What’s new this tax season and what do taxpayers need to know before filing this year?

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Ben Pontz and Tom Downing / PA Post

An example of how much a developer would save on property taxes over 10 years if making $25,000 in improvements on a $100,000 property in Gettysburg, Pa.

Airdate: January 23, 2023

The tax season begins today, as the IRS will start accepting 2022 federal income tax returns.

However, with a unique tax season behind us that included stimulus money, many may wonder what’s new this tax season and what are some key things taxpayers need to know before filing this year.

According to a survey published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, there’s a widespread lack of understanding about federal income and estate taxes.

Benjamin Bostic, a principal with Boyer & Ritter and a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants joined us on The Spark Monday to provide some answers as we start this tax season.

Bostic said, this tax season, credits that have always been available but were enhanced in 2021 are going to revert to previous levels and the IRS has mostly caught up on processing the backlog of tax returns that weren’t processed and has received funding to provide better and more efficient customer service to taxpayers.

He also said, with every year, there are benefits to filing early.

“The biggest benefit is obviously you get your refund faster. If you think about how many people have to file. The longer you wait, the longer it may take for them to process it,” Bostic said. “I would say almost equally important is fraud. Unfortunately, there is a lot of fraud out there. And, if someone gets your Social Security number, they will try and file your tax return early and get your refund. So the earlier you file, the more you protect yourself from that.”

Tax returns are due by April 18.