The IRS cleared 200,000 amended returns

I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.

So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.

In this issue:

• The IRS is finally cutting into its amended return backlog.

• FASB is putting private credit under the microscope.

• Tomatoes somehow became an inflation story.

- Ledger Lowdown Team

WTF of the Day🤯

The IRS Is Finally Digging Out of Its Amended Return Mess

If you have ever waited forever on an amended return, this is the part where the IRS says it is making progress. The agency closed about 200,000 amended return cases during the filing season that ended April 15, according to Bloomberg Tax. That matters because the amended return backlog has been hanging around since the pandemic, when millions of returns were waiting to be processed. Last year, individual taxpayers waited about five months for refunds, while businesses waited about 13 months.

The fix was not glamorous. The IRS pulled more than 1,000 employees out of HR and IT and trained them to help process amended returns. That temporary move was supposed to last about three months, but many of those workers are staying on through the summer. The catch is staffing. Taxpayer services reportedly lost almost a quarter of its workers after DOGE related cuts and exit incentives, so the IRS is clearing cases while also dealing with fewer people. In plain English, the backlog is improving, but the system is still stretched.

What’s poppin in accounting🍿

FASB Just Put Private Credit Under the Microscope

FASB is starting to look harder at one of the fastest growing and messiest corners of finance. The board added a new project on private credit disclosures for investment companies, which matters because this market has exploded, and recent defaults have made investors nervous. The real question is pretty basic. What is inside these funds, how are the loans being valued, and are borrowers actually paying cash, or just rolling payments into more debt?

FASB also added projects on restricted equity securities and tax credits. The restricted stock issue is about how investment companies should value shares they cannot freely sell. The tax credit issue is about nonrefundable transferable credits, like clean energy credits, and whether they should be treated under income tax rules. FASB also wants to clean up equity method accounting by focusing on one main test, significant influence, instead of leaning so hard on the old 20% ownership line. Big picture, FASB is trying to update the rulebook for a financial world that got complicated fast.

Source: FASB Board Meeting, May 13, 2026

Weekly Trend Chart 📊

Tomatoes Are Now an Inflation Problem

Here’s the weird thing about inflation. Sometimes the story is not “everything is expensive.” Sometimes one boring item gets punched in the face from five directions at once. That is what happened to tomatoes. In April, fresh tomato prices jumped nearly 40% from last year, and the average field grown tomato hit $2.69 a pound. That is the highest price the government has recorded since it started tracking this in 1980.

The reason is simple, but ugly. America gets most of its fresh tomatoes from Mexico, and a 17% tariff already made those imports more expensive. Then Mexico’s crop got hurt by heavy rain and disease. Florida, our biggest domestic fresh tomato supplier, got hit by a rare freeze that wiped out a huge chunk of production. And because fuel prices are up, it costs more to rush tomatoes from farms to stores before they go bad. So by the time you grab tomatoes for a sandwich, you are paying for tariffs, bad weather, crop losses, and diesel.

Meme of the Day😂

Every timeee 😂  

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