Reading room
Money & tax law
Money questions are legal questions underneath: what the statute allows, what Congress changed, what a court decided. These explainers focus on the rules themselves. They are general information, not financial or tax advice.
- Alternatives and complements to a 401(k)When a 401(k) is the right place to save and when other options such as IRAs, HSAs, taxable accounts or paying off debt may come first, explained without hype.
- Crypto and DeFi tokens such as Aave in IRAs and 401(k)s: the rules and the risksHow crypto assets including DeFi tokens like Aave can be held in retirement accounts, how US regulators' stance changed between 2022 and 2025, and the risks involved.
- Earth Fare's 2020 bankruptcy: what it owed and why it liquidatedHow natural grocer Earth Fare filed for Chapter 11 in February 2020 owing about $137 million in loans and trade debts, and why it closed all 50 stores.
- Estate planning basics the pandemic made urgentThe core estate planning documents every family should consider, why Covid-19 pushed many to act, and how states temporarily changed signing and witnessing rules.
- From partisan reconciliation to SECURE 2.0: how retirement reform passedHow retirement savings policy got caught up in the 2021 partisan reconciliation fight, and how a bipartisan package, SECURE 2.0, finally passed in December 2022.
- How UCLA's student association weathered the pandemic with a PPP loanHow Associated Students UCLA lost millions when the campus closed in 2020, why it qualified for a $4.7 million Paycheck Protection Program loan, and what it cut.
- India's health sector and startups: the rules that shape the opportunityWhy India's health sector draws startups, and the programmes and laws that shape it: Ayushman Bharat, digital health, telemedicine and data protection.
- Roth IRA conversions: how they're taxed and the five-year rulesHow converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA works: the tax due on conversion, the pro-rata rule, the five-year rules, and why conversions can no longer be undone.
- Roth or traditional retirement account? How to think about the choiceHow to choose between Roth and traditional 401(k) or IRA contributions: tax now versus later, expected retirement income, tax diversification and required distributions.
- Simple, legal ways to lower a US income tax billPlain, legal ways to reduce US income tax: retirement and HSA contributions, credits versus deductions, checking withholding and harvesting losses.
- Student debt relief for doctors and nurses: proposals and existing programmesWhy bills were introduced in 2020–21 to forgive student loans for frontline health workers, why they did not pass, and which federal programmes already help clinicians.
- The 2020 RMD waiver and IRS Form 8606How the CARES Act waived required minimum distributions for 2020, what IRS Notice 2020-51 allowed, and when Form 8606 must be filed to track IRA basis.
- The PPP Flexibility Act of 2020: what changed for borrowersHow the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of June 2020 eased the rules for forgiving PPP loans, from a longer covered period to a lower payroll threshold.
- The backdoor Roth IRA and the 2021 attempt to close itWhat the backdoor Roth strategy is, how 2021 Build Back Better drafts went back and forth on banning it, and why it remains allowed under current law.
- The push for $50,000 student debt cancellation and what the courts decidedHow Democrats urged President Biden to cancel up to $50,000 per student borrower in 2021, the narrower 2022 plan, and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that struck it down.
- Three retirement savings tools worth knowing: the match, the HSA and the Saver's CreditWhy the employer 401(k) match, health savings accounts and the Saver's Credit (becoming the Saver's Match in 2027) are three of the most valuable US retirement tools.
- US student loan debt in 2020: how it reached about $1.6 trillionHow US student loan debt reached roughly $1.6 trillion by 2020, who holds it, the March 2020 payment pause, and what has changed in the years since.
- What you can and can't hold in an IRAIRA investment rules: stocks and funds are allowed, collectibles and self-dealing are not, and why concentrating an IRA in a few companies is risky.
- When to claim Social Security: the case for waiting, and when it doesn't applyHow your claiming age changes US Social Security retirement benefits, why delaying to 70 can pay off, and when claiming earlier makes sense.
- Why the Salesforce–Slack deal took seven months to closeHow Salesforce's $27.7 billion purchase of Slack, announced in December 2020, went through antitrust review before closing in July 2021, and what the delay meant.