Nearly 20 states are running back-to-school sales tax holidays this summer, and while the coverage is aimed at parents hunting for deals, the compliance burden lands squarely on retailers — who have to get the exemption rules right in real time or risk under- or over-collecting tax on thousands of transactions. What happened Mississippi kicked...
Massachusetts business owners are watching a familiar fight resurface: the state House has tucked a mandatory employee retirement-savings program — vetoed by Gov. Maura Healey just last year — back into a must-pass economic development bill, according to a July 8, 2026 NFIB press release. What happened The proposal, known as the Secure Choice Savings...
A new Government Accountability Office report confirms what small business owners tracking the Corporate Transparency Act have suspected for months: the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting regime the Treasury Department built to fight shell-company money laundering has been quietly hollowed out, and now even the federal agencies it was designed to serve are struggling to...
One year after OBBBA changed ERC rules, Jackson Walker warns cashed refund checks don't mean claims are closed. Know your audit and appeal deadlines.
TrumpIRA launches Jan. 1, 2027, but doesn't integrate with state Auto-IRA mandates covering 1.3M workers. Here's the mismatch employers need to know.
DOL proposed a 2026 rule simplifying worker classification to two core factors. Comment period closed April 28; the 2024 rule stays in force until it's finalized.
A New York Fed survey of 6,500 firms finds 80% of goods and retail businesses passed on tariff costs in 2025 — and more price hikes are still coming in 2026.
Under new Chair Kevin Warsh, the Fed held rates at 3.5-3.75% but projects a hike by year-end 2026 as inflation runs hot. Here's what it means for financing.
The SBA raised its combined 7(a)/504 loan cap from $5M to $10M as of July 4, 2026. Here's what changed and what it means for small business financing.
Subchapter V small-business bankruptcy elections rose 50% year over year in H1 2026, per new Epiq AACER data. What the warning signs look like before it gets there.
A new NFIB report shows 19% of WA small businesses call labor costs their top problem vs. 9% nationally, and confidence is trailing the U.S. average.
The CFPB has quietly filed a new inquiry into credit card late fees, reopening a fight that once threatened to cut fees from $32 to $8. Here's what business owners should watch.
The IRS has expanded its Direct Pay tool to businesses, giving companies a way to send most federal tax payments straight from a bank account for free — no EFTPS enrollment, no waiting period, no third-party processor fee. What happened According to the IRS, Direct Pay for Businesses now covers a wide range of federal...
Washington’s mandatory long-term care benefit program, funded through a payroll premium every W-2 employee in the state has been paying into, is denying roughly half of its earliest applicants — but the reason has little to do with whether they actually need care. What happened As of late June 2026, 113 people had applied for...
Tens of millions of taxpayers who paid penalties or missed refunds during the COVID-19 pandemic have until July 10, 2026 to file a protective refund claim, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate. The deadline traces back to a court ruling that found the IRS had been shortchanging the disaster-relief postponement period Congress built into the...