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States (US)

Mississippi Opens Covid Vaccine Eligibility to Everyone

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Everyone who lives in Mississippi will be eligible to receive a Covid vaccination starting Tuesday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Twitter.

“Get your shots, friends,” Mr. Reeves wrote. “And let’s get back to normal!”

Though the governor referred to “all Mississippians,” no vaccine has yet been authorized for use in children in the United States, so the change in eligibility presumably extends only to adults.

Last week, President Biden called on all states to open eligibility completely by May 1, and Mississippi is the second state to do so. Alaska opened its vaccination doors last week to anybody 16 or older who lives or works in the state.

Although Mississippi lags most other states in the share of its population that has been vaccinated so far, it is doing better than all of its neighbors except Louisiana, according to a New York Times tracker. As of Sunday, about 20 percent of Mississippians have received at least one shot, and 11 percent have been fully vaccinated.

The state had already opened eligibility further than most states, to cover everyone 50 or over. Governor Reeves urged older residents to book appointments as soon as possible.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan has said that her state will drop its restrictions on eligibility by April 5, about a month before Mr. Biden’s deadline.

Officials in Washington, D.C., said on Monday that they would do the same by May 1, allowing anyone 16 or older who lives in the city to be inoculated.

In New York, where the minimum eligible age was recently lowered to 60, the state will open three new mass vaccination sites on Long Island at the end of the week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday at a news conference. The sites will be on college campuses in Old Westbury, Brentwood and Southampton.

More categories of public-facing workers will become eligible in the state on Wednesday, including government employees, building services workers and employees of nonprofit groups. Mr. Cuomo has yet to announce how or when the state would open eligibility to all adults.

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Filed Under: WORLD Tagged With: Alaska, Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Government, Government Employees, internal-essential, Michigan, Mississippi, neighbors, New York, New York Times, Population, Reeves, Tate (1974- ), State, States (US), Twitter, United States, Vaccination and Immunization, Washington (DC)

Your Daylight Saving Time Questions Answered

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“There was the threat of federal intervention in all of this, so the railroads decided they were going to police themselves,” said Carlene Stephens, a curator at the National Museum of American History. Scientists were also urging a standardized system for marking time, she said.

In North America, a coalition of businessmen and scientists decided on time zones, and in 1883, U.S. and Canadian railroads adopted four (Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific) to streamline service. The shift was not universally well received. Evangelical Christians were among the strongest opponents, arguing “time came from God and railroads were not to mess with it,” Ms. Stephens said.

The introduction of time zones prompted fears of a kind of 19th-century Y2K. “Jewelers were busy yesterday answering questions from the curious, many of whom seemed to think that the change in time would generally create a sensation, a stoppage of business, and some sort of a disaster, the nature of which could not be exactly ascertained,” The New York Times reported in November 1883.

Once the time zone business was settled, it wasn’t long until Franklin’s idea for daylight saving was refashioned for the industrial world. In the 1900s, an English builder, William Willet, urged British lawmakers to shift the clocks to reap economic benefits. Parliament rejected the proposal in 1909, only to embrace it a few years later under the pressures of World War I. In 1916, Germany was the first European nation to enact the policy in an effort to cut energy costs, and over the next few years several Western nations followed suit. In the United States, the federal government took oversight of time zones in 1918. And in March of that year, the country lost its first hour of sleep.

But why?

One of the oldest arguments for daylight saving time is that it can save energy costs. There have been many conflicting studies about whether actually it does.

Let Us Help You Manage the Switch to Daylight Saving Time

Clocks move forward by an hour on Sunday, March 15 in the U.S., and Sunday, March 28 in the U.K. and Europe. Here are some tips for how to adjust:

A Department of Energy report from 2008 found that the extended daylight saving time signed by George W. Bush in 2005 saved about 0.5 percent in total electricity use per day. Also that year, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the shift in daylight saving time, “contrary to the policy’s intent,” increased residential electricity demand by about 1 percent, raising electricity bills in Indiana by $9 million per year and increasing pollution emissions.

But daylight saving time still has fervent supporters, especially among business advocates who argue it helps drive the economy.

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Filed Under: WORLD Tagged With: Arizona, Business, Daylight Saving Time, Economy, Electric Light and Power, Energy, Europe, Florida, Germany, Government, Hawaii, National, National Museum of American History, New York, New York Times, North America, Police, Railroads, Research, States (US), United States, United States Chamber of Commerce

The Tax Headaches of Working Remotely

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New Jersey, however, has said it will give its newly telecommuting residents a credit for those New York taxes for 2020, even though it is entitled to the revenue because the taxpayers are now working within its borders, Mr. Walczak said. So residents won’t, for now, have to worry about double taxation. But New Jersey estimates that it is forgoing more than $1 billion in revenue as a result — suggesting that the practice is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term, Mr. Walczak said.

