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Tag: Accounting/Consulting

  • Most Americans aren’t happy with how much income tax they paid this year

    Most Americans aren’t happy with how much income tax they paid this year

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    Americans’ discontent with the size of their federal income-tax bill is at a two-decade high, according to a new poll — even though Congress hasn’t passed any direct income-tax increases in recent years.

    One month after the 2023 tax season’s conclusion, 51% of respondents in a newly released Gallup poll said their income taxes were not fair. That’s up from 44% last year and marks a record high since 1997, when Gallup’s pollsters started asking how people felt about their income-tax bills.

    Meanwhile, 46% of people said they were paying a fair amount of income tax. That basically matched the dim mood over two decades ago, in in 1999, when 45% said that they were paying a fair amount.

    Six in 10 poll participants said their federal income taxes were “too high,” pollsters said. 2001 was the last time that share of people felt the same way, Gallup said.

    Feeling the squeeze: Grocery prices are rising more slowly, but food insecurity is surging among low-income Americans

    Gallup pollsters spoke with more than 1,000 people, doing their field work through most of April.

    The poll comes during a fierce debate about whether the wealthiest taxpayers, as well as corporations, are paying enough in taxes. The Biden administration has been pressing for higher tax rates on high earners. A Democratic-controlled Congress last year passed a law with an $80 billion funding infusion for the IRS over a 10-year span in part to launch more audits of rich individuals and corporations.

    Many Americans walked away from tax season with income-tax refunds that were smaller than a year ago. That’s due, at least in part, to the end of pandemic-era boosts to certain credits, tax experts have previously told MarketWatch.

    Both backdrops might be at play in the public mood on taxes, observers noted, and political affiliation could have something to do with these changes, Gallup said. Only one-third of Republicans said their income taxes this year were fair, for example — that’s down from 63% in 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration.

    The change in Republican sentiment could be why there was a heavy swing since 2020, when 59% said their taxes represented a fair number. In 2020, 56% of political independents said their taxes were fair, and that percentage fell to 45% a few years later. Among Democrats, meanwhile, the 63% saying their taxes were fair was virtually unchanged over that span.

    Republicans “are certainly more frustrated now with Biden in office,” said Jeff Jones, senior editor of the Gallup poll. “But they are even more frustrated than they were when Obama was in office.”

    Democrat Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on pledges to raise taxes on corporations and households earning over $400,000 a year and not on those making less than that. So far, the president has not been able to turn proposals like a billionaire’s minimum tax or a higher top tax rate into law.

    The real tax-policy fight brewing in the background is the 2025 expiration of Trump-era tax cuts, experts have said.

    In the sweeping 2017 tax-code overhaul, Congress reduced five of seven income-tax brackets and boosted commonly used features of the tax code, including payouts for the child tax credit and the standard deduction. But some of those tax cuts were scheduled to sunset, while others were permanent.

    Another potential shaping the mood on taxes is the broader economy and recent tax season, Jones said. One possibility, he noted, is that some people are getting pushed to higher tax brackets with pay raises meant to keep up with inflation. (Tax brackets are adjusted annually to account for inflation.)

    While inflation is still pinching wallets, tax refunds are lower than they were a year ago.

    Refunds averaged just over $2,800, and that’s down more than 7% from a year earlier, according to IRS data through May 12.

    So you know: What happens if you can’t pay your taxes? IRS has a payment plan — but read this before you sign up.

    For his part, Lawrence Zelenak, who teaches tax law at Duke University, thinks the current darkening public mood “is largely a response to the disappearance of all the temporary pandemic-related tax relief,” he said.

    In 2020 an estimated 60% of households ended up with no federal income-tax liability because they were making less and bringing in more through direct cash assistance from the federal government, according to Tax Policy Center estimates.

    By 2022, an estimated 40% of households wouldn’t face any federal income tax, according to the nonpartisan think tank — which is more in line with levels seen before the pandemic.

    Keep in mind: IRS will launch free tax-filing pilot in 2024. TurboTax, H&R Block and Republicans are opposed.

    Refunds during 2022 got a kick from extragenerous payouts including the child tax credit, the child- and dependent-care credit and the earned-income tax credit.

    Most taxpayers also got a chance to shave their tax bill with a temporary change that let them take the standard deduction and also write off a portion of their charitable donations. But the credits reverted to their prepandemic size, and the deduction on cash donations subsequently went away.

    “With the end of the pandemic tax relief, many people have seen their income-tax liabilities go up, and it’s not surprising they see that as unfair,” Zelenak said. “So it may be the change more than the absolute level of tax.”

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  • Carl Icahn admits he was wrong to take a huge short position on the market that lost $9 billion

    Carl Icahn admits he was wrong to take a huge short position on the market that lost $9 billion

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    “‘I’ve always told people there is nobody who can really pick the market on a short-term or an intermediate-term basis. Maybe I made the mistake of not adhering to my own advice in recent years.’”


    — Carl Icahn, activist investor

    That’s Carl Icahn, legendary activist investor and billionaire, admitting in a Financial Times interview that he was wrong when he made a massive bet that the stock market would crash.

    In 2017, his bet lost about $1.8 billion on hedging positions, according to FT calculations, that would have made money if asset prices had fallen. The trade lost another $7 billion between 2018 and the first quarter of 2023, according to the paper.

    Icahn’s investing arm Icahn Enterprises LP
    IEP,
    +0.06%
    started to short the market after the 2008 financial crisis, and became more aggressive in subsequent years. The company used a strategy of shorting broad market indexes, individual companies, commercial mortgages and debt securities.

    “You never get the perfect hedge, but if I kept the parameters I always believed in . . . I would have been fine,” he said. “But I didn’t.”

    Instead, regulatory filings show that IEP lost $4.3 billion on short positions in 2020 and 2021 as the market rallied off the pandemic slump, buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s massive stimulus.

    “I obviously believed the market was in for great trouble,” Icahn said. “[But] the Fed injected trillions of dollars into the market to fight COVID and the old saying is true: ‘Don’t fight the Fed.’”

    Icahn also explained what exactly he did with margin loans he borrowed from IEP that were recently highlighted by short-seller Hindenburg Research in a stinging report.

    Also read: What we know about Carl Icahn’s margin loan

    The loans were disclosed in regulatory filings in early 2022, but few seemed to notice at the time.

    The Hindenburg report accused the company of inflating asset values and quested whether a margin call would send the company into a spiral if the stock price were to fall.

    IEP’s stock did fall after that report — at the cost of about $6 billion of market cap.

    For more, see: Carl Icahn rebuts short seller Hindenburg Research’s report. It’s already cost his company $6 billion in market cap.

    Icahn addressed the report on the day it was released and offered an update on IEP’s recent earnings, saying he was fully in compliance with loan terms.

    He told the FT he had used the money borrowed from IEP to make additional investments outside of his publicly traded vehicle.

    “Over the years I have made a great deal of money with money,” he said. “I like to have a war chest and doing that gave me more of a war chest,” he added, referring to the margin loan.

    Earlier this month, IEP disclosed a federal probe into its corporate governance and other issues. It’s not clear if that was related to the Hindenburg report.

    That same day, it posted earnings showing it swung to a loss in the first quarter from a profit a year ago, missing consensus estimates by a wide margin.

    IEP shares have fallen 32% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
    SPX,
    +0.94%
    has gained 9%.

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  • IRS commissioner admits Black taxpayers appear to be audited at outsized rates

    IRS commissioner admits Black taxpayers appear to be audited at outsized rates

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    The head of the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged Monday that Black taxpayers appear to be audited at outsized rates, months after a study pointed at disparities and the prospect that audit-selection algorithms could be at fault.

    “While there is a need for further research, our initial findings support the conclusion that Black taxpayers may be audited at higher rates than would be expected given their share of the population,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a letter.

    As an IRS review continues, Werfel said he’s “laser-focused” on making changes before the start of the 2024 tax-filing season.

    Black taxpayers were audited at roughly three to five times the rate of other taxpayers, according to a January study from researchers at Stanford University and economists at the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis.

    The IRS doesn’t collect information about race on tax forms — and it doesn’t consider race as a factor on which cases it picks for audits, Werfel emphasized Monday.

    But researchers turned their focus on the algorithms helping the IRS pick cases for review when tax returns claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. The credit is a long-standing provision aimed at low- and moderate-income working households.

