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A new year brings new goals and resolutions — and for many, the question: “When can you file taxes in 2026?” The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has not yet announced the official start date for 2025 tax returns, but past years suggest that the 2026 filing season will likely begin during the last full week of January. According to The Economic Times, this year’s filing season comes amid heightened financial pressures, including inflation, elevated interest rates, global uncertainty, and tariffs. However, these factors won’t directly affect filing deadlines. Preparation Is Key Regardless of when the filing season begins, taxpayers can get a head start by collecting their documents to avoid delays and errors. The most important documents to collect early are W-2 forms, which employers and financial institutions must send to employees by Jan. 31, 2026, per The Economic Times. Freelancers and independent contractors will need Form 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC, which report various types of...
Tax season is here, and that could mean bigger refunds for many Americans after significant changes in the 2025 federal tax rules. But the season may also bring delays and confusion. According to USA Today, households will need to navigate new deductions for tip income, overtime pay, car loan interest, and the senior tax break for those 65 and older — along with unexpected restrictions. Many changes come from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, which includes new tax breaks retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025. “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill will unleash the full potential of the U.S. economy. It locks in permanent, pro-growth tax cuts for families, workers, and job creators,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said of the bill. “The bill also enacts No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, and new tax cuts for seniors. The OBBB will strengthen important programs for those who need them most and save taxpayer dollars by cutting waste, fraud, and...
U.S. Bank is stepping up its presence across the Southeast, aiming to reach more businesses and broaden its lending services, including Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. According to Banking Dive, the Minneapolis-based bank, with $695 billion in assets, is actively hiring bankers in areas where it doesn’t currently operate branches. Dee O’Dell, head of business banking sales, confirmed that within six months, U.S. Bank plans to bring on at least a dozen new bankers in a couple of Southeastern states. Though they weren’t specified, possibilities include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, the outlet notes. While O’Dell did not go into detail, the bank is clearly positioning itself to tap into growing business markets across the region. This expansion follows recent moves in other key markets. Banking Dive states that U.S. Bank has added multiple banker teams in cities like Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Chicago, reflecting its strategy to meet...
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes AI will eventually shorten the work week and says people should embrace it now, before it transforms every corner of the workforce. Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference at the America Business Forum in Miami, FL, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, Dimon said the future of work may involve fewer hours but greater value — if leaders take the proper steps now. He urged companies to modernize data systems so AI can use them effectively, invest despite power limitations, and create humane transitions for jobs that will disappear. “It’s going to affect every application, every job, every customer interface,” Dimon said, as Fortune reported. “My guess is the developed world will be working three-and-a-half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years, and have wonderful lives,” he continued. As AI takes on more routine work, the same result may require fewer hours — though every transition brings its own challenges. “It will eliminate jobs. People should...
Citibank has lowered its base lending rate by 0.25% on Oct. 30, 2025, from 7.25% to 7.00%, according to a Citibank news release. This follows a similar reduction in September, the bank announced, and comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its policy rate to a 3.75%–4.00% range, the lowest in three years, CNN reports. Borrowers with floating-rate loans tied to Citibank’s base rate may see lower interest payments, potentially saving hundreds of dollars annually, according to The Economic Times. The cut aligns the bank’s lending rate with the U.S. prime rate, standardizing borrowing costs for individuals and businesses. Loans such as mortgages, auto financing, and business credit lines tied to the base rate will see immediate changes in monthly payments. Citigroup, Citibank’s parent company, operates in more than 180 countries, offering personal banking, wealth management, and capital markets services, the outlet notes. Citi has a market capitalization of $177.36 billion,...
Wells Fargo has agreed to resolve a settlement regarding claims around its interview processes. Lawsuit Explained As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the bank giant was accused in a lawsuit of conducting interviews with “ diverse ” candidates without the intention of hiring for the role. Former executive Joe Bruno addressed this concern, saying the “ fake interviews ” were “ inappropriate, morally wrong, ethically wrong, ” according to the New York Times. Bruno was fired in August 2021, and Wells Fargo states that it resulted from his combative behavior with another employee. Nonetheless, other employees have shared similar sentiments to Bruno’s regarding Wells Fargo’s interviewing practices. Some admitted they had to conduct interviews with diverse hires even though the role was already filled. Accounts of these claims surrounding Wells Fargo can be traced back from February 2021 to June 2022 and are documented in a class-action lawsuit filed by SEB Investment Management on behalf of...
Millions of people across the U.S. felt the effects of Amazon Web Services (AWS) going offline. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the global outage on Monday, Oct. 20, disrupted access to websites, apps, and services across sectors. As recovery continues, new details are emerging about just how integral AWS is to everyday digital life. According to CNN, the outage rippled through nearly every aspect of daily routines. People couldn’t order coffee through mobile apps, teachers couldn’t access lesson plans, and smart home systems like Ring and Blink cameras stopped working. For many, it was more than just an inconvenience. Hospitals also lost key communications tools, and customers at digital banks such as Chime couldn’t access their money. The shutdown underscored how essential AWS has become to digital infrastructure. The platform provides the behind-the-scenes computing power for millions of businesses, offering storage, servers, and data management tools that keep operations...
Fifth Third Bancorp to move forward with the acquisition of Comerica Bank. Details Surrounding Acquisition The bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati announced it will acquire Comerica , a regional bank headquartered in Dallas with a large footprint in the Midwest, for $10.9 billion in an all-stock deal projected to close by 2026, according to CNBC. This will lead to about $288 billion in combined assets and would reportedly form the ninth-largest bank in the U.S. with two $1 billion recurring and high-return fee businesses: Commercial Payments and Wealth and Asset Management, CNN reports. “The things that have defined Fifth Third over the course of the past 10 years have been this focus on stability, profitability, and our ability to drive organic growth,” Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence told CNBC. “What’s defined Comerica is an incredible middle-market commercial banking platform, and the access that Comerica has to high-growth markets like Texas and large economies like...
