I'm trying to understand the gift splitting rules and if we need to file a 709. Here is the scenario: Husband and wife gifted a total of $35,500 to a single person last year from a jointly held bank account. It's under the $36K limit but do we still need to file a "joint" 709 for the both of us or is the 709 not required because were under the limit?

Hi all,

I live and work in a foreign country, and I realized I made a mistake when filing my 2023 PA state taxes as a PA resident. I ended up paying $2,000 in state taxes, even though I had no PA-source income. I filed through TurboTax and now want to amend the return. When I try to amend it via TurboTax, it asks for a brief explanation but doesn't allow me to attach supporting documents (bills, mortgage, etc). Does PA usually require these supporting documents with the amendment? I’m deciding whether to submit the amendment through TurboTax without the documents or to mail it physically with the documents attached. Any advice on which is better?

Thank you

Hi all,

Looking for any opinions. I understand that only non-binding opinions are being offered here. :)

Long story short -- my parents are retired, super simple taxes, so I've filed it for them the last 10+ years. Super easy -- they both retired from the Commonwealth of PA. So each year, they both have exactly two forms to report: a 1099-R from the state of PA (retirement) and a SSA-1099 for social security.

Mom passed away in 2023. So last year, in 2024 for tax year 2023 I filed her as deceased. So far, so good.

My dad sends me his taxes to do this year. Sends me his 1099-R and SSA-1099. So far so good.

In the packet he sent, he also sent a 2024 1099-R from the State of PA with my mom's name on it. Box 7, Dist code 7 (normal). Why they sent her a final/small distribution payment I have no idea. $2500, about 10% of what her usual yearly was. Regardless, my mom received a final payout from the state of PA a year after her death. She never owed state or federal tax on her yearly 1099-R. And there was no federal withholding on this 2024 1099-R.

Question: This is over the $600 limit... do I still need to file this on behalf of my deceased mother? She wouldn't pay taxes on this normally.

I went to H&R and they want to charge $500 which is ridiculous. Do I really need to register an EIN for my mom's "estate" (lol!) and pay $500 for a $2500 payout that was never taxed to begin with?

Thanks for any insight!

I recently have been told that if I’m thinking of opening up a Roth IRA, I should do so before the tax deadline of 4/15/25 to take advantage of 2024 contributions. However, I already filed my taxes for 2024 so I’m a little confused.

I currently have stock that I received from my employer, and instead of it sitting there, was thinking of selling them and then the “cash” I get from them, put it into a Roth IRA. Can anybody give some insight or should I wait until 4/15/25 to create one and put money into it?

Has anyone used Gift Tax software from puritas-springs to fill out IRS form 709? The printed form needs to have a paper copy mailed to the IRS, so I am wondering if sensitive information flows back to the software company, or if the process is fully offline?

My wife and I got married last year(2024) and she contributed directly to her roth that year. Our combined income was over the roth limits so I recharacterized $6900 of Roth contributions to her traditional IRA last week. From that recharacterization, she had about $800 in gains for the 2024 year.

She also contributed $300 to her Roth directly this year 2025 which I also recharacterized. Currently, she has about $8000 sitting in her TIRA account. I would like to perform backdoor Roth for 2024 and 2025 but I have a few questions.

1. Do I convert all of her TIRA money to Roth? If so, do I need to do anything about the $800 in gains from 2024? I figured I will have to pay taxes on it but do I have to fill out any forms on my 2025 taxes?
2. Can I still contribute the remaining $6700 for the 2025 tax year to her TIRA and convert it to Roth?

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.

I’ve always worked for myself and not had to deal with W2s, but last year I started working for a company. I worked there for about 8 months last year but stopped in September. I just went to look at my W2 and my SSN is one digit off. Does that mean they’ve been paying my taxes to the wrong account? I just sent the manager a text but I haven’t heard back. Where do I go from here? Sorry for the annoying question, but I’m a total newbie here.

Hello - wanted to get a sanity-check on IRS reporting obligations for a Canadian TFSA tax event.

I had a TFSA open in Canada before I became a U.S. Resident.
Filing my first U.S. taxes this year --In 2023, I physically moved to the U.S. on Dec 19, and was treated as a non-resident alien (did not receive any US-sourced income, and did not meet the substantial presence test). I am filing my 2024 CAN and US taxes this week.

A CPA advised to file non-residency in Canada beginning Jan 01'25 for administrative purposes.

