The Daily Money: Russia-Ukraine war has politicized vodka

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Monday, February 28

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Welcome to another work week, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester, here with you on the last day of February.

🗞 News you should know 🗞

This weekend, the governors of Texas, Ohio and New Hampshire ordered state retailers to remove Russian spirits from their shelves, joining in on a trend of Americans targeting vodka, a quintessentially Russian liquor, to protest Russia's war in Ukraine.

But data shows these protests should only affect a tiny fraction of all U.S. vodka imports. Only 1.2% of U.S. vodka imports come from Russia, according to data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States for the first half of 2021. Vodka is the only spirit listed as a Russian import in the report.

But the most popular vodkas in the U.S. – including Smirnoff, Ciroc, Tito's, Absolut, Svedka, Grey Goose, SKYY and New Amsterdam – are not made in Russia. They are made in Sweden, France, the U.K. and the U.S.

Brands that are impacted include Russian Standard, Hammer and Sickle, Kutskova and Stolichnaya. That last name, commonly shortened to Stoli, is a historically Russian brand that uses some ingredients from Russia, but nearly all the Stoli sold in the West comes from Latvia, a NATO member.

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💡 Daily insight 💡

While some retailers fail to support Black lives, there is a growing trend of shopping groups on social media created for and by Black women propelling social change. For them, shopping isn't just about products. It's about community building, bonding over buying and, sometimes, encouraging multi-generational Black wealth. But it's important to them that the brands they support foster relationships instead of just quietly taking their money.

One brand that's getting the balance right, they say, is Target.

"They've really been a frontrunner in establishing and honoring Black excellence and Black creativity," says Sharla Horton-Williams, who started the Black Girls in Target Facebook group. It has grown to 21,000 members.

Gloria Delgadillo, part of Target's communications team, says that, "At Target, our goal is to create a shopping experience where all guests feel welcomed and represented, and we've made commitments to ensure Black guests see themselves represented, from the merchandise we offer to our marketing efforts and more."

💵 All taxes, all the time💵

Filing a tax return can be a quick process, or a time-consuming one. Often, the amount of time you'll spend working on your taxes will hinge on whether you claim the standard deduction on your return versus itemizing.

Before we discuss how to make that call, let's quickly review what a tax deduction is in the first place. A tax deduction exempts a portion of your income from taxes. It's different from a tax credit, which is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your tax liability.

The standard deduction is set by the IRS and tends to change from year to year. It's also different for each specific filing status.

In 2021, the standard deduction looks like this:

•	$12,550 for single tax filers and married couples filing separately
•	$18,800 for heads of household
•	$25,100 for married couples filing jointly

To see if you should claim the standard deduction versus itemize on your 2021 tax return, you'll need to add up your allowable deductions and see if they exceed your standard deduction. If they do, then itemizing makes sense. If your standard deduction is higher, that's what you should claim. If you're looking at breaking even, you might as well stick with the standard deduction, since it'll be less work.

🎶 Mood music 🎶

Today's lyric, inspired by our Black women's shopping groups story, comes from Secrett's "Melanin": "Yea, we some bosses. You ain't strong enough, count ya losses. If you coming, better come correct. Talkin' T's crossed eyes dotted (dotted). Yea we don't play that. We be starting trends and they take that."

LISTEN WHILE YOU WORK: Remember, you can listen to this song and every track I've quoted in the newsletter in the Daily Money Mood Music playlist on Spotify.

Poland: Vodka Though it is now made all over the world and is associated mostly with Russia, vodka traces its origins back to late 14th-century Poland, and it remains the most popular form of alcohol in the country to this day. Though it may be distilled from various grains, as elsewhere, potato vodka is a particular Polish specialty.

Ditching vodka to protest Russia? That brand probably isn't Russian.

The most popular vodkas in the U.S. — including Smirnoff, Ciroc, Tito's, Absolut, Svedka, Grey Goose, SKYY and New Amsterdam — are not made in Russia.