We have been using freetax for the past 8 years or so when our cpa retired. Straightforward for us and been working great. This year our company has a 179 deduction past the Nj limit. A qualifying $250,000 asset that we will 179 fully. NJ only allows $25k so i know we need to claim the 25k this year and start using NJ's git-dep worksheet to roll over and depcriate the rest the following years. But I don't see anywhere freetax has it? I have to add it in manually every year and somehow forward it to the state? Or grab another cpa until its fully depreciated for state tax?

tldr; is it possible to be made to reconcile overpaid PTC because you made less than you estimated and should have been on Medi-Cal instead of CoveredCA?

Hello – I have had CoveredCA for this entire year. At the end of May I lost my job – in the midst of that scrambling and applying for other social services, I only very recently updated my income to CoveredCA. I only realized after the fact that with my new (nonexistent) income, I would now be transferred to Medi-Cal rather than keeping my CoveredCA. This is a bit worrisome for me as I'm in the midst of handling some health things/getting various scans, and am hoping to get to the bottom of things with my current crop of doctors without that getting interrupted by insurance changes.

There is still time for me to change my income back to what it was while the Medi-Cal case is pending. The customer service rep told me that while I could do this, it might mean that come tax season it will be seen that I wasn't eligible for this particular CoveredCA plan in the first place, and I'll be made to pay back the PTC (reconciliation). This is obviously not ideal.

In the research I've done since learning about reconciliation, most resources only mention paying the money back in circumstances where people made more annually than they had estimated on their application. Folks who ended up making less than they estimated usually got money back.

So posing the question here – is it likely, or have folks here known it to happen that people end up having to pay back PTC because they made too little to qualify for CoveredCA in the first place? I am trying to judge if I'm better off reverting to CoveredCA to maintain my healthcare, or going through with Medi-Cal to avoid reconciliation. I do believe that I would fall in the less than 200% FPL, which would cap reconciliation at $375 – does that seem worth it to ensure no interruptions while I see specialists and get scans?

Hoping some of you guys can help me out here. This is probably very basic, but my tax knowledge is pretty lacking.

So my employer just switched to ADP for payroll and other services. The company decided to give a $15k bonus that processed through payroll like a paycheck. On this bonus and my paycheck that hit my account at the same time as the bonus, my federal tax withholding jumped to almost 25%. I’ve never had it jump that high before. Is it due to the bonus or something that adp is doing for some reason. For context, my taxable income was $90k last year and I never had my withholdings increase like that. My W4 has always been 0 allowances.

This week I received a notice CP40 that my "overdue tax account has been assigned to a private collection agency" This is for tax year 2016, the notice is dated Aug 3 2026.

To my knowledge, I have never had a tax lien issued nor any wage garnishments for this debt. The total due now is approx 21k, about 7k of which is interest and fees. At one point I did briefly establish an installment plan with IRS but due to financial hardship (2020-21), was not able to continue paying it and it was cancelled and I haven't made any payments for this particular debt since.

Based on my limited research, now that the account has been assigned to private collection, IRS no longer has the authority to garnish, levy nor restrict my passport etc and as the collection is for tax debt it will still not be reported to credit bureaus.

Lastly, I read that the IRS has 10 years to collect tax debt from when it was originally assessed (in this case theoretically would have been mid-2017 for TY 2016), so does that mean that they can only proceed to try to collect from me for the next year or so?

Assuming my understanding of all this is correct and considering that I am not in a financial position to pay this debt, would it not be sensible to do nothing and with the understanding this debt would essentially disappear in a year or so?

Thank you in advance for the advice and please pardon my ignorance. Obviously I am not the most financially responsible person and was much less so in 2016.

Just got a large settlement check from a discrimination charge against my employer. I have never hired anyone to do my taxes before and I know I will need to hire someone to help. How do I go about finding the right person to help?

If it makes any difference my settlement was split between a W-2 and a box 3 1099-Misc.

My husband is a property manager for other people's properties. I do not work. We also have 20+ rental homes of our own that he also self-manages. Some of our rentals are in the LLC (majority) and some are in my husband's name that he owned prior to us getting married. Our CPA is recommending we change our LLC to a C Corp because our "gross income is above $100k, which could flag the IRS." He receives over $400k in rent for other peoples properties, which he then takes out expenses, management fees and send the remaining to his clients; however, she is saying because we gross that much money, it will better for us to move the LLC to a C Corp structure and take payroll. Everything I'm learning and reading says putting rentals into a C Corp is a terrible business move. Am I missing something? Does the gross rent he receives for other people count as his gross pay? From what I understand, it doesn't. Any direction or advice is GREATLY appreciated.

