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☆ The $787.5 million settlement Fox has to pay is a big nut. But Fox's net cost for that will be much less.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Here’s why:Settlement payments are tax deductible if the company pays out of pocket. The corporate income tax is also about dollars and cents, not about judging behavior that led to the business expense in the first place. “Our income tax measures income, not probity,” said business tax expert Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. In addition, “Fox also may deduct their settlement payments for state and local income tax purposes,” Rosenthal noted. If Fox pays for an insurance policy that it expects will reimburse it for its settlement costs, then it may not deduct the cost of the settlement payment.

☆ Telling Dianne Feinstein to resign is sexist and 'unprecedented,' women Democratic senators say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But Democratic women in the Senate say gender is playing a role in how her absence is being handled. But women Democratic senators told Insider at the Capitol on Wednesday that they believe sexism is at play and that the chamber's longest-serving Democrat is being held to an unfair standard because she is a woman. More recently, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was recently absent from the chamber for six weeks as he sought treatment for clinical depression. "I think it's important for Senator Feinstein to do what is what is best for her," said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. "I just believe that it's not somebody else's assessment to make; it's her assessment to make," said Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

☆ Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Lee Curtis spent the Covid-19 lockdown together
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Marianne Garvey | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —It’s sourdough bread and handstands for Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis, who won best supporting actress Oscar at lthe 2023 Academy Awards, is friends with Gyllenhaal’s parents, director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner. He and Jeanne lived in the house next door that I have. “He made a lot of sourdough bread, a lot,” Lee said. It also stars Alexander Ludwig, Antony Starr, Bobby Schofield and Jonny Lee Miller.

☆ Tax Day: Here's what you need to know if you haven't filed your return yet — and even if you have
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

New York CNN —It’s April 18, the official deadline to file your federal and state income tax returns for 2022. Whether you have already filed your tax return or still need to, the good news is this tax filing season has gone much more smoothly than the past three, which were hurt by the pandemic. But you may want to anyway if you think you are eligible for a refund thanks to, for instance, refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. If you’ve already filed your return, you’re probably glad to have it in the rear view mirror. But one thing is common for the vast majority of US tax filers: Audit rates are exceedingly low.

☆ Apple offers 4.15% high-yield savings to its Apple Card holders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Apple on Monday announced that it is now offering its Apple Card holders a 4.15% high-yield savings account with Goldman Sachs. They may park both the 3% cash back they receive from using the Apple Card on select purchases plus other savings they may wish to deposit. For instance, you can only get an Apple Card if you use an Apple phone. Bankrate gives the Apple Card high marks as a no-fee rewards credit card, and the convenience of having a high-yield savings account for a cardholder’s cash rewards may be appealing. A high-yield savings account rate, by contrast — including Apple’s new offering — can move up or down without notice at any time.

☆ More women now make as much as their husbands, but still do more at home
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Few women will be surprised to learn that even when wives earn about the same as their husbands or more, a new Pew Research Center study finds that they still spend more time on housework and child care, while their husbands spend more time on paid work and leisure. In these marriages women earn a median of $88,000 to their husbands’ $35,000. Women most likely to be the biggest earnerToday, which women are most likely to be the primary or sole breadwinners can vary by age, family status, education and race. For instance, Pew found Black women are “significantly more likely” than other women to earn more than their husbands. For instance, 26% of Black women bring home more than their husbands, while only 17% of White women and 13% of Hispanic women do.

☆ Wes Anderson, Ken Loach among big names competing at Cannes Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Marie-Louise Gumuchian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] 72nd Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "Sorry We Missed You" in competition - Cannes, France, May 17, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File PhotoApril 13 (Reuters) - Wes Anderson, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes and Wim Wenders are among the directors who will compete for the top prize at next month's Cannes Film Festival, where a spate of Hollywood stars will also premiere their latest works on the famed Croisette waterfront. At a press conference on Thursday, festival director Thierry Fremaux announced the line-up for the 76th edition of major cinema showcase from May 16-27. "It's a competition that will mix young filmmakers competing for the first time with veterans whose names and works we know," Fremaux said. Adventurer Indiana Jones will also return to the festival 15 years since his last appearance in Cannes.

☆ Last-minute tax-filing tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —So far this tax season, the IRS has received more than 90 million income tax returns for 2022. If yours is among them, here are some last-minute tax-filing tips to keep in mind as the Tuesday, April 18 deadline approaches. But you may want to anyway if you think you are eligible for a refund thanks to, for instance, refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. Proofread your return before submitting it: Do this whether you’re using tax software or working with a professional tax preparer. Note, however, that an extension to file is not an extension to pay.

While hard inquiries lower your credit score, soft inquiries do not affect your credit at all. Hard inquiries affect your credit because of how credit scores are calculated by credit scoring algorithms. For a less mechanical explanation of hard inquiries, you can think of hard inquiries from a creditor's perspective. Hard inquiry Soft inquiry Hard inquiries lower your credit score by a few points Soft inquiries have no effect on your credit score Hard inquiries are visible to any creditors viewing your credit reports Soft inquiries are only visible to a consumer checking their own reports Hard inquiries are triggered in credit-related appraisals Soft inquiries are used for non-credit reasons, like apartment rentals or insurance purposesCredit report inquiry frequently asked questionsHow can I remove a hard inquiry on my credit report? However, if you notice a hard inquiry on your credit report that you don't recognize, you can dispute your credit report with the credit bureaus.

