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Question: I plan on purchasing gold coins for investment and possibly provide gifts to some relatives. What are the tax considerations if there are increases in value.

Answer: An excellent source for this issue is “Your Guide to Paying Taxes on Precious Metals.” The source is Hero Bullion (214-210-9948). If you hold the coins for longer than one year before you redeem them, then you can report the gains as long-term capital gains on your tax return. If you only hold the coins for less than a year, then you have to report the gains and pay tax based on your marginal tax rate. You are allowed to deduct any expenses such as sales tax or storage expenses on your return.

Only five states have no sales tax on the purchase of gold coins. If you give these coins as gifts to any relatives or acquaintances, you should indicate to these individuals that they have to compute any gains or losses on their tax returns in the year they sell the coins. So, you should indicate the market value of the coins at the time you make these gifts. read more

By Emily Scherer for The 19th

Last October, a 13-year-old boy in Wisconsin used a picture of his classmate celebrating her bat mitzvah to create a deepfake nude he then shared on Snapchat.

This is not an isolated incident. Over the past few years, there has been case after case of school-age children using deepfakes to prank or bully their classmates. And it keeps getting easier to do.

When they emerged online eight years ago, deepfakes were initially difficult to make. Nowadays, advances in technology, through generative artificial intelligence, have provided tools to the masses. Here, The 19th highlights a troubling consequence: the prevalence of deepfake apps among young users.

“If we would have talked five or six years ago about revenge porn in general, I don’t think that you would have found so many offenders were minors,” said Rebecca Delfino, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who studies deepfakes.

Federal and state legislators have sought to tackle the scourge of nonconsensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, sometimes referred to as “revenge porn,” though advocates prefer the former term. Laws criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images — for authentic images, at least — are in effect in every U.S. state and Washington, D.C., and last month, President Donald Trump signed a similar measure into law, known as Take It Down. read more

SpaceX’s sunrise launch from Cape Canaveral on Sunday was the 80th launch of the year on the Space Coast, which is on track to break the annual record and surpass 100 for the year.

A Falcon 9 carrying 28 more of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites on the Starlink 10-27 mission lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:53 a.m.

The first-stage booster made its 11th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

Falcon 9 launches 28 @Starlink satellites from Florida pic.twitter.com/h42GRR7MAo

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 21, 2025

SpaceX has flown 76 of the 80 orbital flights from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral so far this year.

United Launch Alliance has flown three others using one Vulcan and two Atlas V rockets while Blue Origin has flown once with the debut launch of its New Glenn back in January.

Sixty of the launches have been from among three pads — SLC 40, SLC 41 and LC 36 — at CCSFS while 20 have been from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. read more

By Chabeli Carrazana for The 19th

A new child tax credit is coming next year, bringing significant changes that will alter how much assistance families receive — and which families can receive it.

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  White House says $100K H-1B visa fee won’t apply to existing holders as Trump move stirs anxiety

With his tax and spending package, President Donald Trump passed a permanent change to the child tax credit spearheaded by congressional Republicans. It goes into effect for families filing income tax returns in 2026.

The changes increase the total amount of the tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200, and index it to inflation so it grows over the years, a change advocates have championed for years. However, the package also introduces new parameters to qualify for the credit that will directly affect immigrants and the lowest-income families. read more

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, SEUNG MIN KIM and AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’slatest plan to overhaul the American immigration system has left some immigrant workers confused, forcing the White House on Saturday to scramble to clarify that a new $100,000 fee on visas for skilled tech workers only applies to new applicants and not to current visa holders.

The president on Friday, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick by his side, signed a proclamation that will require the new fee for what are known as H-1B visas — meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find hard to fill.

“Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a posting on X. “This applies only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders.”

The fee takes effect at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday. It is scheduled to expire after a year. But it could be extended if the government determines that is in the interest of the United States to keep it. read more