Tax credits

 အမေရိကန်ရောက် မြန်မာများအတွက် ၂၀၂၆ Federal Income Tax အပြောင်းအလဲနှင့် အခွန်သက်သာခွင့်များ

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၂၀၂၆ အခွန်နှစ်အတွက် အမေရိကန် IRS က Standard Deduction နဲ့ အခွန်နှုန်းထားတွေကို သတ်မှတ်ပေးထားသလို အချိန်ပိုလုပ်ခ (OT)၊ Tips၊ ကားချေးငွေအတိုးနဲ့ အသက် ၆၅ နှစ်အထက်သူတွေအတွက် အခွန်နှုတ်ပယ်ခွင့်အသစ်တွေကိုလည်း ထည့်သွင်းပေးထားပါတယ်။ အဆိုပါ အပြောင်းအလဲတွေဟာ အခွန်ဆောင်ရမယ့် ဝင်ငွေပမာဏကို လျှော့ချနိုင်တဲ့ Deduction တွေ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

၂၀၂၆ အတွက် Standard Deduction ကတော့ Single သို့မဟုတ် Married Filing Separately အတွက် ဒေါ်လာ ၁၆,၁၀၀၊ Married Filing Jointly အတွက် ဒေါ်လာ ၃၂,၂၀၀ နဲ့ Head of Household အတွက် ဒေါ်လာ ၂၄,၁၅၀ သတ်မှတ်ထားပါတယ်။

အချိန်ပိုလုပ်ခ (Qualified Overtime Compensation) ရရှိသူတွေအနေနဲ့ သတ်မှတ်ချက်နဲ့ ကိုက်ညီပါက တစ်နှစ်ကို ဒေါ်လာ ၁၂,၅၀၀ အထိ Deduction ရနိုင်ပြီး Married Filing Jointly ဖြစ်ရင် ဒေါ်လာ ၂၅,၀၀၀ အထိ ရနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် အချိန်ပိုလုပ်ခရဲ့ အပိုဆောင်းပေးချေတဲ့ အပိုင်းသာ သတ်မှတ်ချက်အရ Deduction ရနိုင်တာဖြစ်ပြီး OT လုပ်ခအားလုံးကို အခွန်ကင်းလွတ်တာ မဟုတ်ပါဘူး။

Tips ရရှိတဲ့ အလုပ်သမားတွေအတွက်လည်း သတ်မှတ်ချက်နဲ့ ကိုက်ညီတဲ့ Qualified Tips ကို တစ်နှစ်လျှင် ဒေါ်လာ ၂၅,၀၀၀ အထိ Deduction ရနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ဒီ Deduction ဟာ ဝင်ငွေမြင့်လာရင် တဖြည်းဖြည်း လျော့နည်းသွားနိုင်ပြီး သတ်မှတ်ထားတဲ့ အလုပ်အကိုင်နဲ့ Tips ရရှိမှုဆိုင်ရာ စည်းမျဉ်းတွေကိုလည်း ပြည့်မီရမှာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

အသက် ၆၅ နှစ်နဲ့အထက် အခွန်ဆောင်သူတွေအတွက်လည်း အပိုဆောင်း ဒေါ်လာ ၆,၀၀၀ Deduction ရရှိနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ဇနီးမောင်နှံနှစ်ဦးစလုံး သတ်မှတ်ချက်နဲ့ ကိုက်ညီပါက စုစုပေါင်း ဒေါ်လာ ၁၂,၀၀၀ အထိ ရနိုင်ပါတယ်။ သို့သော် ဝင်ငွေအပေါ် မူတည်ပြီး ဒီ Deduction လျော့နည်းသွားနိုင်ပါတယ်။

