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The Hill
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Hill
Social Security no taxes message on Trump bill raises eyebrows
President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is sending mixed messages about whether most Americans are required to pay federal income taxes on their Social Security benefits. 'It's a mixed bag for seniors, because some seniors will get some tax relief; the cost of that, though, is borne by the entire Social Security system,' Alex Lawson, executive director of left-leaning advocacy organization Social Security Works, told USA Today. The bill, which Trump signed into law on Saturday, included a $6,000 tax deduction for Americans 65 or older. After Congress passed the bill on Thursday, the Social Security Administration said the legislation 'delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans.' 'The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples,' the Thursday press release said. 'Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned.' However, policy experts are concerned that the bill does not include a provision to eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits. 'There is no provision in the budget bill that directly 'eliminates' or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits,' Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Washington Post. Trump's bill offers a tax deduction of $6,000 to seniors making up to $75,000 individually, or $150,000 on a joint return. The deduction is lowered for incomes above that level and axed for seniors with individual incomes of more than $175,000, or $250,000 jointly. However, the new deduction for seniors is set to expire within a couple of years. The median income for seniors in 2022 was about $30,000. 'The people who benefit by definition have to be richer, and people who benefit the most are the richest people,' Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told CBS News. Before the megabill's passing, 64 percent of seniors receiving Social Security income paid no tax on their Social Security due to exemptions and deductions, according to an estimate by Trump's Council of Economic Advisers. Under Trump's megabill, 88 percent won't be paying. Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told the Post that the rise is due to the bill's increase in 'the standard deduction for seniors, which, as a result, reduces the number of seniors who will pay taxes on their Social Security benefits.' Put simply, the new legislation will provide limited benefits for lower-income seniors because they already pay less in taxes. 'Lower-income earners benefit less than middle and upper-middle income households,' Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a center-right think tank, told USA Today. 'It's been marketed as tax relief for seniors, but a lot of seniors are going to be surprised when they find out it doesn't apply to them,' he added. 'I'm getting asked all the time by folks what this actually means for their tax situation.'
Leader Live
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Leader Live
Wimbledon line-calling technology fails on crucial point in Sonay Kartal match
Umpire Nico Helwerth on the phone after the line-calling technology failed during the match between Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Adam Davy/PA) This article is brought to you by our exclusive subscriber partnership with our sister title USA Today, and has been written by our American colleagues. It does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald. Wimbledon's new electronic line-calling system caused more controversy after malfunctioning during Sonay Kartal's fourth-round clash with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Centre Court. At a crucial moment in the first set, with Russian Pavlyuchenkova serving at 4-4 and advantage, she was convinced a Kartal backhand had landed long. Umpire Nico Helwerth stopped the point to check whether the technology, which has controversially replaced line judges this year, had worked, informing the crowd after a delay that it had not. With no evidence of whether the ball was in or out, Helwerth ordered the point to be replayed, and Pavlyuchenkova, who would have won the game had the shot been called out, went on to drop serve. Intriguing scenes! Pavlyuchenkova thinks Kartal has put her forehand long and stops before the Brit slams back a winner. The umpire checks and confirms the electronic line calling system was unable to track the point, which leads to the point being replayed.#Wimbledon — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 6, 2025 The 34-year-old reacted furiously at the change of ends, saying to Helwerth: 'Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.' Britain's leading duo Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have both complained about the accuracy of the system this week. After her defeat by Aryna Sabalenka on Friday, Raducanu said: 'It's kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong.' Wimbledon organisers have defended the technology, which is widely used on the tour.
North Wales Chronicle
8 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Court this week in Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey
Kevin Evans was among those jailed this week (Image: NWP) This article is brought to you by our exclusive subscriber partnership with our sister title USA Today, and has been written by our American colleagues. It does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald. BELOW is a round-up of all court cases concerning matters which took place in, or defendants from, Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd or Anglesey, covered by the Free Press, Pioneer, Journal or Chronicle last week (June 30 - July 5):
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Gas prices in Massachusetts declined from last week: Find out how much.
