Usually, by now, tax preparers have a good idea what type of changes are in store for those starting to file their income taxes.
Not this year.
Local tax preparer Lonnie Bennett says to thank the ongoing debate in Washington for that.
Bennett says income tax firms such as Bennett Tax Service have yet to receive the completed income tax forms and software they need to assist those ready to file and get their refunds.
"A large share of my clients fall into the poverty class or in the middle class," he says, "and probably half of them are used to getting money back by the middle to the end of January. They're probably going to be postponed until at least the second to the third week in February."
Bennett says one thing that will be different is the disappearance of the social security payroll tax deduction from 2011 and 2012.
That was allowed to expire at the end of the year, and was not part of the "fiscal cliff" talks.
