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American taxpayers are poised to see a sharp increase in their tax refunds this year, with the average payout expected to rise by about $1,000. The White House estimates that an additional $100 billion will be returned to filers during the 2026 tax season as a result of President Trump’s signature second-term tax legislation.

The tax filing season officially opened Tuesday, and Treasury Department projections show that refunds are expected to total $429 billion — a dramatic increase from the $329 billion issued last year.

With refunds climbing by roughly $1,000 per filer, the average check is projected to top $4,000.

“Millions of Americans are poised to receive significantly larger tax refunds thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s landmark Working Families Tax Cuts Act — which every Democrat in Congress opposed,” the White House said in a statement, referring to the legislation also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“The historic legislation is delivering the biggest tax refund season ever.”

Data cited by The Wall Street Journal shows that last year more than 60% of U.S. households received refunds averaging $3,167.

The spike in refunds is the result of targeted changes embedded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sweeping Republican tax overhaul signed into law last year by President Donald Trump.

Under the law, Republicans made the tax cuts retroactive to the 2025 tax year while leaving IRS withholding tables unchanged. As a result, workers continued to have taxes withheld at higher rates throughout the year, with the benefits of the cuts now being paid out in large lump sums just months ahead of the midterm elections.

Although only about 60% of filers receive refunds, those who do are seeing substantially larger amounts.

According to the Tax Foundation, roughly one-quarter of the individual tax cuts stem from raising the state and local tax deduction cap to $40,000.

The single largest factor driving higher refunds is the new overtime deduction, which accounts for approximately $38.7 billion — or 30% — of the $129 billion in individual tax relief included in the law for 2025.

Additional contributors include an expanded standard deduction, a new bonus deduction for seniors, an increased child tax credit, and new deductions for tips and auto loan interest.

The surge in refunds is arriving as the IRS operates with significantly fewer employees than it had a year ago, raising concerns about the agency’s ability to process returns and issue payments smoothly.

The IRS started last year with more than 100,000 workers and is now estimated to be about 25% smaller following layoffs and retirements.

While many of the staffing reductions affected enforcement divisions, call centers and paper correspondence units are under the greatest strain, particularly as many taxpayers — especially older filers — continue to rely on phone assistance.

Despite the staffing cuts, the IRS says it expects to process approximately 164 million tax returns this year, roughly the same as last year, and maintains that its systems are prepared. Critics, however, warn that fewer workers handling a much larger volume of money leaves little room for mistakes.

David A. Perez, CEO of Tax Maverick AI, said the scale and structure of this year’s refund surge are unusual compared with previous tax cuts.

“This is not how tax relief is usually delivered,” he told The Post.

“Typically, when the government cuts taxes, withholding tables are updated so people see a little more money in every paycheck. That didn’t happen in 2025.”

Because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was applied retroactively while withholding remained unchanged, Perez said, “taxpayers were effectively forced to save that money with the Treasury for a year — and now it’s all being released at once.”

Perez, whose company has prepared more than 50,000 tax returns since 2018, said the projected $429 billion in refunds represents about a 30% increase from last year, a jump he has not seen outside of extraordinary circumstances.

“I haven’t seen a manufactured windfall quite like this since the stimulus checks,” he said.

“But this is different, because it’s baked directly into the tax return itself.”

Perez added that lump-sum refunds tend to generate a stronger economic impact than incremental increases in take-home pay.

“Behaviorally, people treat a lump sum very differently than a small weekly raise,” he remarked.

“An extra $50 a week usually gets absorbed by groceries or gas. But a $4,000 refund in February feels like investable cash. People use it for big-ticket items — car down payments, vacations, or paying off high-interest credit card debt.”

As a result, Perez said he expects a burst of consumer spending early in the year.

“President Trump delivered the largest tax cut in history for middle- and working-class Americans, lowering taxes in every county in every state across the nation,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told The Post.

“This tax relief will allow American families to keep more of their hard-earned money and unleash economic growth and prosperity not just during tax season, as millions of Americans receive refund checks, but for years to come.”

“This is yet another promise made, promise kept as President Trump continues to Make America Great Again.”

{Matzav.com}

An emotional and unsettling discovery was made during a difficult winter journey in Poland, when a group traveling to visit the grave of the Kotzker Rebbe uncovered a long-hidden piece of Jewish history beneath the snow.

