navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2024-03-04 12:45:59 +00:00
parent 4788732e05
commit 4de9253cfc
3 changed files with 785 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

152
archive-covid-19/04 March, 2024.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>04 March, 2024</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Is resisting Covid-19 vaccination a “problem”? A critical policy inquiry of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers</strong> -
<div>
As the COVID-19 global vaccination campaign was launched in December of 2020, vaccination became mandatory for many healthcare workers (HCWs) worldwide. Large minorities resisted the policy, and the responses of authorities to this resistance led to damaged professional reputations, job losses, and suspension or termination of practice licenses. The joint effect of dismissals, early retirements, career changes, and vaccine injuries disabling some compliant HCWs from adequate performance, has exacerbated existing crises within health systems. Nevertheless, the position of leading health authorities has been that the benefits of a fully vaccinated healthcare labour force - protecting health systems, vulnerable patient populations, and even HCWs themselves – achieved through mandates, if necessary, outweigh its potential harms. Informed by critical policy and discourse traditions, we examine the expert literature on vaccine mandates for HCWs. We find that this literature neglects evidence countering claims about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, dismisses the science supporting the contextual nature of microbial virulence, miscalculates patient and system-level harms of vaccination policies, and ignores or legitimizes the coercive elements built into their design. We discuss the implications of our findings for the sustainability of health systems, for patient care, and for the well-being of HCWs, and suggest directions for ethical clinical and policy practice.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/z7usq/" target="_blank">Is resisting Covid-19 vaccination a “problem”? A critical policy inquiry of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genotypic-phenotypic landscape computation based on first principle and deep learning</strong> -
<div>
The relationship between genotype and fitness is fundamental to evolution, but quantitatively mapping genotypes to fitness has remained challenging. We propose the Phenotypic-Embedding theorem (P-E theorem) that bridges genotype-phenotype through an encoder-decoder deep learning framework. Inspired by this, we proposed a more general first principle for correlating genotype-phenotype, and the Phenotypic-Embedding theorem provides a computable basis for the application of first principle. As an application example of the P-E theorem, we developed the Co-attention based Transformer model to bridge Genotype and Fitness (CoT2G-F) model, a Transformer-based pre-train foundation model with downstream supervised fine-tuning (SFT) that can accurately simulate the neutral evolution of viruses and predict immune escape mutations. Accordingly, following the calculation path of the P-E theorem, we accurately obtained the basic reproduction number (R) of SARS-CoV-2 from first principles, quantitatively linked immune escape to viral fitness, and plotted the genotype-fitness landscape. The theoretical system we established provides a general and interpretable method to construct genotype-phenotype landscapes, providing a new paradigm for studying theoretical and computational biology.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.09.527693v3" target="_blank">Genotypic-phenotypic landscape computation based on first principle and deep learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Profiling of linear B-cell epitopes against human coronaviruses in pooled sera sampled early in the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Background: Antibodies play a key role in the immune defence against infectious pathogens. Understanding the underlying process of B cell recognition is not only of fundamental interest; it supports important applications within diagnostics and therapeutics. Whereas the nature of conformational B cell epitope recognition is inherently complicated, linear B cell epitopes offer a straightforward approach that potentially can be reduced to one of peptide recognition. Methods: Using an overlapping peptide approach representing the entire proteomes of the seven main coronaviruses known to infect humans, we analysed sera pooled from eight PCR-confirmed COVID-19 convalescents and eight pre-pandemic controls. Using a high-density peptide microarray platform, 13-mer peptides overlapping by 11 amino acids were in situ synthesised and incubated with the pooled primary serum samples, followed by development with secondary fluorochrome-labelled anti-IgG and -IgA antibodies. Interactions were detected by fluorescence detection. Strong Ig interactions encompassing consecutive peptides were considered to represent "high-fidelity regions" (HFRs). These were mapped to the coronavirus proteomes using a 60% homology threshold for clustering. Results: We identified 333 human coronavirus derived HFRs. Among these, 98 (29%) mapped to SARS-CoV-2, 144 (44%) mapped to one or more of the four circulating common cold coronaviruses (CCC), and 54 (16%) cross-mapped to both SARS-CoV-2 and CCCs. The remaining 37 (11%) mapped to either SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV. Notably, the COVID-19 serum was skewed towards recognising SARS-CoV-2-mapped HFRs, whereas the pre-pandemic was skewed towards recognising CCC-mapped HFRs. In terms of absolute numbers of linear B cell epitopes, the primary targets are the ORF1ab protein (60%), the spike protein (21%), and the nucleoprotein (15%) in that order; however, in terms of epitope density, the order would be reversed. Conclusion: We identified linear B cell epitopes across coronaviruses, highlighting pan-, alpha-, beta-, or SARS-CoV-2-corona-specific B cell recognition patterns. These findings could be pivotal in deciphering past and current exposures to epidemic and endemic coronavirus. Moreover, our results suggest that pre-pandemic anti-CCC antibodies may cross-react against SARS-CoV-2, which could explain the highly variable outcome of COVID-19. Finally, the methodology used here offers a rapid and comprehensive approach to high-resolution linear B-cell epitope mapping, which could be vital for future studies of emerging infectious diseases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.29.582263v1" target="_blank">Profiling of linear B-cell epitopes against human coronaviruses in pooled sera sampled early in the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Compartment-Specific Antibody Correlates of Protection to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in Macaques</strong> -
<div>
Antibodies represent a primary mediator of protection against respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Serum neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) are often considered a primary correlate of protection. However, detailed antibody profiles including characterization of antibody functions in different anatomic compartments are not well understood. Here we show that antibody correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge are different in systemic versus mucosal compartments in rhesus macaques. In serum, neutralizing antibodies were the strongest correlate of protection and were linked to Spike-specific binding antibodies and other extra-neutralizing antibody functions that create a larger protective network. In contrast, in bronchiolar lavage (BAL), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) proved the strongest correlate of protection rather than NAbs. Within BAL, ADCP was linked to mucosal Spike-specific IgG, IgA/secretory IgA, and Fc{gamma}-receptor binding antibodies. Our results support a model in which antibodies with different functions mediate protection at different anatomic sites. The correlation of ADCP and other Fc functional antibody responses with protection in BAL suggests that these antibody responses may be critical for protection against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron challenge in mucosa.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582951v1" target="_blank">Compartment-Specific Antibody Correlates of Protection to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in Macaques</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The landscape of biomedical research</strong> -
<div>
The number of publications in biomedicine and life sciences has rapidly grown over the last decades, with over 1.5 million papers now being published every year. This makes it difficult to keep track of new scientific works and to have an overview of the evolution of the field as a whole. Here we present a 2D map of the entire corpus of biomedical literature, and argue that it provides a unique and useful overview of the life sciences research. We based our atlas on the abstract texts of 21 million English articles from the PubMed database. To embed the abstracts into 2D, we used the large language model PubMedBERT, combined with t-SNE tailored to handle samples of our size. We used our atlas to study the emergence of the Covid-19 literature, the evolution of the neuroscience discipline, the uptake of machine learning, the distribution of gender imbalance in academic authorship, and the distribution of retracted paper mill articles. Furthermore, we present an interactive web version of our atlas that allows easy exploration and will enable further insights and facilitate future research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.10.536208v4" target="_blank">The landscape of biomedical research</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Sibling Relationships and Parental Interventions to Sibling Bullying During Covid-19: A Qualitative Comparison of British and Turkish Families of Autistic Adolescents</strong> -
<div>
Background and aims: Despite its high potential for affecting sibling relationships, few studies have explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this important family dynamic. Of these, the reported evidence has been inconsistent across cultures and lacks cross-cultural comparability. For the first time, we investigated cross-cultural variability in the impact of Covid-19, and the restrictions associated with it, on sibling relationships of autistic adolescents from a Western (United Kingdom) and non-Western (Turkey) country. We also explored how British and Turkish parents intervene in negative sibling interactions – i.e., sibling bullying –when witnessed. Methods: Parents of 164 British and 96 Turkish autistic adolescents, aged 9-20 years, were asked how they perceived the effects of Covid-19 on their children’s sibling relationships, and how they were most likely to react to instances of sibling bullying. Free response data from parents were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Our findings indicated more cross-cultural similarities than differences between British and Turkish families. The majority of both British and Turkish parents indicated that Covid-19 worsened sibling relationships between their autistic and non-autistic children. An overwhelming majority of British and Turkish parents also said that they would step in directly when witnessing sibling bullying. Despite the high volume of cross-cultural similarities generally, we also found some cross-cultural differences, for instance in relation to the most common negative impact of Covid-19 on sibling relationships and the most preferred parental responses to sibling bullying. Conclusions and implication: Implications and suggestions are discussed in more detail, drawing on the Etic approach to cross-cultural psychology.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/nqez3/" target="_blank">Sibling Relationships and Parental Interventions to Sibling Bullying During Covid-19: A Qualitative Comparison of British and Turkish Families of Autistic Adolescents</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Sputum production and salivary microbiome in COVID-19 patients reveals oral-lung axis</strong> -
<div>
Objective: SARS-CoV-2 is a severe respiratory disease that primarily targets the lungs and was the leading cause of death worldwide during the pandemic. Investigating the intricate interplay between the oral microbiome and inflammatory cytokines during the acute phase of infection is crucial for understanding host immune responses. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the oral microbiome and cytokines in COVID-19 patients, specifically examining those with and without sputum production. Methods: Saliva and blood samples from 50 COVID-19 patients were subjected to 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to analyze the oral microbiome. Additionally, 65 saliva and serum cytokines were assessed using Luminex multiplex analysis. The Mann-Whitney test compared cytokine levels between individuals with and without sputum production. Results: Our study revealed significant differences in the membership (Jaccard dissimilarity: p=0.016) and abundance (PhILR dissimilarity: p=0.048; metagenomeSeq) of salivary microbial communities between COVID-19 patients with and without sputum production. Seven bacterial genera, including Prevotella, Streptococcus, Actinomyces, Atopobium, Filifactor, Leptotrichia, and Selenomonas, were present in statistically higher proportions of patients with sputum production (p&lt;0.05, Fisher's exact test). Eight bacterial genera, including Prevotella, Megasphaera, Stomatobaculum, Leptotrichia, Veillonella, Actinomyces, Atopobium, and Corynebacteria were significantly more abundant in the sputum-producing group, while Lachnoacaerobaculum was notably more prevalent in the non-sputum-producing group (p&lt;0.05, ANCOM-BC).We observed a significant positive correlation between salivary IFN-gamma (Interferon-gamma) and Eotaxin2/CCL24 (chemokine ligand 24) with sputum production. Conversely, negative correlations were noted in serum MCP3/CCL7 (monocyte-chemotactic protein 3/Chemokine ligand 7), MIG/CXCL9 (Monokine induced by gamma/Chemokine ligand 9), IL1 beta (interleukin 1 beta), and SCF (stem cell factor) with sputum production (p&lt;0.05, Mann-Whitney test). Conclusion: Substantial distinctions in salivary microbial communities were evident between COVID-19 patients with and without sputum production, emphasizing the notable impact of sputum production on the oral microbiome and cytokine levels during the acute phase of infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.29.582705v1" target="_blank">Sputum production and salivary microbiome in COVID-19 patients reveals oral-lung axis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery of anti-SARS-CoV-2 S2 protein antibody CV804 with