- U.S. households are spending more on housing, food, gas, transportation and medical care and falling deeper into the red.
- From credit cards to car loans, the average family now owes $155,622.
Higher prices are already taking a toll.
As consumers pay more for everything from groceries to gasoline, household income is failing to keep pace with a higher overall cost of living, according to recent reports.
Over the past two years, median income fell 3% while the cost of living rose nearly 7%, due, in part, to rising housing and medical costs.
www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/amid-rising-prices-us-households-fall-deeper-in-debt.html
The Treasury Department is warning that tax refunds and other services may be delayed this year because of “enormous challenges” including the coronavirus pandemic and previous budget cuts made at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Treasury officials told reporters during a phone all on Monday that they are predicting a “frustrating season” for taxpayers and tax preparers because of factors that also included federal stimulus actions, according to The Washington Post.
The IRS is also entering filing season with a large backlog of unaddressed returns, officials told reporters. The agency usually has about one million unaddressed returns, but this year’s number could be “several times” that, a Treasury official said, according to the Post. They declined to provide a more exact prediction.