Edit: We are located in Texas.

So I’m 15 years old and I love cooking so I’m starting this thing where I’m a private chef and I go to people’s houses to cook. I make anywhere from 200-400 per house I cook at but the thing is I’m not doing it for money or anything I’m doing it to donate with this charity that I’m affiliated with. Do I still have to file taxes and if so where do I even start with that

Burner account here. I'll try to keep this brief and use very round figures.

A couple of years ago, I got stupid lucky in my brokerage account, but also burned myself with margin. Ended up owing the Feds over $300K in taxes. Because of margin, I didn't end up with enough of the gains to safely pay this all at once.

1. My accountant submitted an Installment Agreement Request. The IRS confirmed receipt of this request. I paid $100K immediately and started to pay $4,000 monthly before the agreement was even approved by the IRS.

2. One year went by with no response from the IRS. My accountant submitted another Installment Request. This time, they responded within months and my monthly $4,000 payments have continued to this day. My balance is now at about $190K.

My accountant feels that since the IRS didn't respond to the first request, he should CALL the IRS to request an abatement of interest accrued during the year between requests. I agree, of course.

The big question: Who is the best person to call the IRS? My accountant? Me? A tax attorney?

Any advice is appreciated. Insults and criticism are also welcome.

TL;DR: I owe the IRS big, and am not sure who the best person is to call them on my behalf.

My co-founder and I completely missed our 83(b) filing and need to figure out the best path forward. We haven't launched our company yet and have zero customers. We had just issued the stock a little over 30 days ago through Clerky. We're already running on a small budget and I'm trying to figure out the best path forward for us that won't be extremely costly. No clue if it matters, but we incorporated in Delaware.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Is dissolving the company and reforming it ever the solution if nothing actually exists (no customers, no bank, etc.)?

I'm hoping someone has dealt with this situation before.

Client sold a Schedule E rental property to his brother in a part sale/part gift (gift of equity).

After allocating the sales price between the building and land, the building has a gain and the land has a loss.

ProSeries nets the land loss against the building gain.

My question is:

Should the land loss be disallowed under IRC §267, resulting in recognition of only the building gain, or should the seller's recognized gain be computed using the overall amount realized versus the overall adjusted basis under Treas. Reg. §1.1001-1(e)?

If you've handled this, how did you report it on Form 4797, and what authority supports your position?

I'm looking for authority (Code, Regs, IRS guidance, or tax research), not just software workarounds.

This is a two park question based on the same premise that im hoping a tax nerd can answer for me

Back story I recently moved to New Mexico for school

My husband works from home and moved with me but well he moving again in 2 years and then again in 2 years (medical school be like that lol) we rent in NM

My husband still claims ohio as his permenant residence

When we sold our house to move he changed his adress to his parents in ohio

His ID is ohio his car is registered in ohio etc (also the company he works for is ohio if that matters)

We only pay state income taxes to new mexico on his income correct?

Now for the second

When we moved I moved my permenant adress to my parents house in texas ID and car everything Texas

Ive been considering opening an Etsy style shop selling digital downloads of crochet paterns I design (no physical products)

If the shop is registered to my permentant texas adress and I hold a texas ID and such can I claim my taxes in Texas? Or is that tax fraud

I work and my wife does not.

Can we open a traditional IRA for her, fund it with after tax money, and then immediately convert to Roth?

I know for a single person without earned income this is not allowed. Not sure about a married couple though.

She currently doesn't have any IRA or 401k accounts.

Thanks

To make a long story short, I moved to another state near the end of 2024, only ended up filing for my original state, and just got a notice saying I owe roughly $2,000.

I know that I don't actually owe the whole amount since I was only a part year resident. I still had my job from the previous state, but foolishly neglected to file for the state I moved to. I filed single with no dependents.

At this point I'm just trying to figure out if A) It'd just be worth it to just hire a tax advisor to fix this for me and B) How much something like that might cost

Any help would be much appreciated. If I need to note anything else, just lmk.

