Tax season brings new deductions, complications for accountants

Tax season is underway, and both tax professionals and filers are seeing big changes this year. 

Several new provisions from the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ signed last year have gone into effect this year.

The tax omnibus bill mainly extended tax cuts permanently that President Trump had signed into law in 2017. Otherwise, they would have expired last year. 

The bill also contained hundreds of other provisions - some of which apply retroactively to 2025 taxes. 

Elizabeth Ruh, with Personal Financial Services in Bloomington, said the main impacts she’s seeing from the law are no tax on tips, a new overtime deduction, an increased deduction for seniors, and a deduction on car interest payments.

“I have seen a lot of seniors benefit from the senior deduction, so if they're 65, they're eligible for up to $6,000 of an additional deduction,” Ruh said.

Complexities from the new law combined with large IRS staff reductions are leading to a hectic season for accountants.
 
Ruh said while she hasn’t seen any delays in refunds, she’s expecting other difficulties for filers.  

“There'll be a lot more administrative headaches, as notices go out that are not necessarily necessary, and then just trying to correct weird issues that happen,” Ruh said.

The deadline to file federal income taxes is April 15.