Personal Money · Sunday, 20 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

American shoppers paid most of the tariffs. The $166bn refund is going to importers instead.

Personal Money 35 sources

The US Supreme Court cancelled the emergency tariffs in February. Only the companies named on the customs paperwork can claim the money back, and most of them cannot say what any one shopper paid.

$166bn

owed back by US Customs and Border Protection on tariffs a court ruled unlawful

$81bn of it had been paid out by 14 July [5]

90%

of the tariffs' cost carried by US consumers and importers, not foreign sellers

the New York Federal Reserve's February study; Trump administration officials disputed it [2]

3,000+

companies that went to court to get their tariff money back

some filed before the ruling, including Toyota, FedEx, Costco and Revlon [1]

refund claims a US shopper is allowed to file

the claim belongs to the importer of record, and nobody below it in the chain [1][12]

The lead story — what happened

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on 20 February 2026 that emergency powers do not let a president impose broad tariffs. [6][7]
US Customs and Border Protection has put the refund bill at about $166bn. [1][9]
By 14 July the US government had paid back $81bn of it. [5]
Only companies that paid customs directly may claim. People who paid the tax through higher shop prices have no route to it. [1]
A study by the New York Federal Reserve in February put about 90% of the tariffs' cost on US consumers and importers rather than on foreign sellers. [2]
Estimates put the cost at $1,000 to $1,500 a year for a typical US household, on goods from clothing to appliances. [2]
More than 3,000 companies sued to secure their refunds, among them Skechers, Revlon, Toyota, Nintendo of America, FedEx and Costco. [1]
FedEx, UPS and DHL billed the tax as a separate line on each invoice, so each can work out what a customer was charged, and all three say they are returning it. [3]
Retailers mostly folded the tax into prices instead, and say they cannot work out how much of any one receipt was tariff. [3]
Walmart said it had received most of the $2.9bn it was owed and would put it into lower prices. Home Depot took about $730m and told investors it would go on higher fuel costs. [3]
Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, said in February he had a feeling the American people would not see the money. [8]
A claim takes 60 to 90 days from filing to the cash arriving. [1]

$1,000-$1,500Added to a typical US household's yearly costs by the tariffs

$0That a household can claim back from US Customs

Estimates put the tariffs' cost to a typical US household at $1,000 to $1,500 a year. A household cannot file a claim at all; only the importer named on the customs entry can.

Who is involved

US Customs and Border Protection

the US agency that collects taxes on goods crossing the border; it is paying the refunds and had to build the payment system from scratch
Learning Resources

a US maker of educational toys; its lawsuit is the case the US Supreme Court decided
Sandra Alonso

a wheelchair user in Tampa, Florida; she paid $3,500 extra on a powered chair made in China
Walmart and Home Depot

two of the biggest US retail chains; both took refunds and made opposite choices about the money
Scott Bessent

the US Treasury Secretary; he said shoppers were unlikely to see any of it

How it unfolded

Feb 2025 the US starts taxing goods from China, Mexico and Canada under emergency powers [7]
20 Feb 2026 the US Supreme Court rules 6-3 that the law does not allow it [6]
Mar 2026 a trade court judge orders customs to work out what it owes [10]
Apr 2026 the refund portal opens; customs puts the bill at $166bn [9]
Jul 2026 $81bn has gone back to importers [5]
Aug 2026 Walmart puts refunds into price cuts; Home Depot puts its into fuel bills [3]

Where this points

Watch the class actions against Costco and Nintendo: they are the only route a shopper has, and Nintendo has already asked a judge to throw its case out.

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Money going back to the name on the form High↑

US Customs is paying tariff refunds to importers, not to the shoppers whose prices went up. [1] The US Supreme Court ruled in June that a foreclosed owner in Michigan is owed what his house fetched at auction, $76,008, and not its assessed value of about $194,400. [6]

Prices set where nobody is comparing Building↑

Pet owners in Britain pay 16.6% more at large vet groups than at independent practices. [16] Private dental consultations across the UK rose 23% in two years, to about GBP 80. [18]

Rules about what a price must show Steady→

Britain's competition regulator softened the rule on naming who owns a vet practice, and a group of vets has threatened to take it to court. [16] Britain's telecoms regulator has banned mid-contract price rises written as inflation plus a fixed percentage. [33]