    The IRS has come into $80 billion in funding over a decade due to the Inflation Reduction Act, and more than half the money is dedicated to more tax enforcement for rich taxpayers and corporations. Audits for households making under $400,000 will increase compared to recent levels, Werfel and other Biden administration officials have said.

    “The ongoing evaluation of our EITC audit selection algorithms is the topmost priority” in a review to spot uneven treatment in how the IRS administers the tax code, Werfel said in his letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

    Werfel said he’s “committed to transparency” as the research continues.

    Certain conclusions were already clear for Wyden.

    “The racial discrimination that has plagued American society for centuries routinely shows up in algorithms that governments and private organizations put in place, even when those algorithms are intended to be race-neutral,” he said in a statement.

    Wyden said he’ll be re-introducing legislation that would require reviews of private-sector algorithms to spot racial bias. “And I’m interested in requiring similar protections against bias in government systems,” he added.

    Werfel’s letter was “an important step,” according to a statement from Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of New York University Law School’s Tax Law Center. But there are other questions that still have to be answered, she said.

    “The IRS should shed more light on these issues in future updates, and Congress should continue pressing it to do so,” Huang said.

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  • Foreign businesses in China fear they’re being targeted in a ‘campaign’ of government crackdowns. It’s probably not that simple.

    Foreign businesses in China fear they’re being targeted in a ‘campaign’ of government crackdowns. It’s probably not that simple.

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    Foreign investors and businesspeople with exposure to China are becoming increasingly unnerved. And for good reason.

    In March, Chinese authorities detained an employee of Japanese drug manufacturer Astellas Pharma JP:4503 ALPMY for alleged espionage violations. The Chinese seem confident in their case. Beijing’s ambassador to Japan said there was ample evidence of wrongdoing, and, despite the uproar, the Astellas employee remains detained.

    That…

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  • Americans’ personal savings just hit $1 trillion. What’s the best place to store your cash — I-bonds, CDs or online savings accounts?

    Americans’ personal savings just hit $1 trillion. What’s the best place to store your cash — I-bonds, CDs or online savings accounts?

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    People are saving more these days. Where’s the best place to put your cash?

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  • Worried the IRS is going to audit your tax return? If you earn less than $400,000, you can probably relax.

    Worried the IRS is going to audit your tax return? If you earn less than $400,000, you can probably relax.

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    Some clarity is emerging regarding statements from Biden administration officials that no one making less than $400,000 will see higher audit rates by the Internal Revenue Service, which is about to step up its scrutiny of wealthy taxpayers.

    The Inflation Reduction Act — the tax and climate package enacted last summer — earmarked $80 billion for the IRS over the next decade and a half. The money is intended in part to facilitate more audits of corporations and wealthier individuals.

    Ahead of the bill’s passage, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged that there would be no increase in the audit rate for households and small businesses with annual incomes below $400,000 “relative to historical levels.”

    But Republican critics and other observers have asked what “historical levels” might actually mean.

    The audit rate on returns for tax year 2018 is the reference point to keep in mind, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told senators on Wednesday. He emphasized that “there’s no surge coming for workers, retirees and others.”

    The IRS audited fewer than 1% of 2018 returns with total positive incomes — the sum of all positive amounts shown for various sources of income reported on an individual income-tax return, which excludes losses — of between $1 and $500,000, according to statistics that the tax agency released last week.

    The agency has three years to start an audit from the time it receives a return.

    Also read: The IRS wants more people working in tax enforcement. Now it has to find them.

    The numbers show that 0.4% of returns for taxpayers earning up to $25,000 were audited. That figure was 0.3% for returns between $200,000 and $500,000 and more than 9% for returns over $10 million, the IRS data show. Six years earlier, more than 13% of returns over $10 million were scrutinized, according to the IRS.

    “Help us with understanding what the words ‘historic level’ means,” Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, asked Werfel during a Wednesday budget hearing.

    “We will take the most recent final audit rate, and it’s historically low … and we allow that to be the marker for least several years, and then we’re revisit it,” Werfel said. The 2018 audit rates were the newest final rates, he added.

    “So the 2018 number is what it’s going to be?” Lankford asked.

    “Yes,” Werfel replied.

    “Werfel’s explanation that 2018 audit levels will be the reference point is the most detail I’ve heard so far,” Erica York, s senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told MarketWatch. “He did seem to leave open the possibility of revisiting the reference year for ‘historical’ in the future,” she added.

    Another open question has been how the $400,000 income threshold will be determined. Months after the Inflation Reduction Act passed, IRS and Treasury officials still hadn’t finalized what counted as $400,000 in income, according to a January Treasury Department watchdog report.

    “How are you arriving at this number?” asked Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee. Blackburn’s state has many self-employed entrepreneurs who might appear richer on paper than they actually are, she said. “While they may have a higher gross, their net is very low,” she added.

    “We’re going to look at total positive income as our metric,” Werfel said. He later added that “there would be no increased likelihood of an audit if they have less than $400,000 in total positive income.”

    The IRS description of total positive income as “the sum of all positive amounts shown for the various sources of income reported on an individual income tax return and, thus, excludes losses” represents, effectively, a tally of income before taxpayers subtract their losses.

    Total positive income is a metric the IRS usually applies to categorize audits, the Tax Foundation’s York noted. But one challenge of strict thresholds for more audits, she said, “is that it creates incentives for underreporting income” to stay under the line.

    Compared with recent years, there are now more specifics about how the IRS will implement additional audits of higher-income taxpayers, said Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

    “But still there are questions,” she noted, about how the agency will treat situations when taxpayers don’t provide full picture of their income.

    Read on: Make sure the tax breaks you’re taking now won’t hammer you in retirement

    Also: ‘This was a test’: IRS has handled more than 100 million returns already — Tax Day by the numbers

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  • With the unemployment rate now at 3.5%, is this your last chance to jump ship?

    With the unemployment rate now at 3.5%, is this your last chance to jump ship?

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    Have you got itchy feet?

    The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March, just shy of the 238,000 forecast by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal. The unemployment rate declined to 3.5% in March from 3.6% in February.

    The latest data was calculated before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month, an event that…

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  • Take MarketWatch’s 2023 Financial Literacy Quiz. Will you get 10/10?

    Take MarketWatch’s 2023 Financial Literacy Quiz. Will you get 10/10?

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    April is National Financial Literacy Month. To mark the occasion, MarketWatch will publish a series of “Financial Fitness” articles to help readers improve their fiscal health, and offer advice on how to save, invest and spend their money wisely. Read more here.

    Do you know the difference between a stock and a bond, or a mutual fund and an exchange-traded fund? MarketWatch put together a meat and potatoes — although that’s always relative — quiz for our savvy readers. We’ve stuck to some familiar topics — taxes, stocks, interest rates, savings and inflation. There are 10 questions — with one bonus question thrown in for good measure.

    You don’t know what you don’t know until you get an incorrect answer in a financial literacy quiz. Some of the questions are tricky, but we hope they are fun and that — most importantly — readers learn something new. Financial literacy helps us to plan for the future, gives us peace of mind and brings more understanding and less fear about the complex world of investing and retirement.

    Our aim is to raise awareness of Financial Literacy Month. If you get 10/10, including the bonus question, buy yourself (and a friend) a popsicle. If you didn’t answer all the questions correctly, buy yourself a popsicle anyway. We, at MarketWatch, aim to democratize and demystify financial news, and make this sometimes intimidating subject as accessible as possible.

    If you found it useful and/or entertaining, share it with a friend.

    –Quentin Fottrell

    Question 1: What is the difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit? 

    (a) A tax deduction reduces your income taxes directly. A tax credit reduces your taxable income. 

    (b) A tax deduction reduces your taxable income. A tax credit reduces your income taxes directly.

    (c) Both reduce your income taxes directly.

    Question 2: Which way do bond prices move when interest rates rise? 

    (a) Bond-market prices fall as interest rates rise. Bond prices rise when interest rates decline.

    (b) Bond-market prices rise as interest rates rise. Bond prices fall when interest rates decline.

    (c) Bond-market prices fall as interest rates rise, but bond prices also fall when interest rates decline.

    Question 3: What has been the average annual total return, with dividends reinvested, for the S&P 500 over the past 30 years? 

    (a) 9.7%, according to FactSet.

    (b) 3%, according to FactSet.

    (c) 6.5%, according to FactSet.