How Has the Pandemic Changed Your Taxes?

Nope. The so-called economic impact payments are not treated as income. In fact, they’re technically an advance on a tax credit, known as the Recovery Rebate Credit. The payments could indirectly affect what you pay in state income taxes in a handful of states, where federal tax is deductible against state taxable income, as our colleague Ann Carrns wrote. Read more.

Mostly.  Unemployment insurance is generally subject to federal as well as state income tax, though there are exceptions (Nine states don’t impose their own income taxes, and another six exempt unemployment payments from taxation, according to the Tax Foundation). But you won’t owe so-called payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare. The new relief bill will make the first $10,200 of benefits tax-free if your income is less than $150,000. This applies to 2020 only. (If you’ve already filed your taxes, watch for I.R.S. guidance.) Unlike paychecks from an employer, taxes for unemployment aren’t automatically withheld. Recipients must opt in — and even when they do, federal taxes are withheld only at a flat rate of 10 percent of benefits. While the new tax break will provide a cushion, some people could still owe the I.R.S. or certain states money. Read more.

Probably not, unless you’re self-employed, an independent contractor or a gig worker. The tax law overhaul of late 2019 eliminated the home office deduction for employees from 2018 through 2025. “Employees who receive a paycheck or a W-2 exclusively from an employer are not eligible for the deduction, even if they are currently working from home,” the I.R.S. said. Read more.

Self-employed people can take paid caregiving leave if their child’s school is closed or their usual child care provider is unavailable because of the outbreak. This works similarly to the smaller sick leave credit — 67 percent of average daily earnings (for either 2020 or 2019), up to $200 a day. But the caregiving leave can be taken for 50 days. Read more.

Yes. This year, you can deduct up to $300 for charitable contributions, even if you use the standard deduction. Previously, only people who itemized could claim these deductions. Donations must be made in cash (for these purposes, this includes check, credit card or debit card), and can’t include securities, household items or other property. For 2021, the deduction limit will double to $600 for joint filers. Rules for itemizers became more generous as well. The limit on charitable donations has been suspended, so individuals can contribute up to 100 percent of their adjusted gross income, up from 60 percent. But these donations must be made to public charities in cash; the old rules apply to contributions made to donor-advised funds, for example. Both provisions are available through 2021. Read more.

The practice of states reaching outside their borders to tax telecommuters was an issue even before the coronavirus showed up, and it is getting more attention because of a spat between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Massachusetts said last year that it would tax the income of out-of-state residents who had worked in the state but were telecommuting during the pandemic. This miffed neighboring New Hampshire, which has thousands of residents who commute to work in Boston and other cities in Massachusetts. In October, it filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its complaint. (More than a dozen other states — including New Jersey — have filed briefs urging the court to consider the case.)

The workers in New Hampshire aren’t being double taxed because New Hampshire is one of nine states that have no state income tax. But New Hampshire officials object to residents being taxed by another state for work done inside its borders. (Massachusetts said in a filing in response to the suit that the policy maintains the prepandemic “status quo.”)

As remote work could remain popular even after the pandemic, federal action may be needed to make state income tax rules for telecommuting more uniform, tax experts say. A group called the Mobile Workforce Coalition says it is building bipartisan support for reform.

“Telecommuting,” Mr. Sobel said, “is going to become the norm.”

So if you worked in a state other than your usual one in 2020, how should you approach tax season?

First, make a list of any states where you worked remotely, even if it was for a brief period of time, accountants suggest. If you didn’t keep close track, try to approximate the number of days worked in each state. State laws vary, but typically income is taxed once you reach a threshold, like the amount of money earned, the number of days you worked in the state or a combination of the two. About half the states start the clock at just one day, while others use 30 or 60 days.

These sorts of rules generally apply not just to employees but also to freelancers, said Dina Pyron, global leader of the mobile tax preparation app EY TaxChat. “It doesn’t matter if you are an employee or a contractor.”

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Filed Under: BUSINESS Tagged With: Content Type: Service, Coronavirus, Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Family, home office, Income Tax, mobile, Money, New Jersey, New York, Personal Finances, Policy, Quarantine (Life and Culture), Shutdowns (Institutional), State, States (US), Suits and Litigation (Civil), Tax Credits, Deductions and Exemptions, Tax Preparers and Preparation, Taxation, taxes, Telecommuting, unemployment, Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Insurance

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