သတ်မှတ်ချက်နဲ့ ကိုက်ညီတဲ့ ကိုယ်ပိုင်အသုံးပြု မော်တော်ယာဉ်အတွက် ချေးငွေအတိုးပေးဆောင်ထားသူတွေလည်း တစ်နှစ်ကို ကားချေးငွေအတိုး ဒေါ်လာ ၁၀,၀၀၀ အထိ Deduction ရနိုင်ပါတယ်။

၂၀၂၆ ခုနှစ် Federal Income Tax ရဲ့ အခွန်နှုန်းထားတွေကတော့ 10% ကနေ 37% အထိ အဆင့် ၇ ဆင့် ရှိပါတယ်။ Single filer အတွက် 37% အမြင့်ဆုံးအခွန်နှုန်းထားက အခွန်တွက်ဝင်ငွေ ဒေါ်လာ ၆၄၀,၆၀၀ ကျော်တဲ့အပိုင်းမှာ သက်ရောက်ပြီး Married Filing Jointly အတွက်တော့ ဒေါ်လာ ၇၆၈,၇၀၀ ကျော်တဲ့အပိုင်းမှာ သက်ရောက်ပါတယ်။

ဒါ့အပြင် ကလေးအတွက် Child Tax Credit နဲ့ ဝင်ငွေနည်းသူတွေအတွက် Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) လို ရှိပြီးသား အခွန်သက်သာခွင့်တွေလည်း ဆက်လက်ရှိနေပါတယ်။ ၂၀၂၆ အခွန်နှစ်အတွက် ကလေး ၃ ဦးနဲ့အထက် သတ်မှတ်ချက်ပြည့်မီသူတွေရဲ့ EITC အများဆုံးပမာဏက ဒေါ်လာ ၈,၂၃၁ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

၂၀၂၆ အခွန်နှစ်အတွက် အခွန်ကြေညာလွှာကို ၂၀၂၇ ခုနှစ်အတွင်း IRS ထံ တင်သွင်းရမှာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အထက်ပါ Deduction တွေမှာ ဝင်ငွေကန့်သတ်ချက်နဲ့ အရည်အချင်းသတ်မှတ်ချက်တွေ ရှိတာကြောင့် လူတိုင်း အလိုအလျောက် ရရှိမယ်လို့ မဆိုနိုင်ပါဘူး။

@TheBurmeseAmerican

#USATax #FederalIncomeTax #TaxUpdate #IRS #Tax2026 #OvertimeDeduction #TipDeduction #ChildTaxCredit #EITC #USNews #TheBurmeseAmerican

a security warning about using AI tools with your bank account or financial information.

A security warning about using AI tools with your bank account or financial information.

The main point is that AI can be useful, but a third-party AI app may ask for access to sensitive information. 

Wells Fargo is warning you not to give an AI tool your Wells Fargo username, password, one-time security code, PIN, or other login credentials.

For example, suppose an AI app says:

“Give me your Wells Fargo username and password and I’ll automatically manage your bills and investments.”

That is risky.

 If you provide your actual banking credentials, the AI service or anyone who compromises that service could potentially access your account. Wells Fargo is also warning that you could have less protection if you voluntarily give your credentials to another service.

There is an important distinction between sharing your password and authorizing a secure connection. Some legitimate financial services connect to banks through an authorization process where Wells Fargo itself asks you to approve specific access. 

In that situation, the third-party service generally does not need to receive your actual Wells Fargo password directly. You should still check what data it can see, what it can do, how long access lasts, and how you can revoke access.

Wells Fargo is also saying that its own Fargo® virtual assistant operates inside Wells Fargo's environment, so using Fargo through the official Wells Fargo app or website is different from handing your credentials to an outside AI service.

Simple rule to remember

Okay to tell an AI:
“I spent $500 on groceries this month. Help me make a budget.”

Be careful:
Uploading bank statements because they may contain your name, account numbers, balances, transactions, or other identifying information.

Never provide:
Wells Fargo username/password, PIN, debit-card PIN, CVV, one-time verification/security codes, or answers to security questions.

