Your Tax Bracket Just Changed for 2022

https://lifehacker.com/your-tax-bracket-just-changed-for-2022-1848035219


Photo: Africa Studio (Shutterstock)

Yesterday, the IRS released inflation-adjusted income tax brackets for 2022, which will be increasing by the largest year-to-year margin since Congress revamped the tax code in 2017. Here’s a look at how it breaks down.

Expect a 3% bump to existing tax bracket income limits

The tax rates will remain the same, but the thresholds have been bumped up by about 3%, so that a bracket’s minimum income is increased by at least a few hundred dollars. Here’s a look at the breakdown of the marginal rates for 2022:

  • 37% for incomes over $539,900 ($647,850 when filing jointly)
  • 35% for incomes over $215,950 ($431,900 when filing jointly)
  • 32% for incomes over $170,050 ($340,100 when filing jointly)
  • 24% for incomes over $89,075 ($178,150 when filing jointly)
  • 22% for incomes over $41,775 ($83,550 when filing jointly)
  • 12% for incomes over $10,275 ($20,550 when filing jointly)
  • 10% for incomes of $10,275 or less ($20,550 when filing jointly)

Remember that these are tax thresholds, not flat taxes on your total earnings. For a simple explanation on how marginal taxes work, check out this Lifehacker post.

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While the adjustment is relatively significant, these changes don’t reflect more recent inflation rate data that reveals a 6.2% year-over-year increase in consumer prices.

The standard deduction is also increasing in 2022

The standard deduction claimed by most taxpayers is increasing by $400, from $12,550 to $12,950. For married couples filing jointly, it goes up $800, from $25,100 to $25,900.

Another notable change is for the annual exclusion for gifts, which increases to $16,000 for calendar year 2022, up from $15,000 for calendar year 2021. Recently the IRS also announced inflationary increases to 401(k) maximum contributions, which you can read about here.

Top earners might be taxed more, too 

While the IRS oversees the inflation adjustments for federal tax brackets, it’s possible that Congress could still change these rates through legislation. It doesn’t look like that will happen at this point, however. Democrats are currently discussing a tax surcharge on millionaires to fund the Build Back Better Act, which is currently working its way through Congress.

 

via Lifehacker https://lifehacker.com

November 11, 2021 at 08:34AM

Ford Teams Up With Purdue To Develop A Liquid Cooled EV Charge Cable

https://www.legitreviews.com/ford-teams-up-with-purdue-to-develop-a-liquid-cooled-ev-charge-cable_229094


Automakers around the world are being pushed to develop better and better electric vehicles to appeal to consumers who largely aren’t yet ready to switch. One of the bottlenecks today is charge speed, but researchers at Ford and Purdue University may have a solution for that. Researchers are working on a new liquid-cooled charging cable that can carry a significantly higher current.

The charge cable would work in conjunction with the new charging technology that is currently in development. The challenge with charging at higher rates today is that as more electricity is pushed through the cable, the cable heats up, and more heat needs to be removed.

New liquid-cooled cable would use a cooling liquid inside that would change phases from liquid to vapor to keep cool. The team believes the new charging cable and charge technology could mean significantly faster charging, about as fast as you can fill up the gas tank.

That would be a massive improvement because some electric vehicles today need hours to charge completely. Being able to charge batteries fully in minutes would take some of the pressure off ever-increasing driving ranges for electric vehicles.

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November 11, 2021 at 08:01AM

These Surreal Indian Festival Photos Reveal a Huge Environmental Problem


A man rows a boat in Yamuna River.
Photo: Altaf Qadri (AP)

The Yamuna, which stretches 855 miles (1,376 kilometers) through northern India, is the longest tributary of the Ganges River. It’s also one of the most polluted rivers in the world, thanks in part to its path through New Delhi, the capital of India, which sits upstream of much of the river’s route. A government monitoring committee for the river estimates that the city is responsible for 76% of the pollution in the river, despite only 2% of the river’s length running through the city itself.

All this stress has taken a toll on the Yamuna. “The river in Delhi’s stretch is an ecologically dead river,” Bhim Singh Rawat, from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told CNN. “It doesn’t have fish or fresh water birds. That has been the case for years now.”

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Netflix enables its bandwidth-saving AV1 codec on PS4 Pro and select TVs

https://www.engadget.com/netflix-av1-streaming-ps4-pro-select-tv-093538314.html?src=rss

Early last year, Netflix started using a new codec called AV1 on a select set of titles on Android. Now, the streaming giant has enabled AV1 streaming on the PS4 Pro and a limited number of smart TV models. Netflix was a key contributor to the development of AV1, which is available for use royalty free under the Alliance of Open Media. It shared this list of supported TVs with The Verge:

  • Select Samsung 2020 UHD Smart TVs

  • Select Samsung 2020 UHD QLED Smart TVs

  • Select Samsung 2020 8K QLED Smart TVs

  • Samsung The Frame 2020 Smart TVs

  • Samsung The Serif 2020 Smart TVs

  • Samsung The Terrace 2020 Smart TVs

  • Any TV connected to a PS4 Pro streaming with the Netflix app

  • Select Amazon Fire TV devices with Fire OS 7 and above

  • Select Android TV devices with Android OS 10 and above

The company explained that deployment on TVs took sometime because playback on TV platforms depend on hardware. It was only over the past year that the industry released models capable of AV1 streaming. Netflix conducted comparison testing before rollout and found that AV1 delivers videos with better quality than other codecs, especially when there’s network congestion. It also noticed fewer noticeable drops in quality due to changing network conditions and lesser time to start streams. In addition, since AV1 has higher compression efficiency than the codecs Netflix is currently using, it needs lesser bandwidth. That could lead to longer streaming sessions in 4K resolution. 

