Hello, everyone.

I'm Donna Terrell for Arkansas Week, and Arctic Blast is expected to pass through the state this weekend, bringing frigid temperatures along with a wintry mix of sleet, snow and ice across the region.

We'll provide you with an update on the projected forecast and being prepared.

But first tax season is upon us, and there are some important changes that you need to be aware of before you file your 2025 tax returns.

Joining me to explain them are Joya Yorkey, executive director of the nonprofit Arkansas Asset Builders and RGA, Earnest tax analyst, public service fellow and for Legal aid of Arkansas.

And I certainly want to thank both of you for being with us.

You know, a lot of stuff that people need to be aware of.

And I know the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by Congress last year has brought some real important changes that people need to be aware of.

And I think one of the things that stand out for the vast majority of people, or at least those who are receiving these types of, of earnings tips and overtime.

Yeah, so they are the government is eliminating taxes on that.

Yes, that is true.

To some degree for some people.

And I think one of the things taxpayers will need to watch out for when they file, is do they end up meeting all of the requirements to take those various deductions?

So let's talk about the requirements because, you know, a I would think is across the board, obviously that's not the case.

So let's start with tips.

What are the requirements.

Sure.

So taxpayers have to work in one of a specific list of occupations that are normally tips and occupations, like, like servers, hairdressers, drivers, that kind of thing.

Hotel hospitality workers.

Okay.

So, you know, a lot of people and let's just be real here, here and I'll bring you into the conversation also, unless and I know this is cheating, but unless the tip is on a credit card, if it's cash, a lot of people don't always report it anyway, right?

Right.

So.

So we're really just talking about tips that go through a credit card that someone would have to report.

So, usually I would think those tips would qualify across the board.

Maybe.

Am I wrong?

RG I'll let you chime in.

Well, I know I, I think definitely if you're talking about temp reporting, if, if like Julia said, it has to be, the correct type of industry and, and and actually needs to be a temp.

But once it is, shown on income, then you get a deduction for, for that tip that is reported.

You are correct to say that in the past, many people have not necessarily reported their tip income, even though they usually should.

But a lot of times when tips are paid in cash, they don't wind up getting reported anyway.

Okay.

But but they're supposed to, right?

I don't want to spend too much time on this, because I have to get through a number of other, questions that I have for you.

But we're also talking about overtime.

I work personally.

I work in an environment where there are people who get overtime.

You know, we were talking about this because, on MLK day, for example, some, some hourly employees were working and they got double pay and, you know, and then if they had to work longer, they got even more money.

So we're talking about when you get overtime funds, you're not taxed on that.

You're not taxed on the extra that you get paid.

That's above your normal hourly rate okay.

So you still have to pay the normal taxes on the hours that you work, no matter how many hours that you work.

Okay.

But that extra, whether that's, you know, the half that on time and a half or an extra double on double time, that extra bonus you get is what you could potentially did.

It makes me wish I was hourly now.

But this is only going to last, For how long?

This is not.

And this is not something that's indefinite for people, and they need to be aware of that.

Correct?

Yeah, I think that's right.

I can't remember exactly what how many years that this is for.

But it is a temporary, benefit that is being offered to, to taxpayers.

Okay.

Do you remember how long these these provisions are in play for now?

For tax year 2025 through 2028?

Okay.

And they'll have to be re addressed 25 through 28 okay.

So take advantage of it.

Now let's talk about some deductions for seniors.

This is actually pretty cool.

As I was looking at it things are changing for them in terms of the standard deduction.

It's higher for starters.

So that's an annual change.

The standard deductions increase a little bit every year because they are, indexed to inflation.

But what came into play this year is an extra they call it an enhanced deduction.

That's separate from the standard deductions that, most every taxpayer, with some income limits over age 65, will be able to receive that benefit.

And I'm looking here, it says that this is available for both itemizing and non itemizing taxpayers.

What does that mean.

Right.

So so many taxpayers probably most taxpayers today especially people who are 65 or older, they're going to take the standard deduction.

But you, you can also for certain taxpayers, they're still going to itemize, instead of doing the standard, they might have enough expenses like say interest expense, property taxes, things like that, that would cause them to itemize and take more than what the standard allows.

And even if they itemize, they're still going to get that extra $6,000 of senior deductions.

So it's it's very beneficial.

You get it whether you itemize or take the standard.

That's good to know.

And and just for the record, you would have had to turn 65 by December 31st, 2025 actually, by January 1st, 2026.

Okay.

