Laura Davison

Just under a month into federal tax filing season, the IRS reported a 32 percent slide in the number of refunds sent out compared with last year, showcasing delays that have spurred Democrats to call for postponing the traditional April 15 deadline.

Households will begin receiving the $1,400 stimulus payments included in the pandemic-relief bill approved by Congress before the end of March, according to the White House.

The legislation includes a massive, one-year expansion to the child tax credit program aimed at curbing child poverty, a change Democrats are already seeking to make permanent.

President Joe Biden is on the cusp of his first legislative win with the House ready to give final passage to his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan. It includes a big expansion in the child tax credit and makes student loan forgiveness tax free.

Senate Democrats passed the latest version of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill after a more than 24-hour voting session that included the longest single vote in the chamber’s history.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee is probing whether executives at four drug industry companies plan to use a pandemic-related tax break to deduct opioid settlement payments.

Two Senate committee chiefs are looking at ways to raise taxes on companies paying workers less than $15 an hour, as part of a new strategy to include President Joe Biden’s push to boost the minimum wage to that level in his COVID-19 aid bill.

The Biden administration will give exclusive access to the Paycheck Protection Program to the nation’s smallest businesses for two weeks as part of a broader effort to steer federal aid to the most vulnerable parts of the economy.

Three House Democrats are pushing legislation that would repeal the carried-interest tax break used by fund managers to reduce the levies they owe to the Internal Revenue Service.

The U.S. federal tax-filing season that begins Friday will be among the most consequential in recent history, as households face potential surprises — both negative and positive — sorting through pandemic-related measures at a time of high unemployment and depressed consumer confidence.