A team within the company created a rollout strategy to minimize associated costs with encoding its whole catalogue. Netflix will consider a title’s popularity into consideration and start with well-known shows like La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) to make sure the AV1 streaming reaches the most number of viewers. The streaming giant also said that it’s working with more manufacturers to develop more devices with AV1 playback capability.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

November 11, 2021 at 03:42AM

Xbox PC app will soon let you use mods and custom install folders

Much like Steam and the Epic Games Store, the Xbox PC app will soon let folks install games in any folder of their choosing. Xbox insiders (i.e. people who’ve signed up to test new features) will be able to pick a default drive and folder for game installs. 

The Microsoft Store hosts both games users can buy individually and Xbox Game Pass titles. Until now, all apps and games have shared a single install location. It’s not uncommon for PC gamers to have more than one storage drive. They might use one as a boot drive and for day-to-day apps, and a solid state drive for games. So, after this update rolls out more broadly, installing games on a secondary drive should be a cinch.

Insiders "will also find that downloads of those games have improved over time, so it’s even easier and faster to get to your next game," Jason Beaumont, Xbox’s partner director of experiences, said in a video discussing the updates. What’s more, players of many Xbox Game Pass titles will soon have access to local files, so they’ll be able to install mods and move files. The Xbox app will show whether a game is moddable.

A Steam update released in September made it straightforward for players to move an installed game and all of its files to another drive. The process is a little more convoluted for games installed from Epic’s store, but it’s still possible. These are welcome moves, as they give players more choice over how to manage their games, and it’s good to see Microsoft offering folks more flexibility too.

Elsewhere, the Xbox PC app now has a cloud gaming tab, giving Game Pass Ultimate subscribers a quick way to find cloud-enabled console games. Beaumont added that Microsoft is continuing to improve the app’s performance, including "making it more reliable to download and play your games." The team’s also trying to make it easier for developers to add features like cross-saves and achievements. 

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Spotify acquires audiobook platform Findaway

https://www.engadget.com/spotify-acquires-audiobook-platform-findaway-210004142.html?src=rss

Spotify could soon be home to a lot more audiobooks. The streaming service has acquired audiobook platform Findaway, the companies announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition suggests Spotify is looking to build out its own library of audiobook titles.

Findaway is an Ohio-based company that boasts a catalog of more than 325,000 titles, according to its website. The company has partnerships with Apple, Amazon and other retail heavyweights, and also makes tools for audiobook creators. While it’s not yet clear how Spotify might integrate Findaway’s catalog into its own service, the company said in a statement that the deal would help it “quickly scale its audiobook catalog” and create new opportunities for authors and publishers.

The acquisition isn’t Spotify’s first foray into audiobooks. The company has previously experimented with a handful of celebrity-narrated public domain classics, and a Harry Potter audiobook at the start of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020. But the acquisition signals the streaming platform now has much greater ambitions in the space. The move also echoes Spotify’s approach to podcasts, as the company used a number ofacquisitions to build out its catalog and creation tools. So while it’s so far unclear what exactly Findaway means for Spotify subscribers and would-be audiobook listeners, it seems there are a lot more audiobooks in the company’s future.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

November 11, 2021 at 03:06PM

Spotify acquires audiobook platform Findaway

Spotify could soon be home to a lot more audiobooks. The streaming service has acquired audiobook platform Findaway, the companies announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition suggests Spotify is looking to build out its own library of audiobook titles.

Findaway is an Ohio-based company that boasts a catalog of more than 325,000 titles, according to its website. The company has partnerships with Apple, Amazon and other retail heavyweights, and also makes tools for audiobook creators. While it’s not yet clear how Spotify might integrate Findaway’s catalog into its own service, the company said in a statement that the deal would help it “quickly scale its audiobook catalog” and create new opportunities for authors and publishers.

The acquisition isn’t Spotify’s first foray into audiobooks. The company has previously experimented with a handful of celebrity-narrated public domain classics, and a Harry Potter audiobook at the start of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020. But the acquisition signals the streaming platform now has much greater ambitions in the space. The move also echoes Spotify’s approach to podcasts, as the company used a number ofacquisitions to build out its catalog and creation tools. So while it’s so far unclear what exactly Findaway means for Spotify subscribers and would-be audiobook listeners, it seems there are a lot more audiobooks in the company’s future.

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