    Question 4: What is compound interest and how does it work? 

    (a) Compound interest reflects the linear gain that comes from all the reinvested interest of your savings and investments, which allows your initial investment/deposit to gain value regardless of the amount of interest you pay.

    (b) Compound interest reflects the exponential gain that comes from all the reinvested interest of your savings and investments, which allows your initial investment/deposit and the additional interest to increase in value.

    (c) Compound interest reflects the amount of interest you pay every month on a loan, and the total amount of interest you have paid over the lifetime of that loan.

    Question 5: What is APR and how is it different from a regular interest rate?

    (a) APR is the annual interest on a loan calculated on the initial loan, including additional costs and fees, but not on the accumulated interest incurred on the loan. 

    (b) APR is the annual interest on a loan calculated on the initial loan and the accumulated interest over the first year.

    (c) APR is the annual interest on a loan calculated on the initial loan, including additional costs and fees, and the accumulated interest over the lifetime of the loan loan.

    Question 6: What percentage of your income should you spend on rent?

    (a) Most real-estate experts say you should spend no more than 20% of your income on housing costs, which is considered to be a tipping point for becoming “cost-burdened.”

    (b) Most real-estate experts say you should spend no more than 50% of your income on housing costs, which is considered to be a tipping point for becoming “cost-burdened.”

    (c) Most real-estate experts say you should spend no more than 30% of your income on housing costs, which is considered to be a tipping point for becoming “cost-burdened.”

    Question 7: What’s an ETF? 

    (a) ETFs, or Exchange-Traded Funds, are baskets of investments — stocks, bonds, or commodities — that investors can buy throughout the trading day like stocks. 

    (b) ETFs, or Exchange-Traded Funds, are baskets of investments — stocks, bonds, or commodities — that investors can only buy at the end of the trading day. 

    (c) ETFs, or Exchange-Traded Funds, are baskets of investments — stocks, bonds, or commodities — that investors can only buy during or at the end of the trading day.

    Question 8: What is the difference between a stock and a bond? 

    (a) A stock is a temporary investment in a company, while a bond is issued by a company to reward shareholders. 

    (b) A stock is a share in the ownership of a company, while a bond is issued by a company to finance a loan. 

    (c) A stock is a share in the ownership of a company, while a bond is issued by a company to finance the stock.

    Question 9: If you were born in 1960 or later, at what age can you receive your full Social Security in the U.S.? Bonus question: At what age can you receive your maximum Social Security benefit?

    (a) Full retirement age in the U.S. is 65 for those born in 1960 and after. While you can start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62, your benefits are permanently reduced. Your Social Security benefits max out at age 70. By delaying until 70, your benefit is 76% higher than if you had claimed at the earliest possible age (62).

    (b) Full retirement age in the U.S. is 65 for those born in 1960 and after. While you can start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62, your benefits are permanently reduced. Your Social Security benefits max out at age 67. By delaying until 67, your benefit is 76% higher than if you had claimed at the earliest possible age (62).

    (c) Full retirement age in the U.S. is 67 for those born in 1960 and after. While you can start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62, your benefits are permanently reduced by a small percentage each month until you reach 67. Your Social Security benefits max out at age 70. By delaying until 70, your benefit is 76% higher than if you had claimed at the earliest possible age (62).

    Question 10: What is the Federal Reserve’s desired rate of inflation? 

    (a) 2%

    (b) 3%

    (c) 2.5%

    Bonus question! What is considered a good credit score?

    (a) 560

    (b) 680

    (c) 800

    If you get 10/10, including the bonus question, buy yourself a popsicle.


    Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Answer 1: 

    (b) A tax deduction reduces your taxable income. A tax credit reduces your income taxes directly.

    Answer 2: 

    (a) Bond-market prices fall as interest rates rise. Bond prices rise when interest rates decline. 

    Answer 3: 

    (a) 9.7%, according to FactSet. 

    Answer 4: 

    (b) Compound interest reflects the exponential gain that comes from all the reinvested interest of your savings and investments, which allows your initial investment/deposit and the additional interest to increase in value.

    Answer 5: 

    (c) APR is the annual interest on a loan calculated on the initial loan, including additional costs and fees, and the accumulated interest over the lifetime of the loan. 

    Answer 6: 

    (c) Most real-estate experts say you should spend no more than 30% of your income on housing, which is considered to be a tipping point for becoming “cost-burdened.”

    Answer 7: 

    (a) ETFs are Exchange-Traded Funds. These are baskets of investments — stocks, bonds, or commodities — that investors can buy or sell throughout the trading day.  

    Answer 8: 

    (b) A stock is a share in the ownership of a company, while a bond is issued by a company to finance a loan. 

    Answer 9: 

    (c) Full retirement age in the U.S. is 67 for those born in 1960 and after. While you can start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62, your benefits are permanently reduced. Your Social Security benefits max out at age 70. By delaying until 70, your benefit is 76% higher than if you had claimed at the earliest possible age (62).

    Answer 10: 

    (a) 2%

    Answer for bonus question! 

    (b) 680. Although credit scores vary depending on the model, according to Experian, credit scores between 580 and 669 are considered “fair,” scores between 670 and 739 are regarded as “good”; 740 to 799 are considered “very good”; and scores of 800 and above are considered “excellent.”

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  • How will the IRS spend $80 billion in new funding? The Treasury Department is dropping hints.

    How will the IRS spend $80 billion in new funding? The Treasury Department is dropping hints.

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    Details about the Internal Revenue Service’s spending plans for a major cash influx are about to come to light, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday.

    More than half a year after Congress authorized $80 billion in new funding for the tax-collection agency over the next decade, Yellen said details are coming this week on how the IRS will put the money to use in improving customer service, upgrading internal technology and making sure the richest taxpayers are paying their fair share.

    The $80 billion infusion is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed Congress last summer without Republican support and plenty of GOP skepticism that the additional funding would be used appropriately, depicting it instead as engendering a sort of tax-collection police state in which middle-income individuals could find themselves targeted by armed IRS agents.

    From the archives (August 2022): Fact check: No, the IRS is not hiring an 87,000-strong military force with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act

    Yellen spoke Tuesday at the swearing-in ceremony for Danny Werfel, the newly confirmed IRS commissioner. Werfel “will lead the IRS through an important transition” after a period during which the agency “suffered from chronic underinvestment,” Yellen said in prepared remarks.

    During Werfel’s confirmation hearing in February, senators from both parties pressed him about how he would oversee the new money’s use.

    The U. S. House of Representatives is under Republican control, and observers expect lawmakers to give hard looks at the funding of the IRS. The House, in fact, voted in January to repeal the $80 billion. The measure isn’t expected to go further, with Democrats retaining control in the Senate and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the White House.

    Some of the money will go toward modernizing the taxation experience. Within the first five years of the decade-long plan, taxpayers should be able to file all of their tax documents and respond to all IRS notices online, according to a Treasury official.

    There are a handful of IRS notices for which taxpayers currently have that capacity. By the end of fiscal 2024, another 72 notices, which include Spanish-language notices, will add online capacity, the official said.

    By the end of fiscal 2025, taxpayers, along with accountants and other professional tax preparers, should be able to peruse their accounts and view and download information, including payments and notices, the official said.

    The IRS has already been hiring more staff, including 5,000 customer-service representatives to improve phone service, which has fallen off during the pandemic.

    Tax Day is weeks away, on April 18. As of late March, income-tax refunds are 11% lower than they were last year. They are averaging $2,903 versus $3,263 at the same point last year. It’s an outcome many tax-code watchers predicted after pandemic-era boosts to certain tax credits went away.

    The same day Yellen spoke, a new watchdog report said the IRS still has plenty of work to do processing the backlog of tax returns that built up during the pandemic.

    During last year’s tax-filing season, the IRS hired 9,000 employees and shifted more than 2,400 workers from other areas to cut the backlog, according to Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration.

    By last July the IRS had transcribed all tax-year 2020 paper returns but still had 9.5 million unprocessed 2021 paper returns. “The inability to timely process tax returns and address tax account work continues to have a significant impact on the associated taxpayers,” the report said.

    At this point, the IRS says it has processed all paper and electronically filed returns that it received before this January. The agency said it still has 2.17 million unprocessed tax returns from the 2022 tax year and 2021 returns that needed fixes and corrections.