☆ How long should you support your adult children? Parents — and their kids — weigh in
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

And, as it turns out, kids and parents don’t agree on just when exactly that time should be. Baby Boomer and Gen X parents beg to differ, saying their kids should pony up starting at age 21. The Bankrate survey doesn’t specify how many respondents are living with their parents or, conversely, their adult children. Nearly 7 in 10 parents with children 18 or older said they have made a financial sacrifice to help their grown-up kids, according to the survey. Low-income parents — defined as those making $50,000 or less a year — were most likely to say they have made financial sacrifices to help their adult children.

☆ Working from home: The latest on who is WFH and who isn't
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In other words, 72.5% of private-sector organizations — up from 60% in the July-to-September 2021 period — said they did not have employees working remotely. The BLS survey also interpreted respondents’ answers as referring to a company’s formal telework policies, not whether some employees informally work remotely on occasion, such as responding to work emails from home. The same survey respondents said their employers plan to allow employees to work remotely 2.2 days a week, for those who can. “I have talked to hundreds of organizations about WFH [working from home] over the past three weeks, and this is now clearly stabilizing to a post-pandemic norm,” he said in an email. In Pew’s February survey, 35% of people who could work remotely were doing so full time, down from 55% in October 2020, but still well above the 7% of people working remotely full-time before the pandemic.

☆ ‘It’s a Mind-Altering Substance’: Why Women Turn to Lipstick in Tough Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Nancy Macdonell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

POUT PORTFOLIO Clockwise from left: a MAC red shade, $22, Mac.com; a World War II U.S. Army Private; Grace Jones, painted-up and performing in 1981; Paloma Picasso in all her glossy glory c.1974; Actress Clara Bow and her iconic pout c.1927; editor Diana Vreeland in her go-to rouge lip in 1982. “LET PLEASURE be your guide,” says Jeanne Moreau in the 1990 film “La Femme Nikita.” Her character, Amande, an archetypal femme fatale, is tutoring a scruffy teenage assassin-in-training (Anne Parillaud) in the art of applying lipstick. “And don’t forget,” she tells her charge, “there are two things that have no limit: femininity and the means of taking advantage of it.”It’s a (literally) killer quote, as well as a primer on the power of lipstick. Harper’s Bazaar recognized this power in 1937, the year it declared that putting on lipstick was one of the 20th century’s signature gestures. When challenges arise, the magazine pronounced, gliding on a little lippie “reinforces the spirit.” In the midst of the Great Depression, lipstick was a balm for both the soul and the lips—a true luxury that, back then, could be had for about 20 cents.

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstApril 5 (Reuters) - Johnny Depp's first live-action film since the widely watched defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard was selected as the opening movie for next month's Cannes Film Festival in France, organizers said on Wednesday. The French-language film "Jeanne du Barry" stars director Maïwenn Le Besco, known as Maiwenn, as Jeanne Becu, a woman who rose from poverty to the circles of King Louis XV. Depp plays the king in the movie, which will have its world premiere at Cannes on May 16. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor has made few film or TV appearances since his trial concluded in June 2022. Depp also voiced an animated puffin in last month's "Johnny Puff: Secret Mission."

☆ Saudi money is flowing to US media and entertainment, from Live Nation to LIV Golf, 5 years after Jamal Khashoggi's murder: 'The ice has thawed'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Sovereign funds and other entities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are pouring millions into US media and entertainment. Insider identified some key people connecting Middle East investors with American companies. Saudi Arabia is trying to pitch itself to the world as a cultural and economic reformer and spur tourism. Vince McMahon's WWE has a long-term partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a major live WWE event there slated for May. Vince McMahon's WWE was one of the first US companies to create unique events in Saudi Arabia.

☆ 9 Middle Eastern funds and investors pouring money into US media, sports, and entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lucia Moses | Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Governments and investors in the Middle East are pouring money into Western media and entertainment. Sovereign funds and other entities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are pouring millions into US media and entertainment, and they're finding plenty of takers. The channels for money from Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East are complex. Insider broke down the key entities — their owners, leaders, and high-profile investments and joint ventures — in the top three Middle Eastern nations pouring money into US entertainment and media. It describes itself as the largest media company in the Middle East and North Africa and runs one of the largest TV news channels, Al Arabiya.

☆ Taxes and adulting: What to know about filing taxes on your own for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Taxes are genuinely confusingIf you’re confounded by filing your taxes, you may think it’s because you’re young and inexperienced. Organize everything before filling out anythingYour tax return is a financial snapshot of your life over a 12-month period, in this case 2022. Above those levels, the child tax credit starts to get reduced. Deadlines matterYour federal tax return is due on April 18. That is the day by which you must have filed your 2022 individual tax return and paid any remaining federal income taxes owed for last year.