Cash counters leaving town centres Building↑

Alnwick and Prudhoe in north-east England opened shared bank counters, giving Northumberland three. [28] York and North Yorkshire has set up a fund for seven towns, among them Whitby and Settle, where the bank has gone. [26]

The rest of the day

25 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Shoppers sue Costco and Nintendo for a share

Matthew Stockov, a Costco member in Illinois, sued the US warehouse chain in a federal court, asking it to hand back the price rises it made to cover the tariffs, plus interest. The suit seeks class-action status for Costco shoppers across the US, and says buyers cannot claim from the US government because they are not the importer of record. [12] Nintendo of America faces a similar suit and has asked a judge to dismiss it, saying its customers chose to buy at the price on the label and got the goods they ordered. [3]

Why it matters — These suits are the only route a US shopper has to the money. US Customs will not accept a claim from anyone but the importer. [1][12]
03
Walmart cuts prices, Home Depot pays fuel bills

Walmart, the biggest US retailer, told investors it had received most of the $2.9bn in tariff refunds it was eligible for, and that the money would go into lower prices rather than cheques to shoppers. Home Depot, a US home-improvement chain, received about $730m in refunds in a single quarter. Its finance chief, Richard McPhail, told a call that the cash would cover higher petrol and diesel costs, which he expected to fully offset the refunds over the year. [3]

Walmart refunds$2,900m
Home Depot refunds, one quarter$730m
What two US chains have taken back so far. Walmart says its share goes into lower prices; Home Depot says its share goes on fuel costs.

Why it matters — Two chains raised prices for the same tax and made opposite choices about the money coming back. No shopper was asked about either. [3]
04
Some firms sell their refund rights cheap

Rather than wait or litigate, some importers have sold their tariff refund rights to investment firms, often at a deep discount, reasoning that something now beats a chance of nothing later. [10] The total owed runs to about $166bn, a claim takes 60 to 90 days to pay out once filed, and companies whose goods are tied up in anti-dumping or other customs disputes cannot file at all in the first phase. [1] Peter Crabb and Alison Graham-Larson, professors of finance and law who have followed the cases, describe the remedy as a mess. [10]

Why it matters — A claim on a government can be bought and sold. The higher price a shopper paid in a shop cannot, because it was never written down as a claim. [10]
05
FedEx sued for its money and will pass it on

FedEx, one of the world's biggest delivery companies, filed a claim in the US Court of International Trade three days after the ruling. It asked for a full refund plus interest on everything it had paid under the emergency law, and did not say how much that was. [13][14] FedEx, UPS and DHL each billed the tax as a separate line on the invoice, so each can say what a customer was charged, and all three are returning it. [3][4] Terence Lau, dean of the law school at Syracuse University, calls keeping it unjust enrichment. [3]

Why it matters — FedEx can name the customer and the amount, because the tax sat on its own line. A shop that raised its shelf prices instead kept no such record, so nobody there can be repaid. [3]
06
The refund portal opened, and jammed

US Customs and Border Protection opened an online portal in April for importers to file, having built the system from scratch, including a way to pay money into company accounts. [9][1] Aaron Powell, who runs the electric bike maker Bunch Bikes, filed for about $120,000 minutes after it opened. Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources, the toy maker whose lawsuit brought the tariffs down, got an error saying the system was busy. [8] Customs told a judge most eligible importers had signed up for electronic payment and were owed about $127bn. [9]

Why it matters — The company that won the case could not file on the morning the money opened. [8]
07
Small shops paid the tariff and cannot claim

Alfred Mai, whose San Francisco firm ASM Games makes family card games in China, estimates he paid more than $150,000 in tariffs the court struck down, and spent days asking trade groups and lawyers where to go for a refund. US Customs kept collecting the same tariffs for several days after the ruling before saying it would stop. [11] Joe Kimray, who owns B & W Hardware in North Carolina, paid the tax indirectly through higher wholesale prices and has no claim on anyone. He says he will ask his manufacturers to share. [9]

Why it matters — The claim belongs to whoever cleared the goods through customs, so a shop one link down the chain is in the same position as a shopper. [9]
08
New US tariffs arrive under a different law

Within days of losing the case the US government imposed a 10% tariff on almost all imports under Section 122, a trade law that had never been used, and Donald Trump then said it would rise to 15%. Section 122 allows up to 15% for 150 days, after which the US Congress has to act. Industry tariffs on steel, aluminium, lumber and cars sit under a separate law and were untouched by the ruling. [7] A further round of duties of 10% to 12.5% was being prepared in July. [5]