Paga Group, a UK-based African fintech company, has expanded its services to the United States. Founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2009, the company is on a mission to eliminate the pain points of sending and accessing money for Africa’s diaspora. Paga Group has folded three businesses into its structure, including Paga, its consumer digital wallet, which permits users to send money, make payments, and bank in multiple currencies, according to the company’s website. Paga also offers a virtual or physical debit card that can be used at businesses that accept Visa. Additional perks include setting bills on autopay. Paga’s other businesses include Paga Engine — a B2B business serving more than 260 companies — and Doroki — a retail and SME management platform — according to information shared with AFROTECH™. Expanding To U.S. Soil According to information shared with AFROTECH™, in 2024 alone, Paga processed 124 million transactions, valued at nearly $5.6 billion. Paga is now expanding to U.S....
If you had a Capital One 360 savings account between September 2019 and June 2025, you may be entitled to part of a $425 million Capital One savings account settlement, USA Today reports. The payout stems from a Capital One 360 savings account lawsuit that alleged the bank kept interest rates low on older accounts while offering higher rates to new customers. Capital One 360 Savings Account Lawsuit Background According to USA Today, Capital One customers filed the Capital One 360 savings account lawsuit in 2024. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also sued the bank and its parent holding company, Capital One Financial Corp., in January 2025, claiming it froze rates on the 360 Savings account at 0.3% for years despite rising national interest rates. The Bureau alleged that this cost customers more than $2 billion in lost earnings. Per USA Today, the CFPB said Capital One marketed the 360 Savings account as “high interest” with a variable rate “among the nation’s best,”...
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Early Warning Services (EWS), the company behind the popular payment app Zelle, accusing it of failing to protect users from what she calls “massive amounts of fraud,” CNN reports . The lawsuit, filed Wednesday (Aug. 13) in New York State Supreme Court, according to court documents, alleges that Zelle’s key features made it easy for scammers to exploit the platform, resulting in over $1 billion in stolen funds. The documents also state that EWS is owned by a consortium of major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, and Wells Fargo. “No one should be left to fend for themselves after falling victim to a scam, and I look forward to getting justice for the New Yorkers who suffered because of Zelle’s security failures,” James said in a statement, per CNN. According to the complaint, Zelle’s quick sign-up process lacked proper verification steps, enabling fraudsters to pose as legitimate...
The impact of generative AI on the U.S. labor market is already visible in employment data, with signs of a hiring slowdown in the tech sector — especially among younger workers. On the Aug. 5, 2025, episode of the “Goldman Sachs Exchanges” podcast, Joseph Briggs, senior global economist at Goldman Sachs , noted that most companies have yet to implement AI in production cases, so its broader effect on the job market remains limited, according to CNBC. Still, current trends offer a sneak peek at what’s to come. “If you look at the tech sector’s employment trends, they’ve been basically growing as a share of overall employment in a remarkably linear manner for the last 20 years,” Briggs said, per CNBC. “Over the last three years, we’ve actually seen a pullback in tech hiring that has led it to undershoot its trend.” As highlighted in “Quantifying the Risks of AI-Related Job Displacement,” a recent report co-authored by Briggs, unemployment among tech workers aged 20 to 30 has risen by...
When the world shut down in 2020, Alexander Zanders made a decision some may not have dared — selling his crypto holdings to buy 100 acres of farmland in Nigeria, betting on soil over tech or urban assets. “I always tell people I did what any rational person would do when the world feels like it’s ending,” he told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “I started farming.” That move wasn’t just a pandemic pivot. It marked the beginning of UfarmX, a fintech company that, according to Zanders, helps smallholder farmers across Africa access credit, high-quality inputs, and the opportunity to scale what they’ve always done — grow food. A Mission Rooted In Experience A Baltimore native and Temple University alum, Zanders didn’t come from a farming background. His path — from exporting iPads to building agri-fintech infrastructure in West Africa — shows how innovation can grow from direct, on-the-ground experience. Before launching UfarmX, Zanders was already an entrepreneur. As an undergrad, he...
Goldman Sachs is turning to AI to level up its developer workforce — and its latest team member isn’t even human. The global investment bank is testing an AI-powered software engineer from startup Cognition that can handle everything from writing code to fixing bugs and building full applications, with minimal human support, CNBC reports. Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti said the bank sees this as the beginning of a new kind of collaboration between people and machines. “We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with… our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on behalf of our developers,” Argenti told CNBC. Goldman Sachs is the first major bank to use the tool and believes this tech has the potential to significantly boost productivity across its 12,000-person developer team. And if it proves successful, the firm may roll out thousands of AI engineers across the organization. What Makes The Goldman Sachs AI Engineer Different This isn’t your average AI assistant...
American Express (Amex) is planning a major refresh of its flagship Platinum card. In a news release, the company described it as the “largest investment ever” in the Platinum product line, with changes coming to both personal and business versions later this year. “We’re going to take these cards to a new level,” said Howard Grosfield, president of U.S. consumer services at American Express. “Not only in what they offer in travel, dining, and lifestyle benefits, but also in how they look and feel.” Big Moves For Business Builders And Jet-Setters The refresh comes as competition among premium credit cards continues to grow. With options like Chase’s Sapphire Reserve and Capital One’s Venture X gaining popularity, American Express appears to be stepping up to stay ahead. For cardholders who use the Platinum card to manage a busy travel schedule or handle business expenses, the new perks may make it even more worthwhile. Here’s what the company has confirmed so far: New Lounge Access:...