broad-spectrum reactivity with various beta coronaviruses and analysis of its pharmacological properties in vitro and in vivo</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 pandemic alerts us that spillovers of various animal coronaviruses to human in the future may bring us enormous damages. Thus, there is a significant need of antibody-based drugs to treat patients infected with previously unseen coronaviruses. CV804 against the S2 domain of the spike protein, which is less prone to mutations. CV804 shows not only broad cross-reactivities with representative 20 animal-origin coronaviruses but also with diseases-associated human beta coronaviruses including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1 and mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2. Other than that, the main characteristics of CV804 are that it has strong antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity to SARS-CoV2 spike protein-expressed cells in vitro and completely lacks virus-neutralization activity. Comprehensively in animal models, CV804 suppressed disease progression by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Structural studies using HDX-MS and point mutations of recombinant spike proteins revealed that CV804 binds to a unique epitope within the highly conserved S2 domain of the spike proteins of various coronaviruses. Based on the overall data, we suggest that the non-neutralizing CV804 antibody recognizes the conformational structure of the spike protein expressed on the surface of the infected cells and weakens the viral virulence by supporting host immune cells attack through ADCC activity in vivo. CV804 epitope identified in this study is not only useful for the design of pan-corona antibody therapeutics but also to design next-generation coronavirus vaccines and antiviral drugs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582480v1" target="_blank">Discovery of anti-SARS-CoV-2 S2 protein antibody CV804 with broad-spectrum reactivity with various beta coronaviruses and analysis of its pharmacological properties in vitro and in vivo</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Protective effect and molecular mechanisms of human non-neutralizing cross-reactive spike antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination</strong> -
<div>
Neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection against SARS-CoV-2. Recent studies, however, show that binding antibody titers, in the absence of robust neutralizing activity, also correlate with protection from disease progression. Non-neutralizing antibodies cannot directly protect from infection but may recruit effector cells thus contribute to the clearance of infected cells. Also, they often bind conserved epitopes across multiple variants. We characterized 42 human mAbs from COVID-19 vaccinated individuals. Most of these antibodies exhibited no neutralizing activity in vitro but several non-neutralizing antibodies protected against lethal challenge with SARS-CoV-2 in different animal models. A subset of those mAbs showed a clear dependence on Fc-mediated effector functions. We determined the structures of three non-neutralizing antibodies with two targeting the RBD, and one that targeting the SD1 region. Our data confirms the real-world observation in humans that non-neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can be protective.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582613v1" target="_blank">Protective effect and molecular mechanisms of human non-neutralizing cross-reactive spike antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Peptide Mold: A Novel Strategy for Mapping Potential Binding Sites in Protein Targets</strong> -
<div>
A novel concept titled Peptide Mold for mapping potential binding sites in protein targets is presented. A large multiconformer tetrapeptide library comprising of 32 million conformations of all possible combinations of naturally-occurring amino acids was constructed and used for molecular docking analysis in the substrate-binding site of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro enzyme. The top-ranking, structurally-diverse tetrapeptide docked conformations (symbolizing peptide mold, analogous to a clay mold) were used then for elucidating a five-point pharmacophore. Ligand-based virtual screening of a large, multiconformer library of phytoconstituents using the derived five-point pharmacophore led to identification of potential binders for SARS-CoV-2 PLpro at its substrate-binding site. The approach is based on generating the imprint of a macromolecular binding site (cavity) using tetrapeptides (clay), thereby generating a reverse mold (with definitive shape and size), which can further be used for identifying small-molecule ligands matching the captured features of the target binding site. The approach is based on the fact that the individual amino acids in the tetrapeptide represent all possible drug-receptor interaction features (electrostatic, H-bonding, van der Waals, dispersion and hydrophobic among others). The peptide mold approach can be extended to any protein target for mapping the binding site(s), and further use of the generated pharmacophore model for virtual screening of potential binders. The peptide mold approach is a robust, hybrid computational screening strategy, overcoming the present limitations of structure-based methods, e.g., molecular docking and the ligand-based methods such as pharmacophore search. Exploration of the peptide mold strategy is expected to yield high-quality, reliable and interesting virtual hits in the computational screening campaigns during the hit and lead identification stages.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582665v1" target="_blank">Peptide Mold: A Novel Strategy for Mapping Potential Binding Sites in Protein Targets</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Influencers in Tourism Digital Marketing: A Comprehensive Literature Review</strong> -
<div>
Almost all business sectors in various developed and developing countries have realized the importance of transforming conventional marketing to digital marketing, the goal is to increase sales. Many marketing strategies can be applied to increase sales, including utilizing influencers in digital marketing. This study aims to identify digital marketing strategies that have been widely used by researchers in various countries and look for new models or new strategies that are relevant to be applied in developing countries after COVID-19 through a systematic literature review. The author searched for scientific articles on the Scopus database that were in English and fully accessible. This research reviewed 19 articles using a systematic literature review. The results showed that the majority of related research was published in 2018-2022, ten related articles were published in 2022 with three articles published in Spain. All authors proposed various variables, but generally conventional in digital marketing, while not many authors concentrated on the utilization of influencers in carrying out digital marketing. Therefore, this research offers a digital marketing strategy combined with the role of influencers in tourist destinations that have a competitive advantage.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/m97kd/" target="_blank">Influencers in Tourism Digital Marketing: A Comprehensive Literature Review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Curcumin and turmeric extract inhibit SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus cell entry and Spike mediated cell fusion</strong> -
<div>
Turmeric extract (TE) with curcumin as its main active ingredient has been studied as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic. Curcumin has been studied in silico and in vitro against a naive SARS-CoV-2 virus, yet little is known about TE’s impact on SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, no study reveals the potential of both curcumin and TE on the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 cell-to-cell transmission. Here, we investigated the effects of both curcumin and TE on inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 entry and cell-to-cell transmission using pseudovirus (PSV) and syncytia models. We performed a PSV entry assay in 293T or 293 cells expressing hACE2. The cells were pretreated with curcumin or TE and then treated with PSV with or without the test samples. Next, we carried out syncytia assay by co-transfecting 293T cells with plasmids encoding spike, hACE2, and TMPRSS2 to be treated with the test samples. The results showed that in PSV entry assay on 293T/hACE/TMPRSS2 cells, both curcumin and TE inhibited PSV entry at concentrations of 1 M and 10 M for curcumin and 1 g/ml and 10 g/ml for TE. Moreover, both curcumin and TE reduced syncytia formation compared to control cells. Our study shows that TE and curcumin are potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 infection at entry points, either by direct or indirect infection models.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.28.560070v2" target="_blank">Curcumin and turmeric extract inhibit SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus cell entry and Spike mediated cell fusion</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The effect of molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir on SARS-CoV-2 genome diversity in infected and immune suppressed mice</strong> -
<div>
Objectives: Immunocompromised individuals are susceptible to severe COVID-19 and potentially contribute to the emergence of variants with altered pathogenicity due to persistent infection. This study investigated the impact of immunosuppression on SARS-CoV-2 infection in k18-hACE2 mice and the effectiveness of antiviral treatments in this context. Methods: Mice were immunosuppressed using cyclophosphamide and infected with a B lineage of SARS-CoV-2. Molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir, alone and in combination, were administered and viral load and viral sequence diversity was assessed. Results: Treatment of infected but immune compromised mice with both compounds either singly or in combination resulted in decreased viral loads and pathological changes compared to untreated animals. Treatment also abrogated infection of neuronal tissue. However, no consistent changes in the viral consensus sequence were observed, except for the emergence of the S:H655Y mutation. Molnupiravir, but not nirmatrelvir or immunosuppression alone, increased the transition/transversion (Ts/Tv) ratio, indicative of A&gt;G and C&gt;U mutations. Notably, immunosuppression itself did not appear to promote the emergence of mutations characteristic of variants of concern (VOCs). Conclusions: Further investigations are warranted to fully understand the role of immunocompromised individuals in VOC development and to inform optimised public health strategies. It is more likely that immunodeficiency promotes viral persistence but does not necessarily lead to substantial consensus-level changes in the absence of antiviral selection pressure. Molnupiravir, compared to nirmatrelvir, shows a stronger mutagenic effect in this model.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.27.582110v1" target="_blank">The effect of molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir on SARS-CoV-2 genome diversity in infected and immune suppressed mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Virological traits of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.87.1 lineage</strong> -
<div>
The highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.87.1 lineage was recently detected in South Africa, but its transmissibility is unknown. Here, we report that BA.2.87.1 efficiently enters human cells but is more sensitive to antibody-mediated neutralization than the currently dominating JN.1 variant. Acquisition of adaptive mutations might thus be needed for high transmissibility.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.27.582254v1" target="_blank">Virological traits of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.87.1 lineage</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Attenuated replication and damaging effects of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in an intestinal epithelial barrier model</strong> -
<div>
Many COVID-19 patients suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms and impaired intestinal barrier function may play a key role in Long COVID. Despite its importance, the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on intestinal epithelia is poorly understood. To address this, we established an intestinal barrier model integrating epithelial Caco-2 cells, mucus-secreting HT29 cells and human Raji cells. This gut epithelial model allows efficient differentiation of Caco-2 cells into microfold-like cells, faithfully mimics intestinal barrier function, and is highly permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Early strains of SARS-CoV-2 and the Delta variant replicated with high efficiency, severely disrupted barrier function, and depleted tight junction proteins, such as claudin-1, occludin and ZO-1. In comparison, Omicron subvariants also depleted ZO-1 from tight junctions but had fewer damaging effects on mucosal integrity and barrier function. Remdesivir and the TMPRSS2 inhibitor Camostat prevented SARS-CoV-2 replication and thus epithelial barrier damage, while the Cathepsin inhibitor E64d was ineffective. Our results support that SARS-CoV-2 disrupts intestinal barrier function but further suggest that circulating Omicron variants are less damaging than earlier viral strains.