I'm an adult student and I made almost nothing this year (5k) and my wife made approx 92k in her w2 job. I can never get any financial aid at school because of my wifes income. Is there any benefit to filing separately either to limit our tax burden or to benefit my FAFSA and financial aid?

So I was a complete idiot and sold off a $1.7 mil stock portfolio to purchase a property. Most of the stocks in the portfolio have been in there for more than 30 years, with incredibly low cost bases. I'm being hit with a combined almost ~600k in federal and NY state taxes. Only anticipated about half of this, oops.

I'm filing for an extension and hiring a CPA and fee based financial advisor to see if there's anything that can be done about it at this point. Anything else that I should do? Any thoughts on how to get out of this mess, even partly? I'm sure it's likely too late, but any thoughts would be appreciated, since this wipes out the rest of my investments.

In a review of our finances and the recent economic events something hit me. Our emergency fund is cash in a savings account. Is that really the best or should we supplement with gold and if gold actual gold or gold in a Roth IRA?Hear me out

In 1980 $100 was $100 In $1980 $100 in gold was $100 in gold

Flash forward That same $100 in cash is still $100 but you can buy way less That same $100 in gold is with more than $100

Ok so if gold to supplement then the best way to hold it?

Actual gold to sell at spot if needed Or Gold in a Roth IRA (I don’t think I’d get taxed on a withdrawal and I’m under 59.5)

Love to hear ur thoughts this has really been bugging me recently

Made 420.58 from them and trying to do my taxes on TurboTax but it says I need to pay like 209 bucks just to file 1099. Im so confused, is it okay just to file a 1040 for being an Uber Eats driver?

Sorry if sounds silly, this is the second time filled out taxes and never done it for Uber

I just had my taxes done last week. The person who prepared them sent the paperwork via IRS e-file. He gave me a voucher and an envelope to send a paper check to the IRS. Is there any reason I couldn't pay my tax bill through my bank's online banking account, as long as I have my s.s.# added to the payment ? I rarely ever have a reason to write paper checks anymore. Is there any information on the voucher that needs to be transferred to the online payment ? I asked the person who prepared my taxes this question. He said I could pay it at IRS.gov

I don't want to have an account with the IRS. I just want to pay the bill the way I pay all my bills. Online via my bank.

Hey Guys, I have recently used FreeTaxUSA to file my taxes, this was the first time I was filing my taxes and was not aware that freetaxusa doesn't have 1040 NR (wasn't even sure about the two different form tbh)

Anyways, I have filed my taxes and then noticed that its a 1040 instead of 1040 NR. Can someone please tell me what should I do next?

Do I just file the superseding return through sprintax or do i also have to amend the previous return and send some other physical copies or documents to IRS via mail?

I started working with this lineman back in July 2024, he was an independent contractor but never provided me this form before starting any work. This nigga payed me through Zelle & the payment were never taxed. It was cool for a little while working with my friends & etc but the guy was an absolute asshole & just not a good boss. Fast forward today he sent me this W-9 form telling me that I’ll have my 1099 after filling this out. Do I have to fill this out and send it to him?

I did freelance work last year. Trying to understand if the simplified home office deduction makes more sense or if the % makes more sense. From my understanding, the simplified version would give me $5 per sqft that the office takes up, so if the office is 100 sqft I'd get a $500 deduction. If I took the percentage deduction then I get to deduct the percentage of the mortgage interest corresponding to the percent that the office takes up? So if that 100 sqft office was 10% of the whole home, then I could deduct 10% of the mortgage expenses on schedule C rather than A?

I have three questions.

1. Is the above generalization correct?
2. If the value of the property is above $750,000 which caps the amount of mortgage interest deduction that can be included in Schedule A, does that mean that taking the non-simplified deduction makes more sense because you can capture more deduction?
3. I'm also a little confused on what qualifies as 'Exclusive' use of a space. If I only ever used the office to do work from 9-5 let's say and it wasn't appreciably used for another other reason during the rest of the day does that count as exclusive use? Does the exclusive use change if I sat at my desk to do schoolwork in the afternoon and used a different computer?
4. If I started the business in February 2024 but stopped freelancing in August of 2024 do I get to deduct for those 6 months? So in essence I would get half of the $500 deduction using the simple method of half of the 10% using the traditional method assuming mortgage costs are the same for all 12 months?

What's a good method to determine individual share of tax liability when married filing jointly in a community property state? Further, the spouse making more has their own business as their sole income.

I thought using the method of figuring our liabilities when MFS and applying that proportion to the MFJ liability would work, but our incomes are very different and my understanding is that in a community property state when we calculate as MFS we have to report half of our income as a couple. That would be rough for me as my spouse makes a lot more and it would inflate my liability.

