Latest news with #OneBigBeautifulBillAct
Miami Herald
35 minutes ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Las Vegas Strip: IRS quietly raised jackpot handpay limits
By now, most gamblers know that President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act contains a poison pill they are being forced to swallow. The tax bill only allows them to deduct 90% of their gambling losses, meaning gamblers could have to pay taxes on money they actually lost. Related: The Las Vegas Strip's top-rated hotel bans the usual vices That makes the loss even worse and, in theory, ruins things like casino loyalty programs. Few gamblers are going to sign up to have their play tracked if it means that they might end up owing taxes on money they did not win. It's hard to imagine an IRS that can actually keep track of how much money people have gambled. Doing so would mean bringing in forms and tracking play not just in the United States, but on cruise ships around the world. Right now, gamblers are supposed to pay taxes on anything they win. In reality, nobody reports a win to the IRS if they do not have to. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Currently, you only have to report a win when you exceed certain thresholds. The most famous one of those is when you hit $1,200 or more playing slot machines. When that happens, your machine freezes and somebody from the casino has to walk over and collect your personal information. They use this to fill out a tax form in order to report your winnings to the IRS. Slot players have had to get a tax form for a hand-pay at the $1,200 rate since 1977. The number has not increased by a single dollar, even though Congresspeople, generally representatives from states that have casinos, have tried to get the limits lifted. That's not just a question of taxes. In theory, gamblers owe taxes on any winnings, since they count as income even when no form has reported them to the IRS. On a practical basis, however, you have to imagine that few people are honest enough to pay taxes on wins the IRS knows nothing about. More Las Vegas: Las Vegas Strip casino signs country superstar to new residencyLas Vegas Strip casinos can't shake an alarming trendLas Vegas Strip Sphere brings back country superstar residency That's because casinos don't like having players who just won a small jackpot (or a large one) stop playing in order to wait for a tax form. Filling out those forms requires labor, and sometimes when you win, it can be a challenge to track down a casino worker. This can take a happy moment and make it an angry one, as people are tied to their machine until someone shows up. If they have been drinking, that can lead to an uncomfortable situation, given that you can't really leave to go to the bathroom. Earlier this year, federal legislation to update the tax reporting threshold for slot-machine wins was reintroduced to Congress by United States Reps. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.). The bipartisan legislation would increase the IRS reporting requirements for casinos from $1,200 to $5,000 before a casino needs to issue a W2-G. That legislation has been proposed multiple times and has never reached a vote. Helping gamblers does not seem to be a priority for Congress, as they refused to vote on a provision to reverse the tax on money that may have been lost that's part of the new tax bill. The bill, technically known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), however, does have a gift for slot players. Related: Las Vegas Strip casino closes huge superstars' residency "An element of the OBBBA that hasn't garnered nearly the same media coverage as it relates to the gaming industry is 'Section 70433 C - Application to Reporting on Remuneration for Services.' The text increases the tax reporting threshold on gambling winnings to $2,000," first reported. That's a meaningful increase for slot players, as it will limit how often they must stop to wait for a hand-pay and tax form. It's a minor win, since $2,000 isn't the $5,000 sought to account for the nearly 50 years since the number was increased. But as gamblers know, a win is a win. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
QuantumScape (QS) Soars 8.9% Ahead of Earnings Results
We recently published . QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE:QS) is one of Monday's top performers. QuantumScape extended its winning streak to a fifth straight day on Monday, surging 8.88 percent to close at $10.05 apiece as investors continued to gobble up shares ahead of its earnings results. According to the company, it will release its second quarter financial and operating performance after market close on July 23, 2025, to be followed by a conference call at 5 PM Eastern Time. Since Wednesday last week, QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE:QS) has started soliciting questions from its shareholders that they would like to be addressed on the call. Investors will be closely watching out for the company's business outlook following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and production plans following a milestone achievement through the integration of the advanced Cobra separator process into baseline cell production. A line of electric vehicles parked in front of a research & development building in San Jose, California. According to QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE:QS), Cobra forms the foundation of its high-throughput, continuous-flow separator production platform. It was designed to enable faster, more energy-efficient production with a smaller equipment footprint compared to earlier processes and represents a step-change improvement in ceramic separator manufacturing. While we acknowledge the potential of QS as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's tax bill funds $6bn expansion of US-Mexico border surveillance, report finds
