May 2021 Short Bits

DEDUCTION ERRORS

According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS allowed business owners to claim $57 million in potentially erroneous qualified business income deductions on 2019 tax returns. The way this pass-through deduction is written is very complicated, and it’s part of the reason for the deduction errors.

SLASHED CONTRIBUTIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to change how they contribute to employees’ 401(k) accounts. It’s estimated that 46,000 401(k) plans were affected because companies paused discretionary funding to employees’ accounts, cutting back on matching contributions or ditching all matching contributions.

ECONOMIC EDUCATION

A new study in the Journal of Children and Poverty revealed that youths with a savings account in their name, regardless of the balance, were approximately six times more likely to attend college than those with no account. Additionally, growing up in a family that manages assets well — such as savings and equity in a home — shows that assets, not income is associated with college success.

MOM FACTS

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, the median age that a woman becomes a mother is 26, up from 24 in 1994. And highly educated women are increasingly becoming moms. Eighty percent of women with a Ph.D. or other professional degree have given birth. And a rising share of births to foreign-born mothers is increasing diversity as nearly one-third of all births in California, New York and New Jersey were to mothers who were born outside the US.