So an extra day.

An extra day if you were a New Year's baby.

Lucky you.

Right.

Okay.

And if I could clarify one other thing here, this has been talked about as no tax on Social Security, but in the way that it has been implemented, it will be available to people that meet the other age requirements, regardless of whether they draw Social Security.

So someone who maybe is still working, and 6667, they would still qualify.

Or someone who draws retirement from other sources and not Social Security would also qualify.

Good to know.

An increase in itemized deductions for state and local taxes.

What does that mean for folks now?

Now we're moving away from seniors and we're talking about pretty much everyone, right?

Yeah.

So, I'll take that one to our RG.

RG did you hear the question?

You know, I'm not that familiar with that, that, that change in, in, the there were a number of changes in the big beautiful bill, but that is one that we in our particular tax clinic, we haven't put a lot of focus into because of the nature of the tax payers that we serve.

They tend to be low income taxpayers.

And so that particular issue is usually not going to come up for them.

Okay.

There are some energy efficient deductions and credits that are now being eliminated or capped.

RG yeah, that that is correct.

There are a lot of these, tax credits that were offered for, things like, energy efficient efforts.

Those, those are in the and I believe for this 2025 tax year, Julia might you might have something to add to that as well.

Sure.

I mean the the one line or I guess is that if you haven't already made those improvements, it's too late.

It's too late.

You had to finish them by the end of 2025 to be able to claim any kind of a tax deduction.

Does that include does it have anything to do with electric vehicles as well, or is that something totally separate so that provision was also eliminated.

But what we're talking about is those home energy efficiency, the windows, doors, insulation things that a lot of people would do.

Okay.

The 1099 K and 1099 Dia forums, I'm thinking that refers to people who are like contractors who, you know, folks who work under contract.

Is that right?

And what exactly is happening for them?

So I'll talk about those separately.

So the 1099 K is a form that is issued by payment processors.

So that could be anyone that accepts credit card payments for a small business or hobby or anything that they do, they could potentially receive a 1099 K from their point of sale system, or payment processing system.

It also could apply to people who receive a lot of money over, Venmo and Cash App.

Oh my goodness, PayPal, those kinds of things.

So the last couple of years, the government was signaling that a lot more people would have to receive this form.

But that has been rolled back.

So possibly fewer people will get that form in 2025 for 2025.

But the thing to know is that, that income might still need to be reported on your tax return, regardless of whether you receive a form.

This almost sounds complicated to me.

I guess it really it really depends.

Hopefully people have someone that's helping them that can really, walk them through all of this.

And that really takes me to my next question because we're, unfortunately, we're running out of time, and I'm not even getting to all of my questions, but RG, could you, explain what legal aid of Arkansas does to help people?

Right.

Well, in general, Legal Aid of Arkansas is a nonprofit law firm that serves the the legal needs of just underserved Arkansans.

We provide a number of different legal services.

One of those is through the low income tax payer clinic, which is what I am a part of.

And so we, we provide, tax services for, for taxpayers who are running into problems a lot of these, happen after the tax return is filed.

And that is the reason why these conversations that we're having today are so important.

Because it causes people to tend to file tax returns, do them on time, do them, do them correctly by connecting with organizations like Arkansas Asset owners.

Okay.

And that's so vital.

And it's let's talk about Arkansas asset builders.

Joy, I know you not only help low income, but moderate income as well.

So what is it that you're doing throughout the year to help people?

Yeah.

So we have three main ways that taxpayers can get help through our tax assistance programs.

One way is to come to one of our locations in person.

We have locations in Conway, little Rock, and Searcy.

And, if you come in person, you will get help from a trained volunteer who will prepare your tax return for you.

And that service is available for most taxpayers, up to $69,000 of income.

Then we can also connect taxpayers across the state with remote volunteers, through a website called Get Your refund.org.

We have volunteers who provide that same service of actually doing the tax return for you, but, it's not limited to getting to a particular location at a particular time.

Okay.

When does tax season start and when does it end?

So IRS filing season opens, this coming Monday.

Wow.

That means that, IRS will start processing your tax returns.

So if you have your favorite tax service that you've already started your return, maybe you finished it already.

But if you have, it's just sitting there being held until the IRS opens those processing doors.

And I want to thank both of you for joining us.

Thank you.

There's a lot of information to get through, and you probably have more questions.

You can get those answers@irs.gov irs.gov.

It's just that easy.

When we come back we're going to talk about this major winter weather blast that's headed our way.

Stay with us right.