☆ Premarket stocks: The FDIC could ask big banks to clean up $23 billion mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

While regional and mid-sized banks are behind the recent turmoil, it appears that large banks may be footing the bill. Ultimately, that means higher fees for bank customers and lower rates on their savings accounts. The law also gives the FDIC the authority to decide which banks shoulder the brunt of that assessment fee. Passing it on: Regardless of who’s charged, the fees will eventually get passed on to bank customers in the end, said Isaac. In 2021, Wall Street was estimated to be responsible for 16% of all economic activity in the city.

☆ The average Wall Street bonus fell by 26% last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —The average annual Wall Street bonus fell to $176,700 last year, a 26% drop from the previous year’s average of $240,400, according to estimates released Thursday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Rising interest rates, recession fears and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hurt Wall Street firms’ bottom line. “A 26% decline brings the average bonus closer to what financial employees received prior to the pandemic,” DiNapoli said in a statement. In 2021, Wall Street was estimated to be responsible for 16% of all economic activity in the city. “While lower bonuses affect income tax revenues for the state and city, our economic recovery does not depend solely on Wall Street.

☆ How protected is your money in accounts outside of banks?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Spoiler alert: You likely have at least some protection in all but your crypto accounts. There are several types of deposit accounts you may have at one bank (e.g., individual savings account, joint checking, business account, etc.) NCUA, which is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, covers accounts up to $250,000, in much the same way the FDIC covers bank accounts. Crypto accountsIf you invest in crypto assets you have no federally guaranteed protections should the company acting as custodian of your assets go under. Even if you’re holding your crypto assets at a firm that is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and it is a member of SIPC, your crypto assets will not receive SIPC protection.

☆ How the Fed’s latest rate increase will affect your bank savings
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“Returns on savings accounts and CDs are the best in 15 years,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com. But online high-yield savings accounts now offer rates as high as 5%, well above the 0.23% national savings account average, according to Bankrate. “You’re leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t go to an online bank,” McBride said. You can still get the current 6.89% rate on the I Bond if you purchase it before the end of April. “In other words, I Bonds are not a replacement for your savings account,” McBride said.

☆ What to do with your credit card debt now that the Fed raised rates again
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its key interest rate for the ninth time since last March. That means consumer debt — especially variable-rate credit card debt — will get more expensive. “[T]he average credit card rate is now at a record high above 20%,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com. If you don’t transfer to a zero-rate balance card, another option might be to get a relatively low fixed-rate personal loan. But the best rate you can get will depend on your income, credit score and debt-to-income ratio.

☆ What to do with your money now that the Fed just raised rates for the ninth time
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“But the average credit card rate is now at a record high above 20%, auto loan rates are at a 12-year high and mortgage rates are still north of 6.5%. But online high-yield savings accounts now offer rates as high as 5%, well above the 0.23% national savings account average, according to Bankrate. Another high-yield savings optionGiven today’s still-high rates of inflation, Series I savings bonds may be attractive because they’re designed to preserve the buying power of your money. Your credit card debt: Minimize the biteIf you’re carrying credit card debt, expect to see a hike in the rate you pay within a few statements. “Credit card rates are at record highs and still rising.

☆ Unlike last year, this tax season has been going smoothly
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

But by comparison, this year’s tax-filing season has been going relatively smoothly, tax preparers say. “After a few years of pandemic-related updates, mid-tax season IRS guidance, last-minute tax law changes and more, the ‘quiet’ is a welcome change to many,” the National Association of Tax Preparers said in a statement. Better but far from perfectA return to a more normal tax-filing season doesn’t mean tax preparers and their clients are getting all the guidance that they need, though. But the quality of the answers to their questions and request for guidance has still left some tax preparers wanting. And when it comes to online services, Colorado-based enrolled agent John Dundon II has noticed some improvements as well.

☆ What the FDIC takeovers of SVB and Signature mean for the banks’ customers and employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.”A similar statement was issued for customers of Signature Bank. Most SVB customers, for instance, are businesses, and they have a lot more than $250,000 on deposit because they used SVB for much of their cash management, including payroll. SVB and Signature customers will have many of the same banking conveniences that they had before their banks were taken over. So far, the FDIC has not established any end dates of services for SVB or Signature customers. Should the FDIC find a buyer for either bank, the acquiring institution will be the one deciding whether the banks’ employees stay on.

☆ Today is Equal Pay Day. Here’s what that means
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

This year, Equal Pay Day falls on March 14. And Equal Pay Day, inaugurated in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity, now arrives about a month earlier than it used to. Back in 2005, for instance, Equal Pay Day was April 19. The bad news is that Equal Pay Day is even still a thing in 2023, since pay equity remains a long way off. Equal Pay Day varies widely for different groupsThe actual marking of Equal Pay Day in March for women overall is largely symbolic, in part because the date varies widely by race and ethnicity, occupation, geography, age and other issues.

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