Tax season is open for 2016: 10 changes and five weird deductions

The 2016 tax season officially started Jan. 19 - the first day the Internal Revenue Service began accepting individual electronic tax forms. With that in mind, here are the newest changes the IRS has implemented - along with some of the more surprising deductions you can claim.

5. The IRS has raised the limit for HSA contributions

J. David Ake/AP/File
The Internal Revenue Service Headquarters (IRS) is seen in Washington (Sunday, April 13, 2014). The IRS has raised the limits for contributions people can make to their HSA accounts in 2016.

The IRS has raised the limit for the amount employers and employees can each contribute to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for families. The amount they could contribute in 2015 was capped at $6,650; this year, that amount is $6,750.

HDHP maximum out-of-pocket amounts for things like deductibles and co-payments have also increased.   

Maximum out-of-pocket amounts for things like deductibles and co-payments in High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) have also been raised. In 2015, the individual amount was  $6,450 while the amount for families was $12,900; in 2016, the individual amount was raised to $6,550 and the amount for families was raised to  $13,100.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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