Why it matters — The refund is a single payment. The prices it came from can be put back by another route, and the beginning of that has already happened. [7]
09
A New York study put the bill on US shoppers

Researchers at the New York Federal Reserve found in February that about 90% of the cost of the 2025 tariffs was carried by US consumers and importers rather than by foreign sellers. Earlier academic work had found the same for electronics, household goods, car parts and clothing. Officials in the Trump administration attacked the study, and one called for its authors to be disciplined. A Penn Wharton model put total tariff revenue collected since 2025 at more than $175bn. [2]

Why it matters — It is the closest thing to a count of who actually paid, and it is disputed by the US government that collected the money. [2]
10
US court: the auction sets what a foreclosed owner is owed

Michael Pung fell about $2,200 behind on the property tax on his home in Isabella County, Michigan. The county foreclosed and sold the house at public auction for $76,008, against an assessed value of roughly $194,400, and kept the difference above the debt. On 23 June 2026 the US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the surplus owed to a foreclosed owner is measured by what the auction actually raised, not by an estimate of the property's worth. [6]

Unpaid property tax$2,200
Auction price$76,008
Assessed value$194,400
The house that settled the case. The owner's surplus is now measured against the middle bar, not the right-hand one.

Why it matters — It sets how much of their own equity an owner loses when a small unpaid tax bill takes the house, and the answer is whatever the sale room paid that day. [6]
11
US tax office can reopen a fraudulent return decades on

Stephanie Murrin received a notice from the US tax office nearly 20 years after filing her returns, after it found her tax preparer had inserted false items that cut her bill. A federal appeals court held that the usual time limit does not apply when a return contains fraud, even where the taxpayer acted in good faith and knew nothing about it. The US Supreme Court declined to review that decision, so it stands. [6]

Why it matters — The name on the return carries the liability, whoever committed the fraud and whoever kept the money. [6]
12
Britain softens who a vet must name

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority investigated the country's GBP 6.3bn vet market and found pet owners pay 16.6% more at large groups than at independent practices. Six groups own all or part of more than 60% of UK practices, five of them held by private investment firms. Draft rules would have required a practice to name the corporate group that owns it; the wording was changed to network or group, which lets it keep trading under its original name. The Progressive Veterinary Association has threatened a court challenge. [16]

Why it matters — Whether an owner can find out who sets the prices at their local surgery now turns on one word in a regulator's order. [16]
13
UK vet prices rose 63% in seven years

Average vet prices across the UK rose 63% between 2016 and 2023, well ahead of general inflation, on the competition regulator's figures. Corporate ownership went from 10% of practices in 2013 to 60% now. Louise Burns of Thundersley in Essex was billed GBP 7,783.77 after her Boston terrier needed an emergency operation to breathe, and her insurance covered the first GBP 3,000. UK pet owners spent GBP 6.3bn on vet and pet care in 2024, about GBP 365 for each pet-owning household. [17]

Why it matters — An emergency is the one moment a buyer cannot go and get a second price, and it is when the largest vet bills are agreed. [17]
14
Private dental prices climb as NHS access shrinks

About a third of people having dental treatment in the UK now pay privately, and fewer than a fifth of those chose to, on General Dental Council figures. A UK-wide analysis by MyTribe Insurance found first consultations up 23% in two years to about GBP 80 and simple extractions up 32% to GBP 139. Root canal charges reach GBP 660 in some places against a GBP 400 average. Britain's competition regulator has opened an investigation into dental pricing. [18]

Why it matters — Treatment that is capped or free for some patients becomes an open-market price the moment no NHS dentist will take them. [18]
15
UK annuity sales hit a record

Sales of annuities in the UK reached a record, with the average pot used to buy one passing GBP 80,000, on figures from the Association of British Insurers. An annuity turns a pension pot into a guaranteed income for life. Rates have risen sharply: Fidelity International said a healthy 66-year-old with a GBP 300,000 pot could buy GBP 22,440 a year, about 7.5%, against roughly GBP 13,500 five years ago. [19] In the US, a 67-year-old man paying $100,000 in January 2026 would get about $7,800 a year for life. [20]

Income from a GBP 300,000 pot, five years ago13,500 GBP/year
Income from the same pot now22,440 GBP/year
What a healthy 66-year-old in Britain could buy with the same pension pot, then and now, on Fidelity International's figures.

