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| Subscribe to The Daily Money newsletter, our roundup of each day's top stories from USA TODAY Money. |
| Good morning and happy Tuesday, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester with you once again, relieved that the tundra outside my door is finally starting to thaw. |
🗞 News you should know 🗞 |
| After a great deal of pushback, the Internal Revenue Service finally announced Monday that it is abandoning its controversial plan to use facial recognition to verify IDs online. The IRS had intended to expand the required use of ID.me to taxpayers wanting to access their tax information online starting in June. (It was already using the third-party program ID.me to verify the identity of people opting out of the child tax credit.) |
| Not surprisingly, taxpayers and those concerned about privacy never embraced the idea of sending a picture to to the IRS to open an online IRS account. And many expressed concerns that the technology may be less reliable for people of color or older people. Many found the request, well, more than a bit unnerving. |
| "The IRS does not use facial recognition for tax filing or to receive a refund, and the agency should not require facial recognition for any of the other important services it provides taxpayers," U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to the IRS. |
🚨 More stories you shouldn't miss 🚨 |
| Good news for Amazon workers. Amazon is more than doubling base pay cap for U.S. technology and corporate employees to $350,000 from $160,000. |
| California puts Tesla on notice. State agency warns Tesla it has grounds for civil complaint over charges of race discrimination and harassment. |
| Loving the Locket app. How a birthday present turned into one of 2022's most popular apps. |
| Peloton CEO steps down after rough ride. Co-founder John Foley's resignation comes as fitness company cuts 3,000 jobs. |
| Americans still moving 2 years into pandemic. Why – and where – are they going? |
💡 Daily insight 💡 |
| In Monday's newsletter, we reported that no-frills budget carriers Frontier and Spirit are merging to form a new airline later this year, creating the fifth-larger U.S. carrier based on seat capacity and seventh-largest based on revenue. The news has left passengers wondering if that means cheap flights are coming to an end. |
| Frontier and Spirit executives are adamant their cheap tickets will not only remain but will be added to more routes as the airlines grow aggressively. |
| "This merger is completely different than everything else you've seen in the industry for the last 20 years," Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said Monday. "We are not interested in constraining (seat) capacity and raising prices." |
| Not everyone is convinced: "Clearly, if you have less competition you have less incentive to reduce your fares," said veteran travel industry analyst and consultant Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group. |
| Things didn't get off to a very auspicious start: The day of the merger announcement, Denver-based Frontier canceled 22% of Monday flights, according to flight tracker FlightAware. |
💵 Tax advice from the Motley Fool 💵 |
| Stashing money in a retirement account may make you eligible for the Saver's Tax Credit. This could be worth up to 50% of your retirement contribution, with a maximum contribution of $2,000. That means that if you qualify for the 50% credit and you contribute $2,000 to a retirement account for 2021, you could shave $1,000 off your 2021 tax bill. |
| This is different from a deduction, which reduces your taxable income. A $1,000 tax credit essentially means you owe the government $1,000 less than you would have otherwise. That can have a significant effect on the size of your refund. |
🎶 Mood music 🎶 |
| Sure, flying these days feels like riding on a bus at 30,000 feet. But today's lyric from Pink Floyd reminds us what it felt like the first time we first went up, or took flying lessons like David Gilmour : "There's no sensation to compare with this. Suspended animation, a state of bliss. Can't keep my mind from the circling skies. Tongue-tied and twisted. Just an earthbound misfit, I." |
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