Snow accumulations from four to as much as 12in are anticipated throughout the weekend, as well as sleet and that freezing rain in various parts of the state, creating hazardous conditions here to keep us informed on the latest weather projections and get us prepared for all of this and staying safe are Dennis Cavanaugh, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, and AJ Gary, director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management.

Thank you so much for being here to talk about this.

This is on the minds of all of us, every single one of us from the little kids who want to know if I can get out there and play to the adults, those of us who have to drive in and folks who are going to stock up on everything they need to get them through this weather event.

So, Dennis, I'm going to start with you.

Tell us about this Arctic blast that's sweeping across the United States and how Arkansas fits in.

Sure.

So, you know, Arkansas traditionally sits in that transition zone where we can get all the different types of of winter weather.

And that looks like we're that looks like what's happening right now.

This is a huge storm storm system that extends from the southern Plains all the way to the Atlantic coast.

Arkansas is sitting in that transition zone where the rain is changing to ice and southern Arkansas sleet, probably central, and then all snow north of that.

And there's going to be quite a bit of it.

So it's going to be a high impact winter storm for the state of Arkansas.

Oh my goodness.

So everybody is going to be affected one way or the other.

Whether it's straight snow or whether it's, you know, snow and ice.

You know, sleet as we refer to it will all be affected.

Dennis.

One more, one more thing with you as we tape on a Thursday, because I do want our viewers to know today is Thursday that we're taping.

And this this one runs on Friday.

So Friday, when can we expect the storm to hit?

Sure.

So what I think is going to happen on Friday is you could see some very light wintry precipitation in the morning, but we're not going to see enough wintry precipitation for impacts until Friday afternoon.

And that's going to really start in the western part of the state early Friday afternoon.

That's going to spread east throughout the day.

So by the late afternoon or early evening hours, those impacts will be spreading towards central, Arkansas.

And then eastern Arkansas is going to be much later in the evening.

So maybe 8 to 10 p.m.

before you get into the far eastern part of the state.

That's just when the impacts start, though, the heaviest precipitation, it looks like it's going to fall Saturday night just after midnight, or Friday night just after midnight on Saturday, leading throughout the throughout Saturday morning.

That's when the heaviest precipitation is going to fall.

But that is going to continue at least on and off throughout the day on Saturday into Sunday morning before the whole storm system actually stops.

Okay.

My goodness.

Wow.

Major impact here AJ, what should be on the checklist as we prepare, as those of us who are out here trying to prepare for this storm.

Sure.

So, you know, for the for the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, we work close with the National Weather Service, so we start a couple of days before a weather event moves in doing coordination calls, making sure everybody's kind of up to speed all of our state agencies and that we're close with our ArDOT for for individuals.

You know, the good thing, I guess, if there is a good thing, is the storm's going over the weekend.

So it's a great opportunity, you know, for for our citizens.

Get what you need before the weekend, plan on stay in and try to stay off the roads.

It could be snow, could be sleet, could be ice, but travel could be very dangerous in some areas.

Okay.

So you know, the other thing to ArDOT has a great app I drive Arkansas.

So if by some chance they have to get out, they can check the road conditions and and and tell what the roads are going to be like.

And I'm glad you brought that up because it's so easy to to go online and to look at that because it differentiates between, where there are snow, where there's ice, where it might be cleared and, and that is even with ArDOT, when they have cleared a road, you know, you will know if you can drive in it.

But the bottom line and we tell people this all the time, just don't drive in it, stay home, get everything that you need and just stay home.

And I guess enjoy it, you know, bundle up, spend time with family, read a book, let the kids go outside and play in the snow because you know they want to.

But I did want to ask you this because, from what I understand, those temperatures are going to get dangerously cold, right?

Yeah.

And so that's the other part of this system.

Once the precipitation stops, especially here in central Arkansas, where I think we're going to mainly get sleet, the temperatures are going to plummet.

So Sunday night into Monday morning, we're talking about starting the day Monday morning out in the single digits across the entire state of Arkansas, if not colder.

Some areas might be below zero.

And outside of just being brutally cold and folks in Arkansas aren't used to that level of coldness.

Whatever.

Whatever's on the ground, it will freeze 100% solid ice.

You just the sleet, however, it, you know, sleet or snow, whatever.

When the temperatures get that cold, it's going to freeze solid.

So whatever is not moved off of a road, it's going to be there on Monday.

It's going to be tough.

So so okay.

And we get that.

We understand that.