The story was shared by Rabbi Pinchas Sitbon during the Bedidi Hava Uvda segment on the Kol Berama radio program hosted by Ami Maimon. Rabbi Sitbon described a grueling two-hour trek he and a group of friends undertook through winding roads and a fierce snowstorm, determined to reach the kever of the Kotzker Rebbe.

Upon arriving at the cemetery, the group encountered an unexpected setback: the entrance gate was locked, and the local caretaker was nowhere to be found. Despite the freezing temperatures and severe conditions, the group decided not to turn back. They climbed over the iron fence and pushed forward, carving a narrow path through deep, unbroken snow.

As they made their way through the cemetery, one of the participants suddenly stumbled over a protrusion hidden beneath the snow. While clearing away the ice to regain his footing, the group was stunned to realize that the fall had not been accidental. Beneath the snow lay a tombstone, the grave of one of the righteous women of the Kotzker dynasty.

The sense of awe deepened when the group discovered that the very day of their visit coincided with her yahrtzeit. Those present described a powerful feeling that the encounter was not mere chance, but guided by Hashgocha. Moved by the moment, the group altered its plans and paused to recite tefillos as an aliyah for their neshamah, standing in the silent, frozen landscape that had concealed the grave until their arrival.

{Matzav.com}

Against the backdrop of growing antisemitism across Europe, a leading rov of the Jewish community in Paris sought guidance this week from the Yenuka, asking for a decisive ruling on whether the community should consider relocating to Israel or remain in France.

Rabbi Shlomo Senyur, one of the prominent rabbanim of the Paris Jewish community, traveled to the home of the Yenuka in Rishon Letzion, where he joined the Shacharis mnnyan in the beis medrash before presenting the pressing question, one described as critical to the future of the Jewish community in Paris and, more broadly, to Jewish communities across Europe.

Rabbi Senyur laid out the dilemma facing many Jews in Paris and throughout France: in light of the intensifying waves of antisemitism in various parts of Europe and France, should the community uproot itself and move to Eretz Yisroel? At the same time, he noted the concern that many community members would not make aliyah, potentially leaving behind a weakened and unsupported Jewish presence.

In his response, the Yenuka stressed that there is an immense and invaluable merit for individuals who genuinely desire to ascend to Eretz Yisroel, attach themselves to its soil, and establish their lives there. However, when it comes to an organized, communal move, he advised that the priority should be to strengthen the existing community rather than dismantle it.

The Yenuka explained that even if a collective plan were formed to move together, in practice not everyone would follow through. As a result, those who remained behind would be abandoned and left vulnerable. He added that the current reality of a large, strong, and cohesive community provides resilience and protection for its members, whereas a partial departure that leaves only a small group behind would place those remaining in a dangerous and unstable situation.

“I say that one must strengthen the place there, to fight and not to be afraid. No matter what happens,” the Yenuka said. He reminded Rabbi Senyur of the example of the Or Sameach of Dvinsk, who remained with his community during World War I and did not abandon them, even though he knew war was imminent.

“Do not be afraid. Stay, strengthen, and put things in order, and may it be the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu to nullify all this antisemitism. And the rov will continue to increase Torah there. Let your wellsprings spread outward. And to the members of the community I say: they should be careful with lashon hara, for this is the greatest protection from all calamities and all harm.”

{Matzav.com}

A heartbreaking tragedy was uncovered in Kyiv on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when a Holocaust survivor born in the city was found frozen to death in her apartment amid an intense cold spell gripping Ukraine.

Yevgenia Mikhailovna Bespamilnaya was discovered only after a burst water pipe in her apartment caused flooding throughout the building, with ice spreading across multiple floors as temperatures plunged to minus 18 degrees Celsius. According to reports, residents pressed police to force entry into the apartment, where Bespamilnaya was found lifeless in a completely frozen home. Authorities believe she had died several days earlier.

Bespamilnaya survived the Holocaust in Ukraine as a child. After the war, she was sent to an orphanage, where she was given her surname, meaning “without family.” She lived alone with no known relatives and spoke only Yiddish and Russian. Neighbors knew her as Baba Zhenya and described her as a quiet, withdrawn woman who rarely opened her door but made a point of attending the nearby shul.

Residents of the building said that in recent weeks they had tried to look after her, bringing basic supplies and offering assistance whenever possible. When she stopped answering phone calls and was not seen for several days, concern for her safety grew, but it was only the flooding incident that ultimately revealed what had happened.

The tragedy unfolded against the backdrop of a harsh winter in Kyiv, marked by unusually severe cold waves, infrastructure damage, and prolonged outages of electricity and water. In a cruel twist of fate, Bespamilnaya, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust, died alone decades later in the freezing cold of the city where she was born.

