High-income taxpayers are subject to a 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) from capital gains, dividends, interest, certain royalties, rents, and passive income if their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married joint filers. The number of taxpayers paying the NIIT has more than doubled since it took effect, mostly because these income thresholds were not indexed to inflation, and the revenue collected has more than tripled.

Source: Congressional Research Service, 2023 (uses IRS data)

March is Women’s History Month. What better time to reflect on the contribution women have made to the field of finance? What follows are the stories of just five of the many women who helped blaze the trail for others in investing, banking, finance, and economics.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull and Tennessee “Tennie” Claflin

Victorian-era sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennie Claflin were pioneers on many fronts. Not only did they launch the first brokerage house by and for women, they started a progressive newspaper supporting women’s rights and were also suffragists. In 1872, Woodhull was the first woman to run for president.

The sisters’ rise to fame had quite unconventional beginnings. Their father was a “snake oil salesman” who made his young girls serve as psychics and healers in his scams. Woodhull later parlayed this unusual experience into a business relationship with the superstitious tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. With the backing of his fortune, the sisters opened Woodhull, Claflin & Co., New York’s first female-owned brokerage firm. Through surreptitious means (a hidden back door and a women-only lounge), the company helped women manage their own money during a time when it was frowned upon to do so.¹

Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker was born to enslaved parents in 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. At just 14 years old, she joined the local council of the Independent Order of St. Luke, an African-American benevolent society that aided the sick and elderly, promoted humanitarian causes, and encouraged individual self-sufficiency. Walker eventually assumed leadership of the organization, where she served until her death. Among her achievements were launching The St. Luke Herald newspaper, which encouraged economic independence and, in 1903, becoming the first African-American woman to charter a bank — the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank.

Upon opening, the bank helped hundreds begin saving money, including one person who opened an account with just 31 cents. Walker also encouraged children to save by handing out penny banks and allowing them to open accounts after saving 100 pennies. 

The bank later merged with two others to become The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, the nation’s oldest bank continually operated by African-American management until 2009.²

Muriel Siebert

The first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the first to be a superintendent of banking for the state of New York, Muriel Siebert was also the first woman to lead a NYSE member firm.

Considered “a scrapper” with “the same brash attitude that characterized Wall Street’s most successful men,” Siebert made it her life’s mission to fight for women to occupy the most vaunted seats at Wall Street’s proverbial tables. She donated millions to help women secure careers in business and finance.

At a 1992 luncheon where she was honored for her life’s work, Siebert said women “…are still not making partner and are not getting into the positions that lead to the executive suites. There’s still an old-boy network. You have to keep fighting.”³

Dr. Janet Yellen

Currently serving as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury — the first woman to do so — Dr. Janet Yellen has been a standout in the field of economics for decades.

Born to a middle-class family in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University in 1967 and earned her Ph.D. in economics from Yale in 1971, the only woman to do so that year. After teaching at several top universities, including Harvard and the London School of Economics, she served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first woman chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She later went on to serve the Federal Reserve System in a variety of leadership roles. In October 2013, President Barack Obama nominated her for the position of Federal Reserve Board Chair, the first woman to hold that role.

Dr. Yellen is not only the first woman to lead the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, and the White House Council of Economic Advisors, she also is the first person to have held all three posts.⁴

Milestones In Financial HERstory

Source: HerMoney, 2022

1) Museum of the City of New York
2) National Park Service and the National Women’s History Museum
3) The New York Times, August 25, 2013
4) National Women’s History Museum and Investopedia

Tax filing season is here again. If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to start pulling things together — that includes getting your hands on a copy of your 2022 tax return and gathering W-2s, 1099s, and deduction records. You’ll need these records whether you’re preparing your own return or paying someone else to prepare your tax return for you.

Don’t procrastinate. The filing deadline for individuals is generally Monday, April 15, 2024.

Filing for an extension

If you don’t think you’re going to be able to file your federal income tax return by the due date, you can file for and obtain an extension using IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. Filing this extension gives you an additional six months (to October 15, 2024) to file your federal income tax return. You can also file for an extension electronically — instructions on how to do so can be found in the Form 4868 instructions.

Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Filing for an automatic extension does not provide any additional time to pay your tax. When you file for an extension, you have to estimate the amount of tax you will owe and pay this amount by the April filing due date. If you don’t pay the amount you’ve estimated, you may owe interest and penalties. In fact, if the IRS believes that your estimate was not reasonable, it may void your extension.

Note: Special rules apply if you’re living outside the country or serving in the military and on duty outside the United States. In these circumstances, you are generally allowed an automatic two-month extension (to June 17, 2024) without filing Form 4868, though interest will be owed on any taxes due that are paid after the April filing due date. If you served in a combat zone or qualified hazardous duty area, you may be eligible for a longer extension of time to file.

What if you owe?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not filing your return because you owe money. If your return shows a balance due, file and pay the amount due in full by the due date if possible.

If there’s no way that you can pay what you owe, file the return and pay as much as you can afford. You’ll owe interest and possibly penalties on the unpaid tax, but you’ll limit the penalties assessed by filing your return on time, and you may be able to work with the IRS to pay the remaining balance (options can include paying the unpaid balance in installments).

Expecting a refund?

The IRS has stepped up efforts to combat identity theft and tax refund fraud. More aggressive filters that are intended to curtail fraudulent refunds may inadvertently delay some legitimate refund requests. In fact, the IRS is required to hold refunds on all tax returns claiming the earned income tax credit or the additional child tax credit until at least February 15.

Most filers, though, can expect a refund check to be issued within 21 days of the IRS receiving a tax return. However, note that in recent years the IRS has experienced delays in processing paper tax returns.

So if you are expecting a refund on your 2023 tax return, consider filing as soon as possible and filing electronically.