Is your Social Security number and other personal data floating around on the dark web ? We've seen a remarkable number of data breaches in 2024, affecting hundreds of millions of people, many of whom are US taxpayers. This tax year, the IRS recommends every taxpayer protect their income taxes against identify theft by applying for an IP PIN , a unique identifier that restricts anyone else from filing income taxes with your name and Social Security number. The catch? The program is closing on Saturday, Nov. 23, for maintenance, with a planned reopening in "early January 2025." Tax-related identity theft has become a booming business -- the IRS' Taxpayer Protection Program flagged 2.8 million tax returns for suspected identity fraud in the 2024 tax season. You might not even know you've been scammed until you file your tax return and it's rejected because of duplicate personal information. You do have recourse with the IRS for identity theft, but you're in for a long process, and your tax refund will be delayed. Learn how an IRS IP PIN works, why the IRS recommends getting one and why the IRS might send you one automatically. For more tax tips, learn what a Trump administration might mean for the child tax credit and learn whether you have to pay taxes on student loan forgiveness . What is an IRS Identity Protection PIN? An IRS Identity Protection PIN is a unique six-digit passcode that can protect taxpayers from tax-related identity fraud. The code is known only to the individual taxpayer and the IRS and should only be shared with trusted tax preparers. Taxpayers who have been victims of tax-related identity fraud in the past may be issued an IP PIN by the IRS. In that case, you should receive a CP01A notice in the mail with your six-digit code each year. How do I create an IP PIN for my taxes? Taxpayers can create their own IP PIN in a few minutes on the Get An Identity Protection PIN page of the IRS website. You'll need to create an online IRS account and verify your identity first if you haven't already. If you don't want to create an IRS account or request an IP PIN online, you can also file IRS Form 15227 which is the "Application for an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number," but only if your adjusted gross income on your last tax return was less than $73,000 for single filers, or less than $146,000 for married, filing jointly. After filing Form 15227, you will get a telephone call from the IRS to confirm your identity and then receive your IP PIN via the mail in about four to six weeks. You can also get an IP PIN from a local IRS Tax Assistance Center. You can find a location and book an appointment by calling 844-545-5640. You'll need to bring two forms of identification, one of which must be a government-issued photo ID. How do I use my IRS IP PIN? Once you've been issued an IP PIN by the IRS, you'll need to enter it on any of the Forms 1040 that you use to file taxes, including 1040-NR, 1040-PR, 1040-SR and 1040-SS. You'll enter the IP PIN at the end of the form on the line where you sign your tax return. Your IP PIN goes at the end of your Form 1040 next to your signature. If you're using tax software to file your tax return, each program will have a step in its filing process where it asks you for your IP PIN. If you and your spouse are filing jointly and both have IP PINs, you'll need to enter them both. If you file electronically and do not include your IP PIN, your tax return will be rejected. If you file with paper forms and forget to include your IP PIN, your return will be delayed for additional processing to verify your identity. Each IP PIN only lasts for one year, so you'll need to create a new PIN each tax season if you want continued protection against identity theft. The online tool for generating IP PINs is available from mid-January to mid-November. If you've received an IP PIN from the IRS via CP01A notice, you'll continue to receive a new PIN in the mail each year before tax season in December or January. The IRS says, "taxpayers who enrolled in the IP PIN program and have not been a victim of tax-related identity theft can opt out of the IP PIN program via their online account." I created my own IP PIN for the first time for my 2022 taxes. Sure enough, when I logged into my account to file my 2023 taxes in April 2024, there was another six-digit code waiting for me. What if I lost or never received my IRS IP PIN? Taxpayers who generated an IP PIN or received one from the IRS and later misplaced or forgot the code will need to retrieve it in order to file taxes electronically. If you created an IP PIN using the IRS' online self-service tool, you can simply return to the IP PIN generator to find your PIN again. Log into your IRS online account and visit the Get an Identity Protection PIN page again. The IRS warns, "You may be required to verify your identity again due to our increased account security." If you were sent a CP01A notice with an IP PIN and lost it or never received it, you'll need to call a special IRS phone number: 800-908-4490. After the agency verifies your identity, you'll receive your IP PIN in the mail within 21 days. The IRS does have one odd exception to retrieving an IP PIN from a CP01A notice. You cannot retrieve the IP PIN after Oct. 14 if you haven't filed a 1040 or 1040 PR/SS form for the current and previous year. In that rare case, the IRS advises you to file your taxes on paper. Filing on paper without a required IP PIN will cause a processing delay but will also trigger identity verification for your tax return which will likely resolve your situation.All legendary artifacts and how to find them in STALKER 2
