The Daily Valet. - 1/25/23, Wednesday
✔️ Are You Ready for a Refund?
Wednesday, January 25th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
I’m starting to feel like everyone’s got classified documents except me!
Today’s Big Story
Tax Season Is Here
Look for Changes to rules around gig economy income, charitable deductions and EV credits
Tax season officially kicked off this week. Are you one of those early filers? Maybe it's because I'm a writer always going right up to my deadlines, but I tend to file that final week right before tax day—which, you should know, isn't April 15th this year. Tax day 2023 is on Tuesday, April 18, because of the weekend and D.C.'s Emancipation Day holiday on the 17th.According to CNBC, the IRS is kicking off the season with a bigger customer service team and enhanced technology as the agency begins to deploy its nearly $80 billion in funding. Over the past several months, they've hired 5,000 new customer service staff employees, aiming to “significantly increase” the number of answered calls.That's good news after a challenging period for the IRS. Despite promises to clear the backlog, as of late December, there were still 1.91 million unprocessed individual returns received in 2022, according to the agency. However, the IRS may be primed for a better 2023 filing season after making “considerable progress” in reducing the pileup, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said in her annual report.The Wall Street Journal reports that tax refunds could shrink by a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for many taxpayers this year, since Congress chose not to extend several tax breaks put in place in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, including an expanded child tax credit and an enhanced child and dependent care tax credit.Other changes to keep in mind: Many taxpayers this year won't get a tax break for charitable donations. And the new EV tax credit says that electric vehicles (purchased on or after Aug. 16, 2022) must be assembled in North America to qualify. And that so-called $600 rule, which caused a lot of confusion for gig workers, has been delayed. So you won't be getting a 1099-K form from third-party networks and apps like Venmo, Amazon, Square and PayPal. At least, not this year.
FYI:
The IRS is expecting over 168 million individual tax returns this 2023.
Gun Violence Spreads Like Contagion
No end in sight for America’s everywhere epidemic of mass shootings
It's happened again. A news cycle focusing on the loss of life in one high-profile mass shooting was interrupted with the news of another. There were three mass shootings in California in one week. While the attacks were not connected, research shows that back-to-back rage killings are not uncommon.In 2022, the United States marked its first deadly gun rampage of the year on Jan. 23—a year ago Monday. By that same date this year, six mass killings have claimed 39 lives, according to a database of mass killings maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.A never-ending roll of mass shootings reflects the reality that while hundreds of millions of us go about our daily business safely, no one and nowhere is immune from the possibility of a sudden eruption of violence. A third of U.S. citizens now avoid certain places as a result, according to the American Psychological Association. And politically, we're at an impasse, reports CNN. Conservatives often divert blame to a national mental health crisis that they do little to alleviate and Democrats often re-up demands for an assault weapons ban they know they can't pass. Which sadly means there's little reason to hope that anything will change.
FYI:
Experts believe there are 393 million guns in private hands across the United States, which in 2022 was a country of 333 million people.
Far too many documents are classified, and there’s an incredible amount of sloppiness in the handling of these documents.”
- NBC News on America's broken classified document system
Bieber Sells His Catalog for $200M
The Deal is the largest yet for any artist of his generation
Justin Bieber on Tuesday joined a growing list of singers who have struck mammoth deals to sell their music catalogs—or, in some cases, their masters—for hundreds of millions of dollars. Billboard reports that Hipgnosis Songs Capital purchased 100% of his publishing and royalties and the price tag was a hulking $200 million.The news comes amid a broader trend—one that's been on the rise since Merck Mercuriadis founded Hipgnosis in 2018 and started buying up rights to legendary tracks. In the last few years, generational stars have inked huge deals to hand over their songs. Bruce Springsteen sold his masters for $500 million. Bob Dylan sold his catalog for $300 million. Now, younger artists are getting in on the action too—John Legend and Iggy Azalea are among the new generation striking deals.Why? Well a few reasons. The streaming era has actually made music more valuable than ever. TikTok is driving downloads of older music. At the same time, the pandemic starved artists of touring revenue—forcing them to look at other moneymaking opportunities to expand their revenue stream.
FYI:
Bieber's catalog has almost 82 million monthly listeners and over 30 billion streams on Spotify alone.
The Oscar Noms (and Snubs)
it's a big year for first-time nominees
The fantastical sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday. Considering how well it's done this award season, it wasn't a shock, but many other presumed contenders fell startlingly short.In perhaps the greatest grassroots campaign in Oscar history, Leslie Riseborough enlisted the help of dozens of A-list actors to help her land a Best Actress nomination for “To Leslie”—a movie that premiered at South by Southwest and grossed just $27,000 in its brief theatrical run. She's one of the 16 first-time nominees for the main acting categories. In fact, the entire Best Actor lineup is made of first-time Oscar nominees, including Colin Farrell, Brendan Fraser, Bill Nighy, Paul Mescal and Austin Butler.After back-to-back years when a female filmmaker won the best director Oscar, that trend came to a decisive halt Tuesday when no women were even nominated in that category. Another surprise? A few sequels muscled their way into the big categories. Blockbusters “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were both nominated for Best Picture. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” failed to follow in the footsteps of its 2018 predecessor (though the Marvel hit still fared well with five nominations). As for who will come out on top, we'll have to see when the 95th Academy Awards are handed out on March 12th.
The Odds:
FiveThirtyEight’s senior elections analyst, Nathaniel Rakich, is a big movie buff, and shared his predictions on who will take home a trophy.
In Other News
He said he was “ready and willing to cooperate fully.”
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Lose Weight and Gain Muscle
Counting macros is the smart, flexible way to do both
Here’s the truth: watching what you eat can feel like a full-time job. And one that you don't particularly enjoy. We've all heard about “crash diets” designed to help you drop weight quickly. Of course, the name is fitting, considering most diets end up crashing and burning. A more reliable path to success is a plan that's realistic and able to be maintained.This is where counting macronutrients, or “macros,” offers some relief. In recent years, this approach to eating (also called IIFYM, or “if it fits your macros”) has taken the fitness world by storm. A much more flexible way of thinking about nutrition, it turns old-school, calorie-based dieting on its head by focusing instead on the amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats making up those calories.So what are macronutrients, exactly? Simply put, they're dietary components that give us energy—the body uses them in relatively large amounts, says Stella Volpe, Ph.D., chair of nutrition sciences at Drexel University in Philadelphia. They encompass the three categories of nutrients you eat the most: protein, carbohydrates and fats.
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Shopping
What We’re Buying
A Fleece Jacket
A fleece fabric jacket is the G.O.A.T. of all mid-layers. This one from Manatash is heavyweight and performs well thanks to ripstop shoulders, nylon lining and several pockets. It's structured like your favorite chore coat, only in fleece form.
Get It:
$215 / $129 by Manatash
Morning Motto
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