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  • Mortgage rates fall in latest week. Freddie Mac cites worries over bank closures, and turmoil in financial markets

    Mortgage rates fall in latest week. Freddie Mac cites worries over bank closures, and turmoil in financial markets

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    The numbers: Mortgage rates are down for the first time in six weeks, as the U.S. economy deals with bank collapses and an uncertain road ahead.

    The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.60% as of March 16, according to data released by Freddie Mac FMCC on Thursday. 

    That’s down 13 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is…

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  • My fiancé and I are 60. His adult daughter is opposed to our marriage — and insists on inheriting her father’s $3.2 million estate. How should we handle her?

    My fiancé and I are 60. His adult daughter is opposed to our marriage — and insists on inheriting her father’s $3.2 million estate. How should we handle her?

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    What advice would you give to a widow and widower considering marriage on how to manage finances — and deal with adult children?

    We are both 60 years old and plan to work a few more years, mostly for health insurance. We both have about $1.5 million in retirement savings accounts. Our spouses’ 401(k)s and IRAs rolled into our accounts.

    I have another $500,000 in a brokerage and he has almost another $1 million. We both own homes with $300,000 mortgages. Mine is worth $500,000, Paul’s (not his real name) home is worth $1 million. We have no other debt.

    We both have one married, and one unmarried child that we help. We both have two grandchildren.

    We should be set up very well. Here’s the concern: His married, well-off daughter is very aggressive about inheritance. She wants the family home retitled in a trust. She wants all life insurance and brokerage beneficiaries in her name. Her brother has had drug-addiction problems, so she’s cutting him out even though it seems he’s the one who will need help.

    “‘She wants the family home retitled in a trust. She wants all life insurance and brokerage beneficiaries in her name.’”

    The daughter isn’t thrilled about our relationship and suggests we just live together. For religious reasons, I would never do this. Grandma shacking up? What example would I set for my grandchildren?

    As a widowed couple, we are realistic enough to plan for the time one of us is left alone. Paul has diabetes, high blood pressure and already sees a cardiologist. What if he has a heart attack? Stroke? Or if he dies?

    What’s a fair way to mingle finances and allow security for me should he predecease me while allowing Paul’s daughter to ultimately inherit?

    By the way, my children have never raised money as an issue. After we both cared for spouses through cancer, they know life is short and just want us to be happy.

    Happy to Have Found Love Again

    Dear Happy,

    She is overstepping the line, and overplaying her hand.

    The first rule of inheritance is that it’s not yours until the decedent’s money is sitting in your bank account. Your fiancé’s daughter can make all the demands she likes, but the only thing your fiancé has to do is say, “You don’t need to be concerned. My affairs are all in order. I’ve always taken care of my own affairs, and I am not changing now.”

    How your fiancé decides to split his estate is entirely up to him, and can be done in consultation with a financial adviser and attorney, taking into account each of his children’s individual needs. For instance, if you move in together, he could give you a life estate, allowing you to live in the home for the rest of your life, and dividing the property between his two children thereafter. 

    Given that you have your own home, however, you may decide to rent it out, and move back there in the event that he predeceases you. There are so many ways to split an inheritance. You could look at the intestate laws of your state, and follow them. In New York, the spouse inherits the first $50,000 of intestate property, plus half of the balance, and the kids inherit the rest.

    “Paul” may decide to set up a trust for his son, so he can provide an income for him over the course of his life. If he has or had issues with addiction, this will help him while not putting temptation in his way with a lump sum of money. The best kind of trust is the one that deals with any recurring issues directly, and takes into account the person’s circumstances.

    Martin Hagan, a Pennsylvania-based estate-planning attorney who has practiced for four decades, writes: “First, it would authorize distributions only if the beneficiary is actively pursuing treatment and recovery.  Second, it would limit distributions to paying only for the expenses incurred in carrying out the treatment plan that will have been developed for the beneficiary.”

    You have $2 million collectively in a retirement and brokerage account and $200,000 equity in his home, and you can use these next seven years or so to pay off your mortgage, while your fiancé has $2.5 million and $700,000 in equity on his home. You are both well set up for retirement, and let’s hope you have many years to spend together.

    The financial services industry has many opinions. You should, advisers say, have 10 times your salary saved by the time you’re 65 years old. You don’t mention your salary, but I would be surprised if many people in America had that much money saved, especially given all of the unexpected events — divorce, illness, job loss — that can occur in the intervening years.

    You also have other priorities than dealing with an aggressive daughter/daughter-in-law. AARP suggests that most people should look into long-term care insurance between the ages of 60 and 65, around the time most people are eligible to qualify for Medicare. If you do it earlier, it can serve as a savings account in the event that you never need long-term care, AARP says.

    As retirement columnist Richard Quinn recently wrote on MarketWatch, everybody’s circumstances are different. “Living in retirement isn’t about averages. It isn’t about what other people do or the opinions of experts, especially online instant experts who don’t know anything about you and have yet to experience many years of retirement themselves.”

    Don’t give too much oxygen or power to your future daughter-in-law. Her father should give her a stock answer, and be firm. If she persists, he can say, “The subject is closed. I need you to respect the decisions I make about my own life, respect my privacy on these matters, and it would be nice if you would be happy for us, and support us in our marriage together.”

    You can’t change people. But you can change wills.  

    You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions related to coronavirus at qfottrell@marketwatch.com, and follow Quentin Fottrell on Twitter.

    Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Readers write in to me with all sorts of dilemmas. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

    The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

    More from Quentin Fottrell:

    My boyfriend wants me to move into his home and pay rent. I suggested only paying for utilities and groceries. What should I do?

    My dinner date ‘forgot’ his wallet and took the receipt for his taxes. Should I have called him out for being cheapskate?

    My boyfriend lives in my house with my 2 kids, but refuses to pay rent or contribute to food and utility bills. What’s my next move?

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  • SEC charges ex–McDonald’s CEO Easterbrook for making false statements relating to his 2019 ouster

    SEC charges ex–McDonald’s CEO Easterbrook for making false statements relating to his 2019 ouster

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    The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday it has filed charges against Stephen J. Easterbrook, former chief executive of McDonald’s Corp., for making “false and misleading” statements to investors about the circumstances that led to his ouster in November 2019.

    The agency has also filed charges against McDonald’s for “shortcomings” in its public disclosures relating to Easterbrook’s severance agreement.

    McDonald’s
    MCD,
    -0.55%
    fired Easterbrook for exercising poor judgment and violating company policy by engaging in an inappropriate personal relationship with a McDonald’s employee. However, the separation agreement struck with the executive concluded that his termination was without cause, allowing him to retain substantial equity compensation that would have been forfeited in other circumstances.

    “In making this conclusion, McDonald’s exercised discretion that was not disclosed to investors,” the SEC said in a statement.

    In July 2020, McDonald’s discovered in an internal probe that Easterbrook had engaged in other, undisclosed relationships with employees. Those findings were not disclosed prior to Easterbrook’s termination, in the knowledge that they would influence the board’s decision making, according to the SEC.

    “When corporate officers corrupt internal processes to manage their personal reputations or line their own pockets, they breach their fundamental duties to shareholders, who are entitled to transparency and fair dealing from executives,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, the SEC’s director of the division of enforcement. 

    The SEC is charging Easterbrook with violating anti-fraud provisions of the SEC Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Easterbrook has consented to a cease-and-desist order and five-year officer and director bar and a $400,000 civil penalty, without admitting to or denying the charges.

    McDonald’s is charged with violating section 14(a) of the Exchange Act and Exchange Act Rule 14a-3. The fast-food giant has consented to a cease-and-desist order, without admitting to or denying SEC findings. The SEC has opted not to fine the company, as it cooperated with the agency and clawed back compensation after its probe.

    The stock was slightly lower Monday in early trades.

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  • Trump’s tax returns are now public after long fight with Congress

    Trump’s tax returns are now public after long fight with Congress

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    The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday.

    Experts will be looking closely at large business losses reported by Trump that significantly reduced his tax liability. For instance, he paid no federal taxes in 2020.

    “Trump paid miniscule income taxes in 2015-2020, and almost no income taxes for the prior three decades,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington, in an email.

    “We also have learned that, in the 1990s and 2000s, Trump claimed business losses of tens and sometimes hundreds of millions annually. I studied these a few years ago and found some real, and some fake,” he added.

