AMNA NAWAZ: Tax Day, the deadline for filing your taxes, is tomorrow.

And the president and Republican lawmakers are trying to draw voters' attention to new tax cuts and increased deductions approved last year in the so-called One Big Beautiful Act.

But with the war, higher prices for gas and other economic costs, some polls suggest many Americans don't feel they're benefiting much from the new law.

Stephanie Sy gets some detail now on what's changed.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, one of the main things the new law did was keep in place many tax cuts established back in 2017 that were due to expire.

But it also included some significant changes, including a boost in the standard deduction to $31,500 for married couples filing jointly and $15,750 for single filers.

A new senior bonus deduction for people 65 and older worth up to $6,000 a person.

A big jump in the deduction for state and local taxes known as SALT.

That's back up to a cap of $40,000.

New limits on taxes on tips capped at a deduction of $25,000, as well as new deductions for overtime.

Eligible workers can now deduct up to $12,500 of overtime pay.

To help walk us through some of these changes, I'm joined now by Andrew Duehren, who covers tax policy for The New York Times.

Andrew, let's just jump right in because there's a lot.

Some of these policies really do seem significant, the senior bonus, the raising of the SALT deduction.

But I also understand from reading your reporting that there are limitations on how much the average taxpayer may benefit.

So who really stands to gain the most from these changes and who might not get the impact that they're expecting to get in their refund?

ANDREW DUEHREN, The New York Times: Yes, so, it's a great question.

I think one of the main things, obviously, these tax cuts depend on whether you're eligible for them in the first place.

So something like the senior deduction, for example, only people who are 65 and older will be able to benefit from that.

But more broadly across all of these tax cuts, the biggest winners are going to be people who have made enough money to have income and therefore taxes to cut in the first place.

All of these changes are structured as deductions, which means that people who already make below the standard deduction or who do not have any taxable income to begin with, these are the lowest of low-income Americans, they won't gain anything from these tax cuts, because they don't pay any federal income taxes to begin with.

So, yes, there are lots of specific rules for all of these tax cuts.

It depends on, obviously, if you earn tips or work overtime, but, in general, you need to have taxable income to be able to benefit from them.

STEPHANIE SY: And we're going to get into some of those details in a moment.

But, in general, Andrew, on average, are people going to see bigger refund checks this year than they did in years prior?

ANDREW DUEHREN: Yes, so far, again, despite all of the ins and outs and the rules, the average refund so far this year has been larger than in the past.

The average size -- the average refund is about 11 percent bigger this year compared to last year.

And that does reflect these changes that Republicans made last year.

So, again, there are rules and there are restrictions on these tax cuts.

But for the people who do qualify, they are still seeing in some cases potentially significant tax savings as a result.

And so it's a mixed landscape.

There are definitely -- it's uneven in terms of some people maybe seeing big savings.

Some people may not be seeing anything.

But, overall, the average refund has gone up.

STEPHANIE SY: How much are these potentially bigger refund checks being offset by other rising costs?

We see higher gas prices right now.

There have been cuts to welfare programs and higher medical insurance.

What is your reporting telling us about the importance of these tax cuts in relation to other parts of Trump's economic agenda?

ANDREW DUEHREN: Yes, so, certainly, they are just a piece of things.

And there are other costs that are going up.

You mentioned gas prices.

There are also higher costs across the economy, in part because of the tariffs that President Trump has imposed over the course of his administration.

There have been some studies and some estimates from economists that the total amount of economic relief or dollars that go into the economy from this tax season are roughly the same as the extra costs that are being imposed by higher gas prices since the war in Iran started.

And so, overall, there might be kind of a net-net no change basically in terms of stimulus to the economy.

But for individual Americans, it will depend on their situation.

So for folks who got particularly big tax refunds, they may kind of come out on the positive.

For folks who don't drive much, maybe higher gas prices are not as significant.

But then there will be people who maybe do drive a lot and maybe didn't see any -- much change on their taxes, and this could be overall a negative for them.

STEPHANIE SY: Well, a lot of the people we're talking about this tax season is people who receive tips.

And that has received a lot of attention, Trump's policy on supposedly tax-free tips.

That, of course, reached a fever pitch yesterday when the president received a special DoorDash delivery at the White House.

Let's replay that.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The reason for this is the fact that I heard you picked up an extra $11,000 that you didn't think you would -- because the tax bill was so big.

The refund was the biggest you have ever had.

Is that a correct saying?

SHARON SIMMONS, DoorDash Driver: It definitely was.

DONALD TRUMP: Wow.

SHARON SIMMONS: Yes, I saved over $11,000 by not having the claim.

DONALD TRUMP: Was that surprising to you also?

SHARON SIMMONS: It was very surprising.

STEPHANIE SY: Sharon Simmons there, the so-called DoorDash grandma, Andrew, she's receiving a lot of attention for what she did and did not say in that exchange, which was clearly staged.

But let's focus on those tax deductions for tips.

And I should say, by the way, Simmons clarified in an interview I heard today that she makes $11,000 in tips a year.

That's not the amount she's claiming to have saved in taxes.

But, Andrew, what should we know about this policy and is it what the president is billing it as?

ANDREW DUEHREN: Right.

So, I guess, first off, I mean, definitely, this policy could result in significant tax savings for people like the DoorDash grandma, who much of their earnings takes the form of tips.

For them, they might be able to save -- if you are -- if you have $11,000 in tips, I mean, that could still translate into several thousand dollars in tax savings, kind of depending on the rest of your tax situation.

That said, there are some things about this tax break that aren't what they seem.

I mean, President Trump has called it no tax on tips, but that's not really the policy that Republicans passed.

So, even for people who can claim this tax break, they will still be paying taxes on their tips.

They will still owe payroll taxes on their tips.

They may still owe state income taxes on their tips.

And so it's not a complete and total exemption from taxes the way that President Trump likes to describe it, but it could still and can still result in significant tax savings for the people who are able to deduct their tips.

STEPHANIE SY: OK, we will have to leave it there.

That is Andrew Duehren with The New York Times.

Thank you.

ANDREW DUEHREN: Thanks for having me.