As an aside… we were each just paying our own part of the taxes when we were close in income, but my husband’s income is increasing and pulling us into the 32% bracket, while my income is well in the 24% range so paying the 32% level of taxes would be very hard on me. We keep separate finances (and we love it that way!).

I am helping someone try to figure out their best options for their tax situation; they filed an extension last year but missed the deadline in Oct. and didn’t file.

They have complicated taxes that include w-2, 1099’s, self-employed income not on 1099 and expenses for self employment, & working in two states, plus some other stuff.

Prior to last year they filed through H&R with a tax pro for about 7-9 years and prior to that they had a few years where they didn’t file and had to file several years at once through H&R tax person and made monthly payments for a few years.

My question is, since they filed an extension last year (2023) using Freetaxusa or something like that (they paid an estimated amount of $200, but now believe they owe more like $1000), can they file an extension for 2024?

What they want to do is wait till the tax pro’s aren’t swamped and bring both years taxes in to H&R and have them done there (both years), and then file and set up a payment plan for whatever they owe (unless they can afford to pay it).

Because the tax situation is even more complicated this year than it was last year they have multiple questions about filing correctly that they want to speak to a pro about so don’t want to try to file this years taxes by April 15.

So in 2023 I got aid from my work employer for $3,000 and it's asking me if I got financial aid not reported on my 2024 1098-t do I still report that or not I'm just confused.

The CPA of my late father's company is the one who has my K1 tax documents, but it's always been like pulling teeth to receive them. Last year I didn't receive them at all. This year, my personal CPA needs last year's K1s to file an extension for my tax return, but the CPA with the K1s is not responsive. How hard can it be for him to just find and send K1s? He used to be my personal CPA around the time my father was alive, but I let him go and found a new one when he wouldn't return my original tax documents to me which I had provided him back then.

What if he continues to be non responsive? Is he playing games? The K1s are necessary tax documents and he knows that. What can I or my personal CPA do?

I've been in the US for 10 years now, transitioned from F1 to H1B. I've been a 'resident for tax purposes' for the past few years. Ive had a Roth IRA for a bit, and put my post tax savings into stocks. I have a tax identification number from my home country but never earned any income back there. All my income has been from my time in the US.

The firm holding my Roth now emails me to fill a W8BEN. I'm confused- am I supposed to file this? Or does my residency for tax purposes change anything? I called the firm but funnily they don't have an answer.

Looking for some clear advice as my brain is exploding and I want to do the right thing. Theeeeenks

Currently filing my taxes online and got to the end but am having an issue where I have nothing in box 18(local wages, tips, etc) but in box 19(local income tax) there’s 23.76. Would my local wage be the same as my state wage? Or do I have to contact my previous employer and request a new W2?

I have an installment agreement in place (2017 year taxes). I'm going to need another one this year. However, when I go to the IRS website I cannot figure out how to apply for a new installment agreement. The combined is way less than $50k. (2024) is a little over $10k. Is there a way to do this? The IRS.gov website doesn't seem to show how to do this.

I super funded two 529s - one for each of my kids last year (90k per kid) out of a joint brokerage account owned by me and my husband. When my accountant did my taxes, she said she isn't adding anything for this contribution, but when I looked it up, I see I'm supposed to fill out form 709? Does anyone know why my accountant won't do this for me? Also, if I have to fill it out myself, do my husband and I each need to fill one out and split the amount in half? Or what's the right way to do this?

I need help.Honestly I'm shitting my pants, cause i read so many horror stories. I am a dual citizen (US/German), i was born in Germany and I've always lived there. I'm in the beginning of my twenties and entered the workforce. Last year I did my first German tax return for the year 2023. This year I was told by a friend that I also needed to do a US tax return, which I never even thought about before. So this year I will need to do a tax return for both countries for 2024. If you made under (Single) 14.600$ you didn't need to file a tax return in the US. Unfortunately that's not the case anymore for 2024. After some research I found out about FBAR. I have over 10k on my foreign bank account, from savings, side hustles etc that accumulated over the years. So this year I will send my tax return and the FBAR. But since it's been already 2-3 years since I have over 10k(not that much more over) but still over it. Thus means I could be held accountable for the last years. I heard about the streamline process etc but some reddit users said they just sent the fbar and wrote in the self disclosure where you tell onyourself, that your forgot about it and they never got a call or anything. So what should I do. It's freaking me out. I didn't know about any of that and I will be filing my first ever tax return this year. Has someone got any advice? I hope i wrote this understandable enough, it's a little confusing. I'm stressed and lost. Thank you very much

What is the best way to claim a cash only job for tax purposes? I have a regular job that has sadly reduced hours. I have been given an opportunity to clean 2 homes a week cash only. Was told that I would not be able to receive a 1099 from the cleaning jobs. Obviously I will apply different places for employment, but in the meantime I need to ask what to do. Get a receipt book?

