The 2025 tax season kicked off on Jan. 27. Now the deadline to deliver your taxes to the IRS is about two months away.
What do you need to know and have ready to make preparing and filing your taxes easy? Scripps News spoke with tax expert Kevin Brown, a Principal with Anchin's private client group, about the deadlines and paperwork involved with each year's taxes.
"I think the most boring part of this that most people need to do is get their paperwork in order," Brown said. "Most accountants that work with their clients, we want to make sure they've got their forms in order — their 1099s, W2s, listed all their medical expenses, their charitable donations. Hopefully they've collated all of this already through the year, as the year's gone on. But getting yourself in order, getting things arranged and organized is the best place to start, particularly if people have businesses, as well."
"There's a number of different tax credits families are able to take advantage of now. One of the most common ones that most people look to claim is the child tax credit. One of the things most of your viewers and other people need to be aware of — a lot of the credits tend to be income tested. The child tax credit is available to those families whose income is below $400,000 a year if they file jointly," Brown said.
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"There's the child independent care credit," Brown said. "That's really aimed at families that have gone back to work or are looking to work and they have to pay for certain care for either a dependent or a child under the age of 13 in order for them to go back to work. This credit's a little harder to substantiate and claim, but really shouldn't be discounted."
"The last one is what's called the earned income credit, it's really aimed at more lower income households. If your tax return that you're filing, if the earned income's around $50,000 to $65,000 a year, then there are other credits that those taxpayers are able to claim."
Watch the full interview with Brown in the video above.
