Meep starts her taxes

In the audio podcast I talk about why I didn’t start preparing my tax returns until yesterday (when I usually have them done by now). I also discuss the advance child tax credit payments during 2021, and the battle for the SALT cap removal. I hope it fails, as a wise man once said.A related recent-ish story from CNBC:Families are struggling again after just 2 months without child tax credit paymentsIt’s been two months since families with eligible children stopped getting advance child tax credit payments in December.Many of those families are already struggling again to make ends meet.….In addition to still dealing with the pandemic, which has upended work and school for families, parents are also being hit with higher prices for everyday items due to the highest inflation seen in 40 years. That’s added extra pressure to their budgets at the same time they’re seeing less money coming in each month.This piece is from February 16, before the Ukraine invasion, by the way. So they’re not trying to pretend the inflation is due to that.But the survey wasn’t done of just random families. It was a survey of the membership of ParentsTogether Action, and they may have a bias. I have no problem with an activist group promoting their own causes, to be sure.I do have an issue with CNBC running lightly edited press releases from activist groups… a bit lazy, eh? Get full access to STUMP - Meep on public finance, pensions, mortality and more at marypatcampbell.substack.com/subscribe