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2026 Tax Filing Starts, Silver still on a tear, lookout 1099s are coming

Published 2 days ago • 4 min read

Romeo Razi, CPA

Jan 26th

Tax Season 2025: "time to buckle up"

January 26, 2026 - the day the IRS music starts, and for the rest of us, the financial dirge begins.
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That's right, filing season officially opens today. But before your sprint toward your refund like it's a Taylor Swift ticket drop, let's talk about what's really going on behind the IRS curtain.

Thanks to the OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), Americans got two things: a boatload of tax breaks, and....drumroll please.... IRS org chart restructuring.

⚙️📉Goal: Modernizing the IRS and cutting wasteful spending
🏛️🧱Reality: Bureaucratic Jenga.

IRS new plan (or rearranging deck chairs on the titanic!?)

The IRS promises a "significant personnel and operational reorganization" to modernize the agency. Translation: lots of new titles, fewer actual humans answering phones.

The agency is bleeding staff faster than the Titanic took on water. Retirements, buyouts, and attrition have gutted headcount just as Congress passed the most complex tax overhaul in years. It's like asking someone to perform open-heart surgery with a fork while the patient's running a marathon.

What this means for you:

📁 File early
↳ The longer you wait, the deeper in the muck you'll be
↳ Get ahead of the backlog and inevitable delays

✅ Double-check everything
↳ Mistakes will take months to fix, not weeks
↳ Errors could mean waiting until summer for your refund

⏰ Expect delays
↳ Call hold times will make Dante's Inferno feel brisk
↳ Assume chaos. Pray for competence.

So yes, the IRS is open for business, and ready for you to file. But think of it as the DMV on April 15th, with fewer chairs and worse coffee.

🏠 Housing Corner

Housing numbers: rates up a smidge, so is inventory, people are dropping prices (but not enough to make a difference).

💹

Interest Rates

6.22%

🏡 🏡 🏡
Inventory

695,628

🧊

Days on Market

133 days (3+ months)

Here's a quick list of the housing stats over the last 1 weeks:
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🏠 Mortgage rates: 6.22% (up from 6.20%)
📈 Inventory: 695,628 homes (up 8.8k last week)
📉 Price reductions? 34.2% (down some more)
💰 Median list price? $419,000 (same)
🕰️ Days on market? 133 (same).

​

Market Highlights

Market up a bit

~ S&P $6,916 (+0.97%)
~ NASDAQ $23,501 (+1.41%)

Looks like USD is in trubs...

~ GOLD $5,063 (+7.70%)

~ Silver $107.60 (+14.35%)

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🚨Upcoming Tax Deadlines you should be aware of:

🗓January:

  • 📄1099s & W-2s (one more week) - are due by the end of the month (January 31st)
  • 🚀January 26th (today) - Tax Filing Season starts (for simpler tax returns).
  • If your return is more complicated, some forms won't be fully released until Mid-February.

🗓February:

  • 📈February 15th - Stocks, dividends, etc. - your 1099-B from your brokerage should be ready.
  • 🪙February 15th - Crypto - this included 1099-DA from Coinbase, Crypto.com, etc.

🗓March

  • 🏢March 15th - LLC, S-Corp, Partnership Returns are due.
  • ✍️March 15th - S-Election - if you want your LLC to become an S-Corp (for 2026), you have until 3/15.
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What's been going on with your Favorite CPA
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Tax season is here, and as you can imagine, I'm quite busy...but one of my friends cooked me dinner last night, so that's a win!
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If there is anything specific you want me to cover in the upcoming weeks, please let me know.

Until next time ❤️

Romeo Razi, CPA

​Taxedright.com​
​

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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Tax Ticker

by Romeo Razi, CPA

A weekly newsletter for people who want to understand money without needing therapy afterward. I cover accounting, tax, and finance the way they should be taught. Simple, sharp, and with a sense of humor. If knowledge is power, this one’s your caffeine shot.

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