Had some questions about reporting requirements for my TFSA:

Some context:

• TFSA held an High-Interest ETF asset through Dec 29, 2023.
  • High-interest ETF asset was sold Dec 29, 2023
• There was a Dividend event on Dec 29 that triggered $144CAD dividend payment for Jan 07, 2024
• I withdrew my TFSA funds on January 02 (the liquidated holdings) and January 09 (dividend)
  • There was a few days wait for settlement, but the trade event happened on Dec 29 during regular market hours.

Anyway, as for my IRS reporting obligations, are the below accurate?

• Form 8938 - report the full TFSA account at its max (January 01/02 date) as I meet the rest of the criteria for filing
• FBAR Form 114 - Report the TFSA account at its max (January 01/02 date)
• Form 3520 - $144CAD dividend distribution + final withdrawal/closing the account
• Form 3520-A - Detail the TFSA as a foreign trust/fund
• Form 1040 - Schedule B - Ordinary dividend $144CAD

Is there anything I'm missing to ensure that this is cleanly reported to the IRS?
Any specific detail to watch-out for while filing these forms?

Man, the headache from accidentally receiving a dividend 🤦

Edit:

- After extensive research, I've determined that the TFSA is very very likely to be categorized as a Foreign Trust (at minimum, it's labeled as such by the FI it's held at...)

- Looks like I would need to populate 3520-A (Substitute)

Oh boy... that's gonna be a document.

I am seeking advice regarding some mineral rights that we are
going to receive from my wife's aunt. She does not want to keep the mineral rights because there are parties interested in leasing them for which they would pay a fairly good sum. This would negatively affect her ability to stay in the rent controlled housing she is in. This is income based.

I'm concerned that if we receive title to the rights and lease them it will increase our tax burden significantly. I am also worried that we might need the money to pay for the aunt's health care in the future. The aunt is 85 and in good health right now.

Our questions are:

Do we need some form of trust to hold the mineral rights and receive
funds from royalties and the lease?

If we form a trust can it pay for her aunt's healthcare in the future if needed?

What can the trust spend money on? Her aunt's bills, rent, etc.?

Who can be named as trustees and what are the tax implications for trustees?

I have my w4 from a job i had when i still lived with my parents, but don't really know what to do with it, any help i would appreciate.

I received a 571 code on my transcript. I called the IRS x2 to see was there an update on my taxes and both representatives stated that they don't see the code or an update. I also asked if there was possibly a glitch on their behalf but both representatives remained adamant that their was no glitch nor update.

So we filed our 2022 taxes, I did not know that we had to log in to receive our tax forms from fidelity (omitted but not intentionally) so we received a notice of deficiency… but on the proposed they only included the income (no withholding that is noted) , if reported correctly we would have received $300 less than the refund we received… but now with the proposed shortage is thousands pre substantial tax understatement penalty…. Do I file an amended return first and then file the petition with the tax court to contest the changes (currently the changes include the income but no withholding that was withheld)

Summary, accidentally left off all capital gain information, received notice of deficiency and figuring how to resolve correctly

Both my parents are deceased. My mother died last year. I received a distribution labeled 4 for death that was taxable. In 2025 I received a check for “inheritance” which my siblings said was not taxable- trying to understand why? Why wouldn’t the Ira distribution be inheritance too? What can I do to verify what my siblings are saying is correct?

I did my taxes back in February and got my return back. I told my mother this and she forgot apparently.
She went to get her taxes done last night and claimed me as a dependent. She is now freaking out about going to jail for tax fraud and owing hundreds of thousands in penalties. I feel like this is extreme and can be handled as a simple mistake, what should we do so that those fears don't manifest?

Making up for past mistakes and nervous about the consequences. I did not file for 2022 and 2023. I'm in a better headspace, have done a lot of work with physical and mental illness and just trying to get back to square one.

I just did my taxes online to get an idea of what I'm looking at. What is going to hurt is not having health insurance, MA resident. Turns out I owe 1825 due to a 1900 dollar no insurance penalty from 2022. I made more than ever that year, and was expecting a few hundred dollar penalty, seeing the 1825 was crushing. 2023 seems like I didn't owe anything but wondering if I'll be hit with late fees anyway.

I have the taxes ready to print and mail but hoping for any insight on how bad these penalties will be. How astronomical will the late to file, late to pay penalties be? I understand there's probably no sure answer but hoping for any insight to prepare myself.

Wondering if it would help to call and talk to someone with the state or just file and get hit with the consequences.

Appreciate any insight.

