Jan 02, 2019

Updated Tax Materials -- an NGPF timeline

Our NGPF community is so helpful, we've been flooded with emails or online chats asking when we'll have updated tax materials to reflect tax changes this year, with many of you providing links to drafts of new forms, press releases, etc. THANK YOU! Here's what we have planned: 

  • In January, we'll do minor updates to our existing materials, such as updating the tax bracket charts, standard deductions, getting rid of the 1040EZ, etc. We'll make sure these are up-to-date in our full curriculum, Semester Course, and all of our projects, activities, etc. We'll announce as those updates are completed on social media (if you haven't already, join FinLit Fanatics!) and here on the blog (you can sign up to receive the blog straight to your inbox, daily). 
  • By mid-March, we're planning to release a revamp of our full lesson tax materials as a whole, as those lessons were first created in 2015 and could just use a general refresh.  

Many have asked, "You already know which tax updates are coming -- why haven't you proactively updated now?" One reason is we want to make sure we're providing verified, accurate information, and we don't want to include materials that say "draft" or "it's speculated that..." A second is that some of our activities rely on linking directly to the IRS website to get forms, and so we can't update some materials for 2018 information while the IRS still has the 2017 forms up, creating confusion about why the information we're providing doesn't match what the forms say. And the third reason is, we want to be able to say, "Hey, everything's been updated" in one big swoop, not have teachers and students confused about what information is from 2017, what's from 2018... 

We do January updates to our tax curriculum every January, not just when there's a major tax overhaul. We also do annual updates in Paying for College when there's a new Federal Student Loan interest rate and/or changes to the repayment plan options. Just another way we pride ourselves on being the most up-to-date personal finance curriculum available. Thanks for your patience as we update our taxes materials. 

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.

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