Internal Revenue Service

The $2 bill isn’t rare; it’s just hiding. First printed in 1862, stopped in 1966, and revived in 1976, there are still 1.6 billion in circulation. People just don’t spend them.

However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. In the case of adoption, death, terminal illness, education, homebuying, and more, you can access your funds without a strike against you. A chart outlines the different exceptions to this rule, plus the accounts to which they apply.

To understand what you would owe on short-term capital gains and to visualize the favorability of long-term tax rates, you need to know how your traditional income is taxed at the federal level. A breakdown explores the different brackets for 2024, separated by filing status.

High-earners can make more than six figures, while close to 15% make less than the federal minimum hour wage. Most gig workers in the United States still have to file a tax return every year.

An IRS tax refund is the only way to buy a paper savings bond, but if you have an old paper savings bond you can determine its current value with this calculator. The calculator only works for paper savings bonds of Series EE, Series I, Series E, and savings notes.

It costs the IRS a significant amount of money to do part of its job—collecting money. For instance, the Internal Revenue Service spent $16.1B to collect $4.7T in taxes in 2023.

The IRS imposes a 10% penalty on non-qualified withdrawals from 529 college savings plans, which hold funds for education-related expenses. However, there are exceptions to the rule, including if the beneficiary dies or becomes disabled. There’s also an exception for beneficiaries that receive tax-free scholarships or attend military academies.

This podcast episode takes a lighthearted dive into the history of the IRS, from when the agency was founded and called the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to that one time it had to enforce a national ban on alcohol. Want to learn more? Listen to the podcast episode.

Nobody likes filing their tax return each year, but this article takes that sentiment a step further. Specifically, the author argues that the tax system obscures certain aspects of the US tax code, making it difficult for taxpayers to accurately assess potential reforms. Learn more about why the information Americans have about our tax system might be misleading.

Before the 16th Amendment, US tax law required direct taxes (like income and property taxes) to be directly apportioned to a state's population. Due to these requirements, the federal government could not impose many direct taxes. But the 16th Amendment changed all that. To find out more about direct and indirect taxes, read this explainer.