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582510v1" target="_blank">Attenuated replication and damaging effects of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in an intestinal epithelial barrier model</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase II Clinical Study of SHEN211 Tablets in the Treatment of Mild and Moderate Novel Corona Virus Infection (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: SHEN211 Tablets; Procedure: Placebo for SHEN211 Tablets <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: JKT Biopharma Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>INAVAC Vaccine Phase III (Immunobridging Study) in Healthy Population Aged 12 to 17 Years Old</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA-SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 µg <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Dr. Soetomo General Hospital; Indonesia-MoH; Universitas Airlangga; PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety Study of Self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Administered With Influenza Vaccines in Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: ARCT-2303; Biological: Influenza vaccine; Biological: Influenza vaccine, adjuvanted; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Arcturus Therapeutics, Inc.; Seqirus; Novotech (Australia) Pty Limited <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the Safety &amp; Immunogenicity of IMNN-101 Administered in Healthy Adults Previously Vaccinated Against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS CoV 2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: IMNN-101 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Imunon <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of a Nasal Spray on Viral Respiratory Infections</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Acute Respiratory Tract Infection; Flu, Human; COVID-19; Common Cold <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Nasal Spray HSV Treatment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: CEN Biotech; Urgo Research, Innovation &amp; Development <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>GS-441524 for COVID-19 SAD, FE, and MAD Study in Healthy Subjects</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: GS-441524; Drug: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.; ICON Government and Public Health Solutions, Inc <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Aerobic Exercise Capacity and Muscle Strenght in Individuals With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Kardiopulmonary exercise test (Quark KPET C12x/T12x device connected to the Omnia version 1.6.8 COSMED system); Device: Peripheral muscle strength measurement (microFET3 (Hoggan Health Industries, Fabrication Enterprises, lnc) and JAMAR hydraulic hand dynamometer (Sammons Preston, Rolyon, Bolingbrook).; Device: Standard exercise tolerance test (a bicycle ergometer and recorded through the ergoline rehabilitation system 2 Version 1.08 SPI.); Device: Aerobic exercise training (a bicycle ergometer and recorded through the ergoline rehabilitation system 2 Version 1.08 SPI.) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Selda Sarıkaya; Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine INAVAC as Heterologue Booster (Immunobridging Study) in Adolescent Subjects</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA- SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 μg <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Dr. Soetomo General Hospital; Indonesia-MoH; Universitas Airlangga; PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mindfulness-based Mobile Applications Program</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Cell Phone Use; Nurse; Mental Health <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: mindfulness-based mobile applications program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Yu-Chien Huang <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>World Health Organization (WHO) , COVID19 Case Series of Post Covid 19 Rhino Orbito Cerebral Mucormycosis in Egypt</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Mucormycosis; Rhinocerebral (Etiology); COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: debridment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Nasser Institute For Research and Treatment <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of Post-COVID-19 With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: a Randomized, Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Post COVID-19 Condition; Post-COVID Condition; Post COVID-19 Condition, Unspecified; Long COVID; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Hyperbaric oxygen <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Erasmus Medical Center; Da Vinci Clinic; HGC Rijswijk <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Attention Training for COVID-19 Related Distress</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Anxiety <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification; Behavioral: Attention Control Training; Behavioral: Neutral training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Palo Alto University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

631
archive-daily-dose/04 March, 2024.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,631 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>04 March, 2024</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Forty-Three Mexican Students Went Missing. What Really Happened to Them?</strong> - One night in 2014, a group of young men from a rural teachers’ college vanished. Since then, their families have fought for justice. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/11/what-really-happened-to-the-forty-three">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lucy Prebble’s Dramas of High Anxiety</strong> - In plays such as “The Effect” and TV shows such as “I Hate Suzie” and “Succession,” the writer has become an expert at getting deep inside worried characters’ heads. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/11/lucy-prebbles-dramas-of-high-anxiety">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Joe Biden’s Last Campaign</strong> - Trailing Trump in polls and facing doubts about his age, the President voices defiant confidence in his prospects for reëlection. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/11/joe-bidens-last-campaign">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Legacy of RuPaul’s “Drag Race”</strong> - The drag star brought the form mainstream, and made an empire out of queer expression. Now he fears “the absolute worst.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/11/rupaul-doesnt-see-how-thats-any-of-your-business">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors</strong> - With the world’s focus on Gaza, settlers have used wartime chaos as cover for violence and dispossession. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/israel-west-bank-settlers-attacks-palestinians">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why is Biden blocking the cheapest, most popular EVs in the world?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A squat yellow hybrid car on display in a large room with a high, blue-lit ceiling. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mOzA6Mb7Ydp9kSz6sb562YEQlv8=/811x0:7360x4912/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73180687/1484159901.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A BYD Seagull hatchback at the Shanghai auto show in 2023. | VCG/VCG via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden needs to decide if he likes the climate more than he hates China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qgrn84">
You can’t buy the Seagull in the US. But I bet you wish you could.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n77YEw">
A small hatchback around the size of a Mini Cooper, <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2023/04/30/the-byd-seagull-and-the-promise-of-the-ev-revolution/">the Seagull</a> is a fast-charging electric car and claims a range of up to 250 miles (at least according to its home country’s generous tests); BYD, its Chinese manufacturer, claims it can go from 30 percent to 80 percent charged in a half-hour using a DC plug. It’s hardly a luxury car but it’s well-equipped, with a power driver’s seat and cruise control. “If I were looking for an inexpensive commuter car … this would be perfect,” veteran car journalist John McElroy said after taking a drive. <a href="https://www.xchuxing.com/article/77193"></a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QHbqtC">
The best part? Its base model <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2023/04/29/byd-unleashes-the-seagull-in-china-and-its-cheaper-than-a-petrol-powered-honda-fit/">costs about $10,700</a> in <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>. That’s about a third of the cost of the <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g40605495/cheapest-electric-cars/">cheapest EV</a> you <em>can</em> buy in the US. In <a href="https://electrek.co/2024/02/13/byd-launches-cheapest-ev-south-america-20k/">South America</a>, it’s a little pricier, but still fairly affordable, at under $24,000 for a top-trim version. Even in Europe, you can get an <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/673128/byd-dolphin-launches-in-europe/">entry-level BYD for under €30,000</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6E0cLO">
These are absolutely screaming deals — exactly the kind of products that could turbocharge our transition away from gas and toward <a href="https://www.vox.com/electric-vehicles">electric vehicles</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jIDDEz">
And it’s just one of many BYD electric cars on offer, from the compact <a href="https://www.arenaev.com/15000_byd_e2_comes_with_405_km_of_range_and_2_years_of_free_internet-news-1650.php">e2</a>/<a href="https://ev.motorwatt.com/ev-database/database-electric-cars/byd-e3">e3</a> hatchback and sedan (think a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla) to the full-size, luxe <a href="https://www.byd.com/us/car/han-ev">Han EV</a>, a more expensive option nonetheless <a href="https://en.byd.com/news/byds-flagship-han-ev-series-officially-goes-on-sale/">selling for under $33,000</a> in China (it costs <a href="https://ev-database.org/car/1784/BYD-HAN">more than double that</a> in Europe). Many of the options have an aquatic themed name: the <a href="https://www.byd.com/eu/car/seal">Seal</a>, the <a href="https://www.byd.com/eu/car/dolphin">Dolphin</a>, the <a href="https://electrek.co/2024/01/16/byd-sea-lion-07-specs-revealed-tesla-model-y/">Sea Lion</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="72YwpD">
The problem for Americans? The <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> is hell-bent on preventing you from buying BYD’s product, and if <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> returns to office, he is likely to fight it as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chzGh0">
That’s because the BYD cars are made in China, and both Biden and Trump are committed to an ultranationalist trade policy meant to keep BYD’s products out. They’ve seen what’s happened in other global markets that Chinese EV companies have entered. Shipments to Europe have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1222056330/chinese-carmakers-flood-the-european-market-with-electric-vehicles">increased astronomically</a>; Chinese companies sold 0.5 percent of EVs in Europe in 2019 but they’re already <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-has-become-an-electric-vehicle-export-behemoth-how-should-the-us-and-eu-respond/">over 9 percent</a> as of last year. Companies like BYD make cheap, reasonably good-quality cars people are eager to buy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MZeNgQ">
In 2018, <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a25382834/china-us-tariffs-automotive-trump/">Trump imposed</a>, and Biden has since continued, a <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2023/11/chinese-ev-maker-byd-seeks-relief-from-trumps-china-tariffs-00129166">special 25 percent tax on Chinese-made autos</a>, on top of the ordinary <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/IF10971.pdf">2.5 percent tax on foreign-made cars</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FaJO4c">
That has so far <a href="https://electrek.co/2024/02/27/byd-no-plans-sell-evs-us/">prevented BYD</a> and its Chinese peers from trying to enter the US market. US customer tastes are different enough that Chinese manufacturers would probably prefer to make cars tailored to them — but US policy has been so hostile toward cheap Chinese EVs that so far, the <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/news/chinas-byd-doesnt-plan-to-enter-the-us-market-at-least-not-yet">companies haven’t wanted to bother</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R0Ec2R">
So, the result is that we’re left out of the bounty of cheap EV options created by BYD and others. “If you’re a consumer right now, the best place to be right now is China, because you have the best choice of EVs,” Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an expert on Chinese EVs, says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EQ7Jfh">
Still, China’s price advantage is big enough that even the extreme Trump-Biden import tax might not be enough to deter companies like BYD from entering the US market. Even with the tariffs, Chinese cars might be cheaper than their rivals. “​​Subsidies most likely won’t be enough; Mr. Biden will need to impose [more] trade restrictions,” climate journalist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/opinion/gm-ford-electric-vehicles.html">Robinson Meyer predicted</a> recently. The Biden administration is already making noise about imposing <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/biden-administration-explores-raising-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-e439d87d?mod=Searchresults_pos1&amp;page=1">even more draconian taxes</a> or <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-09/biden-is-looking-beyond-tariffs-to-keep-chinese-smart-cars-out-of-the-us?embedded-checkout=true">trade restrictions</a> against these vehicles. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-31/raimondo-warns-chinese-evs-pose-national-data-security-risks?leadSource=uverify%20wall&amp;embedded-checkout=true">described Chinese-made cars as a national security threat</a>, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-electric-vehicles-privacy-personal-data-biden-844f2406512b94212ee1a92a61e5a33a">recently announced an investigation</a> into the vehicles’ data collection abilities and the possibility they could send movement data to Beijing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fPQ7BB">
On the one hand, Biden is <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/credits-for-new-clean-vehicles-purchased-in-2023-or-after">offering Americans up to $7,500 per vehicle</a> to buy EVs (provided they meet certain made-in-North America rules). On the other hand, he’s imposing massive taxes to keep Americans from buying EVs. It’s a bizarre policy that makes no sense from a climate perspective. That’s what makes it so fascinating.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="luHpw4">
The Chinese EV case is a good demonstration that however motivated the Biden administration might be by climate concerns, it is much <em>more</em> motivated by a desire to help American automakers, to win Michigan’s electoral votes this November, and to escalate a brewing cold war against China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i7vDm3">
It has proven shockingly willing to sabotage its own climate policy if it gets to stick it to the Chinese in the process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Egc9hw">
“There’s almost an across-the-board apprehension about Chinese EVs, even though they would make an important contribution to [lower] CO2 emissions,” Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a veteran trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says.
