Take a deep breath, a drink, whatever calms you: It’s tax season.

If you have already filed your return and received a satisfying refund, congratulations! You are a lucky person, because many people are having a hard time this year.

Oddly, much of the pain comes from a shift that might seem pleasant: sweeping changes that, while providing a windfall for the rich, still amount to a tax cut for most Americans. But, combined with the longest government shutdown in history, the short-term effects of these changes have been surprisingly disruptive.

Early returns indicate that fewer people than usual have been getting the refunds they expected. That has created an excruciating spectacle: Many people who paid less in taxes every week are discovering that they owe money to the Internal Revenue Service. On top of that, residents of states like New York, New Jersey and California face a new cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, and won’t know whether their federal tax bill has gone up until they have slogged through their returns. What’s more, many tax preparers aren’t up to speed on all of the new breaks and burdens.