    “It is still early to determine how much of Trump’s most recent losses were real or fake,” Rosenthal said.

    Read: Trump paid $0 taxes in 2020. He’s not alone

    Analysts are also going to pore over the documents for any details of Trump’s foreign business dealings.

    Some certified public accountants who looked at the documents say the returns show that the U.S. tax system has been written to “incentivize” real estate investing.

    Bottom line: In order to generate these kinds of losses, you need to be super rich. It’s not a poor man’s game,” said Jonathan Medows, managing member of Medows CPA PLLC in New York.

    Read: CPAs have questions about Trump’s tax returns

    David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and longtime Trump critic, in a post on his non-profit news organization DC Report, called the former president’s tax returns “a rich environment in which questionable conduct is found throughout the filings and needs only seasoned auditors to uncover fictional expenditures.”

    He said that Trump was warned by two New York state judges in trials about his 1984 taxes not to deduct huge expenses in businesses with no revenue.

    “That Trump persisted in using the same fraudulent technique in six years of recent tax returns is powerful evidence of criminal intent,” Johnston wrote.

    In a statement, Trump said his returns show “how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs.”

    Key words: Trump on release of his tax returns

    Some experts said they were going to look at the returns for details about Trump’s foreign sources of income. The documents show that Trump had foreign bank accounts while he was president.

    See: What could be learned from Trump’s tax returns

    Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee said they voted to release the Trump tax returns to help improve the tax laws. Republicans warned that the release would set a precedent where political parties routinely release the tax returns of their opponents.

    Another question is why the Internal Revenue Service failed to audit Trump’s tax returns as it routinely does for U.S. presidents.

    See: Trump taxes could rev up fight over IRS funding

    On Jan. 3, Republicans will take control of the House along with the tax-writing committee.

    Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia who is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said the Trump tax returns “underscore the fact that our tax laws are often inequitable and that enforcement of them is often unjust.”

    Rep. Kevin Brady, the Republican from Texas who was the minority leader of the Ways and Means panel and is leaving Congress in January, said Democrats did not release the Trump tax records for any legislative purpose but wanted to “unleash a dangerous new political weapon” at the former president.

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  • Here are MarketWatch’s most popular Moneyist advice columns of 2022

    Here are MarketWatch’s most popular Moneyist advice columns of 2022

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    What fresh shenanigans and money dilemmas enthralled readers in 2022?

    Another year of broken promises, dodgy dealings and moving letters about how to get back on one’s feet after divorce, unemployment and even a 15-year abusive relationship. 

    The most widely-read Moneyist of 2022, however, was actually one of the shortest letters from someone called ‘Surprised Sister.” The answer, as is often the case, was not so simple, nor so short.

    Here is the No. 1 Moneyist column of the year: ‘We are surprised and bewildered’: My brother passed away and left his house, cash and possessions to charity. Can his siblings contest his will?

    My response: There are times to contest a will: a parent who was being controlled by a new friend or greedy child, and/or someone who was forced to change their will when they were not of sound mind.

    But her own legal advice notwithstanding, I suggested she should accept your brother’s wishes. Feeling aggrieved that she did not inherit his estate is not enough to break his will. 

    Separate the emotions from the finance, and the answer often reveals itself. But there were others that ran the gamut from romance to stocks. They other most-read columns are an eclectic bunch:

    Here are the 5 runner-ups:

    1. I had a date with a great guy. I didn’t drink, but his wine added $36 to our bill. We split the check evenly. Should I have spoken up?

    It would be nice to offer to take the booze off the check, you were a non-drinker, would you speak up at one drink or two or three, if your date split the entire bill 50/50? 

    The financial intricacies of dating are like an onion that can be peeled ad infinitum. We’ve had plenty to chew over. Paying for one of your date’s drinks is OK, paying for two is pushing it.

    1. My father offered his 3 kids equal monetary gifts. My siblings took cash. I took stock. It’s soared in value — now they’re crying foul

    “The Other Brother” wrote that his father offered three children a choice: stocks or cash. The other two siblings took the cash. He took the cash. The stock soared. Dems are the breaks.

    Her siblings could have chosen stocks over cash, but they wanted immediate gratification. That was their decision, and they are going to have to take ownership of their choice and live with it.

    1. I’m an unmarried stay-at-home mother in a 20-year relationship, but my boyfriend won’t put my name on the deed of our house. Am I unreasonable?

    They have been in a 20-year relationship and have a 10-year-old child. “Not on the Deed” said she and her partner have had several tense “discussions” about adding me to the deed.

    I told her that her contribution to your partnership is valuable, her sense of worth is valuable, and her role as a homemaker and a mother is also valuable. Yes, he should add her.

    1. My friend got us free theater tickets. When I got home, she texted me, ‘Can you get our next meal or activity?’ Am I obliged to treat her?

    Even amidst the fights over inheritances, some breaches of social and financial etiquette seem so bizarre some people might think, ‘That behavior is too outrageous to be believable.” 

    The letter writer received free theater tickets, they split the bill 50/50 even though her friend had a cocktail, and she paid $10 for parking. Is he obliged to take her out again? No-can-do.

    1. My date chose an exclusive L.A. restaurant. After dinner, he accepted my credit card — and we split a $600 bill. Shouldn’t he have paid?

    Another dating story, this time where the guy chose a fancy restaurant and, as the date wore on, things took a turn for the worst, at least in the letter writer’s eyes: She was asked to split the bill.

    What if they didn’t get along? What if he was an abortion-rights supporter and she was anti-abortion? What if he was a Republican and she was a Democrat? Or vice-versa?  Always be prepared to pay.

    Follow Quentin Fottrell on Twitter.

    You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions related to coronavirus at qfottrell@marketwatch.com.

    Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Readers write to me with all sorts of dilemmas. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

    The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

    More from Quentin Fottrell:

    ‘I’m left with a $100 Bûche de Noël for 10 people — and no place to go’: My friends canceled Christmas dinner. Should I end the 30-year friendship?

    I met my wife in 2019 and we married in 2020. I put her name on the deed of my $998,000 California home. Now I want a divorce. What can I do?

    I want to meet someone rich. Is that so wrong?’ I’m 46, earn $210,000, and own a $700,000 home. I’m tired of dating ‘losers.’

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  • 5 things not to buy in 2023

    5 things not to buy in 2023

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    It’s been a year of contradictions.

    The recession drum beats on, interest rates are rising, and the stock market has taken a tumble, and yet retail sales have risen 6.5% in the last 12 months, trailing a 7.1% increase in the cost of living.

    There are other reasons people should consider cutting back on spending in 2023. The personal saving rate — meaning personal saving as a percentage of disposable income, or the share of income left after paying taxes and spending money — hit 2.4% in the third quarter from 3.4% in the prior quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said.

    “There are signs that people are pulling back on certain expenditures. ”

    That is the lowest level since the Great Recession and the eighth-lowest quarterly rate on record (since 1947). Adjusted for inflation, savings are down 88% from their 2020 peak and 61% lower than before the pandemic, according to government data. The personal saving rate hit 2.4% in November vs. 2.2% in October. 

    Are people buying stocks during a bearish market, and/or have they run out of their pandemic-era savings? Whatever the reasons, more judicious investing and spending decisions seem to be the most prudent approach — especially given the uncertain economic outlook for 2023.

    There are signs that people are already pulling back on certain expenditures. Although retail sales are up on the year, they did decline 0.6% month-on-month in November to mark their biggest decline in almost a year, largely because of weak car sales.

    About those new cars: New-vehicle total sales for 2022 are projected to reach 13,687,000 units, down 8.4% on the year, according to a joint forecast from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive. MarketWatch reporter Philip van Doorn explains all the reasons why you may wish to skip buying a new car in 2023, in addition to their rising prices.

    So what else should you save your money on in 2023? MarketWatch writers give their verdict below.

    SPACs

    During the pandemic, people loved to buy special purpose acquisitions companies, known as SPACs. In 2021, 613 SPACs listed on U.S. stock exchanges through initial public offerings, according to SPAC Insider. The year before, there were 248 SPAC IPOs. There had never been more than 100 of these before in a single year. There were SPACs associated with Donald Trump and Serena Williams. There were so many, that one was called Just Another Acquisition Corp. 

    SPACs exist as a means to take private companies public, and theoretically give these shell companies a faster and less regulatory burdensome means to access public capital. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors last April that so-called advantages of the SPAC process, such as reduced legal liability, may not prove to be so solid if tested in court.