Why it matters — A product left for dead by the 2015 UK pension rules is selling again because the income it buys has roughly doubled. [19]
16
The US starts taxing cash sent abroad

From 1 January 2026 a 1% US excise tax applies to certain money transfers abroad where the sender pays with cash, a money order or a cashier's cheque. Transfer companies have to collect it, make deposits twice a month and file quarterly returns with the US tax office, with the first deposit due on 29 January 2026. Treasury and the tax office have granted penalty relief for the first three quarters of 2026 to providers who get the deposit amounts wrong. [21]

Why it matters — The tax applies only when the sender pays in cash, a money order or a cashier's cheque, and not when the money leaves a bank account. [21]
17
Tens of millions in the US may be owed penalties back

A US federal claims court held in Kwong v United States in November 2025 that tax filing and payment deadlines were postponed for the whole 3.5-year COVID-19 disaster period plus 60 days, to 10 July 2023. On that reading the US tax office should not have charged late-filing or late-payment penalties, nor interest on them, in that window. [22] The National Taxpayer Advocate said tens of millions may be owed money, that it is not automatic, and that most had to claim by 10 July 2026. [22][23][24]

Why it matters — Relief that exists but has to be claimed by a date reaches the people who have an accountant first. [22]
18
US federal payments go fully electronic

Under Executive Order 14247, signed in March 2025, the US Treasury and the tax office are moving federal payments in both directions onto electronic transfer. Paper cheques and money orders are being withdrawn, on the grounds that they are far more often lost, stolen, altered or delayed than electronic payments. The tax office published an updated set of questions and answers on the switch in January 2026. [25]

Why it matters — A payment made this way needs a bank account, and the US agencies are withdrawing the paper alternative. [25]
19
Yorkshire towns get a fund where the bank has gone

The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has set up a fund for places left with no branch, naming Bentham, Filey, Leyburn, Haxby, Settle, Tadcaster and Whitby as the first targets. It will pay for cash withdrawals and deposits, business banking and day-to-day account help. Fiona Whittet, a councillor in Bentham, said reaching a branch in Skipton is hard without a car. [26] In south Devon, the closure of the last bank in Totnes left a 13-mile round trip. [27]

Why it matters — Money that can only be reached by bus carries a travel cost that appears on no fee table. [26]
20
Two more English towns get a shared counter

Shared banking counters opened in Alnwick and Prudhoe in Northumberland, giving the county three; Cash Access UK is still looking for a permanent home for the Prudhoe one. [28] Stamford in Lincolnshire opened one in its arts centre in early September, weekdays from 09:00 to 17:00, a month before the town's Lloyds branch closes on 13 October. [29] The hubs are paid for by the big high-street banks, set up by Cash Access UK and run by Post Office managers, and a customer of any bank can use one. [30]

Why it matters — A hub is only proposed once the last branch in a town has already gone, so every town gets the gap first. [30]
21
UK savers moved GBP 12bn into ISAs in April

Households in Britain put a net GBP 5.8bn into banks and building societies in April, after GBP 5.6bn in March, on Bank of England figures. Inside that total, GBP 12.0bn went into ISAs, savings accounts with an annual limit whose returns are not taxed, and GBP 1.3bn into accounts paying no interest. At the same time GBP 13.1bn came out of easy-access accounts that do pay interest, and GBP 0.3bn out of fixed-term accounts. [34]

Why it matters — Money moved between account types rather than into or out of saving overall: the net inflow was GBP 5.8bn while GBP 12.0bn went into ISAs. [34]
22
Meta ordered to pay $375m in New Mexico

A jury in the US state of New Mexico found Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, liable under the state's Unfair Practices Act in a case brought by the attorney general, Raul Torrez, over child exploitation on its platforms. The jury applied the maximum in the law, $5,000 for each violation, which came to $375m in civil penalties. Internal documents showed staff and outside child-safety experts had warned repeatedly about the risks. Meta says it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. [31]

Why it matters — The size of the award came out of a per-violation formula written into state law, not from a judgment about the harm done. [31]
23
Memory chip prices double, and devices follow

The price of computer memory, the RAM that holds whatever a device is working on, has more than doubled since October 2025, because data centres running AI are buying it in bulk. Steve Mason of the UK computer builder CyberPowerPC said the firm was being quoted costs around 500% higher than a couple of months earlier. Danny Williams of PCSpecialist said increases ran from about 1.5 times to five times, depending on how much stock a supplier held. Memory sits in phones, laptops, televisions and medical devices. [32]

