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Social Security Fairness Act benefit increases to arrive this spring

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Lump sum payments to begin arriving in February

In a new update released on Tuesday, the SSA said it will begin issuing retroactive payments in February. Most people will receive the one-time payment by the end of March, according to the agency.

The SSA plans to process the increase to monthly benefits starting in April.

The new timeline “supports President Trump’s priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” Social Security acting commissioner Lee Dudek said in a statement.

“The agency’s original estimate of taking a year or more now will only apply to complex cases that cannot be processed by automation,” Dudek said. “The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible.”

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Among those affected include some teachers, firefighters and police officers in certain states; federal employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System and people who worked under foreign social security systems, according to the Social Security Administration.

What affected beneficiaries should know

Retroactive payments, which most people should receive by the end of March, will be deposited directly into bank accounts on file with the Social Security Administration.

All affected beneficiaries should receive a notice by mail from the Social Security Administration with details about their retroactive payment and new benefit amount. Those notices should come two to three weeks after the retroactive payments, according to the agency.

If your direct deposit information or current mailing address are up to date with the agency, no action is needed, according to the agency. If you want to double check the information the agency has on file, you may sign into your personal online account or call the agency.

If you want to ask about the status of your retroactive payment, the Social Security Administration urges you to hold off until April.

Beneficiaries should also wait until after they have received their April monthly check before contacting the agency to ask about their new benefit amount.

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GOP aims to axe EV, green tax credits. Act now to claim the breaks

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A visitor waves an American flag near the U.S. Capitol, as the U.S. House of Representatives considers U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

A tax package House Republicans may pass as soon as this week would kill a slew of consumer tax breaks tied to clean energy, as currently drafted. If it becomes law, households interested in the tax breaks may have to rush to claim them this year, experts said.

Tax breaks on the chopping block include ones for consumers who buy or lease electric vehicles, and others for households that make their homes more energy-efficient.

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which made historic investments to combat climate change, created or enhanced those tax breaks.

Most would be terminated after 2025, about seven years earlier than under current law.

“Based on the existing proposed language, if you’ve been considering an EV or planning to get one, now is the time to do it,” Alexia Melendez Martineau, senior policy manager at Plug In America, wrote in an e-mail.

Termination of EV tax credits

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images

Consumers who buy a new EV can claim a tax break worth up to $7,500. One for used EVs is worth up to $4,000. Car dealers can also pass along a $7,500 credit to consumers who lease an electric vehicle.

The House tax proposal would terminate these tax credits after 2025. The Inflation Reduction Act made them available through 2032.

A “special rule” would keep the $7,500 credit in place for some new EVs for an additional year, through 2026. However, it would only be available for new vehicles from automakers that haven’t yet sold 200,000 EVs. That would disqualify EVs from companies like General Motors (GM), Tesla (TSLA) and Toyota (TM).

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About 7.5% of all new-vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2025 were EVs, an increase from 7% a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive. Tax credits for EVs have been available in some form since 2008, when George W. Bush approved them.

The Inflation Reduction Act made it easier for consumers to access the EV credit, by allowing dealers to issue the tax break to consumers upfront at the point of sale instead of waiting until tax season. Consumers who buy an EV in the near term would be wise to pick this option, experts said.

“We recommend taking the upfront rebate at the dealership, as it reduces the price you pay now and shifts liability to the dealer to manage getting the credit from the IRS,” Martineau said.

Axing home efficiency tax credits

Owngarden | Moment | Getty Images

House Republicans also aim to axe various tax breaks tied to making existing homes more energy-efficient.

These breaks defray the cost of projects like installing insulation, solar panels, heat pumps, and installing energy-efficient windows and doors, for example.

One — the energy efficient home improvement credit, also known as the 25C credit — is worth up to 30% of the cost of a qualifying project. Taxpayers can claim up to $3,200 per year on their tax returns, with the overall dollar amount tied to specific projects.

Another — the residential clean energy credit, or the 25D credit — is also worth 30% of qualifying project costs. It doesn’t have an annual or lifetime dollar, except for certain limits on fuel cells, according to the IRS.

They are currently available through 2032. (The 25D credit phases down to 26% for installations in 2033 and 22% for those in 2034.)

Both tax credits would be repealed after 2025 under the House bill.

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The 25C and 25D credits have been available in some form since 1978 and 2005, respectively, according to economists at the Haas Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

More than 3.4 million U.S. households claimed one of the credits in 2023, receiving more than $8 billion, according to the Treasury Department.

Experts recommend that consumers considering a home-efficiency project have it completed by year’s end to be able to claim a tax credit.

“If a homeowner was looking to take advantage of the 25C tax credit, under what is being proposed [by the House] they’d need to ensure their system was put in service this year,” said Kara Saul Rinaldi, president and CEO of AnnDyl Policy Group, an energy and environmental policy strategy firm.

The House tax bill may change

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Of course, the tax bill’s text may change.

There appears to be dissent from within House Republican ranks over various aspects of the bill. Some of the infighting is tied to the repeal of climate related tax breaks, which have been more popular among consumers than anticipated.

The Senate also needs to pass the measure before it heads to the president’s desk.

“Republicans are far from united, with deficit hawks pushing for greater deficit reduction, centrists objecting to steep welfare cuts and blue-state Republicans fighting for bigger State and Local Tax (SALT) exemptions,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on Tuesday.