    The SPACs raised money even though they had no commercial operations or business, and tried to use the cash to buy something that did exist. But investors who bought SPACs that merged with private companies since 2015 have suffered losses of 37%, on average, a year after the merger, according to a recent study.  The SPAC and New Issue ETF 
    SPCX,
    +0.37%
    has slipped 12% this year. The frenzy for SPACs has predictably gone bust. But if you see one, just stay away from it.

    — Nathan Vardi

    Crypto 

    There are two main reasons not to invest in cryptocurrency in 2023, and neither has to do with the precipitous drop in value for most of the major coins in the last year, including but not limited to bitcoin
    BTCUSD,
    -1.11%    ,
    ethereum
    ETHE,
    -2.71%
    and tether
    USDTUSD,
    -0.02%    .
    Investors have long been conditioned to buy the dip and find value where others fear to tread, and then make money on the upswing. 

    Crypto is different because there’s no correlation to long-held market theories, and buying it amounts more to speculation than to investing. That might seem semantic, but if you look at financial planning holistically, then you treat investing as an exercise in risk tolerance — and crypto is all risk. 

    Which leads to the other main reason to avoid crypto in the next year: If you do buy it, there’s really no safe way to store it. There’s no federal insurance covering exchange failures and little cyber-theft protection for individuals. That leaves you on your own, which is not a good place to be with your money.

    — Beth Pinsker

    Meta Quest headsets

    On the consumer front, if you’re really into virtual reality, there is nothing wrong with jumping on the new Meta Quest two and Meta Quest Pro headsets that were introduced in 2022 by Meta Platforms Inc. 
    META,
    -0.78%    .

    The problem is that you might feel like you bought a BlackBerry
    BB,
    -3.42%
    phone in early 2007. Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    -1.40%
    is expected to finally show off what engineers at the Silicon Valley giant have been cooking up in a years-long project to jump into augmented and virtual reality, and consumers are expected to at least get a glimpse at Apple’s attempt this year, if not a chance to buy whatever the company produces. 

    The headsets don’t come cheap: Meta said earlier this year it was raising the price of Meta Quest 2 headsets by $100 to $399.99 (128GB) and $499.99 (256GB). The iPhone’s introduction 15 years ago changed the way people look at smartphones, and Apple’s expected jump into this field in 2023 could leave anyone who spent their money on a Meta Quest headset wishing for a new reality.

    — Jeremy Owens

    Meme stocks 

    Struggling companies with business models that appear to some to be dying and/or struggling do not generally perform well in the stock market. But during the pandemic these companies often had stocks that soared. What drove them was social media sentiment, driven on platforms like Reddit, by a swarm of retail investors. 

    There was video game retailer GameStop
    GME,
    -7.42%    ,
    movie theater chain AMC
    AMC,
    -8.43%    ,
    and smartphone dinosaur Blackberry. AMC recently announced the sale of another $110 million in stock, adding to a total that has already exceeded $2 billion since the theater chain got swept up into meme-stock madness. CEO Adam Aron wrote on Twitter that the move put the company “in a much stronger cash position.”

    GameStop recently reported its seventh consecutive quarterly loss and reiterated its goal of returning to profitability in the near term, but analysts have signaled that many challenges lie ahead. During the company’s recent third-quarter conference call, Chief Executive Officer Matt Furlong said that GameStop would be open to exploring acquisitions of a strategic asset or complimentary business if they were available “in the right price range.”

    Buying meme companies like this worked for some in a booming stock market fueled by ultra-low interest rates. But we are now in a bear market with interest rates that are elevated. Corporate fundamentals are back in vogue. So are quaint investment ideas like cashflow. More likely than not, the days of buying meme stocks are over.

    — Nathan Vardi

    Tesla cars

    In recent years, Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -8.25%
    has stood alone as the best option for electric vehicles, while other manufacturers struggled to get production running. But in 2023, there should be many more types of electric cars available, at prices that are expected to trend downward as the year goes along. Teslas range in price from $46,990 for the Tesla Model 3 to $138,880 for the Tesla Model X Plaid. 

    With major manufacturers such as General Motors Co.
    GM,
    -0.73%    ,
    Ford Motor Co.
    FORD,
    -2.68%    ,
    Toyota Corp. and Volkswagen
    VOW,
    -0.77%
    VLKAF,
    -1.15%
    jumping into the fray, and young Tesla wannabes like Rivian Automotive Inc.
    RIVN,
    -7.11%    ,
    Lucid Group Inc.
    LCID,
    -7.24%
    and FIsker Inc.
    FSR,
    -6.19%
     expected to start producing cars, consumers will have many more options for EVs. 

    Meanwhile, Tesla has done little to update the Model 3 since it was introduced in 2017, and has increased prices at a level that Chief Executive Elon Musk has admitted is “embarrassing” for a company that claimed to have a goal of mass-market pricing for EVs. 

    The average price of a new EV is $64,249, while a new gas car is $48,281, according to​​ Liz Najman, a climate scientist and communications and research manager at Recurrent Auto, an EV research and analytics firm focused on the used-vehicle market. After years of not having much choice beyond Tesla for EVs, 2023 appears to be the year that changes.

    — Jeremy Owens

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  • ‘Gaslighters have two signature moves’: Are you being gaslighted at work? Here’s how to recognize the signs.

    ‘Gaslighters have two signature moves’: Are you being gaslighted at work? Here’s how to recognize the signs.

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    Are you less happy at work since you befriended that new recruit? Have they told you stories about how colleagues have constantly undermined them? Or do you have a boss who excludes you from key meetings — and then asks why you did not attend a meeting even though you are pretty sure you were not invited to begin with? If so, you may be working with a gaslighter.

    Gaslighters, as the name suggests, cast themselves in a positive light — friend or confidante who is here to help — but actually operate much more effectively in the shadows. Merriam-Webster named “gaslighting” the word of the year. Searches for the word on merriam-webster.com surged 1,740% in 2022 over the prior year year, despite there not being an event that the publisher — known for its dictionaries — could point to as a cause of the spike.

    It defines gaslighting as “psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”

    Perhaps the reasons were more personal — or professional — than political. My social media feed is now full of thought pieces on how to spot one of these saboteurs. The comments sections read like the show notes of a True Crime podcast — gruesome yet hard to turn away from. 

    The term was coined in a 1938 play, “Gas Light,” a psychological thriller set in Victorian London and written by Patrick Hamilton.

    The term was further popularized after George Cukor’s 1944 film, “Gaslight,” based on the play, in which Gregory (Charles Boyer) tries to convince his wife Paula (Ingrid Bergman) that she has lost her reason. While he turns on the lights in the attic while searching for hidden jewels, the gaslight flickers in the rest of the house. He tells Paula that she is merely imagining the dimming of the lights.

    The workplace is fertile ground for such behavior, given what’s at stake: money, power, status, promotion, rivalry and the intrigue that often comes with office politics. 

    I’m in the business of helping people work out their conflicts at work. None of this surprises me. In fact, I dedicated a whole chapter in my book, “Jerks at Work,” to gaslighters. 

    “‘For gaslighters, slow and steady wins the race, and the best ones make friends with their victims first.’”

    What has surprised me is how wide-ranging the definition of “gaslighting” has become. Everything from “not respecting personal boundaries” to “talking so much shit about me I couldn’t get hired for two years” seems to fall under the umbrella. 

    What I’ve learned from my doom scrolling is that the word “gaslighter” — probably the worst name to bestow on a colleague or boss — seems to refer to anyone who’s done a whole bunch of bad things to us at work, especially things that involve humiliation. 

    So what really is a gaslighter, and why is it important to distinguish one from, say, a demeaning boss with a chip on their shoulder and a penchant for public shaming?

    If we stick to the clinical definition, gaslighters have two signature moves: They lie with the intent of creating a false reality, and they cut off their victims socially. 

    They position themselves as both savior and underminer, creating a negative and fearful atmosphere, spreading gossip and taking credit for other people’s work. They are often jealous and resentful, and aim to undercut others in order to further their own position.

    You may also be an unwitting pawn in the gaslighting of another colleague. The gaslighter might try to convince you that Johnny is trying to steal your leadership role on a project, and encourage you to freeze him out in the cafeteria at lunch time, or simply be extra wary about sharing important information.

