The Daily Money: Rented a car from Hertz? There may be a warrant for your arrest

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Good morning and happy Wednesday, Money readers. Jayme Deerwester, here with you again.

🗞 News you should know 🗞

Rented a car from Hertz in the last few years? There may be a warrant for your arrest. This was something Paula Murray, a grandmother who lost her job offer, and Dustin Pollitt, who was driving a rental while his car was in the shop, found out the hard way.

They're two of 230 plaintiffs suing Hertz for false arrest and, in some cases, prosecution. They'll have their day in court Wednesday, when a bankruptcy judge will decide whether their cases can go forward.

The lawsuits against Hertz allege a pattern of missing inventory in which Hertz, instead of conducting internal investigations to locate vehicles or correct records, files police reports immediately and pushes the issue to the courts.

“What we know is that 230 is not the majority. … It's the tip of the iceberg,” says Francis Alexander Malofiy, the lead attorney for the claimants, based in Pennsylvania.

“You're talking 20,000 people who were stuck in the criminal justice system because they had a dispute or an issue with their rental, or that (Hertz) couldn't find their car.”

In recently unsealed court documents, Hertz admitted it files an average of 3,365 police reports about stolen vehicles involving its customers each year. That means over the past seven years since false theft report cases have been known to occur, theft charges have been levied against more than 24,000 people.

“They have a head office in Oklahoma City who's basically not doing any investigation at the local level when a car is lost, misplaced, can't be found,” Malofiy said. “It's reported as stolen and they shift the costs of their inventory control to the police and to the prosecutors, which in the end is a taxpayer-funded repo service.”

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💡 Daily insight 💡

Following the invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) closed its airspace to all Russian airlines, Russian owned and Russian operated aircraft. Soon after, Russia closed its airspace to all European aircraft. More countries like Canada have since followed the EU, consequently, the number of aircraft and flights affected increased.

So what does all of this mean to air travelers?

The most immediate effect is on travelers to and from Russia. Many flights are canceled, and some have been forced to turn around after the EU and Canada closed their airspace to Russian planes.

More consequences of the closing of airspace are the necessity to re-route some flights, adding flight time and increasing fuel costs.

Longer flights, higher fuel costs: Flights, for example, from London to Asia now fly much further south to avoid Russian airspace. Polar flights from the U.S. to Asia can no longer use Russia as alternate airports. Should an emergency such as engine failure occur, no Russian airports can be the diversion airport. Losing those airports mean that the flights must go much further south and may require a technical stop for fuel, which dramatically increases flight time and cost.

Fewer parts and planes: Secondary issues include the a ban on aircraft parts to Russian operators. Very quickly aircraft will be soon be grounded due to lack of needed parts. In addition, the EU has forbidden the leasing of airplanes to Russia, meaning companies have to terminate leases and attempt to seize aircraft by the end of the month. Both will cause cancelations of domestic flights.

💵 All taxes, all the time 💵

Your goal as a taxpayer should be to hand over as little money as possible to the IRS. And to do that, you need to capitalize on tax deductions.

As a quick primer, a tax deduction exempts a portion of your earnings from taxes. Your actual tax savings are then a result of the tax bracket you fall into, which is based on your income. With that out of the way, here are five tax deductions you may not have known about:

• Medical expenses

• Educator expenses

• Self-employment taxes

• Donated goods

• Home equity loan interest (in some cases)

🎶 Mood music 🎶

Today's lyric is inspired by the Hertz lawsuit plaintiffs and comes from Sia and The Weeknd's "Elastic Heart": "Well, I've got thick skin and an elastic heart. But your blade, it might be too sharp. I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard."

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.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daily Money: Rented from Hertz? There may be a warrant for your arrest