</p>
<h3 id="41122f">
The climate case for Chinese electric cars
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A sleek silver-purple car parked outside. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/72cyB-haBWX0XlG3S036cTduJHQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25313603/1486522471.jpg"/> <cite>John Keeble/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A GWM Ora at a car show in London last year.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="liOL3x">
The basic environmental argument <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/16/9737720/electric-vehicles-cleaner">for electric cars</a> is simple: Burning petroleum in internal combustion engines produces CO2 emissions. Both because some electricity is generated through clean sources like wind, solar, and nuclear, and because <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/bio/madhur-boloor/electric-vehicle-basics#:~:text=Electric%20motors%20makes%20vehicles%20substantially,for%20a%20gas%20combustion%20engine.">electric motors are vastly more efficient</a> than petroleum engines, electric cars emit less per mile traveled.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iFRjOb">
EVs are slightly more carbon-intensive to manufacture in the first place, but most estimates suggest the lower per-mile emissions of EVs quickly make up for the extra emissions involved in their creation. <a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/the-lifecycle-emissions-of-electric-vehicles/">One recent study</a> calculated the “breakeven” point at a little under 17,000 miles driven; <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/driving-cleaner#read-online-content">another study</a> put the number at 21,300 miles. Given that the <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm">average American drives 13,500 miles a year</a>, EVs should break even within a couple years of use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2nsGnt">
But is this still true for Chinese EVs? China still gets <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-power-sector-emissions-surpass-4-billion-metric-tons-2023-2023-12-21/">more than 60 percent</a> of its electricity from coal, compared to <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&amp;t=3">less than 20 percent in the US</a>. The US instead relies more on gas and <a href="https://www.vox.com/renewable-energy">renewables</a>, leading to a cleaner grid overall. That means producing EVs and EV <a href="https://www.vox.com/batteries">batteries</a> in China should, on average, produce more carbon emissions than making them in the US or <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/interactive-publications/energy-2023#:~:text=Renewables%20lead%20in%20electricity%20generation,nuclear%20power%20plants%20(25%25).">Europe</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wYxr3X">
So, does this mean that BYD’s cheap EVs are bad for the environment, or at least no better for it than typical gas vehicles? Hardly. “It’s just sort of a ruse,” Anand Gopal, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy">clean energy</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">transportation</a> expert and executive director of policy research at the firm Energy Innovation, says. “Close to 90 percent of the emissions of a fossil fuel vehicle [are] from the combustion of the fuel. Even if you have slight variations in the manufacturing emissions based on the region, an EV is just going to be massively better.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2KzrW5">
John Helveston, a professor of engineering at George Washington University who studies the development of electric vehicles, notes that the complex supply chain of even US-made electric cars makes the difference in carbon output of cars produced in different countries pretty minimal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6YE6Qh">
“The biggest factor for China is that they control all the upstream material supply chain” for lithium batteries, Helveston says. Even if your EV’s battery is built by, say, <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/670249/panasonic-third-ev-battery-plant-us/">Panasonic</a> in a plant in the US, “the raw materials for that are being processed and refined in China first. It’s the same starting point everywhere.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LZ6CHU">
Where exactly in China the EVs are built also matters a lot. “We think of China as a really polluting country but it’s also a very big country,” Mazzocco explains. “The energy mix really depends on where you are.” In western China, for instance, hydropower is very prominent, and aluminum manufacturers have taken advantage. Just because an EV is made in China doesn’t mean it’s made with coal power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="udhi2A">
EVs of whatever origin are getting cleaner over time as the electrical grid gets cleaner. This is happening more slowly in China — but even there, electricity is getting cleaner. More and more of the energy running your EV will be coming from solar, wind, and other renewables, and less and less will come from coal or natural gas. That means EV adoption will do even more for the environment as the years go on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rSemko">
If Chinese and American EVs are roughly similar in their environmental impact, they are not roughly similar in price.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F5Rh4J">
Realistically, Helveston argues, BYD might not sell something like the Seagull in the US because it’s smaller than most cars Americans buy. They’d probably build plants in the US instead, or its free-trade zone partners Canada and Mexico, to build vehicles tailored for Americans. “If you’re going to really enter a market, you have to make it locally,” Helveston explains. “US automakers like GM sell and make millions of cars in China to sell in China.” BYD would do the same. Indeed, it’s already reportedly scouting sites for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/chinese-ev-maker-byd-exploring-mexico-factory-as-entry-to-u-s-market-411360fa">factories in Mexico</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8gtHO">
If they ever were to set up shop in North America, BYD and other Chinese car companies would still have a major price advantage versus American EVs. They have years more experience and a much more successful track record of building batteries and EVs at low cost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WSHL0k">
“Part of why they’re so successful is they’ve been thinking outside the box on cost reduction for a long time,” Mazzocco says. They took the “opposite of the Tesla approach”: starting not with luxury vehicles but ultra-cheap cars fit for taxi fleets and not much else, and constantly improving their early inexpensive prototypes. The result is that Chinese firms have gotten extremely good at making inexpensive EVs, at a time when Ford, by contrast, <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/02/07/ford-earnings-electric-vehicles-smaller-cheaper-tesla-china-ultimate-competition/">lost $28,000 for every EV it sold</a> in 2023.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APjlw0">
Short of outright selling cars made by Chinese companies, you could imagine partnerships between experienced battery manufacturers like BYD and American EV makers. “I’d love to see GM and Ford make an affordable EV that has a Chinese battery,” Helveston says. “I’d rather have that than GM and Ford sell cars for $10,000 more than they need to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IGt1fw">
“If you have more affordable EVs in the United States, no matter where you come from,” Gopal says, “that’s better for the climate.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KwaxOa">
Still, the Biden administration reportedly wants to restrict Chinese car companies’ access to the US even if they do set up shop in North America. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-09/biden-is-looking-beyond-tariffs-to-keep-chinese-smart-cars-out-of-the-us">Bloomberg reported</a> earlier this month that the Biden administration is formulating rules that would limit US sales of Chinese-made parts, even if they’re in vehicles ultimately assembled in the US or Mexico.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6CH0k9">
You could make a reasonable case that the tariff against Chinese cars is not itself the main factor holding back Chinese EVs from the US, because Americans will want bigger and more luxurious cars than companies like BYD now make. But blocking Chinese companies from building US-targeted cars in Mexico would prevent them from doing that kind of targeting, and cut Americans off from cheap EVs in a lasting way.