And if an AI app says “Give me your bank password so I can connect your account,” don't do it. A legitimate connection should normally send you through the bank's own authorization process rather than asking you to type your banking password directly into an AI chat.

roth

 Roth IRA limit is separate from 401(k)/403(b) employee contribution limit.

2026, if you’re under age 50:

• 401(k) + 403(b) combined: up to $24,500 in employee elective deferrals.
• Traditional IRA + Roth IRA combined: up to $7,500, subject to the Roth IRA income eligibility rules.
• So potentially you could contribute $32,000 total across these accounts: $24,500 + $7,500.

Your 401(k) loan repayments also do not count toward either of these contribution limits.

One thing we should check before you put the full $7,500 into the Roth IRA is your 2026 income/MAGI, because Roth IRA eligibility phases out at higher incomes. If your income is around $100,000, as in your earlier estimate, you’d generally be comfortably below the 2026 phase-out range for a single filer, assuming no unusual income adjustments. You may be able to put the $1,100 back, but the key question is when you withdrew it and whether the $1,100 came from your Roth IRA contributions or earnings.

For Roth IRAs, your regular contributions come out first. If the $1,100 was entirely from your prior Roth IRA contributions, the withdrawal itself is generally tax- and penalty-free.

There are two different ways putting the money back can work:

• Within 60 days: If the withdrawal qualifies for a rollover and you’re within 60 days, you may be able to redeposit the $1,100 as a 60-day rollover. A rollover does not count toward your $7,500 annual contribution limit. 
• Regular contribution: If you’re not treating it as a rollover, putting money into the Roth IRA is a new contribution and counts toward your $7,500 2026 limit. Simply withdrawing $1,100 does not automatically restore $1,100 of contribution room.

For example, if you already contributed $7,500 for 2026 and then withdrew $1,100, you generally can’t simply make another $1,100 regular 2026 contribution and call it $7,500 net. That could create an excess contribution. A properly completed 60-day rollover is different. The IRS confirms that rollover contributions aren’t included in the annual IRA contribution limit. 

Tell me two things: how much you’ve contributed to your Roth IRA for 2026 specifically, and the date you withdrew the $1,100. I can tell you exactly how much you can put back without exceeding the limit.

 Got it. In your situation, you contributed $1,100 to your Roth IRA for 2026 and later withdrew that $1,100 because you needed the cash.

The important point is that simply withdrawing the $1,100 generally does not automatically erase the original $1,100 contribution for purposes of your annual contribution limit. For 2026, the IRA contribution limit is $7,500 if you’re under 50. 

So if that $1,100 was a normal 2026 contribution:

$7,500 − $1,100 = $6,400

You can still make $6,400 of additional regular 2026 Roth IRA contributions, assuming you’re eligible based on income.

However, if your withdrawal was less than 60 days ago, there may be another option: you could potentially return the $1,100 as a 60-day rollover. A properly completed rollover doesn’t count toward the $7,500 contribution limit. There are additional rollover requirements, including the IRA one-rollover-per-12-month rule. 

Also, if the $1,100 you withdrew consisted entirely of your regular Roth IRA contributions, Roth ordering rules generally make regular contributions come out before earnings, so an early-withdrawal penalty may not apply to that portion.

Tell me the exact date you withdrew the $1,100. Then I can determine whether you’re still inside the 60-day window and show you the safest way to get your Roth IRA to the full $7,500 for 2026 without accidentally overcontributing.

 If you withdrew the $1,100 in April or May 2026, the normal 60-day rollover window has already passed, so I would not simply redeposit it now and label it a rollover unless you qualify for a special IRS waiver. 

For your situation, assuming the original $1,100 was a normal 2026 Roth IRA contribution:

2026 Roth IRA limit: $7,500
You contributed: $1,100
You later withdrew: $1,100
Remaining regular contribution room: generally $6,400

So you can contribute another $6,400 as a regular 2026 Roth IRA contribution, assuming your income allows the full Roth contribution. The IRS confirms the 2026 IRA limit is $7,500 for someone under 50. 