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QNB Corp. ( OTCMKTS:QNBC – Get Free Report ) crossed above its 50 day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.44 and traded as high as $34.00. QNB shares last traded at $33.95, with a volume of 2,487 shares. QNB Price Performance The business has a fifty day moving average of $32.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. QNB ( OTCMKTS:QNBC – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $13.09 million for the quarter. QNB had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 9.86%. QNB Dividend Announcement About QNB ( Get Free Report ) QNB Corp. operates as the bank holding company for QNB Bank that engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking products, and retail brokerage services. It offers various deposit products, which include demand and savings accounts, such as money market, interest-bearing demand, club, traditional statement savings, and online savings accounts; and time deposits comprising certificates of deposit and individual retirement accounts. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for QNB Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for QNB and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Major Asian chip stocks outside of China rose Tuesday, shrugging off a new round of U.S. semiconductor export curbs aimed at impairing Beijing's capability to produce certain high-end chips. Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — the world's largest contract chip supplier — saw shares rise 2.4%. Several Japanese chip-related stocks also gained. Tokyo Electron rose 4.7%, Lasertec climbed 6.7%, Advantest gained 3.9% and Renesas Electron advanced 2.2%. Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank , which owns a stake in British chip designer Arm, saw its shares rise 3.6%. The Biden administration's latest chip curbs will also target sales of high-bandwidth memory chips, which could affect the world's two largest memory chip makers — South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung. Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, however, rose 0.9% and 1.8%, respectively. Derrick Irwin, portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia," on Tuesday that the high-bandwidth memory controls would impact South Korean players to a degree. "Although our belief is that the impact and sales of high bandwidth memory chips into China are reasonably small from these players in the scheme of things, and they'll probably be able to shift that demand into the U.S. and other markets," he said. The Department of Commerce announced on Monday that it was curbing semiconductor exports to 140 new companies in its latest effort to limit China's ability to access cutting edge chip technology that could be used for advancing its military capabilities. Naura Technology Group , Piotech and ACM Research were among the largest Chinese companies to be included in the export controls list. Shares of Naura Technology and ACM Research fell 3% and 1%, respectively, in China while Piotech rose 1%. China's largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, fell 1.5% in Hong Kong. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Monday that the new export controls were the "culmination of the Biden-Harris Administration's targeted approach to impair the PRC's ability to indigenize the production of advanced technologies that pose a risk to our national security." In addition to the entities added, the latest U.S. restrictions include new controls on 24 types of manufacturing equipment and three types of software tools used for developing semiconductors. Last month, the effectiveness of U.S. chip restrictions had been thrown into question when it was reported that a chip made by TSMC had been found in a Huawei product . The latest export restrictions include a new "red flag guidance" to address compliance concerns, and several "critical regulatory changes" to enhance the effectiveness of existing controls.Nick Fuentes facing battery charge after ‘your body, my choice' confrontation at his Illinois home
Notice of Convening HearingNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has held a policy-setting key meeting of the country's ruling party last week ahead of the new year, state media KCNA reported. or signup to continue reading The "strongest" response strategy towards the United States was declared during the party meeting for the country's safety and national interests, the report said, without providing any details. The trilateral alliance between South Korea, the US and Japan has expanded to a "nuclear military bloc" and South Korea has become an "anti-communism outpost" for the US, the KCNA report added. "The reality clearly suggests which direction we should go and what we should do and how," the report said. The meeting, which was held from December 23-27, according to the report, also reviewed the handling of floods earlier this year, including the plan that brought those affected to Pyongyang, the capital. The reclusive state also vowed to promote relations with "friendly" countries during the meeting. The assembly of the party and government officials often lasts a few days and has been used in recent years to make key policy announcements. The 11th plenary session of the eighth central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea wraps up a year in which Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with Kim and signed a deal that included a mutual defence pledge. Washington and Seoul have criticised the two countries' military co-operation, including what they say is a dispatch of North Korean troops to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Previously, state media had released Kim's speech on New Year's Day. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement Advertisement
( MENAFN - Jordan Times) LONDON - When US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau opened the Bretton Woods conference almost 80 years ago, he reminded delegates that failures of international cooperation had led to the Great Depression, social division, and ultimately war.“Prosperity, like peace, is indivisible,” he concluded,“we cannot afford to have it scattered here or there among the fortunate... Poverty, wherever it exists, is menacing to us all.” That message speaks across the ages. We are again facing global challenges that can be met only through international cooperation. Large swaths of the developing world are being excluded from global prosperity. Extreme poverty is rising. Hard-won gains in health, education and nutrition are under threat. Already obscene economic inequalities between and within countries are widening. The window of opportunity for averting a climate catastrophe is about to slam shut. And yet multilateral cooperation is paralysed by complacency, petty rivalries and inward-looking nationalism. Consider this year's International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings, which offered an opportunity to mobilise the finance needed to prevent wholesale reversals of progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Instead, Western governments