Are you ready for the 2019 tax season? Thanks to the 2017 Tax Reform there are a lot of changes that took effect in 2018 that we are all going to have to become familiar with as we prepare to file our taxes this year.

Joseph and I tend to be early birds when it comes to filing our taxes, so we thought we’d do a quick video explaining some of the major changes that the tax reform brought with it in addition to sharing some tips to help you get ready for tax time. Be sure to watch the video for all of the nitty gritty details.

Though the 2018 tax brackets and tax rates are lower, the loss of the personal exemption and the $10,000 the state and local income tax (SALT) deduction cap could potentially leave some people worse off, especially those with children over 17. On the other hand, since most people don’t itemize their deductions anyway, that means are large number of people will get to benefit from the increased standard deduction.

Joseph and I have been trying to work our way through how we think the new tax reform will affect us ever since it was first  passed in 2017. With it being passed so late in the year and taking effect right at the beginning of 2018, a lot of people were scrambling to try to plan for the new changes in advance. So were we.

We’ve had quite a few changes in our lives this past year. We no longer have a household employee and instead Reeves goes to pre-school five days a week. We’ve earned more at our jobs and our business over the past year. Not to mention that One Big Happy Life officially became a separate company in 2018 with Joseph and I splitting the profits according to our partnership agreement. It will be really interesting to see how the new 20% small business income passthrough works out for us.

And of course there’s that whole thing where Alexis started college two years early, so we suddenly find ourselves paying higher education costs again. Talk about deja vu, given that Joseph and I only finished our education just eight years ago.

Even though our taxes are more complicated than ever, we’re still planning to DIY our taxes this year.

So what are your plans this tax season? Are you an early filer or a just before midnight on the fifteenth-er?