10 Tips to Stress Less and Save More This Tax Season (and Beyond)

Are you ready for tax season? / Photography by Steve Buissinne

It’s the most annoying time of the year: tax prep season. But it doesn’t have to be. We spoke to in-the-know Philly pros about, well, what you don’t know you don’t know — and how they advise their own friends and family as the countdown begins to April 15th. Here, their wisdom and survival techniques.

Taxes are not a one-season sport …

First, the news you don’t want to hear — but that will save you headaches down the road. Tending to your tax situation shouldn’t be something you do only in the weeks leading up to April 15th. “Tax planning is a year-round sport,” says Michael W. Valenti, SVP, tax director at Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors. If you haven’t been doing it already, Valenti advises that you work with a tax professional to be thinking about your taxes year-round — paying quarterly taxes if appropriate, planning to put aside funds for any money you may end up owing, and keeping track of your relevant expenditures and life milestones (having kids! taking out a mortgage!) all year long.

… they are a team sport.

To really make the most of your money, you should enlist the help of a team if you can — a tax professional and a financial planner. And they should be talking to each other. “You want all of your people talking,” says Valenti. That’s the benefit, he says, of working with an in-house CPA within your financial advisory. “We talk because we sit next to each other, physically or virtually. And everyone around the table needs to be talking.” If this hasn’t been your M.O., let this tax season be your motivation to start: “Don’t try to get on your CPA’s calendar on April 5th to plan for next year, and give them a few weeks to recover after April 15th,” Valenti says. But once things have calmed down, get on their calendar to talk about enlisting a financial advisor, and how to get more financially fit throughout 2026.

Know your “teammates’” credentials.

“Anybody can do a tax return — or claim to do a tax return and charge you for it: your barber, your hygienist,” says Steven Balsam, PhD., chair of the department of accounting at the Fox School of Business at Temple University. He advises checking the IRS’s list of certified tax preparers to check credentials. “Personally, it would give me more comfort to use someone who’s been verified than a person who becomes a tax preparer in January just to make a few bucks.” Balsam oversees the free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Temple, where everybody has to pass an IRS exam. (You can reach VITA at 215.792.2345 or VITA@temple.edu to find out if you qualify for their free services.)

And know the lingo.

Wayne W. Williams, EdD, an associate professor also in the department of accounting at Fox School of Business at Temple University, says that one fundamental tax literacy question he gets a lot is understanding the difference between a tax deduction, a tax credit, and a tax rebate. “A deduction reduces your taxable income. A credit applies to your tax liability [what you owe] — a credit doesn’t lower your income; it lowers your taxes owed. One is topline, the other is bottomline. So they’re both valuable. but obviously a credit that is applied to the tax can be a lot more beneficial.” And a rebate? That’s money that comes back from the government but isn’t included in your taxable income.

BIRT is back.

Philly gig workers: You know how, in previous years, you were exempt from the Business Income and Receipts Tax (BIRT) if your gross receipts were under $100,000? Well, a court case last summer concluded that that exclusion violated the state constitution — so, Williams says, the BIRT is back, regardless of how much you made. And the BIRT form, experts agree, is complicated. You can consult a tax professional or free city resources like the Philadelphia Tax Center for help filing it. (Williams points to former Integrity Icon Rebecca Lopez Kriss, who has been sharing free videos to help remote, hybrid, and gig workers navigate their tax paperwork; watch them here.)

Older U.S. citizens have some new benefits:

If your annual income was less than approximately $50,000, and you’re over 65, or a widow or widower age 50 or above, or if you are permanently disabled, you are eligible for a tax credit called the property tax rental rebate. But: It’s one of the things you have to know to ask for. “The state won’t come back to you and say hey, you missed this rebate,” Balsam cautions. If you’re able, you can visit your state rep’s or state senator’s office (find yours here), and they’ll fill it out for you.

It pays to e-file.