Donald Trump's sweeping tax bill will finance a vast expansion of surveillance along the US-Mexico border, according to a new report. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) will give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – where US immigration agencies are housed – an unprecedented injection of $165bn in additional funding over the next four years. It's welcome news for the surveillance and defense tech industries that have been racing to cash in on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Signed into law on the Fourth of July, the OBBA earmarks more than $6bn of that spending for border technology, including surveillance, according to a new report by the immigration legal defense organization Just Futures Law. Among those standing to benefit are private prison corporations the GEO Group and Core Civic as well as surveillance firms such as Palantir and Anduril. US immigration agencies are seeking more funding for biometric data collection, license plate readers and phone hacking, the Just Futures Law report indicates. Related:Trump officials create searchable national citizenship database 'The spending is not about safety, it's about growing Trump's power through an agency like DHS,' said Laura Rivera, author of the report and senior staff attorney at Just Futures Law. 'I'm questioning why policing at the border should require this level of spending when the Trump administration is saying border crossing is at an all-time low.' Though many of these firms have already seen an increased investment from the federal government and the expansion of existing contracts since the start of the second Trump term, some executives have been banking on the additional funding swelling the budgets of immigration agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). During a recent earnings call, for instance, executives at the Geo Group, which operates detention centers and sells surveillance products, repeatedly assured investors that they expected to see more 'momentum' for their businesses in the second half of the year once the Ice budget was finalized. Here's what the agencies are asking for, what the OBBA is giving them and who stands to profit the most: The biggest name among the firms that will see a windfall from the big funding boost to the DHS is Palantir. The data management company was previously awarded $30m in a new contract to build a platform called ImmigrationOS that makes deportations more efficient. As part of the contract, Palantir is reportedly enabling the government to bring together sensitive data on all Americans from the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and the DHS. It's an unprecedented centralization of personal information by the federal government that civil liberties experts argue is a violation of privacy. The OBBA has allocated $673m to be spent on biometric systems – which collect and identify people based on physical attributes like their face or fingerprints – for ports of entry and exit. In April, for instance, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) put out a request for bids from firms that would help the agency perform real-time facial recognition on people inside vehicles crossing the borders. CBP previously signed a $16m contract with data broker LexisNexis for various services, including facial recognition. Since the start of 2024, CBP has awarded the little-known facial recognition firm Sentrillion nine contracts totaling $36.7m. According to its website, the company enables CBP officers to use 'voice and facial recognition from audio and video surveillance systems, as well as biometric fingerprint readers, to verify the identity of citizens'. CBP also has contracts with Clearview AI, which has been deployed at the US-Canada border, according to the Just Futures Law report. The DHS is also planning to ramp up its use of surveillance towers along the border. Supplied by firms like Peter Thiel-backed Anduril and the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, these automated surveillance structures are used to record and track who is crossing the border. CBP has asked for $140m for the upcoming fiscal year to construct more than 200 new towers along the border. The agency expects to have more than 900 towers up by September 2026, according to the report. Ice is looking to ramp up its social media surveillance capabilities with OBBA funding. In a request for information published in June, the agency sought an analytics firm to scour various sources of data including social media, geolocation and license plate reader information, financial information, international travel and crime data. The intention would be for the firm to analyze all of that information together to attempt to predict 'potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before crime and fraud can materialize', according to the proposal. It's unclear how much funding is set aside for Ice's specific program, but the DHS has already implemented expanded screening procedures for visa applicants, including requiring their social media accounts be set to public. CBP has awarded a $1.2m contract for software developed by a company called Fivecast Onyx to scrape and analyze open source data, including social media.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Donald Trump vs Federal Reserve: Why a 1% Fed rate cut could backfire, fuel inflation, and rattle markets — here's what economists say
US President Donald Trump 's renewed call for the Federal Reserve to slash its benchmark interest rate to 1% in a bid to ease government borrowing costs and finance rising deficits could backfire, according to a detailed Reuters analysis. Economists warn the move risks inflaming inflation expectations, undermining Fed credibility and triggering a bond market backlash. Trump, who has championed deficit-financed tax cuts and spending increases under his "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", has suggested that a 1% interest rate would allow his administration to sustain higher government debt without raising borrowing costs. But analysts argue that such a drastic rate cut — down from the current 4.25–4.50% range — would signal a crisis response in an economy that is still growing steadily, with inflation running at 2.5% and unemployment at 4.1%. 