ladder truck on Saturday.
Regulators have publicly expressed concern about the driver assistance system saying that it does not “adequately adhere to traffic safety laws and could cause crashes” prompting Tesla to recall more than 362,000 US vehicles to update its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software.
The Saturday accident resulted in the death of the driver and the passenger being seriously injured, the force of the impact required cutting open the vehicle to remove the individual. As well, four firefighters on the truck which was blocking the road while crews cleaned up a prior accident according to a tweet from the fire department.
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Tax filers will be eager to know if and when they will be receiving a tax refund. Filing a tax return as soon as possible is the best way to make sure your return is processed promptly; the IRS will be sifting through tens of millions of tax returns on a first-come-first-served basis.
Typically the IRS is able to distribute a tax refund within 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.
Read our full coverage for details on when you can expect your refund and how to track it.
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The IRS allows for a qualifying relative as a tax dependent, but what exactly does that mean? The tax agency uses the term ‘qualifying relative’ for people who can be claimed as a tax dependent despite not being your spouse or child.
This can include boyfriends and girlfriends, but also nieces, nephews and siblings.There are four tests used to judge eligibility for qualifying relative tax dependent status...
The Federal Reserve is tasked with providing stable conditions for the US economy and is utilising its power to adjust interest rates to cool inflation. But what does an ‘interest rate hike’ actually involve?
With financial experts predicting another three interest rate hikes in 2023, home-owners should anticipate further increases on their monthly mortgages repayments in the coming months. We take a look at what to expect...
When filing your taxes, you may be able to apply for any of the tax credits offered by the tax collection agency, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is aimed at low-income individuals and families.
EITC recipients can receive up to $6,935, almost $7,000. However, the exact amount will depend on the situation of each family or individual applying, such as the number of children one has or annual income.
Would bankruptcy be able to clear student debt?
In a difference to other debt wiped by bankruptcy proceedings, a filing does not automatically clear your student debt. Both the Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies are complicated processes that require exceptional circumstances with high thresholds of proof to be successful. Even with this, the consequences can be extremely damaging in the long-term if the debt is wiped in this manner. Any other bankruptcy aside from a Chapter 13 can also mean the lost of other collaterals such as a house mortgage.
However, proving to your lender that bankruptcy is necessary includes proving that the debt is causing you “undue hardship”. This entails the debt preventing you from meeting a “minimal” standard of living and being able to show that this is likely to continue for the full duration of the repayment term.
Student debt is a thorny issue for both the American youth affected and the Biden administration trying to deal with it. The decision to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of student debt was met with wide praise in many circles, though the move has been taken out of the president’s hands.
With payments set to resume in the summer, along with the return oppressive interest rates, many students will be under the financial cosh come August. The desperation has people turning to all avenues of opportunity to get away from the debt, including the danger of bankruptcy.
Relief checks in California and two dozen more states will not count as taxable income
Earlier this month, the Internal Revanue Service (IRS) warned taxpayers who had received a stimulus check from their state to postpone filing their tax return until the agency determined if these payments counted as taxable income.
The guidance is now available, and for taxpayers in California, the news is good. Because the Middle-Class Tax Refund is classified as a “payment [...] made for the promotion of the general welfare or as a disaster relief payment,” the checks will not be taxed at the federal level.
Check out our full coverage for more details on the guidance from the IRS for California and other states who sent direct payments to their residents.
In November, the Department of Labor (DoL) announced its intention to investigate a major slaughterhouse cleaning contractor, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), after a series of child labor violations were uncovered.
On 17 February, officials said that their investigation had found that 102 children were involved in federal labor law violations in thirteen factories across eight states.
ChatGPT becomes the fastest-growing consumer application
A competition is on to rollout artificial intelligence powered systems. Both Google and Microsoft are testing AI enhanced search engines, but one tool the general public can now use is ChatGPT. The AI chatbot developed by OpenAI allows users to input prompts to generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry.
The application was launched at the end of November and has already reached 100 active users per month as of January according to estimates. That makes it the fastest growing consumer app beating out TikTok which took nine months to achieve similar levels of adoption.
