For families raising kids, the child tax credit is one of the most valuable lines on a tax return, and because part of it is refundable, it can put money back in a household’s pocket even when little or no tax is owed. Used correctly, it reduces a family’s tax bill by thousands of dollars,…

One of the simplest tax breaks in the code is also one of the easiest to miss: people 65 and older get a bigger standard deduction. It requires no itemizing, no receipts, and no special form, just checking a box for age. Yet older filers who prepare their own returns sometimes overlook it and pay…

A new tax break for older Americans has been widely, and wrongly, described as the end of taxes on Social Security. What the law actually created is narrower: a temporary $6,000 deduction for people 65 and older that starts shrinking once income passes $75,000 and expires entirely after 2028. Understanding the real shape of it…

Several of the headline tax breaks from the 2025 tax law — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the car-loan interest deduction, and a bigger deduction for seniors — do not apply themselves. To get any of them, a taxpayer has to fill out a brand-new IRS form and attach it to their…

A new federal tax break lets many households write off the interest they pay on a car loan — up to $10,000 a year — as long as the vehicle was assembled in the United States and bought new for personal use. The deduction comes out of the tax law signed in July 2025, and…

Servers, bartenders, hairstylists, and other tipped workers have a new line on their federal tax return that did not exist a couple of years ago. Under the tax law enacted last year, eligible workers can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips each year, temporarily removing that income from their federal income-tax calculation. It is…

More than 30 states run programs that can freeze or cut property taxes for older and lower-income homeowners — and in several, the relief is worth $1,000 to $1,500 or more a year. They go by different names: property-tax freezes, homestead credits, and “circuit breaker” rebates. Each has its own income limits and, crucially, its…

The child tax credit is now locked in at $2,200 per qualifying child, made permanent by the 2025 tax law, with up to $1,700 of it available as a refund even to families who owe little or no federal tax. Making the amount permanent ends years of uncertainty in which the credit’s size was set…

Taxpayers who are 65 or older can claim a new $6,000 bonus deduction on their federal returns, a break created by the 2025 tax law that runs through 2028. It is not a check and not a credit — it lowers the income the IRS taxes, which can trim a retiree’s tax bill or even…

Starting with the 2026 tax year, workers who put in overtime can deduct a big slice of that extra pay when they file, and for the first time the amount will be printed right on their W-2. The deduction is worth up to $12,500 for a single filer and $25,000 for a married couple filing…