The $3,000 capital loss limit was set in 1978. Still frozen. Should be $15,430 today. Same with dependent care and Social Security brackets. Congress never adjusted.
Some numbers never move. Not because they shouldn’t. Because Congress never bothered. The U.S. tax code is riddled with thresholds that were set decades ago and never indexed to inflation. They sit frozen in time while the cost of everything else climbs. The result is a quiet tax hike that hits middle-income Americans hardest. Start …