Why it matters — A shortage created by AI data centres reaches a household as the price of a replacement phone. [32]
24
Britain bans inflation-linked contract rises

Britain's telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has banned mid-contract price rises written as inflation plus a fixed percentage. Researchers writing in The Conversation argue the same approach could be applied to energy, insurance and public contracts, where escalation clauses raise prices automatically each year. They also say regulators could make suppliers show the base price separately from the part added for inflation. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority has separately opened a drive on how companies present and justify prices online. [33]

Why it matters — A clause that raises a price by itself removes the moment at which a customer would otherwise have decided. [33]
25
Brazil starts a single VAT with cashback for the poorest

Brazil began rolling out a reform in 2026 that merges five taxes on goods and services into one value added tax plus a separate excise, finishing in 2033. The headline rate is 28%, with a zero rate on most basic foods. A cashback system partly repays VAT to the poorest households, and at federal level repays water, sewage, cooking and natural gas, energy and telecoms in full. The excise covers alcohol, sweet drinks, cigarettes, combustion engines and lottery tickets. [35]

Why it matters — The cashback part sends money back to the household that bore the tax, rather than to the firm that handed it over. [35]
26
A wheelchair buyer waits for her $3,500

Sandra Alonso bought a powered, folding wheelchair to get around Tampa, Florida, after her old one wore out. It is made in China, and when she bought it the US tariff on Chinese goods stood at 145%, so she paid an extra $3,500. She imported it through UPS, which emailed to say her refund was in the works and that it takes up to 90 days to pass money on once US Customs pays. At the end of August she had still received nothing. [4][3]

Why it matters — She is one of the few shoppers with a route to the money at all, and only because a shipping firm, not a shop, cleared the chair through customs. [4]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a shopper cannot claim back an import tax they paid

An import tax is billed to the company bringing the goods in. Customs holds that company's name and no one else's, so only it can claim the money back.

The twist

US Customs can name every importer that paid it and can name no shopper at all. The shopper's money arrived inside a shelf price, where nobody wrote it down.

The picture

Carried by US consumers and importers90%
Carried by foreign sellers10%

The New York Federal Reserve's estimate of who bore the 2025 tariffs. The refund is paid only to importers, who are one part of the larger share.

How it works

A government charges a tax on goods at the border
The importer pays it and raises its prices to cover it
Shoppers pay the higher prices, with no tax shown on the receipt
A court cancels the tax
The refund goes to the name on the customs entry
The shopper gets money back only if a company chooses to give it

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Shoppers sue Costco and Nintendo for a share

the same step, one stage later: because the shopper's money is inside the price and not on a customs form, a court is the only place left to ask
Some firms sell their refund rights cheap

a claim written down on a customs entry is a thing that can be sold to an investment firm; the shopper's share was never written down, so there is nothing to sell
US court: the auction sets what a foreclosed owner is owed

what comes back to the owner is set by a number in the official record, the $76,008 the auction raised, rather than by what he actually lost
Small shops paid the tariff and cannot claim

the hardware store one link below the importer is in the shopper's position exactly, because its payment also went through a price and not through customs

Where you've seen this

Insurance claims

the policy pays the person named on it, not the relative who has been paying the premiums

Concert ticket refunds

a cancelled show refunds the card that bought the tickets, not the four friends who paid their share in cash

A rented flat's energy account

a credit on the meter goes to whoever the account is in the name of, which is often the landlord

Payroll tax rebates

a firm that held wages down to cover a payroll tax gets the rebate, and the wages do not go back up by themselves

The catch

Some companies do pass it on. FedEx, UPS and DHL itemised the tax on every invoice, so they can work out what each customer paid, and all three say the money is going back.

And the whole of it

Nobody in this chain designed it to end here. The court struck down a tax it found unlawful, the customs agency paid whoever its records named, and a retailer genuinely cannot say how much of one shopper's receipt was tariff. Each of them can see their own step clearly. Not one of them can see the whole route the money took, from the border to the till.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

The US Supreme Court cancelled Trump's emergency tariffs in February, and US Customs and Border Protection now owes about $166bn. The money is going to the importers named on the customs paperwork, including Walmart and Home Depot, while the households that paid the tax through higher shop prices cannot file a claim at all. [1][3]

Why it works on us — The word refund makes it sound like money returning to where it came from. Here it returns to whoever wrote the cheque to the US government, and that is a different set of people. [1]