State gas prices declined last week and reached an average of $3.02 per gallon of regular fuel on Monday, down from last week's price of $3.07 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average fuel price in state rose about 7 cents since last month. According to the EIA, gas prices across the state in the last year have been as low as $2.88 on April 14, 2025, and as high as $3.50 on July 8, 2024. A year ago, the average gas price in Massachusetts was 14% higher at $3.50 per gallon. >> INTERACTIVE: See how your area's gas prices have changed over the years at . The average gas price in the United States last week was $3.16, making prices in the state about 4.5% lower than the nation's average. The average national gas price is lower than last week's average of $3.21 per gallon. The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu. Our News Automation and AI team would like to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us. This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Massachusetts gas prices declined from last week: See how much here
New York Post
11 hours ago
- Climate
- New York Post
How a perfect storm of conditions fueled the deadly Texas flooding: ‘Many things came together in a terrible way'
A perfect storm of a slow-moving pocket of moist air, parched terrain and a hilly area prone to flash flooding unleashed absolute hell on Texas Hill Country — where more than 40 people have died, according to meteorologists. Everything was in 'exactly the wrong place' on July 4, Alan Gerard, a recently retired storm specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told USA Today. The trouble all started with Tropical Storm Barry. The storm made landfall on the eastern coast of Mexico Monday morning, according to FOX 7 Austin meteorologist Adaleigh Rowe. The storm continued to move northward until it encountered a high-pressure system in central Texas — and stalled. 'Since high pressure has been blocking it from moving away, this moisture, this low-pressure system has been trapped over central Texas, producing what we call 'training thunderstorms,' or storms that hit the same areas over and over and over,' Rowe said. 3 Atmospheric conditions created 'training thunderstorms' that parked over Kerr County and unleashed a torrent of rain. Robert Caraway II The 'training thunderstorm' parked itself over Kerr County right in the heart of Texas Hill Country – a region known as 'flash flood alley,' USA Today said. That unleashed a torrent of rain – a 120 billion gallons on Kerr County alone, one meteorologist said – on dry, rugged terrain that didn't stand a chance of absorbing it, according to reports. More than 12 inches of rain was dumped in Hill Country over several hours Friday — leading to the once-in-a-generation event that saw at least 43 people killed in Kerr County alone. 'A sudden surge of rain like that is going to have a harder time getting absorbed,' said Brett Anderson, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. 'It just runs right off of it. It's like concrete.' 3 Texas Hill Country is arid and dry, making it hard to absorb heavy rainfall. Getty Images The area had already been in a drought, compounding the problem. The steep hills also makes it so the water moves extremely fast along the dry land. 'As is often the case with the worst disasters, many things came together in a terrible way,' said Robert Henson, a meteorologist and writer with Yale Climate Connections. Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist and civil engineer at the University of Texas at San Antonio, described Hill Country as a 'semi-arid area with soils that don't soak up much water, so the water sheets off quickly and the shallow creeks can rise fast,' in a post on The Conversation. Those unusually wet conditions in the sky and extreme dry, craggy conditions on the ground created the ideal circumstances for what experts call a 'flood wave' in the Guadalupe River. 3 Texas Governor Greg Abbott at a press conference addressing deadly Texas floods. DUSTIN SAFRANEK/EPA/Shutterstock A flood wave is 'a rise in streamflow to a crest and its subsequent recession caused by precipitation, snowmelt, dam failure, or reservoir releases,' according to the National Weather Service. A video posted to Facebook shows the flood wave completely engulf the Guadalupe River in Center Point, Texas, with waters rapidly rising and even sending a house crashing into a bridge. 'It's literally a situation that's unique to a flash flood area,' a forecaster for NBC News said. Even without Barry, the region being so close to the Gulf of America means it get 'very high rainfall rates' in the summer months, said Gerard. 'The Gulf is warmer than normal and disturbances moving through that flow can focus thunderstorm activity on a particular area,' he said. With Post wires