{Matzav.com}

ICE agents will help protect the U.S. delegation at the Winter Olympics in Italy, sparking political uproar in the country.

Israeli defense company Elbit has unveiled SLING, a fast-deploying 120 mm mortar system designed for high mobility. Mounted on light vehicles, it can be brought into action and fire within about a minute, delivering up to 16 rounds per minute over a wide 90-degree firing arc. Equipped with electronic fire-control systems and a manual backup […]

Dr. Esi Sharon, the dentist who confirmed the identity of the last fallen hostage, Ran Gvili Hy”d, shared a powerful account of the experience in an interview with Yedioth Acharonot, describing the intense emotions surrounding the moment he was identified.

Recalling the instant she saw the first photograph, Dr. Sharon said, “When I opened the image that they say sent me from the open grave, I shouted, ‘It’s Rani, it’s him.’ I yelled to the doctor to enter the grave and pull out the body for final identification, which would determine with certainty that he returns home to his family, but inside I already knew. The initial image they sent me was enough for me to conclude that it was Rani. I knew his dental records and their identifying marks by heart. My entire body shook from excitement.” Dr. Sharon serves as commander of the Dental Volunteer Unit within the Police Forensics Department.

She went on to explain how the identification effort unfolded on the ground. “The engineering vehicle operators began to dig holes together with soldiers from the Search Unit, and the dentists entered them to take photos and initial identification. After some time, [pictures of] bodies that the dentists photographed while still in the graves and sent us began to accumulate. Through that method, throughout the night, we ruled out 200 bodies whose graves were opened.”

Since the outbreak of the war, Dr. Sharon has worked alongside fellow dentists and forensic professionals to identify hundreds of victims of the Hamas massacre. Under her leadership, the unit successfully identified every deceased hostage whose remains were returned from the Gaza Strip.

During the mission to recover Ran Gvili, a team of 20 dentists examined roughly 250 bodies in a period of less than 24 hours, completing the painstaking process under extreme pressure and time constraints.

{Matzav.com}

Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney – The administration’s reset on its immigration crackdown is the most significant pivot Trump has ever made, and it’s the right response to the public furor that’s arisen over the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis.

A Virginia state court has blocked Democrats’ plans to redraw the state’s congressional map, ruling that lawmakers did not follow the proper legal procedure to approve the changes. The judge said the proposed redistricting failed to meet required steps, preventing the last-minute redraw ahead of the election. Democrats are expected to appeal the decision, but […]

The National Transportation Safety Board released a simulation of the January 29, 2025 midair collision near Reagan National Airport involving an American Airlines CRJ700 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board. According to the simulation, the helicopter was difficult to detect at night due to lighting conditions, blind […]

Sen. John Fetterman: “I think shutting our government down is fundamentally wrong. All of those changes are entirely appropriate for ICE.”

TRUMP: “We secured the border, crime is down all over the country… In Minnesota, you probably read their crime is way down. You know why? Because we took out thousands of criminals out of Minnesota… Tom Homan is over there. We all love Tom.”

REPORTER: “Do you agree with the assessment from some of your own officials that Alex Pretti is a domestic terrorist or an assassin?” TRUMP: “Well, I haven’t heard that but certainly he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun…we view that as a very unfortunate incident…unless you’re a stupid person…I don’t like that he had a […]

I am writing to warn the tzibur about a disturbing Arab taxi scam that has been reported in Yerushalayim. It is a classic “sleight of hand” trick that can happen in a split second, and I want to help ensure that others do not fall victim to it. The scam works as follows: When you […]

One day after the body of Rani Gvili, who was killed in the Gaza Strip, was returned to Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and the government’s Coordinator for Prisoners and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch, delivered statements to the media addressing the ongoing war, the hostages, and Israel’s next steps.

Netanyahu focused on Israel’s objectives in Gaza and described what he called the essential components of victory. “The complete victory depends on three things-returning all our hostages, dismantling Hamas and its weapons, and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, we completed the first task.”

Turning to Israel’s plans for Gaza after the fighting, the prime minister drew firm red lines. “We will not allow Turkey to enter Gaza. We will not establish a Palestinian state in Gaza. Israel will maintain security control over the entire area of Gaza.”

Addressing regional threats, Netanyahu warned Iran against any escalation. “The Iranian axis is trying to recover, but we will not allow it to do so. If Iran makes a grave mistake and attacks Israel, we will respond with a force that Iran has never seen before.”

