After a ridiculously chaotic 2025, the IRS is starting 2026 with some good-ish news. And keep in mind: “Good-ish” is all relative.

Lawmakers in the House could vote on a bill this week that would allocate $11.2 billion to the IRS for fiscal 2026.

That’s lower than the IRS’s $12.3 billion budget last year, but that’s the whole “good-ish is relative” part: Even though this marks the fourth year in a row of flat or decreased funding at the agency, earlier proposals suggested trimming even more of the IRS’s budget.

The proposed measure, if approved, would also strengthen funding for taxpayer services, allocating $3 billion, up $256 million from fiscal 2025, while cutting IRS enforcement funding by $439 million. See? Good-ish.

Keep reading.—NP

Hmm. So that’s not exactly what we and many CFOs wanted to see from big banks’ financial reports…

In the last few days, disappointing earnings results from Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase sent shares tumbling for all the banking giants.

This week’s batch of earnings could complicate the narrative for big banks, casting doubts on the idea that higher-income consumers can singlehandedly keep US economic activity humming along.

It’s not like the K-shaped economy is going away anytime soon, though. “Banks that do business largely with rich individuals and corporations, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, fared comparatively better” than the aforementioned banks, the New York Times noted.

Keep reading.—NP

If last year’s news cycle felt like a nonstop barrage of corporate layoff announcements, that’s because it was.

Employers announced over 1,200,000 job cuts in 2025, up 58% from 2024, when 761,000 layoffs were disclosed, according to an analysis from outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s also the highest level seen since 2020, when some 2,300,000 cuts were announced.

March marked the highest month for layoff announcements last year, at around 250,000, followed by February with more than 172,000 cuts, HR Brew previously reported. December saw the fewest announcements, with just 35,553 cuts announced, while employers announced plans to hire more than 10,000 roles, an increase from past Decembers and a positive sign, according to the firm.

“The year closed with the fewest announced layoff plans all year. While December is typically slow, this coupled with higher hiring plans, is a positive sign after a year of high job cutting plans,” Andy Challenger, the firm’s workplace expert and chief revenue officer, said in the press release.

Keep reading on HR Brew.—PM

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.