Talking Taxes With a Tax Professional: What's New in 2026 and How to Navigate Filing Season

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Business, Investing, Education, How To

4.3 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A tax expert breaks down what's new for the 2026 tax filing season and how to decide between a CPA and DIY software. What do you actually need to know about filing your 2025 taxes? When is it actually worth hiring a CPA instead of going it alone? Hosts Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola sit down with Tom O'Saben, and enrolled agent and director of tax content for the National Association of Tax Professionals, to explore what changed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They discuss new rules around tips, overtime pay, car loan interest deductions, and an expanded SALT deduction that could shift the math on whether itemizing makes sense for you. They also dig into how major life changes like getting married, starting a business, or moving to a new state can create unexpected tax complications — and how to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Plus: the common myths and costly mistakes that show up every year, options if you end up with a surprise tax bill, and what dealing with the IRS directly looks like now that the agency has cut more than a quarter of its staff. Federal Income Tax Calculator and Refund Estimator 2025-2026 https://www.nerdwallet.com/taxes/calculators/tax-calculator Best Tax Software of 2026 https://www.nerdwallet.com/taxes/learn/best-tax-software IRS Free File: What It Is, How It Works https://www.nerdwallet.com/taxes/learn/irs-free-file-tax-preparation-help Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you filed your taxes yet?
0:01.5	I did not want to face another penalty.
0:03.5	I filed my taxes.
0:04.7	Did you?
0:05.5	Have you? Good work, Elizabeth. Yes, I did. It took me a good two and a half hours, but I'm glad it's behind me. So you do it yourself then? Yeah, I want the educational experience so we can talk from what we've done in our lives to our listeners. So here we go. You're such a nerd, Sean. I will give advice based on whatever it is that my tax person does.
0:22.1	So there we go.
0:22.8	There you go.
0:23.5	Well, that's the other side of the journey. So here we go. You're such a nerd, Sean. I will give advice based on whatever it is that my tax person does. So there we go.
0:22.8	There you go. Well, that's the other side of the journey. Yeah. Well, this episode, we're all about tax season 2026.
0:30.9	Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
0:38.2	And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Today we're going to go deep into tax season 2026, which is for filing
0:46.1	your 2025 taxes, by the way. We're going to be talking about what's new, common mistakes that people
0:51.2	make when filing, and also how you can keep your finances safe
0:54.7	and yourself sane over the next month or so.
0:58.5	And in case you never filed before or have lived in a cave for a few years, your deadline to
1:02.6	file and pay your taxes is April 15th. So to help us sort through all of this, we're joined
1:07.5	by Tom O'Sabin, Director of Tax Content for the National Association of Tax
1:11.6	Professionals. Tom, welcome to Smart Money. It's great to be here. Nice to meet you and Elizabeth.
1:16.5	Likewise. So let's start with what's new this year in Tax Land. Last year, Congress passed and
1:22.2	the president signed the one big, beautiful bill act, which extended a number of tax breaks from
1:26.8	a 2017 tax law and made some
1:29.2	other changes too. What are some of the major elements that tax filers should be aware of?
	...

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