</p>
<h3 id="UPxfBY">
The nationalist case against Chinese electric cars
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" An interior view of the driver and front passenger section of a car, featuring a large screen dashboard and gray color scheme." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9o8BsHyzUhZp-JbIQWIkN1A_N5Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25313608/1456787537.jpg"/> <cite>Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
So far the Polestar 2 is the only Chinese-made EV to premiere in the US; the Volvo EX30, manufactured in China, is coming soon.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SUK0Xb">
Why isn’t the Biden administration salivating at the thought of BYD electric cars flooding the market? They’re making green vehicles ultra-affordable and doing so at the cost of China’s taxpayers — not America’s. Isn’t that what we want?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B0dEKE">
The pushback isn’t about climate at all. It’s political.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RjkYtQ">
Over 166,000 people work in car or car-part manufacturing in the state of Michigan, per the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iagauto.htm#emp_state_nsa">most recent data</a> we have; that’s more than the margin by which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-michigan.html">Biden won the state</a> in 2020. Michigan also has a competitive Senate race in 2024, as does Ohio, another car manufacturing hub. If allowing entry to Chinese cars alienates the US auto sector, the political consequences for Biden could be catastrophic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WoA1P2">
Using taxes on imports to win elections is a long, proud presidential tradition. George W. Bush slapped tariffs on steel in 2002, in what was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB101674938851653120">widely viewed as a bid for votes</a> in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. To this very day, foreign-built pickup trucks and heavy trucks are unavailable in the US because of a <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/12/subaru-brat/">25 percent tariff Lyndon B. Johnson imposed in 1963</a>, in retaliation for German and French tariffs on US chicken exports. The <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/does-chicken-tax-encourage-people-purchase-larger-trucks">“chicken tax” has meant</a> that even foreign companies like Toyota and Honda build trucks intended for the US market in the US. Compared to the chicken tax, the Biden administration’s approach feels positively logical.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WrzkoI">
But the Biden administration’s objections to Chinese EVs are also ideological. The Biden administration represents the victory of a protectionist, trade-skeptical wing of the Democratic party that was relegated to the sidelines during the Clinton and Obama years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HoASd1">
As Frank Foer detailed in his book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534055/the-last-politician-by-franklin-foer/"><em>The Last Politician</em></a>, this faction was brought into the Biden coalition partly through his now-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. During the Trump years, Sullivan forged an alliance with the trade-skeptics and “broke bread with Elizabeth Warren disciples, labor union officials, and intellectuals from left-leaning think tanks.” Sullivan is also, notably, a major China hawk — Foer describes him as agreeing with Donald Trump that China is “eating our lunch” — leading to a hostility to trade with the country that meshed easily with that of trade skeptics who have for decades opposed exposing US manufacturing workers to foreign competition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HePQ6o">
Sullivan has described this policy as a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/04/27/remarks-by-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-on-renewing-american-economic-leadership-at-the-brookings-institution/">“foreign policy for the middle class.”</a> While it’s possible to defend tariffs against Chinese cars in these terms, and <a href="https://www.autonews.com/regulation-safety/why-uaw-wants-higher-tariffs-imported-vehicles-auto-parts">United Auto Workers certainly support higher tariffs</a>, the idea that this policy helps the American middle class overall is laughable. Less than one percent of Americans work in auto or auto-parts manufacturing. But <a href="https://www.census.gov/acs/www/about/why-we-ask-each-question/vehicles/">over 90 percent of American households have a car</a>, and <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1hCeN">surging car prices were a huge contributor</a> to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/business/economy/car-prices-inflation.html">2021–2023 rise in inflation</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KQMD0k">
Barriers to importing cheap cars make inflation worse and reduce the real incomes of the middle class.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSDiZb">
Not only are the administration and other left-leaning institutions opposed to Chinese EVs, but hardline conservatives at places like the <a href="https://www.heritage.org/trade/commentary/america-should-ban-chinese-evs">Heritage Foundation are calling for outright bans on Chinese EVs</a> as well. Their rationale is security, another theme the Biden administration evokes often. On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced it was <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2024/02/citing-national-security-concerns-biden-harris-administration-announces">beginning a process</a> to “investigate the national security risks of … PRC-manufactured technology in [internet-connected] vehicles.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mLAvbY">
Helveston was skeptical of the idea that data collected by Chinese-made vehicles amounts to much in a world where Americans freely tell <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok">TikTok</a> all of their interests and desires. “Of all the things a Chinese firm could do to collect data on you, your vehicles are probably my least concern,” he says. “They have a lot of other avenues to learn about you through social media and other techniques.” “I think it’s good that they’re doing an investigation,” Mazzocco adds, but the dangers are “not just China.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WtoxjA">
Besides, the US could always craft more tailored rules regarding data collection in vehicles that could prevent the data from getting back to BYD headquarters in Shenzhen that fall far short of a draconian ban on even Mexico-made BYD cars, or short of the current 25 percent tariff. Banning an entire car company because of data worries is, to quote <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/frankzapparockmusiclyrics.htm">Frank Zappa</a>, a bit like treating dandruff with decapitation.
</p>
<h3 id="RPe9PF">
Biden needs to decide if he likes beating climate change more than he wants to beat China
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A parking lot filled with rows of blue and white cars." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ub4_KTyLG0Acj-8071smtq9Wl7M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25313666/2033875713.jpg"/> <cite>Lars Penning/picture alliance via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
An expansive pod of new Dolphin vehicles from car manufacturer BYD packed together like sardines at the BLG Auto Terminal in Bremen, Germany.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7A34iQ">
There are a number of powerful forces pushing the Biden administration to crack down on Chinese-made EVs. They want votes in Michigan. They want to build a US-based supply chain for EVs, and are rightly worried that more experienced Chinese manufacturers are going to clean US manufacturers’ clock. Their <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> seem to suggest they care more about cultivating the auto workers union than about ensuring cars are inexpensive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCHLbb">
But given the clear climate advantage of EVs over gasoline cars, and the clear advantages China has in making affordable EVs compared to American companies, it’s worth rethinking that set of priorities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cN03Ot">
The US unemployment is <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/unemployment-rate-at-3-7-percent-in-december-2023.htm#:~:text=The%20unemployment%20rate%20held%20at,unemployed%20persons%20was%205.7%20million.">3.7 percent</a>, which is about as low as it’s been since the early 1950s. We are not in a position where we desperately need to create new jobs. We <em>are</em> in a situation where we desperately need to transition away from fossil fuels. It’s an ideal situation, in other words, for cheap foreign-made electric cars.
</p></li>
<li><strong>How to do your taxes, according to an accountant</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of a woman holding a giant pencil and drawing straight horizontal lines. The lines transition into mountains in a landscape with a bright, animated sunset." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gzSBvJnNip3pcwpVJO-1Zpq7in0=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73180630/JuliannaBrion__CPA_Vox.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Julianna Brion for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Including when to do them yourself, when to seek out help, and helpful strategies for keeping track of it all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MB3ism">
<a href="https://caitlynneldridge.com/"><em>Caitlynn Eldridge</em></a><em>, an Omaha-based certified public accountant with 14 years of experience including two years at Deloitte Tax Services, has done a lot of tax prep. She’s also worked with many different demographics, from business owners to billionaires to single parents trying to make ends meet. After having her first child and then twins, Eldridge opened her own company with the goal of improving her work-life balance. Today, she’s a mom of five with a thriving small business that focuses on bookkeeping, tax planning, tax prep, and advising. That’s why we thought she would be the perfect source for our CPA Q&amp;A — and why we hope you can benefit from her advice.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gFrwCj">
<em>Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QIs3h3">
<strong>When should people seek out a CPA versus doing their taxes themselves or using a tax software program? What kinds of services can a CPA provide in addition to tax prep?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9L8kA4">
Many people can do their own taxes! If you have one or two <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-2">W-2s</a> [the wage and tax statement you receive from your employer] and one or two <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1099-b">1099-Bs</a> [the proceeds statement you receive from your investment brokerage], you should be able to self-file with software.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aseHAg">
If you start getting into <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1065">K-1</a> territory [a form that allows you to report gains, losses, etc. in a business partnership], you’ll want a CPA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lF47sj">
CPAs can help with adjustments of withholdings, recommendations on tax savings opportunities, amending any returns. CPAs are also really good for state-specific items, such as special state credits or if you are having income tax issues in multiple states — if you live in one place and work in another, for example.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qRP7h3">
<strong>How early do you start preparing for tax season, and how early do you suggest your clients start preparing?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SpCrLb">
Five years ago, I would have said that I started preparing in December. Gathering everything, making my lists — but ever since Congress started doing this thing where they pass legislation in January, February, or even March and then apply it retroactively to the previous year, I go into January with a very open mind.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="49Rmls">
Most forms don’t come out until January. People with investments don’t get those forms until mid-February. If you’re gathering your documents by the end of February, you’re doing great. If you’re self-preparing, that gives you all of March and half of April to put things together. If you’re working with a professional, I know a lot of us have upped our deadlines for clients [to turn in their tax information] which is hard for them, but end of February is still a great time for you to gather everything. Then Congress will sort out what they’re going to retroactively pass, and the softwares will be updated and ready for you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QyKJ2K">
<strong>A lot of people plan at least some of their major expenses — buying a house, closing down a business — with the potential tax implications in mind. Since we no longer know for sure which rules will apply to the current tax year, is gaming out your refund still a smart strategy?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SrssRd">
At this point, I would do my best to eliminate the refund and have the money throughout the year for myself. You just don’t know what the tax year is going to look like — and with <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23424503/saving-money-inflation-covid-stock-market-anxiety">high-yield savings accounts</a>, it’s easy to get 4 or 5 percent interest. I would prefer to keep my money rather than let the IRS hold on to it for me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cPWTCu">
Honestly, from the corporation down to the individual, the laws just aren’t incentivizing anymore because they’re retroactive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zCS6Cn">