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Trump’s IRS Commissioner pick Billy Long grilled by Senate Democrats

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UNITED STATES – MARCH 31: Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., is seen during the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing titled Connecting America: Oversight of the FCC, in Rayburn Building on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Senate lawmakers pressed President Donald Trump‘s pick for IRS Commissioner, former Missouri Congressman Billy Long, about his opinions on presidential power over the agency, use of taxpayer data and his ties to dubious tax credits.

Long, who worked as an auctioneer before serving six terms in the House of Representatives, answered Senate Finance Committee queries during a confirmation hearing Tuesday.

One of the key themes from Democrats was Trump’s power over the agency, and Long told the committee, “the IRS will not, should not be politicized on my watch.”

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who provided her questions to Long in advance, asked whether Trump could legally end Harvard University’s tax-exempt status. If permitted, the move could have broad implications for the President’s power over the agency, she argued.

However, Long didn’t answer the question directly.

“I don’t intend to let anybody direct me to start [an] audit for political reasons,” he said.

Ties to dubious tax credits

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., scrutinized Long’s online promotion of the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit worth thousands per eligible employee. The tax break sparked a cottage industry of scrupulous companies pushing the tax break to small businesses that didn’t qualify.

“I didn’t say everyone qualifies,” Long said. “I said virtually everyone qualifies.”

Senators also asked about Long’s referral income from companies pushing so-called “tribal tax credits,” which the IRS has told Democratic lawmakers don’t exist.

“I did not have any perception whatsoever that these did not exist,” Long told the committee.

Senate Democrats also raised questions about donations people connected to those credits made to Long’s dormant Senate campaign, after Trump announced his nomination to head the IRS.

Direct File ‘one of the hottest topics’

While Senate Democrats grilled Long on his record, Republicans focused on questions about taxpayer service. Several Republican lawmakers voiced support for Long, including the committee chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. 

If confirmed by the Senate, Long could mean a shift for the agency, which previously embarked on a multibillion-dollar revamp, including upgrades to customer service, technology and a free filing program, known as Direct File.

When asked about the future of Direct File, Long said he planned to promptly examine the program, describing it as “one of the hottest topics at the IRS.”

‘An unconventional pick’

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Student loan borrowers struggle to get into income-driven repayment plan

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Nearly 2 million federal student loan borrowers who’ve requested to be in an affordable repayment plan are stuck in a backlog of applications, waiting to be approved or denied, according to new data recently shared by the U.S. Department of Education.

The Education Department disclosed the information in a May 15 court filing in response to a legal challenge lodged by the American Federation of Teachers. The teachers’ union sued the Trump administration in March for shutting down access to income-driven repayment plan applications on the Education Department’s website.

IDR plans cap borrowers’ monthly bills at a share of their discretionary income with the aim of making their payments manageable.

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In late March, the Trump administration made the online applications available again, and said that it pulled the forms because it needed to make sure all repayment plans complied with a court order that blocked the Biden administration’s new IDR plan, known as SAVE, or the Saving on a Valuable Education plan.

Trump officials argued that the ruling had broader implications for other IDR plans, and it ended up removing the loan forgiveness component under some of the options.

The backlog complicates things for borrowers as the Trump administration restarts collection activity. The Education Department estimates that nearly 10 million people could be in default on their student loans within months.

Without access to an affordable repayment plan, student loan borrowers can be suspended on their timeline to loan forgiveness and at risk of falling behind and facing collection activity.

‘The opposite of government efficiency’

In the May court document, the Education Department disclosed that more than 1.98 million IDR applications remained pending as of the end of April. Only roughly 79,000 requests had been approved or denied during that month.

Consumer advocates slammed the findings.

“This filing confirms what borrowers have known for months: Their applications for loan relief have effectively been going into a void,” said Winston Berkman-Breen, legal director at the Student Borrower Protection Center.

The Center said that if the Education Department continued to move at its current rate, it would take more than two years to process the existing applications.

AFT President Randi Weingarten called the backlog “outrageous and unacceptable.”

“This is the opposite of government efficiency,” Weingarten said. “Millions of borrowers are being denied their legal right to an affordable repayment option.”

What’s behind the backlog

A spokesperson for the Education Dept. blamed the backlog on the Biden administration, saying that it “failed to process income-driven repayment applications for borrowers, artificially masking rising delinquency and default rates and promising illegal student loan forgiveness to win points with voters.”

“The Trump Administration is actively working with federal student loan servicers and hopes to clear the Biden backlog over the next few months,” they said.

The Biden administration put the student loan borrowers who’d enrolled in its new IDR plan, SAVE, into an interest-free forbearance while the GOP-led legal challenges to the program unfolded. Many of the currently pending IDR requests are likely from borrowers who are trying to leave that blocked plan to get into an available one.

Sarah Sattlemeyer, a project director at New America and senior advisor under the Biden administration, said that the current backlog began last year “and has existed across both the Biden and Trump administrations” as a result of the legal battle over the SAVE plan.

“It is a demonstration of how complicated the loan system is, how much uncertainty there has been over the last few years and what is at stake,” Sattlemeyer said. “There also isn’t clarity around how some applications in the backlog should or will be handled, such as those where a borrower chose an option that no longer exists on the application.”

Student loan default collection restarting

In recent months, the Trump administration has terminated around half of the Education Department’s staff, including many of the people who helped assist borrowers.

That is also likely one reason why so many of the applications haven’t been processed, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“Perhaps the reduction in staff is affecting their ability to process the forms,” Kantrowitz said.

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