    For gaslighters, slow and steady wins the race, and the best ones make friends with their victims first. For this reason, it could also be considered a form of workplace harassment.

    They often flatter them, make them feel special. Others create a fear of speaking up in their victims by making their position at work seem more precarious than it is. And the lies are complex, coming at you in layers. It takes a long time to realize your status as a victim of gaslighting, and social isolation is a necessary part of this process. 

    “‘It takes a long time to realize your status as a victim of gaslighting, and social isolation is a necessary part of this process.’”

    But there’s a difference between an annoying coworker or micromanaging boss, and a gaslighter, who lies and conspires to undermine your position. “The gaslighter doesn’t want you to improve or succeed — they’re out to sabotage you,” according to the careers website Monster.com. “They will accuse you of being confused or mistaken, or that you took something they said the wrong way because you are insecure. They might even manipulate paper trails to “prove” they are right.”

    Examples cited by Monster.com: “You know you turned in a project, but the gaslighter insists you never gave it to them. You can tell someone has been in your space, moving things around, or even on your computer, but you don’t have proof. You are the only one not included in a team email or meeting invite, or intentionally kept out of the loop. Then when you don’t respond or show up, you are reprimanded.”

    Knowing this, what can you do to prevent yourself from becoming a target? First, recognize that gaslighters don’t wear their strategy on their sleeve. Flattery, making you feel like you’re a part of a special club, or questioning your expertise are not things that raise gaslighting alarm bells. 

    Rather than looking out for mean behavior by a boss or coworker, look out for signs of social isolation. A boss who wants to cut you off from coworkers and other leaders should raise red flags, even if the reason is that “you’re better than them.” 

    Second, recognize that lie detection is a precarious — and from a scientific perspective, almost impossible — business. Don’t try to become a lie detector, instead take notes, so you can put your “gaslighter” on notice that you are wise to their tactics. You can also use the notes as evidence if you decide to later raise the situation with Human Resources. 

    Here are some ways to beat the gaslighter: Send emails with “a summary of today’s meeting” so you can document the origin of ideas and make sure they don’t steal credit from you. Furthermore, document things that happened in person, and share it with your would-be gaslighter. And speak up at meetings. Don’t allow yourself to be browbeaten into submission. 

    The more you document, the more difficult it will be to be victimized. But a word of warning: Don’t try to confront gaslighters — instead, go to your social network to build your reality back up. Trying to beat these folks at their own game is a losing strategy. But these small things, done early in a working relationship, can work wonders. 

    Tessa West is a New York University social psychology professor with a particular interest in workplace behavior, and author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them.“

    Related stories:

    ‘We’re like rats in a cage’: Sick and tired of their jobs, American workers strive to regain their agency, their time — and their sanity‘

    People are seeking a genuine connection with their colleagues’ — one that goes beyond ‘Hollywood Squares’ Zoom meetings. Not all workers are happy with remote work.‘

    The backlash to quiet quitting smacks of another attempt by the ruling class to get workers back under their thumbs:’ Am I wrong?

    We want to hear from readers who have stories to share about the effects of increasing costs and a changing economy. If you’d like to share your experience, write to readerstories@marketwatch.com. Please include your name and the best way to reach you. A reporter may be in touch.

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  • Inflation and credit-card debt are on the rise, despite a strong job market. Tell us how the economy is affecting you.

    Inflation and credit-card debt are on the rise, despite a strong job market. Tell us how the economy is affecting you.

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    We want to hear from readers who have stories to share about the effects of increasing costs and a changing economy. If you’d like to share your experience, write to readerstories@marketwatch.com. Please include your name and the best way to reach you. A reporter may be in touch.

    For many people living in the U.S., these are tough — and confusing — times.

    On Friday, the Labor Department reported 263,000 new jobs in November, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. Layoffs remain low, despite mass job cuts in the tech sector. Average hourly wages have also risen 5.1% in the past year, but still lag behind inflation for many workers. And there were 10.3 million job openings in October — slightly down from the previous month’s 10.7 million. 

    Some people might see the latest economic data as both challenging and confusing.

    After all, the cost of living rose 7.7% on the year in October. The once red-hot housing market is finally cooling, thanks to mortgage rates that have more than doubled over the last year amid the Federal Reserve’s attempts to rein in inflation, and rents, while moderating, have surged from pre-pandemic levels. Borrowing money to cover increased precarity is becoming more expensive too, with the average credit-card APR at 19.2% as of Nov. 30, according to Bankrate.

    “‘It’s just mind-boggling, the disconnect that we’ve seen.’”

    Given all the conflicting signals, economists say it can be difficult for consumers to know exactly how to feel about the economy right now. “It’s not new, this disparity between the actual facts on the ground about what’s going on in the economy and the sentiment,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 

    “I remember this summer it was just unambiguously the strongest jobs recovery we’ve had in decades,” she added. “There’s just absolutely zero chance that we were in a recession — not only were we not in a recession, we were in just an extraordinarily fast recovery — and the polling, a huge share of people actually thought we were in a recession. It’s just mind-boggling, the disconnect that we’ve seen.”

    Still, the fact that inflation is eating into people’s savings — and that essential goods like food, energy and housing have spiked in cost — is bound to make many people unhappy. 

    Struggling to pay for rent and food

    “Going into the pandemic, more than seven out of every 10 extremely low-income renters were already spending more than half of their income on rent. And then the pandemic hits; we saw a lot of low-wage workers lose their jobs and see an income decline,” said Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “Then in 2021, we see this huge spike in prices. For a variety of reasons, they’ve struggled for a long time, and since the pandemic, it’s gotten even worse.”

    Moderate-income Americans are struggling too. Maybe you can’t afford your favorite family meals, as the price of grocery store and supermarket purchases has jumped by 12.4% from last year. Or maybe you’re putting off a trip to see family this holiday season thanks to the higher cost of airfare, or you’re worried about losing your job as some business leaders warn of a recession. Perhaps you’re forced to rely on credit cards and personal loans, as credit-card debt is up 15% from a year ago.

    MarketWatch has chronicled many of these changes, detailing renters’ frustrations, families’ tough choices at the grocery store, and the reality faced by would-be home buyers sidelined by higher rates and dwindling affordability. 

    But we would like your help telling an ongoing story about the American economy, centering the experiences of everyday people. Our readers know better than anyone about how today’s economic conditions have impacted their daily lives.

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  • How the Federal Reserve’s rate hike impacts your holiday spending plans: ‘It’s not the time to overspend’

    How the Federal Reserve’s rate hike impacts your holiday spending plans: ‘It’s not the time to overspend’

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    It is three weeks before Black Friday, but the Federal Reserve is about to make the post-holiday debt hangover a little more intense.

    By the time the latest rate hikes filter through the very rate-sensitive credit card industry and pump up customers’ annual percentage rates a little more, experts say it will be some point in December 2022 or January 2023. Right in time for many holiday gifts and expenses to post on credit cards bills — and there to make the costs of a carried balance a little extra expensive.

    Every year, many people accumulate credit card debt through the holiday season, pay it off in the early part of the following year and then repeat the process.

    What’s different now is the presence of four-decade high inflation, coupled with fast-rising interest rates that the Fed hopes will ultimately cool those rising prices, although without sending the economy to a recessionary thud.

    Wednesday’s rate move is the fourth straight 75-basis-point rate hike to the federal funds rate, taking it to the 3.75% -4% range, when it was near zero last year’s holiday season. By now, Americans are all too acquainted with 2022’s fast-rising interest rates. They just haven’t gone through a Christmas and Hanakkuh with it yet.

    “It’s not the time to overspend and have a problem with paying your bills later. We know the economy is sending mixed messages,” said Michele Raneri, vice president of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion
    TRU,
    -4.31%    ,
    one of the country’s three major credit reporting companies.

    It’s extra important to think through a holiday budget and how much relies on credit, she said. “People need to think about how much they can afford to repay and how long it will take to repay it.”

    Holiday spending could be the same as 2021 for many people — but not everyone

    Last month, third-quarter earnings from major banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co.
    JPM,
    -0.92%    ,
    Wells Fargo
    WFC,
    -0.15%    ,
    Citibank
    C,
    -1.45%
    and Bank of America
    BAC,
    -0.30%
    indicated consumer finances, on the whole, are not yet showing cracks under inflation’s strains. (Other numbers show the strain, like the personal savings rate that’s been dwindling.)