<strong>What kind of changes are we seeing this year? I know that last year the charitable deduction rules changed, for example. Is there something about the 2023 tax year that’s changed in the last few months?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cgt52N">
We don’t have an official change yet, but what we’re sitting on is <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal">the child tax credit becoming refundable at lower income levels</a>. I’ve been telling my clients that we have to wait and see what happens, since we had heard that we might find out in January but we still haven’t seen anything finalized about this change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pgj547">
Now people are starting to file, and the IRS has said, “We’ll just true it up if we have to,” which could take months, but I’d rather get some money into the hands of clients than nothing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rs4KrX">
That’s a big one for the individual, and there’s also a bonus that’s caught in that for the business side.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r8AuBX">
<strong>In your role as a CPA and tax preparer, is your goal to give your client a stress-free experience? If it’s not about maximizing the refund, since you’re trying to help people keep more of their money throughout the tax year, what do you hope to achieve with your clients during the tax prep process?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xb2itE">
I have some clients who, no matter how much I tell them that a big refund isn’t worth it, still want the refund. So that’s how we plan the year. We make sure they overpay throughout the year, so they know the cash is coming and they can expect it. For other clients, it’s the reverse. We plan for the lowest refund possible. The whole point is to make the year as predictable and planned as possible, so come January, February, March, we have no surprises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PzMOKe">
That’s a big part of what we do. I don’t want any news I deliver at this time of the year to be a surprise. I try to leverage technology to make the process as effortless and stress-free as possible, but at this point, they’re just turning in documents. We’ve been talking about this all year, and now all we have to do is finalize everything.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FESNOo">
<strong>I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea that some people prefer the refund because it’s the only time they ever get a lump sum. In some cases it’s a socioeconomic thing — this is one of the only times people at certain income levels get that much money at once, for example. Is that what’s motivating some of your clients?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1OAmVh">
I’ve seen that kind of thing, but it isn’t always socioeconomic. For some people, owing any money to the IRS — even a hundred dollars — is scary. These clients might be making six figures, but they don’t want to owe any money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nQteuO">
The real difference is whether the client is a <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23842804/inflation-lifestyle-creep-advice-budgeting-money">spender or a saver</a>. If they’re a spender, they would rather have the IRS hang on to the money. That goes across all economic levels, and it often has less to do with income than it does with personality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XWp92q">
<strong>Is it still possible to make mistakes on your taxes? Since most people are working with either a software program or a tax professional, are mistakes still getting through?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rYdllj">
I think the biggest mistake I saw in the last year was someone who just miskeyed and didn’t catch it. They accidentally said they made $300,000, but they were retired and on Social Security, and then the IRS went and pulled a bunch of money. So check your work because the software won’t catch that for us!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VFVSHR">
The other big mistake I see has to do with forgetfulness. Something we do in March and April, for example, we’re likely to forget it by the next March or April. Did you pay for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/9/20759014/camp-summer-bad">summer camps</a> for kids under 13, when you and your spouse were both working? That’s a deduction, but at the time we think of summer camps as something we’re doing for fun, and we forget that it’s a child care deduction. Pulling those receipts and asking for that information, either in the moment or a year later, is a big one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7qV2cz">
We’re not in a huge itemizing time right now because of the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-provides-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2023">increased standard deduction</a>, but when more people used to itemize they would often forget about their charitable contributions. They’d donate $50 here and there and they wouldn’t keep track.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HAYV6S">
On the flip side, I still see people trying to deduct things that aren’t deductible, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/thebottomline/21506204/gofundme-small-business-brooklyn">GoFundMe contributions</a>. Giving has changed. People still want to give to charitable organizations, but they also want to give to the single mom on GoFundMe. If people are self-preparing, they might try to deduct that gift, and if they get audited, we have to explain all of that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bHLnRg">
<strong>What about forms and statements? Are there documents people forget to look for?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cvXsAH">
The <a href="https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099sa">5498/1099-SA</a> [a form that reports distributions from a health savings account (HSA) or medical savings account (MSA)] and the 1099-INT/DIV/B for investments — those come out mid-February and sometimes people forget! You should also collect a statement from your child care provider even if they didn’t issue one to you. Make sure to ask for a statement that includes their EIN/SSN. If you own a rental house and have a property manager, you’ll want a statement for the year showing all income/expenses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SCgqwV">
<strong>There’s always someone who asks, every year, why the government can’t just do our taxes for us. They could collect all of the information and calculate what we owe, and that way nobody would miscategorize, nobody would miskey. Why aren’t we doing that, do you think?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cAsjSe">
I have many theories. One of my theories is that the AICPA — that’s the American Institute of CPAs — likes to keep it complicated because it keeps us employed!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fqpez0">
There’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22596072/irs-turbotax-hr-block-free-file-tax-return">money in taxes</a>. That’s what it really comes down to. The lobbyists have the money, and they have the ears of the politicians, and the more complicated it can be to carve out this one deduction for themselves, the better.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2sShvg">
Other countries have this figured out a little better than we do. We’re a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/9/15/23873898/today-explained-capitalism-economics-books-to-read">capitalist society</a> that really encourages people to <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23317604/side-hustle-burnout-work">pick up side hustles</a>, and we keep changing the rules on how to track all of that. If everyone was employed in a W-2 job, we could track everything a little more easily — but we tell everyone <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22620178/hobby-job-leisure-labor">to take their hobby and turn it into income</a>, and that income needs to be reported.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qq1sOy">
<strong>What fears and anxieties do people have about their taxes that you feel are unnecessary?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TlS3gU">
I see a lot of people who have this <em>fear of missing out</em>. “The rich have all these deductions, and they’re not paying any taxes, and I’m paying too many taxes, and that’s not fair.” There’s a lot of that. I try to explain that while the super-wealthy do get out of paying certain taxes, they still pay a lot in taxes. The wealthy are also less focused on how to minimize their taxes in any given year and more focused on a generational tax planning strategy. They’re thinking decades from now: “How do I get my money from this generation to the next with the least amount of taxes?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yzQdv3">
I also see a lot of people who are <em>afraid of doing something wrong</em>. “If I try to take any deductions, if I do anything besides put my W-2 into the form, the IRS is going to show up at my door and arrest me.” I try to explain that, first of all, there will be a lot of letters before anyone ever shows up at your door, and we can answer those letters, and we can talk to the IRS [and figure out if there was a legitimate mistake]. Also, you have the legal right to take these deductions. It’s okay to take them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SgdxGU">
<strong>Do you have a strategy or system to help people track their taxable expenses and potential tax deductions throughout the year?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xdmkDb">
I heavily encourage an inbox folder because most of our receipts these days are electronic. Make a folder and put the tax year on it, and use it to file everything you get. That way, when you start prepping your taxes, everything will be in one place. Take a second, as soon as anything tax-related arrives in your inbox, to transfer it into that folder. Don’t let it get buried in the rest of your email.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V1tC5u">
If you have something more complex, like a rental house, I recommend creating a Google Sheet — and every month, just taking 10 minutes to track income and expenses. Then you can close the sheet and not worry about it until the next month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IqYQFj">
<strong>That’s what I do! I have the email subfolders labeled by tax year, and once a month I tally up all my freelance income and expenses onto a spreadsheet! So I can prove it works, at least for me.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1DtaaL">
It’s a great system. I like numbers. I work with numbers, but I don’t like them to take up any more of my life than they have to!
</p></li>
<li><strong>4 ways to file your taxes for free</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of several figures sitting casually on tax forms, floating above a rocky, blue mountain range below. The sky is lavender and filled with clouds. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/spUvP2-cEeylEZ-tCu9hSbrn3Es=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73180532/JuliannaBrion__Taxes_Vox.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Julianna Brion for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Yes, doing your taxes is hard. No, you don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars to file them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vlO6FL">
Every American has the option to file their taxes for free, but very few actually do. This is according to <a href="https://law.vanderbilt.edu/bio/?pid=beverly-moran">Beverly Moran</a>, an emerita professor of law and sociology at Vanderbilt University, who focuses on tax law, and who adds that <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/irs-free-file-tax-preparation-help">70 percent of tax filers</a> have the option to file their federal taxes for free online. Just <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/data-taxpayers-freefile-2024">2 percent of those eligible</a> for <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">Free File</a>, the IRS’s free online guided tax software program, used it in 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bhz7ua">
<a href="https://freefilealliance.org/faq/">First introduced in 2003</a>, Free File offers Americans with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) under a specific threshold — for the 2023 tax season, that number is <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">$79,000</a> — to file their federal and state taxes online for free. (Some Free File software programs will <a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">charge you for your state returns</a>, but some offer it for free.) Even if your <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-offering-additional-time-at-taxpayer-assistance-centers-for-face-to-face-help">adjusted gross income is over $79,000</a>, you can fill in the same forms used in the Free File program, just without any guidance or calculation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SAmUvG">
New for 2024 is a pilot program called <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/">Direct File</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24071005/irs-direct-file-free-tax-software-turbotax-review">another free option</a> to file your federal tax return online. This is most suited for people who have <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/irs-direct-file">simple tax returns</a>. Those who earned more than $200,000 (or $160,200 if you have more than one employer) are <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/income">not eligible for Direct File</a>. Because Direct File is still in a pilot phase, only people who live in certain states are eligible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NfeLhE">
While tax filing has always been free, many Americans didn’t need to worry about submitting a tax return when income taxes were first established over a century ago, Moran says. Over time, that changed. These days, in addition to Free File and Direct File, there are still more ways for Americans to file their taxes without paying a cent.