If you’re not already filing electronically — or if you have older family members who insist on mailing their paper returns — this is the year to encourage them to make the switch. For one thing, says Balsam, e-filing cuts down on human errors in transposing or scanning in handwritten filings; for another, you get a reassuring, instantaneous electronic receipt once you submit online. But perhaps most meaningfully, you’re going to get your refund sooner if you file online. “If you don’t elect to get direct deposit, the IRS is going to send you a letter essentially asking are you sure? And it will – highly likely – take months to get that return. That’s a new IRS initiative this year,” Balsam says.

OB3 is in effect.

Back in July, when the colloquially-termed One Big Beautiful Bill, or OB3, kicked in, it brought with it various changes to tax law. One particularly notable change: No tax on tips, up to a point. “So if you are a server in a restaurant — or an Uber driver or any number of workers the IRS has singled out — you can now subtract up to $25,000 (if that’s the tip amount you’ve earned) from your federal income tax return,” Balsam says. “You’re still taxed for the state and the city, and you’re still paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on it. But the federal income tax on that will be waived.”

There’s also no tax on overtime wages. “Again, the rules are very strict, and many employers are now mindful of avoiding overtime. But if your company pays you time-and-a-half for working over 35 hours, that ‘half’ is not taxable. It’s capped to $12,500 per individual and $25,000 for a married couple, for your federal return.”

There’s also a car loan interest deduction starting this year (through 2028). “Our federal tax code is filled with [veritable rewards and penalties implying] this is good, this is not good. It’s almost like social engineering,” Balsam says. “So we’ve always had a deduction for mortgage interest, because every politician’s goal is to increase homeownership. We’ve got an education loan interest deduction. And this year, car loan interest is deductible – under certain conditions.” It had to be a new car, purchased in 2025, and the final assembly of the car had to be in the United States. (You’ll have to enter your VIN number to see if your car purchase qualifies.)

OB3 also provides for an extra standard deduction for seniors. “Seniors normally get an enhanced standard deduction — the standard deduction for a senior, married couple is normally $34,700. But for these four years, there is an enhanced senior deduction of $6,000 per person. So a senior, married couple won’t pay any federal income tax unless their taxable income is greater than $46,700.”

It pays to be a good citizen.

“When I think of living in a world-class city like Philadelphia, I think about our vibrant arts and culture. I’m really proud of that part of our city,” says Williams. “And one of my concerns has been that there has been a significant amount of federal funding cuts. NPR says those federal funding cuts were up to 35 percent towards the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services. So those institutions are struggling.” Williams says the silver lining is that we, as patrons, can use some of the new tax rules to support our favorite charities. “It’s a great opportunity, whether you itemize or you use the standard deduction, to support your charity and make charitable contributions.”

Williams also points out that some costs related to volunteering can be deducted: That said, the IRS requires you to overcome a few hurdles. “You need to do it out-of-pocket, it has to be directly related to the charitable work, and it needs to be reasonable and necessary.” The guidelines don’t support overnight travel, for example — but they do support mileage for your car. So, let’s say you drove to participate in a walk for cancer research — that mileage for supporting that charitable organization is deductible at 14 cents per mile.

See the big picture.

Valenti, who’s been working with high net-worth individuals for more than a decade — corporate execs, business owners, doctors, lawyers — cautions against what he calls “letting the tax tail wag the dog.”

“As I look at tax planning, I really am looking at it from a holistic point of view, from a big picture.” He cautions against the kind of TikTok advice that encourages, say, buying a G-Wagon for some small tax benefit. “That’s a pretty egregious example, but the point is, don’t spend a whole lot of money just to save a few bucks in taxes. You’re still paying all that money out.” Think big picture, assemble a team who will do the same, and remember that organizing your taxes is like any other skill: You can get better at it with practice.

This piece is part of a multi-year editorial series sponsored by WSFS Bank and Bryn Mawr Trust.

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