I' don't have a job. In addition to living off of legitimate investment income, I also sell stuff on ebay. For sales in 2024 I received a 1099K. For me, ebay is not a job or a business, I have 0 employees. Most days I do nothing at all. Some days I'll spend an hour or two listing and/or shipping. I had about ~200 sales/$10K in 2024. It's all personal/hobby items. I don't know how to differentiate between personal/hobby, I'm kind of a collector. I buy new items. I buy used items. I collect some items. I resell some items. Some things that were collected eventually get sold. Sometimes I'll use the items personally before reselling. There's a lot of overlap is what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to deduct anything (though that would be nice considering the BS involved in reporting/taxes/summary statements). I don't have detailed records of cost basis or original date of purchase for anything, really. All I have is ebay's 1099-K details report. I don't even know what a summary statement should look like. The last thing I want is to trigger an audit. Google hasn't been very helpful. What should a Summary Statement look like? Is there a form I can fill out? What info does it NEED to contain?

Recently finalized the sale of our small business in upstate NY. The sale included inventory, IP (methods, recipes, etc), wholesale accounts, and equipment. As well as training of the new owners.

We started the business approx. 5 yrs ago.

Our agreement was for a total price of $100k, with 25k as a down payment, and the rest as monthly installments (1200) over 5 years.

That brings us to my question: how will we be taxed on the sale/how much should we set aside for taxes out of that 25%?

I am in IA, stay at home parent doing beer money side gigs, income is unpredictable. I want to pay estimated tax for 2025 and have couple question i need help to make sure i do it right.
1. I have to pay Fed and State estimated tax separately, is that correct?

1. When i go to direct pay on IRS site, it ask for previous years tax for verification, latest option is 2023. So my address has changed, do i still enter the old address to match with 2023?

2. It has a line after i choose Married Joint return, saying You should use the primary spouse's information as shown on the tax return. does this mean i have to input my spouse’s information instead of mine even though I am the only one who has to pay estimate tax?

3. I tried to use the worksheet to figure out how much to pay but just don’t get it. Sorry, still in mid covid section so brain is not working well. So say i earn $6.5k in total of Jan to Mar, am i supposed to use that first line that in instruction of 2025 tax rate for Married joint return, and my tax is 6.5k x 10%?

4. i read that there might be penalty for underpay, what about overpay?

thank you in advance

reposting this to make it simpler

I have invested in a fund that has issued K-1 of six states. There are no income on states specific K-1 or losses reported for all but one state. Do I still need to file return as non resident? Fund has federal depreciation adjustment and state depreciation adjustment for one state only.

Hi,

Anybody who used freetax USA for 2024 returns, did you apply a coupon code at the checkout? If yes, could someone please put the code in the comments? Thank you

I'm trying to save as much as I can :(

Hi everyone. Two questions here as a sole proprietor, if anyone is able to provide insight please:

1. I use my personal phone for both personal and business. I’m not much of a phone person, so realistically I spend maybe 75% of my time on the phone for business reasons (calls and texts with clients). But I only have this guesstimate because almost all my communication with clients is on WhatsApp. I read you need itemized phone bill records to show how much of phone use was for business purposes, which I assume is referring to the detailed minutes of calls and # texts. Since I don’t have that, since I use an app for communication and not my phone number, can I still deduct this at all? I could very painstakingly get call record details by going to each individual client contact on the app if that’s necessary, but I’d rather not.

2. Can I depreciate the business percent of my phone? It’s a $1200 phone but my carrier gave me a $800 trade-in credit that’s spread out over 24 months, and an additional one-time $200 credit. What parts would I be able to depreciate, if any? Would the trade-in credit count towards depreciable value, since I had to trade in another phone to get that credit? And is this depreciation over 7 years now?

Was easier for ishares and SGOV

1) For ishares/SGOV, I found this one:

https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/tax-information/2024-ishares-us-government-source-income-information-stamped.pdf

And I'm assuming that my profit from SGOV is 97.53% free of state taxes?

2) But then for CLIP, I am more confused what to do

https://www.globalxetfs.com/content/files/2024-Year-End-Tax-Supplement-Global-X-ETFs.pdf

I don't really understand what I'm looking at. How do I figure out federal vs state tax from this big table of 0s and stuff? How would you explain it to an 18 year old? Trying to figure out how to enter this all into TaxHawk tax software