Hirsch spoke emotionally about the cost of the effort to recover hostages and the scale of the losses. He acknowledged the extent of behind-the-scenes work that remains largely unknown to the public, saying, “In Israel, they don’t know everything you did. He helped bring people from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Venezuela.”

Reflecting on those who were murdered in captivity, Hirsch said, “87 of the kidnapped were killed. I remember them one by one, names and faces, love their families, and am tormented and pained by the terrible suffering and loss.”

Overcome with emotion, he described the personal toll of the mission. “This was the hardest task of my life. It’s not a holiday, but it’s a painful and also a happy day.”

Later, Netanyahu was asked whether national elections would proceed as scheduled amid the political crisis surrounding the conscription law. “That is my hope and aspiration. We need stability, and the last thing Israel needs is elections.”

He was also questioned about preparations for a possible confrontation with Iran and the role of the United States. “President Trump will decide what he decides, and the State of Israel will decide what it decides. We are prepared for any scenario, but I said the main thing here. If Iran makes the mistake and attacks us, it will receive a response it cannot even imagine.”

Netanyahu disclosed challenges Israel faced earlier in the war, including shortages of military supplies. “At a certain point in the war we didn’t have enough ammunition, and soldiers fell. Some of this loss of ammunition also came as a result of the embargo – this changed beyond recognition with the entry of President Trump.”

He concluded by outlining a long-term vision for Israel’s defense independence. “But we have reached security maturity – we must have an independent arms industry. And I intend within a decade to completely free ourselves from the financial component of American security assistance, which currently stands at $4 billion. I want us to move relations with the US from aid relations to cooperation relations – joint investments, joint development and production.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration contributed to a year-to-year drop in the nation’s growth rate as the U.S. population reached 341.8 million people in 2025, according to population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 0.5% growth rate for 2025 was a sharp drop from 2024’s almost 1% growth rate, which was […]

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday evening completed the reading of all sections of the proposed conscription law, marking a major step toward final approval of one of Israel’s most sensitive and long-debated pieces of legislation.

Committee chairman MK Boaz Bismuth announced at the conclusion of the session that the panel has reached the end of the reading stage and that the bill will soon be brought to a vote in the committee ahead of its second and third readings. “We are reaching the finish line,” Bismuth said. “What dragged on for years, what repeatedly got stuck in endless discussions, moved forward during my watch, because there was a clear goal: a law.”

According to Bismuth, the committee’s work was driven by a desire to reach a decision rather than prolong deliberations without resolution. “Brick by brick, through dialogue, cooperation, and determination, we succeeded in completing the complex stage,” he said.

Bismuth also referenced remarks made earlier in the evening by the prime minister, who said Israel is “on the verge of completing the passage of the conscription law.” He noted that responsibility now shifts to the next phase of the legislative process. “The torch passes to the entire Knesset,” Bismuth said, “to continue the process until the law is approved in the plenum.”

{Matzav.com}

New York City officials are investigating a Brooklyn fundraising event where vendors sold merchandise promoting U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, prompting City Council leaders to freeze public funding to the host nonprofit and raising new questions about how discretionary funds are vetted. City attorneys have launched a review after reports that keychains, pins and stickers bearing the […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday declared Israel’s hostage recovery mission complete, using a victory-lap press conference to reassert his hard-line strategy for Gaza’s future and to align closely with President Donald Trump’s framework, while also issuing fresh warnings to Iran. “Our soldiers fell [in Gaza] because we didn’t have enough ammunition, ” the […]

Sad news emerged from London on Tuesday night with the passing of R’ Dovid Shimon Berger z”l, a prominent askan for the Satmar and Pshevorsk communities. He was 49.

R’ Dovid Shimon passed away after battling a serious illness over the past year.

R’ Dovid Shimon was the son of the philanthropist and askan R’ Yosef Yechezkel Simcha Berger, the head of the Pshevorsker kehillah in London, and a grandson of R’ Mendel Berger z”l and the renowned philanthropist R’ Getzel Berger z”l.

He was a son-in-law of R’ Avraham Schwartz, and a grandson of the late R’ Lipa Schwartz z”l.

Widely known in London as a dedicated askan, R’ Dovid Shimon devoted himself to the needs of the Satmar mosdos, particularly the Yeitev Lev network, as well as to the Pshevorsker court. He was deeply involved in fundraising for tzedakah and communal causes, and was admired for his generosity, warmth, and open heart.

Yehi zichro baruch.

{Matzav.com}