ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The pandemic brought some changes to tax laws which can be confusing to keep track of.

Peter Messner knows firsthand how complicated tax season can be. As a business owner, he turned to an accounting firm to sort through the information for him.

“I’m so involved with the company,” Messner said. “There’s three different accounts. Jim handles it and does returns for other family members.”

Jim Schnell, a partner at Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co., works with Messner’s company. He handles both business and personal taxes. Schnell says this is one of the busiest times of the year for him.

“There’s two times out of the year, January 15 to April 15 and August 15 to October 15," Schnell said. "[It’s] a three-month busy season in the winter and spring.”

Schnell says people filing taxes for 2021 should pay attention to three things.

“Unemployment income and its taxation,” he said. “Stimulus payments were in 2020 tax year and were reconciled last year on the return. This year the advanced child tax credit payments were made and now need to be reconciled.”

At the end of the day, Schnell says services like TurboTax will work just fine for the average person. But if you have a business or investments, he says it doesn’t hurt to reach out to an accounting firm.