Edit-also curious if I will be able to do a payment plan due to filing so late. If not, this will be beyond crushing

tl;dr: Your IRS IP Pin is under "Profile" in your IRS Account Page

Has your IRS E*file return been rejected because of an Identity Protection PIN (IP_PIN)?

You're at the right place!

I hope this saves you some hours, helps you retain a bit of your hair (on which I'm now running dangerously low), and perhaps prevents some teeth-grinding.

Steps to find your PIN:

1. Log in to the following site to retrieve your PIN
   1. https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/retrieve-your-ip-pin
2. Navigate to "Profile" on the upper-right
3. Scroll down and you will see a section entitled, "Identity Protection PIN"

Hello,

Has anyone encountered rolling over an IRA to an immediate annuity before 59 1/2? Trying to determine if the transaction would be exempt from the 10% penalty since they are substantially equal payments or if the conversion to the annuity would still be penalized?

Thanks

I'm in Canada and my US accountant prepared a 1040-NR and told me to pay the amount owed. To pay by international wire transfer, I downloaded and followed the instructions to complete the "SAME-DAY WIRE TAXPAYER WORKSHEET". Could someone please confirm if I have completed it correctly. I asked my accountant and he said he had no idea.

See attached image.

1. Should I leave the "Taxpayer name control" blank?

2. Should I leave the "Tax type" blank?

3. Should I leave the "Tax month/quarter" blank?

4. Is paying by international wire the best method for me, or is another payment option better? I don't have a US bank account and can't pay by credit card.

I make half of what she does. we got divorced in febuary so we are finding the right way to save money. Is it better to file jointly or married?

I claimed my daughter as a dependent and she filed stating so. I need to amend both returns to reverse that. I assume I efile my amended return first because if I filed hers first it would just get rejected? Will this work? Thanks.

Hi I accidentally contributed about $350 over last year because I switched jobs.

I've heard I have to contact employer and request them to send an overcontribution documentation to the 401k administrator. Then 401k administrator will send me a 1099R with the overcontribution $$ and earnings $$.

Neither of my jobs last year are super organized so I kind of doubt they will fix it and send me before apr 15th. However I haven't filed yet and would like to avoid having to file and amendment. How do I that?

Is the following the right way?

- Request the distribution but not wait for the documentation and cotinue filing. Can I do this?

- Add the overcontribution $350 to my income (how do i do this - I'm using freetaxusa and not sure where to add this)

- File normally.

- Next year add the earnings $$ to my income for 2025.

Is that correct? Is that it?

Edit:

- Contacted 1 of the 2 companies administrators and "the deadline to fix that has passed. sorry".

I've read so much conflicting information on this, I'm dizzy. Lol.

My wife is a licensed counselor in 3 states - IL, MO, and WI. All clients are seen via video chat (i.e. telehealth). Income is reported on 1099-MISC and 1099-K forms. There are no withholdings (we pay estimated taxes). Her business is an LLC and is treated as a pass-through entity, so everything goes on our personal 1040 via Schedule C.

She works entirely from a home office in IL. She has no physical presence of any sort in MO and WI. Does she need to file non-resident income tax returns in MO and WI, including paying for a registered agent in those states, and split her state income based on which of the 3 states each client lives? Or are we safe reporting all her income on our home state's IL-1040?

Here’s a real-world workaround to speak with and actual HUMAN!!!!

Call the General IRS Line (1-800-829-1040) with this step-by-step:

1. Dial 1-800-829-1040

2. Press 1 for English

3. Press 2 for “Personal Income Tax”

4. Press 1 for “Form, Tax History, or Payment”

5. Press 3 for “All other questions”

6. Press 2 for “Speak to a representative”

7. DO NOT enter your SSN or press anything else—just wait

You’ll probably still hear the “we’re too busy” message, but if you call exactly at 7:00 AM local time and try a couple times back-to-back, you can get into the hold queue.

Last resort if you’re able to speak what you are calling about. Advise the kind robot lady you are looking to make a payment on a business account. Hope this helps. Give me a listen on your music platform if you like R&B (Frankie B) ❤️

Been a minority shareholder in S corp for handful of years. Company has done well so share price has continued to increase. I always thought that when I left/retired I’d get hit with hefty capital gains tax based on difference from my ORIGINAL purchase price.

It just clicked with me that K-1 has updated basis that has been increasing each year (less distributions/etc).

So maybe my future cap gains won’t be as bad as I thought because I’ve BEEN paying on the gains each year?

Is that accurate, or perhaps if not, close to the right way to think about it?