promoearn: The Daily Money: Has inflation peaked yet? Plus, how to get a tax extension.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

The Daily Money: Has inflation peaked yet? Plus, how to get a tax extension.

ALL THE MONEY NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Wednesday, April 13

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Good morning and happy Wednesday, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester here with you.

🍩 Fast food chains fight inflation 🍩

After record-high gas prices in March, pain at the pump is easing a bit, and consumers are even being offered sweeteners.

Starting Wednesday and every Wednesday through May 4, Krispy Kreme is offering a dozen Original Glazed Doughnuts for the price of a gallon of gas, which it calls "doughnut deflation." (The limit is two dozen at the promotional price at participating shops nationwide, at the drive-thru and for pick-up by ordering online and through the Krispy Kreme app.)

Krispy Kreme isn't the only restaurant trying to relieve your gas-related stress. At Dunkin' Donuts, every fifth drink purchase can get you 30 cents off per gallon at Shell if you link your Dunkin' and Shell accounts. Might as well make your caffeine addiction work for you, right?

📰 More headlines you can't miss 📰

EASTER EGG PRICES: Egg prices are up because of bird flu and inflation. Here's how to save.

INVEST OR SAVE YOUR TAX REFUND? If you put it in stocks and need cash later, you'll face capital gains taxes. But if you save it, can access it tax-free.

CRIMINAL HISTORY AND JOB SEARCHES: Should you disclose a felony conviction during the application and interview process?

32-HOUR WORKWEEK? California pushes for 4-day workweek at larger companies.

TRAVEL MASK MANDATE: Rules for planes and trains are to expire next week; White House expected to update rules in the next few days.

🎈 Has inflation peaked? Some economists think so. 🎈

Annual consumer price increases hit yet another 40-year high of 8.5% in March, and several research firms – including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo – say that likely marks the worst of this inflationary period.

While prices will continue to move higher month to month, the increases should be less dramatic.

"While people won't feel it immediately and prices are still rising ... there will be a psychological effect," says Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.

A big reason experts think inflation will start to ease soon: Prices began rising sharply last spring and summer and so the annual increase from a year ago will start to decrease because of simple math.

What happens to gasoline prices could be key. If they rise less than 8% or so in April from the prior month, overall inflation would start heading down, assuming other costs don't increase more than they did last month, Daco says.

💲 Tax Day countdown 💲

Being able to count the days left to file your taxes, on one hand, is far from comforting. What if you are nowhere near ready to file?

Gather all the necessary paperwork, consider what has changed in your life that needs to be taken into account at tax time, and consider whether, maybe, you need to file an extension.

That gets you more time to file a completed return, not more time to pay your tax bill. You should pay any amount due to avoid interest and penalties.

Regardless of your income, you can go to IRS.gov to use "Free File" to electronically request an automatic six-month extension. No fee is charged.

The extension is especially important if you owe taxes. You want to avoid a very steep failure-to-file penalty, which is 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month that a tax return is late. The late filing penalty won't exceed 25% of your unpaid taxes. It's far better to be dealing with paying an extra $42 or so than paying out an extra $250 or more if you owe $1,000.