If you noticed that lines at the post office were a little longer than normal this week, it wasn’t just because folks were hoping to stock up on Forever stamps before postage rates go up this weekend. Beginning Sunday, July 12, the U.S. Postal Service is raising the price of a Forever stamp from 78 cents to 82 cents—the eighth increase in five years. Some of those customers may also have been taxpayers hoping to meet the July 10 deadline for protective refund claims related to Kwong v. United States.

In Kwong v. United States, the Court of Federal Claims ruled that the tax code automatically extended certain federal tax deadlines throughout the COVID-19 disaster period, potentially opening the door for some taxpayers to seek refunds of penalties and interest they previously paid. The deadline for most taxpayers was July 10, 2026.

Just before the deadline, the IRS added an electronic filing option for certain Forms 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement, allowing individual taxpayers to submit protective refund claims related to Kwong v. United States online rather than by mail. But the option didn’t work for everyone—business taxpayers still had to file Form 843 on paper, and taxpayers seeking abatement of unpaid penalties or interest were also limited to the traditional paper process.

There was a lot of grumbling about the late notice, which is why a more taxpayer-friendly penalty announcement was met with greater appreciation. The IRS announced that it was replacing First Time Abate with a new Automatic Exemption from Penalty process that will grant qualifying relief during return processing, without requiring taxpayers to know about the program or ask for it. Beginning with eligible 2025 returns and 2026 quarterly filings, taxpayers with a strong three-year compliance history may automatically avoid certain failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and failure-to-deposit penalties, although the underlying tax and interest will still be due.

The change matters because an estimated one million taxpayers each year qualify for First Time Abate but never receive it, often because they do not know to request it. AEP is intended to make relief more consistent and accessible, while taxpayers who do not qualify may still seek reasonable-cause relief based on their specific circumstances.

Taxpayers should still file and pay on time whenever possible. But for taxpayers with a solid compliance history who slip up once, automatically applying relief—instead of reserving it for those who know to ask—is a welcome change.

And speaking of grumbling, you, like me, could still be smarting from the U.S. men’s national soccer team’s less-than-stellar exit from the tourney (in case you missed it, they lost to Belgium, 4-1). There have been lots of theories as to why it happened that way—we had been on an impressive roll—but most agree that Folarin Balogun’s red card had to play a part.

Balogun, who plays as a striker for the U.S. men’s national team, was sent off during the World Cup match against Bosnia and Herzegovina for serious foul play. FIFA later suspended the automatic one-match ban, which allowed Balogun to face Belgium. Why that happened—and whether it was influenced by a call to FIFA from President Trump—raised questions about political interference and the integrity of FIFA’s disciplinary process and angered soccer fans.


It also raised an interesting tax question: If a player is fined for conduct connected to a match, can the payment be deducted? My answer was potentially, but only if it qualifies as an ordinary and necessary business expense and is not treated as a government-imposed penalty.

For most professional athletes, however, being treated as an employee may be enough to eliminate any potential deduction. Because unreimbursed employee business expenses are no longer deductible, a player generally cannot........

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