Who gains

FedEx, UPS and DHL — They billed the tariff as a separate line, so they can both reclaim it and prove what each customer paid, which turns a messy refund into an accounting exercise. [3]
Home Depot — It took about $730m back in one quarter and told investors the cash would cover higher fuel costs rather than go to customers. [3]
Investment firms buying tariff claims — Importers who did not want to wait or litigate sold their refund rights at a deep discount, and the buyer collects the full amount. [10]
Isabella County, Michigan — It keeps the gap between a $76,008 auction and a $194,400 assessed value on a debt of about $2,200, and the US Supreme Court confirmed 9-0 that it may. [6]
The six groups that own most UK vet practices — The softened disclosure wording lets a practice trade under its original name instead of naming the corporate owner. [16]
UK insurers selling annuities — Sales hit a record as rates roughly doubled, with a GBP 300,000 pot now buying GBP 22,440 a year against about GBP 13,500 five years ago. [19]

Who pays

US households — Estimates put the tariffs' cost at $1,000 to $1,500 a year each, and there is no claim form for them at any stage. [2][1]
Small US retailers — Joe Kimray of B & W Hardware in North Carolina paid the tariff through higher wholesale prices, so he is not the importer of record and has no claim on anyone. [9]
Michael Pung — He lost roughly $118,000 of equity in his Michigan home over about $2,200 of unpaid property tax, because the county now owes him only what the auction raised. [6]
People sending cash abroad from the US — A 1% excise tax applies from 1 January 2026 to transfers paid for with cash, a money order or a cashier's cheque. [21]
UK patients without an NHS dentist — Private first consultations rose 23% in two years to about GBP 80 and simple extractions 32% to GBP 139. [18]
UK pet owners at large vet groups — They pay 16.6% more than at independent practices, in a market where six groups hold more than 60% of practices. [16]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

How much of the $166bn ever reaches a shopper.

Nobody publishes it. Only the shipping firms itemised the tax on invoices; retailers folded it into prices and say they cannot work out what any one customer paid. [3]
02

How much the whole bill actually is.

The Associated Press put the unanswered sum at $133bn on the day of the ruling, US Customs later estimated $166bn, and a Penn Wharton model says more than $175bn of tariff revenue was collected. Neither the agency nor the courts have published a reconciliation. [15][1][2]
03

Whether the class actions against Costco and Nintendo succeed.

Nintendo has asked a judge to dismiss, saying its customers chose to buy at the price on the label and got the goods they ordered. No court has ruled on whether a shopper can recover a price rise. [3][12]
04

How much tariff each shopper actually bore.

The New York Federal Reserve put about 90% of the cost on US consumers and importers, and Trump administration officials disputed the study publicly. There is no per-household measurement, only estimates in a $1,000 to $1,500 range. [2]
05

Whether the new tariffs take back more than the refunds return.

The 10% to 15% duties under Section 122 last 150 days before the US Congress must act, and a further round of 10% to 12.5% was being prepared in July. Nobody has published the two figures side by side. [7][5]
06

Whether the COVID-era penalty refunds survive.

The claim deadline for most US taxpayers was 10 July 2026, the Justice Department is expected to appeal the Kwong decision, and the National Taxpayer Advocate says it may take years to settle. [22]
07

Whether Britain's competition regulator will be taken to court over the vet ownership wording.

The Progressive Veterinary Association has threatened a judicial review after the wording moved from corporate vet group to network or group. No claim has been filed. [16]
08

What Britain's investigation into dental pricing will find.

The Competition and Markets Authority is looking at price rises and at how practices explain costs and options to patients. It has not reported. [18]
09

How many towns lose their last bank before a shared counter replaces it.

A hub can only be proposed after the final branch closes, and LINK assesses each case against criteria that Totnes in Devon did not meet. No running count is published. [30][27]

04 Hope carry this

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in February that a president cannot impose broad tariffs under emergency powers. By 14 July the US government had paid back $81bn of the money it had collected.

Also true today

A healthy 66-year-old in Britain with a GBP 300,000 pension pot can now buy a guaranteed income of GBP 22,440 a year for life. Five years ago the same pot bought about GBP 13,500.
Alnwick and Prudhoe in north-east England opened shared bank counters this year, giving Northumberland three. Stamford in Lincolnshire opened one in its arts centre in early September, a month before the town's Lloyds branch closes on 13 October.