Dear Tax Guy: Our accountant charged us $486 for a simple gift-tax return. Why on earth would it cost so much?

We gave our daughter money towards a down payment on a home and learned we had to file a gift tax return. Our accountant charged us $486 for this. Why can’t you just add a form to your regular tax ret...

If you’re over 72 with an IRA, make sure you do this before the year ends

If you’re 72 or older, you have a crucial financial deadline approaching. By year-end, owners of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) who are 72 or older must take their required minimum distribution...

Bank of America Warns of Labor Collapse, Stock Selloff in 2023

It its latest market and economic forecast, Bank of America warned of a collapsing U.S. labor market and a potential rise in unemployment next year. Strategists also recommended selling any stock mark...

Intel begins layoffs and offers unpaid leave to manufacturing workers

The layoffs and cost-cutting that Intel Corp. executives recently warned about have begun in California, with a couple of hundred employees set to lose their jobs next month, and manufacturing employe...

Cryptocurrency investor losses are being turned into IRS gains — here’s how they’re doing it

The Internal Revenue Service has been turning up its scrutiny on cryptocurrency investors in recent years, and as that happens, more investors have been turning to the tax code’s rules on investment l...

This one great idea can make everyone better with money, older Americans say

Surveys regularly show that older Americans have regrets about lots of things — working too much, choosing the wrong partner, not taking care of their health, etc. There are often financial regrets to...

PepsiCo Cutting Hundreds of Jobs in North America: WSJ

PepsiCo is planning to cut hundreds of jobs at its North American snacks and beverages headquarters, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter and documents seen by ...

Average U.S. House Price Falls And Labor Market Shows Strength Despite Recession Speculation

Getty Images TL;DR Non-farm payroll numbers increased by 263,000 jobs in November, well above the estimate of 200,000 The average hourly wage went up as well, with the 0.6% gain double what had been e...

Retailers Are Cutting Jobs Instead of Hiring Help Ahead of the Holidays

The holiday season is usually a reason for stores to staff up to handle the surge of shoppers. But Friday’s jobs report showed a concerning trend: Retailers are shedding workers. According to the Bure...

The U.S. job market is strong, but layoffs are on the rise. Is this a good — or bad — time to ask for a raise? Experts weigh in.

Is this an opportune time to ask for a raise? Or, given the recent spate of tech layoffs, is it better to lie low for a while?  The good news: Employers are giving pay raises. The increase in wages ov...

Tech jobs gain despite wave of layoff announcements, but warning signs abound

The tech industry continued to add jobs despite the tens of thousands of layoffs that were announced in November, though tech job postings continued a downward slide, according to an analysis of U.S. ...

Apple Makes Plans to Move Production Out of China

In recent weeks, Apple Inc. has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside China, long the dominant country in the supply chain that built the world’s most valuable company, say people ...

Opinion: 4 numbers retirement savers need to know heading into 2023

The past couple of years have been challenging for almost everyone invested in stocks or bonds, including anyone saving for retirement through employer-sponsored plans. With markets down across the bo...

Bitcoin Tanks as US Labor Market Remains Hot

Bitcoin fell 2% to around $16,800 after the Nov. 2022 U.S. jobs report revealed a strong labor market, despite the Federal Reserve’s six consecutive interest rate hikes in 2022. Nonfarm payrolls incre...

Dear Tax Guy: ‘I’ve accumulated a lot of junk.’ I plan to make $6,000 selling stuff on eBay. Can I put it into an IRA instead of paying income tax?

I am retired with Social Security and a state pension. Over the last 30 years I’ve accumulated a lot of “junk” from eBay EBAY, +0.17%. Now, I’m also trying to clean out my house, and sell it at cost o...

Senate passes rail labor pact before strike deadline, sends to Biden

The Senate passed legislation that would force a tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike. A separate vote on adding seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement failed. The appro...

House approves tentative labor deal, sends to Senate

A rail employee works a Union Pacific Intermodal Terminal rail yard on November 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images The House passed legislation Wednesday that would force a...

Why labor economists say the remote work ‘revolution’ is here to stay

Momo Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images Remote work surged in the pandemic era — but this trend, borne of necessity for public health, has now become a fixture of the U.S. job market, one that...

Hardship withdrawals from 401(k)s reach ‘concerning’ all-time high, Vanguard says

Amid stubbornly high inflation, a record-breaking share of Americans are turning their 401(k) accounts into emergency piggy banks, according to Vanguard. Dissecting data from a sample of the approxima...

Elon Musk Fears Economic Disaster if This Is Not Done Immediately

The economy’s health remains the main subject of concern for consumers and investors, who just about every week see another wave of corporate job cuts. On Nov. 30, DoorDash was the umpteenth com...

Job openings fall amid Fed efforts to cool labor market

Workers sort packages at a FedEx Express facility on Cyber Monday in Garden City, New York, on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Job openings dipped in October amid the F...

Suze Orman says, ‘We’re heading downhill very fast,’ unless employers start providing this lucrative benefit to their workers

Americans trying to save some cash for unforeseen expenses are up against a lot — months of red-hot inflation, wages that don’t keep up, the sheer difficulty of delayed gratification in a time when pe...

China electric vehicle maker XPeng posts wider than expected 3Q loss of CNY2.38 billion ($332m)

XPeng Inc. XPEV, +6.53% said Wednesday that it expects its fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries to decline as much as 52% as the Chinese electric-car maker reported a wider loss for the third quarter. XP...

When Layoffs Happen at Tech Companies, This Position Is the First to Go

Nov. 29, 2022 10:00 am ET Listen to article (2 minutes) Companies couldn’t hire enough recruiters to help fill all of the open technology positions they had a year ago. Now many tech-talent seekers ar...

Strong labor report could bring bigger Fed hikes

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday told investors that a key labor report could help drive the Federal Reserve’s inflation strategy. “We need to see the unemployment rate go higher, while w...

‘We see major stock markets plunging 25%,’ says Deutsche Bank

A U.S. recession induced by central-bank efforts to curb inflation is likely to arrive by mid-2023 and trigger a sharp and “temporarily painful” decline in equities, according to Deutsche Bank researc...

Employers Rethink Need for College Degrees in Tight Labor Market

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These money and investing tips can help your portfolio sail through December

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly! INVESTING NEWS & TRENDS The only thing investors have ...

Mega-Companies Messed Up America’s Job Market. They’re Doing it Again.

Part of what has made America’s job market so tight is that big, publicly traded companies hired like crazy after the pandemic struck. Now that many are slamming into reverse, it seems like there is a...

‘Most economists are predicting a recession in 2023’: I own a rental property. Is it a good time to take out a bank loan and renovate — or should I wait?

Dear MarketWatch, Along with a sibling, I own a rental property of more than 40 rooms in the Caribbean, where we do weekly rentals.  It’s near downtown but in need of repairs and renovation.  Is this ...

Spotlight on layoffs: Cuts at Amazon, Cisco, Roku, Meta, Twitter, Intel and more

From HP, Amazon, Roku and Beyond Meat to Meta and Twitter, big names across a number of sectors have announced major layoffs in October and November. Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.45% GOOG, +1.53% is consid...

I got laid off by a big tech company. What’s my next career move? 

Being let go from a job is hard, especially at a moment when the cost of living is rising and a recession is looming. This Thanksgiving, tens of thousands of recently laid-off tech workers will be ask...