and the G-20 arrived with no shared agenda, spent a week swapping platitudes, and left the world with a set of vague and incoherent declarations. We cannot afford leadership failures on this scale. The IMF and the World Bank, the twin pillars of the Bretton Woods system, should be at the heart of international cooperation in responding to the defining challenges facing our generation, starting with the two-tier recovery from the economic downturn triggered by COVID-19. Unlike advanced economies, which have recovered on the back of vast government financing and vaccination programmes, many developing economies have suffered deep scarring. Growth has slowed, tax revenues have fallen, and two-thirds of low-income countries are either in or at risk of debt distress. The IMF estimates that the poorest countries will need an additional $450 billion to return to their pre-pandemic development trajectories. Budget pressures are limiting governments' capacity to defend human development gains. The pandemic pushed almost 100 million people into extreme poverty. That figure is set to rise as safety nets are cut and Russia's war in Ukraine fuels food-price inflation, raising the specter of increased malnutrition, or even famine, in some parts of the world. More than 40 of the poorest countries are spending more servicing their debts than on public health. Education budgets are being cut even as millions of the world's most disadvantaged children return to classrooms carrying the learning losses inflicted during pandemic-related school closures. Against this grim backdrop, international cooperation to finance an“SDG recovery” has gained new urgency. The OECD estimates that the already-large pre-pandemic SDG financing gap has increased by $1.2 trillion. That's without the incremental investments of $2 trillion annually needed to support renewable-energy investments in developing countries to achieve the 2015 Paris climate agreement's goals. When governments committed to the SDG agenda seven years ago, they pledged a bold new approach to development finance that would convert“billions into trillions”. The architects of the Bretton Woods system created the vehicle to do so in the form of multilateral development banks (MDBs). Designed to support postwar European reconstruction, the MDB system, the World Bank and its regional counterparts, enshrines a simple but powerful financial model. With small amounts of paid-in capital underpinned by much larger government guarantees (“callable capital”), the MDBs can use their AAA credit ratings to issue bonds at low interest rates and lend to developing countries, effectively mobilising private finance for public investment. The World Bank, the largest MDB, has only $19 billion of paid-in capital, and $278 billion of callable capital. Multilateral finance has multiplier effects that bilateral aid cannot duplicate. Every $1 invested in the World Bank through paid-in capital mobilises $4 in new finance. Yet the MDB system is at best weakly exploited. Apart from its soft-loan facility, the International Development Association, the World Bank system played a muted role in supporting developing countries during the pandemic, and the MDBs' financing portfolio for climate interventions in low- and middle-income countries is just $38 billion, a fraction of what is needed. While the MDBs (notably the African Development Bank) are undercapitalised, the bigger problem is a deeply entrenched conservatism in financial governance. Major shareholders, the US and European governments, refuse to allow callable-capital guarantees to be integrated into lending operations. Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute estimate that changing this rule could mobilize an additional $1.3 trillion, with only a marginal change in credit ratings and borrowing costs. Speaking at the spring meetings, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen lamented the MDBs' failure to mobilise the trillions needed for pandemic recovery. And yet the Biden administration has failed to overhaul the rules on callable capital. Other attempts at innovation have run into a bureaucratic brick wall. Gordon Brown, the UN's Special Envoy for Global Education, has proposed a system of modest grants and guarantees that could double MDB financing for education, unlocking $10 billion. Yet even in the face of an unprecedented education crisis, donors have failed to act. This is a travesty of the Bretton Woods system. In the misplaced defense of AAA credit ratings, the MDBs are eschewing solutions that would support recovery, prevent devastating reversals in human development, and bring hope to millions of children. Sadly, it is not just the MDB agenda that is stuck. Nine months after G-20 governments pledged to allocate $100 billion of the IMF's new issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs, the Fund's reserve asset) to poor countries, not a single cent has been transferred. Meanwhile, with debt servicing set to surge by 45 per cent this year, most of it going to commercial creditors and China, vital investments are being crowded out, and the risk of disorderly sovereign defaults is growing. Yet we are no closer to a comprehensive debt-reduction framework than we were a year ago. As the crisis triggered by COVID-19 has deepened, some commentators have called for a new Bretton Woods system. They have a point. The World Bank and the IMF maintain anachronistic Western-dominated governance systems. But what is missing from the response to today's defining human-development challenges is not financial architecture, but rather the sense of urgency, shared purpose, and common endeavor that defined the original Bretton Woods conference. Kevin Watkins, a former CEO of Save the Children UK, is a visiting professor at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2022. 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Over 100 feature in Lahore Qualifying Chess LAHORE: The Lahore District Qualifying Chess Championship was held at Government College of Technology, Lahore, on Sunday with over 100 players from across the city participating. The tournament was organised to select players for the annual Punjab-level chess championship. Waqas Dogar, Muhammad Nadeem, Ramadan Malghani, Fawzan Allah, and Muhammad Hussain dominated the top boards. Players of all ages participated enthusiastically to claim the title of Lahore’s Chess Champion.