</p>
<h3 id="YDmzti">
Why is doing my taxes so complicated?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tjtyEs">
Filing taxes wasn’t always so convoluted. Prior to 1913, the <a href="https://teachdemocracy.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-11-3-b-the-income-tax-amendment-most-thought-it-was-a-great-idea-in-1913.html">federal government mainly</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/life/23613374/tax-pro-tips-accountant-file-taxes">collected revenue from taxes on goods and alcohol</a>. The ratification of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxvi">16th Amendment</a> in 1913 allowed for the federal government to collect income taxes, which <a href="https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-11-3-b-the-income-tax-amendment-most-thought-it-was-a-great-idea-in-1913.html">mostly impacted the rich</a>. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gcJrEAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT65&amp;lpg=PT65&amp;dq=what+percentage+is+357598+of+97,225,000&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=I5tn-uVSwW&amp;sig=ACfU3U1SyiVBFBkPJiE7wpdVNY5gKYibuQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj8qcjlq6aEAxU_jYkEHSuoCwIQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=what%20percentage%20is%20357598%20of%2097%2C225%2C000&amp;f=false">About 2 percent of US households</a> filed federal income tax returns <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/13-82inintrd70yrs.pdf">in 1913</a>, “and they were all wealthy people,” Moran says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QwiiD2">
“The modern income tax was much fairer in 1924 than it is in 2024,” Moran says, “if you define fairness as ‘the more money you make, the more tax you pay.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n5MwUF">
Over time, tax filing got increasingly more complicated. By World War II, the number of people who were required to pay income taxes <a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/understandingTaxes/teacher/whys_thm02_les05.jsp">grew from 5 percent of American workers to 75 percent</a>. Around this time, employers began <a href="https://www.taxnotes.com/tax-history-project/timelines-tax-history-class-tax-mass-tax-during-world-war-ii/2022/09/16/7f3s2">withholding taxes from workers’ paychecks</a>, and the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/13-82inintrd70yrs.pdf">standard deduction was implemented</a>, as well as the addition of retirement income credit, credit for dividends, credit for partially tax-exempt interest, and changes to itemized deductions. In the ensuing decades, more <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/federal-tax-complexity-costs-reform/#main">deductions, credits, and special rules</a> for different forms of income and investments were added to the tax code.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhEdgd">
Filing taxes has always been free, but as the tax code grew to include <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/12/why-the-u-s-tax-system-is-so-complicated-but-americans-are-proud-to-pay-taxes-anyway/">anti-poverty programs and other benefits</a>, a market emerged for paid tax preparation, targeting people who were overwhelmed by the process or who did not have the time to dedicate to filling out the requisite forms. By the 1960s and ’70s, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/business/richard-bloch-78-businessman-who-helped-create-h-r-block.html">H&amp;R Block had expanded</a> into “this franchise system where, rather than having Joe Smith’s Tax Preparation on this block and Mary Lou’s tax preparation on another block,” Moran says, “everybody knew in their town there was an H&amp;R Block.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="udXdRN">
With <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/ib370-earned-income-tax-credit-and-the-child-tax-credit-history-purpose-goals-and-effectiveness/">expansions of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit</a> in the 1990s, “individual taxes started getting a little bit more complicated,” says <a href="https://www.lls.edu/faculty/facultylisth-k/arieljurowkleiman/">Ariel Jurow Kleiman</a>, a professor of law at Loyola Law School who focuses on tax law and policy. “People didn’t want to miss out on these credits. Maybe then it was more likely that people needed some help.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rol1cN">
As the IRS began promoting online tax filing, the agency <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11808#:~:text=Origin%20of%20the%20FFP,assistance%20from%20the%20private%20sector.">created the Free File program</a>, offering an online tax filing option for low-income taxpayers. Rather than create a government-run tax filing software, the IRS originally partnered with 17 tax software companies to offer free online filing. However, companies like <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free">Intuit TurboTax pushed taxpayers</a> into paying, despite <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/4/23057463/intuit-141-million-agreement-new-york-attorney-general-turbotax-free">promoting the product as free</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KZdLxT">
While TurboTax and H&amp;R Block are <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2022/01/06/turbotax-free-tax-return-irs/9114118002/">no longer a part of Free File</a>, they are two of many options Americans have for filing their taxes — some of which are free, and some not. Here are the free options available.
</p>
<h3 id="6cdDnI">
How to file your taxes for free
</h3>
<h4 id="XjJAXX">
Free File
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zAYyzi">
<strong>What is it?</strong> <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">Free File</a> is a partnership between the IRS and tax preparation software companies. Taxpayers can file their federal tax return with help from free guided tax preparation software. Some offer free state tax return filing as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NtTQNi">
<a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">Eight tax preparation software providers</a> are a part of Free File: OnLine Taxes at OLT.com, 1040NOW.net, TaxAct, FileYourTaxes.com, TaxSlayer, FreeTaxUSA, ezTaxReturn.com, and 1040.com.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kVnYee">
<strong>Who is eligible? </strong>Anyone whose adjusted gross income was $79,000 or less in 2023 is eligible to use the Free File guided preparation programs. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/definition-of-adjusted-gross-income">Adjusted gross income</a>, according to the IRS, is total income (such as tips, rents, interest, and stock dividends) minus deductions (like self-employed health insurance premiums or <a href="https://www.vox.com/student-loan-debt">student loan</a> interest paid).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0duKRk">
Even if your adjusted gross income is above $79,000, you can still use the Free File program with <a href="https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms">Free File Fillable Forms</a>. These are the same Free File electronic forms, just without any instruction or guidance; you’ll complete these to file your federal taxes. Just a note: This can be complicated, and you’ll need to prepare and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/free-file-fillable-tax-forms.asp">file your state taxes separately</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wOEKjn">
<strong>How do I file? </strong>Choose from one of the <a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">eight Free File partner software programs</a>. Make sure you are eligible for the provider, as each has specific requirements. For example, FreeTaxUSA is only available to taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $45,000 or less, but offers free state tax filing for all states. The IRS has a <a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/general/">lookup tool</a> that recommends a software partner based on your age, adjusted gross income, deductions, and other factors. Instead of going right to the company’s website, select your preparation partner <a href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">via the IRS’s website</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qOUiBi">
You’ll then create an account for the respective software partner you chose (or log in with an existing account you used to file a previous year’s return). The program will then walk you through how to file your return.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aX0PF1">
<a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">According to the IRS</a>, here is the information you’ll need to have on hand. (This applies to all the other free tax preparation options as well.)
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Eb5KCh">
Social Security numbers for yourself and, if you have them, your spouse and dependents
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mYui9w">
W-2s from all of your employers
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TAqzY5">
Social Security benefits
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1JRSt">
Unemployment compensation
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UPmZWB">
Receipts from your small business, if you have one
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8T92TR">
Income receipts from rental, real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporation, and trusts
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sdj3r3">
Form 1099-INT, showing interest paid to you throughout the year
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UzH8lu">
Form 1099-G, showing any refund, credit, or offset of state and local taxes
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJEVaQ">
Forms 1099-DIV and 1099-R, showing dividends and distributions from retirement and other plans paid to you during the year
</li>
<li id="yjIEpc">
If you get your health insurance through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/obamacare">Affordable Care Act</a>, you’ll need <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1095-a">Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement</a> and <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8962">Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit</a>
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="suPYmk">
Your last year’s tax return to get your adjusted gross income. You’ll need your last year’s AGI to verify your identity.
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y7JXYb">
<strong>Tips to make the process easier: </strong>Again, double-check the requirements for the program you choose to use. You can try searching Reddit to get insight on others’ experiences with specific Free File platforms, Moran says. If you find you are being asked to pay despite using a platform initially marketed as free, <a href="https://www.vox.com/life/23613374/tax-pro-tips-accountant-file-taxes">do not pay</a>. Find an online preparation service that is actually free, however frustrating it may be to restart the process.
</p>
<h4 id="tAL4DW">
Direct File
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Unf94H">
<strong>What is it? </strong><a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/">Direct File</a> is a new pilot program built and run directly by the IRS, says Jurow Kleiman. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/strategic-plan/direct-file">It will launch in mid-March</a>. Those eligible can file their federal taxes for free online with step-by-step guidance in English and Spanish. Taxpayers can also live-chat with customer service representatives as they work their way through the process. You can <a href="https://service.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/subscriber/new">sign up to be notified</a> when the pilot is open.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jXRElg">
<strong>Who is eligible? </strong>Since <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24071005/irs-direct-file-free-tax-software-turbotax-review">Direct File</a> is still in the pilot stage, only people with simple returns who live in certain states are eligible. If your <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/income">wages exceed $200,000</a> or $160,200 if you had multiple employers, you are not eligible for Direct File. Other situations are ineligible, including if you’re filing jointly with your spouse and they earned $200,000 or more (or $160,200 if your spouse had more than one employer) or you and your spouse’s combined wages total more than $250,000. If you’re married but filing separately and your wages are more than $125,000, you are not eligible for Direct File.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TPstSL">
<a href="https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/strategic-plan/direct-file#income">Direct File is for those with simple tax needs</a>, such as income from a W-2, <a href="https://www.vox.com/social-programs">Social Security</a> income, unemployment compensation, and interest income of $1,500 or less; credits like earned income tax credit, child tax credit, or credit for other dependents; and whose deductions are limited to the standard deduction, student loan interest, and educator expenses. If you have income from <a href="https://www.vox.com/gig-work">gig work</a> or a business, or if you itemize deductions or claim other credits like child and dependent care credit, saver’s credit, or the premium tax credit, you are not eligible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WPAr78">
Direct File is available in the following states: Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington state, and Wyoming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GU2Mz4">
If you’re still not sure whether you’re eligible, Direct File has a <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/state">form that will let you know</a> if you can participate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="amEXJD">
<strong>How do I file? </strong><a href="https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/how-to-register-for-irs-online-self-help-tools">Create an account</a> with <a href="https://www.id.me/">ID.me</a>, which helps prevent tax fraud. You’ll need an account to start the pilot. You must be at least 18 years old, prove your identity using state-issued identification or a passport, and take a video of your face. When Direct File launches in mid-March, you can head to the <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/">Direct File website</a> to use your ID.me login to begin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dlJJSn">
You will then be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/26/heres-what-to-know-about-the-free-irs-direct-file-tax-filing-program.html">guided through the process</a>, with simple instructions on how to report wages and taxes withheld based on information from your W-2 and other forms. After you submit your return, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/a-closer-look-at-the-irs-direct-file-pilot">you will first receive an email confirmation</a> from Direct File and another when the IRS accepts your return.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cfsP6c">
While Direct File doesn’t handle state returns, the program will <a href="https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/strategic-plan/direct-file">point you to a state-supported tool</a> to file your state taxes if you live in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, or New York. For those who live in Washington, Direct File will take you to a state site where you can apply for the working families tax credit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RzPDfa">
<strong>Tips to make the process easier: </strong>Direct File <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/">won’t auto-populate your information,</a> so make sure you have your W-2, 1099s, and student loan interest, if applicable, nearby so you can enter it into the program. Take advantage of the customer service chat option for any questions you may have.