Inflation relief approved last year continue to be issued by states in 2023
While the US economy in many respects, has recovered from the economic collapse induced by the covid-19 pandemic, the disruptions brought about by the virus are still rippling through the economy. The federal government doled out trillions to keep the economy from imploding, including direct stimulus payments to Americans.
However, those measures have been ended, but supply and demand imbalances, shocks to the global economy, and aftereffects of the pandemic have continued to push the price of basics higher like food and energy over the course of 2022. Since the federal government was no longer stepping up, state governments put in place their own programs last year to help their residents cope with the higher cost of living.
Using budget surpluses, they sent their own direct payments, some of which are still arriving. At least one additional proposal is in the works for 2023. Here’s a look at which states are still sending extra money to their residents.
Every year the third Monday in February is designated as President’s Day, a federal holiday originally established in 1885. The date was chosen to mark the birthday of President George Washington and is generally seen as a day to celebrate and remember the achievements of all US presidents.
In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which officially enshrined the third Monday in February as a national holiday. Because of its status as a federal holiday many public services and even private institutions will not be in operation on Monday, 22 February 2023.
ChatGPT becomes the fastest-growing consumer application
A competition is on to rollout artificial intelligence powered systems. Both Google and Microsoft are testing AI enhanced search engines, but one tool the general public can now use is ChatGPT. The AI chatbot developed by OpenAI allows users to input prompts to generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry.
The application was launched at the end of November and has already reached 100 active users per month as of January according to estimates. That makes it the fastest growing consumer app beating out TikTok which took nine months to achieve similar levels of adoption.
While the US economy in many respects has recovered from the economic collapse induced by the covid-19 pandemic, the disruptions brought about by the virus are still rippling through the economy. The federal government doled out trillions to keep the economy from imploding including direct stimulus payments to Americans.
However, those measures have been ended but supply and demand imbalances, shocks to the global economy and aftereffects of the pandemic have continued to push the price of basics higher like food and energy over the course of 2022. Since the federal government was no longer stepping up, state governments put in place their own programs last year to help their residents cope with the higher cost of living.
Using budget surpluses they sent their own direct payments, some of which are still arriving. At least one additional proposal is in the works for 2023. Here’s a look at which states are still sending extra money to there residents.
Earlier this month, the Internal Revanue Service (IRS) warned taxpayers who had received a stimulus check from their state to postpone filing their tax return until the agency determined if these payments counted as taxable income.
The guidance is now available, and for taxpayers in California, the news is good. Because the Middle-Class Tax Refund is classified as a “payment [...] made for the promotion of the general welfare or as a disaster relief payment,” the checks will not be taxed at the federal level.
Check out our full coverage for details on the situation in other states where these sorts of payments were made.
Bernie Sanders on income inequality
Bernie Sanders, the newly appointed Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, released a short video talking about income disparities between kindergarten teachers and Wall Street fund managers.
Sanders says one fund manager makes more in a year "than every kindergarten teacher in America combined." Sanders asks how this fact can be explained when considering the value brought by teachers of all ages, particularly those who set children up for success at a young age.
The Vermont senator also mentioned called attention to falling wages for teachers, noting that "in almost forty percent of our school districts," the starting pay for a teacher is $40,000." These conditions, which for many do not improve significantly as teachers gain experience in the profession, are causing a crisis in education. Educators are leaving the field in droves, and not just new teachers. Shortages of qualified and credentialed teachers are growing, which will worsen educational outcomes.
Increasing pay and improving the conditions of teachers who are increasingly persecuted with false attacks of indoctrination. For Sanders, reducing income inequality and increasing teacher pay is one way to rebuild the failing educational system.
Hello and welcome to AS USA's live blog covering financial news and economic relief in the US for Monday, 20 February.
Tax season is underway, and the IRS has informed most residents in states who were distributed stimulus checks that they will not need to pay federal tax on them. Filers have until 18 April to submit their returns.
This week the Federal Reserve is expected to announce further increases, a move that will likely bring down financial markets later in the week. These increases will come after the news that the economy added over half a million jobs in January, coupled with an increase in consumer prices of 0.5 percent. These datapoints are sure to influence the decision of the Fed when determining future rate increases.