How long do you think we're going to be basically and I'm going to use the word snowed in or frozen in.

How long is that going to last.

Because that can shut cities down for a very long time.

Oh absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, temperatures are going to stay below freezing, all the way until Wednesday.

But we will see full sunshine on Monday, even though the temperatures are only going to get up to the mid 20s, that full sunshine by itself will be enough to start the melting process, especially any treated roads.

Those will start to melt on Monday, despite the temperatures staying well below freezing, and it's just the ground absorbing directly that solar energy that's going to cause the melting.

But the roads are still, unless the road has been treated by ArDOT, it's going to remain bad.

So ArDOT is going to keep most of the main highways clear.

I'm pretty confident in that.

But.

But I'm talking about the city.

It's a different story.

It's a totally different story.

AJ so now as we talk about this and ice and all of that and power outages, right?

I, I only sigh because that's the worst.

When it's cold you lose power.

Now you've lost heat.

All of this stuff.

How how do we deal with that?

And I would think, you know, hospitals and you know, I mean, we're talking a broad range of power outages.

At least the potential for that.

Yeah.

Very possible.

Especially with, more of the freezing rain, the ice, and that the brings the power lines down.

So again, we you know, when we say, you know, this is going to be over the weekend, people need to prepare that they could be out of electricity for for a few days.

So so how do you prepare for that.

You know, make sure you have the stuff you need.

You have the food, the water that you need.

Make sure that you have, you know, batteries for your flashlight.

Really want to caution people, make sure they have their smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors are workable and are working.

And be very careful if they use any other type of heating source.

In other words, you know you, don't you, to be bringing in, you know, propane tank and and burners and running them, you know, so just be very, very careful what they're trying to use any other type of alternative heating source.

But, you know, it may be one of those things where you, you bundle up and you stay inside and this being a major weather event, how is Adam Arkansas Division of Emergency Management.

How is Adam helping other entities to prepare to protect Arkansans.

Right.

So, you know, we start preparing early for this.

We look at, you know, we're we're used to doing this.

It's kind of we have storm systems, whether it's tornado or winter events.

So we're preparing for that.

We'll do coordination calls, you know, 2 or 3 days before the event and every day through the event, with all of our emergency managers around the state, with all of our state agencies.

So, Arkansas Department of Transportation is a is a big partner on this.

National Weather Service will brief us out on what's coming, what to be ready for.

We'll have, additional, you know, Arkansas state troopers will be out.

We also have, National Guard, what we call truck teams.

They will be out with the the different troops around the state so that if we do have some motorist stranded, we can help with that.

We can also help ambulances maybe get to a certain area.

So it's really coordinating all of the assets, all of the resources we have in the state and getting that out.

And if we have an impact, we have downed trees, we have downed power lines.

And then there may be some recovery stuff that we'll go into after the disaster or after the storm passes.

Well, one of the things I've always thought about and and my husband and I, we don't live very far from a hospital.

So, you know, places like hospitals and, and I'm thinking you have knowledge on this.

Do they get first dibs, if you will, when it comes to, you know, bringing back the power?

I mean, that's that's a place that definitely.

I know they have generators, that, that help them through.

But, you know, a generator can only last for so long.

And I've seen power outages go on for some people for at least a couple of weeks, maybe even longer.

It just kind of depends.

So who who who's targeted first by Entergy and other services like that.

So so we you know our hospitals in that, you know, they're supposed to have generators and so forth.

We have before help get fuel to some of those generators.

If they need to.

But yes, we have we know where a critical infrastructure is.

So we will communicate with energy.

And of course, energy is very much aware.

I mean, they do a great job working, you know, setting, setting things in motion before the storm comes so that they can have crews ready to go.

And, so, so they're, they're monitoring that.

They know where the critical infrastructure is and they're going to be looking at those life safety things to make sure that those are up and running.

Okay.

Well, like the saying goes, we're in this together and we'll get through it.

Right?

I mean, you feel pretty confident about that part.

It's just a matter of getting through it and people staying safe.

So I want to thank both of you for for being on.

I know if your job is only just beginning, at least with this part of it.

So I wish you the very best in terms of all that you have to do in the days ahead.

Thank you, thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Really appreciate it.

Yeah.

And hopefully Arkansans will know what to do.

Like we always do.

We pull together, we figure out a way to get through it, and we will.

This too shall pass.

As the saying goes.

And I want to thank you for joining me for Arkansas Week.

You stay safe out there and try to stay warm, and I'll see you next time.