    Now, two forecasts suggest many people ready to spend the same amount for this year’s holiday cheer as they did last year.

    People are planning to spend an average $1,430 on gifts, travel and entertainment this year, which is around the $1,447 spent last year, according to PwC researchers. Three-quarters of people said they were planning to spend the same or more than last year and respondents said credit cards were one of their top ways to pay.

    “ Compared to last year, credit card balances are getting bigger, more people are sitting on balances and debt costs are getting pricier.”

    By another measure, Americans will pay an average $1,455 on holiday-related gifts and experiences, essentially flat from last year, say Deloitte researchers.

    More than one-third of surveyed consumers say their financial outlook is worse than the same point last year. Nearly one-quarter of people were concerned about credit card debt as of late September, Deloitte’s numbers show in an ongoing tracking of consumer mood.

    It’s understandable to see the concern with households amassing a collective $890 billion in credit card debt through the second quarter. Compared to last year, balances are getting bigger, more people are sitting on balances and debt costs are getting pricier because the interest rates applied to those balances are rising.

    When people were carrying a credit card balance month to month, the sum was $5,474 on average, according to Raneri. That’s through the end of September and it’s a nearly 13% rise year over year, she said. The 164 million people carrying a balance is a 5% increase from last year, she noted.

    Credit cards carrying a balance during the third quarter had an average 18.43% APR, Federal Reserve data shows. That’s up from 16.65% in the second quarter and up from 17.13% in 2021’s third quarter.

    How the Fed influences credit card rates

    Credit card issuers typically determine their rates by applying a “prime rate” — typically three percentage points on top of the federal funds rate — and the issuer’s profit margin, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com.

    By late October, the rate on new card offers was 18.73%, according to Bankrate data. At this point last year, it was 16.31%, Rossman said. In a few weeks, the rates on new offers should beat the all-time record of an average 19% APR, exclusive to new offers, he added.

    While it can take a billing cycle or two for a higher APR to make its way to an existing credit card account, Rossman noted the APRs on new offers could rise in a matter of days.

    Here’s a hypothetical to show how much more expensive credit card debt becomes with every extra hike. Suppose the $5,474 balance is on a credit card with the current 18.73% average. If a person has to resort to minimum payments, Rossman said, they’d be paying $7,118 just in interest to pay off the debt.

    “ In a few weeks, the rates on new credit card offers should beat the all-time record of an average 19% APR.”

    What if the 18.73% APR gets kicked up 75 basis points to 19.48%? If that same borrower has to pay minimums, they are now paying $7,417 in interest to snuff the principal debt of $5,474, Rossman said.

    The example has its limits because people may pay more than the minimum and they may incur more credit card debt as they pay off the old one. But it shows a bigger point: “Unfortunately, anybody dealing with credit card debt is a loser from the series of rate hikes. It was already expensive. It’s getting more so,” Rossman said.

    When do rate hikes stop?

    While decisions during the Fed’s November meeting can have a ripple effect on holiday-time borrowing costs, observers say the real question about Wednesday is the clues Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell drops for what’s next. The central bank’s committee voting on interest rate increases reconvenes in mid-December.

    On Wednesday, the Fed said in a statement it expected further rate increases, but also said it would be watching to see if there were lag effects with its tightening policies, which could slow or limit the total amount of increases.

    “People, when they hear lags, they think about a pause. It’s very premature, in my view, to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hike. We have a ways to  go,” Powell told reporters at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.

    The economy is strong enough to handle higher rates, Powell said. For one thing, households have “strong balance sheets” and “strong spending power,” he noted.

    Stock markets first jumped higher after the latest interest rate announcement. But they gave up the gains — and then some — by the end of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -1.55%
    was down more than 500 points, or 1.6% while the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -2.50%
    was down 2.5% and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -3.36%
    closed 3.4% lower.

    Top economists in major North American-based banks forecasted the Fed will keep raising interest rates “until the first quarter of next year before potentially lowering rates through the end of 2023,” Sayee Srinivasan, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, the banking sector’s trade association, said ahead of Wednesday’s latest rate hike.

    “Top economists polled as part of a banking industry panel expect Fed rate increases through at least the first quarter of 2023.”

    The forecast, coming through an ABA advisory committee, is no sure thing. “Everything depends on the ability of the Fed to bring inflation down, so that will remain their clear priority,” said Srinivasan.

    Meanwhile, rising costs may cause more people to put the holiday cheer on plastic, even their decorations. The majority of Christmas tree growers in one poll are expecting wholesale prices to climb 5% to 15% for this season.

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  • ‘He’s not willing to live in my house because it has fewer amenities’: My boyfriend wants me to move in and pay half his monthly costs. Is that fair?

    ‘He’s not willing to live in my house because it has fewer amenities’: My boyfriend wants me to move in and pay half his monthly costs. Is that fair?

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    Dear Quentin,

    My boyfriend owns a house with a 30-year mortgage balance of $150,000 on a 4% interest rate. He has $275,000 in cash and retirement accounts. He is retired.

    My house is paid off. I have $50,000 in cash and retirement accounts. I would like to retire within one to two years.

    We wish to cohabitate but have not been able to agree on a fair “rent” to pay. He is not willing to live in my house because it has fewer amenities. 

    “‘He believes I should pay half of his monthly cost at his nicer, more expensive house. He could pay off his mortgage and save $600 a month, but he likes to have cash. ‘”

    He believes I should pay half of his monthly cost at his nicer, more expensive house. He could pay off his mortgage and save $600 a month, but he likes to have cash. 

    I have forgone that luxury and paid off my mortgage. I am now working on building my savings. I don’t feel it is fair for me to pay half of the mortgage interest expense. 

    I don’t know what repair and maintenance costs should be expected from me, if I have no equity in his house. There are many points of view, none of which feels fair.

    These are the options he set forth:

    · I live in his house and thus get to rent mine out. Pay him half of what I net from that rental.

    · Pay half of the actual costs of living expenses and upkeep on his house while I live there.

    · Pay him what I pay to live in my current home for taxes, insurance, and utilities: $800/month.

    What say you, Moneyist?

    House Owner & Girlfriend 

    Dear House Owner,

    I’m sure your house is just as nice. And just because he believes you should pay half his costs, does not make it so. If you are paying no mortgage on your own home, I don’t believe you should pay one red cent more to live in his home. 

    That is to say, you should not come out of this arrangement paying more, just because (a) he would like you to live in his home and (b) he would like you to help him pay off his mortgage, or his tax and maintenance.

    You both made different choices: Yours was to have a home that’s free-and-clear of a mortgage, so you can spend this time building up your savings for retirement and/or a rainy day. 

    You have worked hard to pay off your mortgage, and you have $50,000 in savings, less than 20% of your boyfriend’s savings. He has $150,000 left on his mortgage, and that’s his choice.

    “If his aim is to find help to pay off half of his mortgage, he can find a tenant to do that for him. ”

    You are not the answer to his long-term financial plans, you are his partner in life. If his aim is to find help to pay off half of his mortgage, he can find a tenant to do that for him. What do you expect of you? Forget what he expects.

    By the way he is approaching this arrangement, it seems like he wants the equivalent of a detergent and a fabric softener — a girlfriend and a tenant in one handy bottle to keep his financial plans smooth and clean.

    Bottom line: You should not compromise any plans to build your nest egg. The lady’s not for turning. Only acquiesce to his plan if — with the help of an actual tenant in your home — it helps you too. 

    In other words, the desired outcome for you is more important than the suggestions he has put forward. He could save $600 a month! That’s his business. Not yours. What do you want to have in your pocket every month?

    Figure out what you want, and then work your way backwards based on that goal. For instance, if you can pay him $800 a month, charge $1,600 rent for your home, and put $800 towards your savings, do that.

    You’ve come a long way. Don’t let these negotiations scupper that.

    Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Readers write in to me with all sorts of dilemmas. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.

    The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.

    By emailing your questions, you agree to having them published anonymously on MarketWatch. By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

    Also read:

    I built a property portfolio with 23 units while we were dating. How much should I give to my fiancé in our prenup?

    ‘We will not outlive our money’: How can we give $10,000 to our nieces and nephews without offending the rest of the family?

    ‘S‘I hate to be cheap’: Is it still acceptable to arrive at a friend’s house for dinner with just one bottle of wine?

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