There is an important exception: if your brokerage processed that April/May withdrawal specifically as a “return of contribution” (including the required treatment of associated earnings), the IRS can treat that contribution as though it wasn’t made.  In that case, your available room could be different.

Also, if that $1,100 withdrawal was simply a withdrawal of your regular Roth contributions, rather than earnings, it generally does not mean you owe a 10% penalty just because you took the money out.

If you show me a screenshot of the Roth IRA transaction history showing the $1,100 deposit and withdrawal (hide your account number), I can help determine whether you should contribute $6,400 or $7,500 for the rest of 2026.

repayments program

 No. 401(k) loan repayments do not count as new 401(k) contributions.

Your regular payroll 401(k) contributions—traditional/pre-tax and Roth 401(k)—count toward your annual employee contribution limit. But when you repay a 401(k) loan, you are simply putting borrowed money back into your account, so those repayments do not use up your annual contribution limit.

One important distinction: loan repayments are generally made with after-tax dollars, even if the money you originally borrowed came from your pre-tax 401(k). They are not an additional pre-tax deduction.

So, for example, if during the year you make $20,000 of regular 401(k) contributions and $6,000 of 401(k) loan repayments, only the $20,000 counts toward your employee contribution limit—not $26,000.

If you tell me your age and how much you have already contributed to your 401(k) in 2026, I can calculate exactly how much more you can contribute this year without exceeding the limit.

 Because you have both a 401(k) and a 403(b), you need to combine your employee elective deferrals when checking the 2026 limit. The IRS 2026 basic elective-deferral limit is $24,500. 

2026 contributions	Amount
401(k) pre-tax through Sept. 25	$9,090.00
403(b) through Sept. 30	$2,722.22
Total contributed	$11,812.22
2026 limit	$24,500.00
Remaining for 2026	$12,687.78

So, you can contribute another

$12,687.78

You can put that remaining amount into the 401(k), the 403(b), or split it between them, as long as your combined employee elective deferrals don’t exceed $24,500. 

Also, as we discussed above, 401(k) loan repayments don’t reduce this $12,687.78 remaining contribution room.

One important thing: because your 401(k) and 403(b) appear to be through different employers, each payroll system may not know how much you’re contributing to the other plan. So you’ll want to monitor the combined amount yourself.

If you give me your remaining 2026 pay dates for the 401(k) job and 403(b) job, I can calculate the exact dollar amount or percentage to deduct from every paycheck from October through December to reach exactly $24,500 without going over.

GPT-5

 ChatGPT 5.0” you mean the original GPT-5, OpenAI removed it from the ChatGPT model picker because it was retired as newer GPT-5 generations replaced it.

The timeline is roughly:

Aug 2025: Original GPT-5 launched.

Nov 2025: GPT-5.1 began replacing GPT-5. OpenAI kept the original GPT-5 temporarily as a legacy option.

Feb 13, 2026: OpenAI officially retired GPT-5 Instant and GPT-5 Thinking from ChatGPT.

Mar 11, 2026: GPT-5.1 was also retired as newer models took over.

Now (September 2026): OpenAI has moved on to newer GPT-5.x models; for example, GPT-5.6 Sol was introduced for eligible paid ChatGPT plans in July 2026.

OpenAI's stated general reason for retiring older models is to concentrate development and capacity on newer, more capable models as usage moves to them.

Also, you are talking to GPT-5.6 Sol right now, so this is several generations newer than the original GPT-5.0.

If you're asking because you preferred how GPT-5.0 answered compared with 5.6, tell me what you liked about 5.0 (for example trading/chart analysis, shorter answers, or its conversational style), and I can explain the differences.

As of September 23, 2026, OpenAI has GPT-6 models, but availability depends on where you are using ChatGPT:

GPT-6 Astra launched September 3. It is rolling out, and access depends on your plan/product.

GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna were released September 22, but OpenAI says these are currently for ChatGPT Work and Codex, not selectable models in ordinary Chat conversations.

GPT-6 Pro, powered by GPT-6 Astra, is available in regular ChatGPT for certain Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans.

For Plus, OpenAI currently says GPT-6 Astra is included in Work and Codex, while regular Chat may show GPT-5.6 options instead.

So if you previously saw GPT-6 and now don't see it in this normal chat, it doesn't necessarily mean GPT-6 was removed from OpenAI. OpenAI is changing where GPT-6 appears and which plans/modes can select it.

Also, I need to correct my previous answer: I said GPT-6 wasn't the model you were referring to. That was incorrect.

GPT-5.6 and GPT-6 Pro in ChatGPT

Learn how GPT-5.6 and GPT-6 Pro work in ChatGPT, which options are available by plan, and how usage limits and availability work.

GPT‑6 Pro, powered by GPT‑6 Astra, is available in ChatGPT for Pro $100, Pro $200, Business and Enterprise plans. 

Enterprise access also depends on your workspace’s model-access permissions. Plus plans include GPT‑6 Astra in ChatGPT Work and Codex.Note: Astra requires Codex CLI version 0.153.0 or newer. Additionally, please update to the latest available ChatGPT Desktop app. If you do not see Astra available in Chat, Work or Codex in the desktop app, ensure that you update your app by clicking Menu > Check for Updates, even if you recently updated the app due to an automatic update notification or by clicking on the update icon in the sidebar.

Overview

GPT-5.6 Sol is designed for complex work across coding, knowledge work and research, cybersecurity, science, computer use, and design. GPT-5.6 Sol Pro is the highest-capability GPT-5.6 option for difficult tasks and longer-running workflows.

GPT-5.6 Sol and a new Thinking slider are rolling out to eligible paid plans. GPT-5.6 Luna is becoming the default model for Free and Go users. GPT-5.6 Sol powers Instant, Medium, High, and Extra High on eligible paid plans, while GPT-5.6 Sol Pro is the Pro option in the GPT-5.6 family. GPT-6 Astra is available as GPT-6 Pro on eligible plans.

Choose a thinking level

Instant provides fast responses for everyday questions. On eligible paid plans, use the Thinking slider to choose how much ChatGPT thinks. Available options depend on your plan and, for managed workspaces, your workspace settings.

• Instant — Fast responses for everyday questions, powered by GPT-5.6 Sol on eligible paid plans and GPT-5.6 Luna on Free and Go.

• Medium — Standard thinking with GPT-5.6 Sol.

• High — Extended thinking with GPT-5.6 Sol.

• Extra High — The highest thinking level available with GPT-5.6 Sol.

• Pro — Pro models for difficult tasks and longer-running workflows. Available models include GPT-5.6 Sol Pro and, on eligible plans, GPT-6 Pro.

On Plus and Pro plans, Instant doesn’t automatically switch to a higher thinking level for complex requests. Asking ChatGPT to “think harder” or “think deeply” won’t automatically switch to a different thinking level. ChatGPT can still switch automatically for safety.

Free and Go users can use Think for harder questions. Think uses GPT-5.6 Luna, not GPT-5.6 Sol.

Enterprise customers may continue to see the existing model picker until the new controls reach their workspace.

For automatic switching to Thinking in managed workspaces, see: ChatGPT Business models and limits and ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu models and limits.

Availability

Availability by ChatGPT plan

The table below shows which GPT-5.6 Sol thinking options are available by plan. Free and Go users receive GPT-5.6 Luna and do not have access to GPT-5.6 Sol.

ChatGPT plan	Medium and High	Extra High	Pro
Plus	Included	Not included	Not included
Pro	Included	Included	Included
Business	Included	Included	Included
Enterprise	Included	Included	Included
Free and Go	Not included	Not included	Not included