This is NPR's Life Kit, I'm Michelle Martin.

It's tax season, and for many of us, let's say most of us, that might elicit a deep heavy sigh.

But don't worry, we're here to help.

Maybe you're wondering what's different about taxes this year.

What are you overlooking on your tax return?

After a year with stimulus payments and changes to the way we work, what do you need to know?

In this episode of Life Kit, we'll talk to Kimberly Washington,

a CPA and tax analyst who's going to help us parse fact from fiction and who has lots of

helpful advice on everything from deductions you may be forgetting to how the child tax credit

might impact your tax filings this year.

Kimberly Washington, thanks so much for joining us.

And thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

So let's start with this consumer survey that you did with taxpayers.

What are some of the headlines there? What are people feeling about their 2021 taxes?

Kimberly Washington, thank you so much for joining us.

Right, so many people are feeling as though that their tax refunds this year will be a bit

lower compared to last year. The survey found that 50% of taxpayers are expecting smaller refunds.

And we believe that Forbes Advisor along myself and Lisa, who also helped me with the survey,

we determined that it came out down to that a lot of people would just pretty much confuse

when it came to some of the pandemic payments that were paid out last year. So they don't know what

to expect as they go into this tax season because of course they're thinking that because of the

stimulus payments or the child tax credit payments that it would actually reduce their tax refunds.

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