</p>
<h4 id="AbXLNg">
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5RtqMg">
<strong>What is it?</strong> <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers">Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE)</a> are programs that offer <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/15/23682351/irs-vita-volunteer-tax-policy">free, in-person tax preparation</a> by an IRS-certified tax professional. These services are available to those who make under a specific amount, who need assistance, or who are 60 years of age or older. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3676bsp.pdf">VITA/TCE sites prepare</a> returns for W-2 income, interest income, dividends received, state tax refunds, unemployment benefits, earned income tax credit, child tax credit, and more. They do not prepare Schedule C with loss, depreciation or business use of home, capital gains and losses, non-deductible IRA, and other more complicated returns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HqzvTk">
<strong>Who is eligible? </strong>People who <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers">make $64,000 or less, people with disabilities, and those who speak limited English</a> are eligible for VITA. Taxpayers over the age of 60 are able to receive free tax assistance through TCE.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xGRDMF">
<strong>How do I file? </strong>Find a VITA/TCE site near you by entering your zip code in the <a href="https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/">IRS’s lookup tool</a>. Check whether the location offers appointments. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3676bsp.pdf">Bring</a> photo ID; Social Security cards for you, your spouse, and your dependents; a copy of last year’s return; your W-2 and 1099; Affordable Care Act statements, if applicable; information for other income, deductions, and credits; and the total amount you paid to a <a href="https://www.vox.com/child-care">day care</a> provider and their tax ID number.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hRmNGR">
<strong>Tips to make the process easier: </strong>Many sites <a href="https://www.vox.com/life/23613374/tax-pro-tips-accountant-file-taxes">require appointments and can get busy</a>, so make one if you can — the earlier the better.
</p>
<h4 id="bTqimN">
MilTax
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRpOdn">
<strong>What is it? </strong>Members of the military, veterans, eligible family members, and survivors of deceased active duty members can file their federal tax and state returns for free via an online platform called <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/taxes/miltax-military-tax-services/">MilTax</a>. The <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/free-online-tax-help-for-military-members-and-their-families">service includes</a> tax preparation, electronic filing, and support from tax consultants and is designed with military life in mind, with guidance on deployments, combat and training pay, housing and rentals, and multi-state filings. There is no income limit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m707vR">
<strong>Who is eligible? </strong>Active, retired, or discharged duty service members of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force, and their immediate family members (spouses, children, and anyone who has legal responsibility for their children), <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/non-medical-counseling/military-onesource/eligibility-for-confidential-non-medical-support-services/">are eligible</a>. In addition, National Guard and reserve service members, regardless of their activation status, and their immediate families are eligible. Plus, immediate family, caregivers, and parents of wounded, ill, or injured service members; and surviving spouses of active-duty, National Guard, and reserve service members.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MOP9t6">
<strong>How do I file? </strong>First, <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/taxprep/">verify your eligibility</a> by using your DoD Identification Number (located on the back of your Common Access Card) or the last four digits of your Social Security number, date of birth, and last name. You’ll need requisite tax info (listed above under Free File information). The free preparation software will <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/taxes/making-tax-filing-simple/">ask you about military-specific tax benefits</a> and scenarios, such as extra pay for those serving in combat zones, special benefits for military members serving outside the United States, how to handle multiple moves within a year, and other deductions and allowances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TnpsKy">
<strong>Tips to make the process easier: </strong>You can <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/taxes/miltax-military-tax-services/">live-chat or schedule an appointment</a> (call 800-342-9647) to speak with consultants trained in military tax considerations. <a href="https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/taxes/miltax-frequently-asked-questions/">Some VITA centers offer in-person MilTax preparation</a>, but be sure to check ahead of time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bmc97k">
The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/select/simple-tax-returns/">more complicated your tax situation</a> (for instance, if you have income from gig work, if you own a business, or if you earned money from stocks and bonds), the more difficult any of these free filing options will be. However, it’s worth taking a look at your family’s situation to see if there’s a no-cost tax filing option that works for you. A note of hope: Should the Direct File pilot be successful, it could expand, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/irs-direct-file-pilot/index.html">giving more taxpayers another free option </a>in the future.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ranji Trophy semifinal | Yash Rathod’s unbeaten 97 leads Vidarbha’s spirited fightback against Madya Pradesh</strong> - Vidarbha, now, leads by a handy 261 runs.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jaismine loses</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Table tennis: Indian teams qualify for Paris Olympics, script history</strong> - This is a significant milestone for Indian table tennis, as it will be the first time the nation competes in the team event at the Olympics</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ravichandran Ashwin always trying to find ways to get you out, says Joe Root</strong> - Giving an insight into the way Ashwin operates, Root said the Tamil Nadu man often bowls six different deliveries in an over.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ranji Trophy semifinal | Shardul Thakur’s all-round performance enables Mumbai thrash Tamil Nadu; storm into final</strong> - After his stunning 109 that handed Mumbai a big lead in the first innings, Thakur led Mumbai’s bowling attack to bundle TN out for 162 in the second essay.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BRS announces names of four candidates for Lok Sabha polls</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Himachal CM Sukhu mum on stability of govt</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is India finally entering stage II of its nuclear programme? | Explained</strong> - The PFBR, with a history of cost overruns and broken promises, is finally in its endgame</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity for legislators facing bribery charges | Explained</strong> - Key takeaways from the verdict that overrules a 25-year-old precedent dealing with subjects ranging from the exercise of parliamentary privileges to the scope of judicial review</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Germany under pressure to explain leaked phone call</strong> - German ministers warned that the leak, aired by Russian state media, amounts to a “hybrid disinformation attack”.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New US-Russian crew heads to space station</strong> - The three men and one woman will conduct scientific experiments, including a study of degenerative diseases.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Macron hopes abortion rights are a political winner</strong> - French president is to enshrine right to abortion in the constitution. Critics question his motives.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Swiss vote to give themselves a bigger pension</strong> - Majority votes for a ‘13th month’ payment to address a cost of living crisis, but the government says it could not afford it.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ukrainian teenagers who returned for their school prom</strong> - Three friends who were separated by the war talk about going back home for a special school reunion.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The world’s most traveled crew transport spacecraft flies again</strong> - SpaceX and NASA officials are watching for wear and tear on Crew Dragon Endeavour. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2007469">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How melting Arctic ice leads to European drought and heatwaves</strong> - Fresh, cold water from Greenland ice melting upsets North Atlantic currents. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2007381">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>2024 Porsche 911 S/T review: Threading the needle</strong> - The S/T celebrates the 60th anniversary of the 911 and is limited to just 1963 examples. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2007258">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Researchers create AI worms that can spread from one system to another</strong> - Worms could potentially steal data and deploy malware. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2007366">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CDC ditches 5-day COVID isolation, argues COVID is becoming flu-like</strong> - The agency released a unified “practical” guidance for respiratory viruses. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2007434">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ms. Johnson asks her junior high class what body part grows 6 times its size when it gets excited</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She calls on Susan who says “Ms. Johnson that is a very inappropriate question to ask girls in this class. My parents will hear about this.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She then calls on Jennifer who says “the pupil of the eye in dark conditions.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Correct,” Ms. Johnson answers. “And Susan I have 3 things to say to you. First, you clearly didn’t read your homework assigment. Second, you have a dirty mind. And third you are going to be very disappointed in a few years.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AssociationSubject85"> /u/AssociationSubject85 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b5y3cg/ms_johnson_asks_her_junior_high_class_what_body/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b5y3cg/ms_johnson_asks_her_junior_high_class_what_body/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man gets on a bus, and ends up sitting next to a very attractive nun.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Enamored with her, he asks if he can have sex with her. Naturally, she says no, and gets off the bus. The man goes to the bus driver and asks him if he knows of a way for him to have sex with the nun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” says the bus driver, “every night at 8 o’clock, she goes to the cemetery to pray. If you dress up as God, I’m sure you could convince her to have sex with you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man decides to try it, and dresses up in his best God costume. At eight, he sees the nun and appears before her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh, God!” she exclaims. “Take me with you!” The man tells the nun that she must first have sex with him to prove her loyalty. The nun says yes, but tells him she prefers anal sex. Before you know it, they’re getting down to it, having nasty, grunty, loud sex. After it’s over, the man pulls off his God disguise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ha, ha! I’m the man from the bus!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ha, ha!” says the nun, removing her costume. "I’m the bus driver!
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Prudent_Ratio1827"> /u/Prudent_Ratio1827 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b5rp5k/a_man_gets_on_a_bus_and_ends_up_sitting_next_to_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b5rp5k/a_man_gets_on_a_bus_and_ends_up_sitting_next_to_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mary</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mary had a little skirt, it split right up the sides.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Everywhere that Mary went, the boys could see her thighs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She also had another skirt, that split right up the front, . . .
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She didn’t wear that one
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheBoggzDollockz"> /u/TheBoggzDollockz </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b65xsr/mary/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b65xsr/mary/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Did you hear about the guy who dated Supergirl and Wonder Woman?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Turns out he was a heroine addict.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/daird1"> /u/daird1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b60asv/did_you_hear_about_the_guy_who_dated_supergirl/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b60asv/did_you_hear_about_the_guy_who_dated_supergirl/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Someone asked a sage: How do we persuade those idiots?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘There’s no need to persuade them,’ replied the sage, ‘nor is there any possibility of persuading them. It will only waste your time. I generally stop explaining and choose to echo them. I say to them, ‘Yes, you’re right.’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The other person objected. ‘How can that do? You are escaping reality and not facing the problem head-on!’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The wise man replied, ‘Yes, you’re right.’
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RJtrip"> /u/RJtrip </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b687us/someone_asked_a_sage_how_do_we_persuade_those/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1b687us/someone_asked_a_sage_how_do_we_persuade_those/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long