'A Fed policy rate that low is not typically a sign that the US is the 'hottest' country in the world for investment,' the Reuters report noted. Instead, it has historically been associated with economic distress — including the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, the 2008 global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, warned that slashing rates to 1% under current economic conditions would likely trigger fears that the Fed was bowing to political pressure. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo 'The bond market fear would be that inflation would reignite and essentially we would have a loss of Fed independence and a de-anchoring of inflation expectations,' he was quoted as saying. While there may be some scope to ease rates modestly, a deep cut as Trump demands could erode confidence in the Fed's commitment to its dual mandate — price stability and full employment — especially as inflation remains above target. The Fed influences borrowing costs through the federal funds rate, but it does not control interest rates on US Treasuries directly. These are determined by global markets, factoring in demand, supply, inflation expectations, and term premiums. Any perception of fiscal indiscipline or political interference could push Treasury yields higher, offsetting any benefits from lower short-term rates. Trump's push for lower rates comes amid rising US deficits and debt, driven in part by tax cuts and new spending proposals. The Reuters report notes that the US still enjoys relatively low borrowing costs due to global trust in its institutions and the dollar's safe-haven status — but this trust could erode if market participants perceive a weakening of Fed independence. Central bankers are also wary of the inflationary risks posed by Trump's new wave of tariffs on major trading partners, including the EU and Mexico. Slashing rates without clear signs of economic slowdown or disinflation could be seen as reckless. "Exits and repatriation are part of the process and indicates a sign of a mature market," Daco noted, stressing that data does not support a drastic shift in monetary policy. Trump reportedly sent Fed Chair Jerome Powell a handwritten note with his preferred interest rate penciled in — close to 1%. However, any move by the central bank in that direction without data-based justification could trigger a loss of credibility, higher inflation expectations, and even capital flight, economists warn. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Investor Ross Gerber is even more bearish on Tesla after Trump's tax bill. Here's how much further he thinks the stock could fall.
Ross Gerber has been calling for a painful drop in Tesla stock all year. The longtime Tesla investor sees the elimination of the EV tax credit as a new headwind. He thinks the stock should be trading more in line with the valuation of other Magnificent 7 names. One of the market's most vocal Tesla bears doesn't see a lot to get excited about for Elon Musk's carmaker through now and the end of the year. Ross Gerber, CEO and president of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, has strongly critiqued the company and its leadership under Musk this year. He accurately predicted a crash in the stock price earlier in 2025 as sales stalled and investors grew dismayed with the CEO's work in politics. Tesla stock has recovered its steepest losses, but it's still down 17% year-to-date — and Gerber sees it declining even further by year-end. Geber told Business Insider that he sees the stock ending the year at roughly $200 per share, implying potential downside of roughly 36% from Monday's price of around $314. Once a prominent shareholder and Musk backer, Gerber has substantially scaled back his Tesla position, and has been clear about why. With Musk's relationship with Donald Trump on the rocks and lingering brand damage from his foray into politics during his stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, Gerber told Business Insider that he now sees another reason to be bearish on the stock. Gerber said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on July 4 will negatively impact the company. He recalled initially describing it as the "Tesla enrichment act," highlighting how much changed with the elimination of EV tax credits. The bill ends many years of government support for electric cars much earlier than expected. The $7,500 tax credit, which was a big incentive for drivers to go electric, will sunset on September 30. "Now there's nothing good for Tesla in this bill," Gerber said. "It's a serious step back for them to have to deal with this." Musk has also spoken out against the bill, directly criticizing Trump for it and describing it as a "disgusting abomination" because of its potential to increase the deficit. The president responded by claiming that the Tesla CEO may be receiving "more subsidy than any human being in history." Their public disagreement sent Tesla stock tumbling, with Gerber describing the feud as a "disaster for Tesla stock." In addition to the challenges created by eliminating a lucrative consumer incentive, he also highlighted potential problems with Tesla's hugely anticipated robotaxi service, something Musk—and Wall Street—have staked the company's future on. Gerber has instead praised Waymo, Tesla's primary rival in the autonomous driving space. In his view, Waymo's work with Lidar and digital mapping gives it a clear advantage over Tesla. "Tesla should just accept that and do what they need to do to get the service to work," he stated. "But as of now, nobody has full self-driving software that actually is consistent enough to drive across a real town." Between those challenges and the revenue loss that could stem from the end of the EV tax credit, Gerber predicts more pain for the stock. "I think the stock is way overvalued and should trade in line with its Mag 7 peers," he said. Tesla was trading at almost 170x earnings on Monday. For comparison, Nvidia stock was trading at 54x earnings. Based on his opinion that Tesla should be valued more in line with other mega-cap tech names, Gerber said the stock should be trading around $150, "plus whatever fantastical valuation you want to put on taxis and robots." Read the original article on Business Insider