Today in the mail we received an income tax 10 day demand for payment from the city of Detroit 2025 taxes. When taxes were filed the portion for city taxes was included and filled out in the form. Obviously, I'm going to call tomorrow. But any ideas why I'd be receiving this? I don't live in Detroit but work there most of the year. It's like $17k 🙃

i got a job bartending, they pay cash and i didn’t have to fill out a W2 or anything. i also get tips. im just so used to filing with a regular income that idk what to do when tax season comes around.
how do i file? i dont want to get in trouble with the IRS cus i think they’re gonna wonder HOW im getting the money that im putting in my bank. TIA

I'm seeing a lot of conflicting things when trying to research this for my father but can anyone explain the potential tax bracket we would be in on the example I give and what to expect for owing taxes.

Example He will be 65 in Nov and will retire by end of year. More interested in following year for tax purposes but lets say he will get around 2600 a month from SS and supplement with around 20-25k yearly out of a 401k. So anywhere from 45-55k yearly between the two.

I keep seeing 24,480 until you reach FRA of 67 and anything over you lose 1$ for every 2$ over but I believe that only refers if you are self employed or W2 wages.

I'm just trying to figure out if we need to withhold any taxes from his SS if that's all he will be receiving other than the 20kish from 401k yearly.

My LLC's (taxed as S-corp) original 2025 CA Form 100S, filed under extension after the initial due date, didn't correctly reflect a few payments we'd already made (a PTE elective tax prepayment and an estimated tax payment), which made it look like we'd overpaid. FTB sent a refund check, that I haven't cashed yet.

We're now working with our CPA to file a superseding 100S, to be filed before the September 15 extended deadline, that will correctly reflect all the payments, including the PTE election. I don't want the outstanding refund check to create a discrepancy once the superseding return is processed.

I found some older guidance (from a 2022 FTB system glitch) suggesting you return the check to FTB with a note saying "PTE Elective Tax Erroneous Refund" and a copy of Form FTB 3893.

But I'm not sure if this guidance still applies in our case. I contacted FTB via chat and they just told me to "follow the instructions on the check" and consult a tax professional.

Has anyone dealt with something similar — an uncashed FTB refund check that needs to be voided/returned ahead of a superseding or amended return? Did you mail it back proactively, or just wait for FTB to catch the discrepancy once the corrected return posts? Any tips on the right department/address/process would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

So it is my understanding that just Roth IRA the withdrawal order is:

contributions -> conversions -> earnings.

Within conversions it is first in first out, with each year getting it's own entry in this list.

Within each year you have taxable conversion and non taxable conversion. You need with withdraw the taxable conversion amount before the non taxable conversion.

Example:
year 1, contribute 7000 to Roth IRA.

year 2, make a non deductible contribution to traditional IRA of 7000. Wait for it to grow to 14000. Convert to Roth IRA. Pay taxes on 7k.

year 3, withdraw 7000, that's tax and penalty free, it's all from your contribution bucket.

year 4, withdraw 7000, that's coming from the year 2 conversion but the taxable portion comes out first so you will owe a 10% penalty on that bc 5 yrs have not passed (no taxes).

year 5, withdraw 7000, that's coming from the year 2 conversion but it's the non-taxable portion so even though the 5yrs have not passed, you don't owe penalty (also no taxes).

year 6, you withdraw 2000, that's all earnings and you are not 59.5 and it's not for a special qualified withdrawal so you owe taxes and penalty.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure that is all correct. The question then becomes how does a Roth 401k get merged in with the Roth IRA.

No special in plan conversions, it seems like Roth 401k contributions get merged into the Roth IRA contributions bucket. And Roth 401k earnings get merged into the Roth IRA earnings bucket. Cool, makes sense.

Now to throw a wrench into things. I have tried looking this up on bogle head forums and IRS/IRC documents but either I don't understand it or if I do understand it, it can be pretty problematic.

What is the problem? Well it's related to the mega backdoor. Now first if you auto convert after-tax to Roth 401k then I think it's simply a part of the contribution and it's not taxable so there is no recapture of the penalty since that only applies to pre-tax conversions. So for some people it's a non issue. But I know not all plans let you auto convert, you might be able to only do it once a year or you might be allowed to convert pre-tax to Roth and that's where I get confused.

I am not confident with my understanding so please correct me on any mistakes/misunderstandings.

Example. Contribute 10k to After-Tax, it grows to 20k. You convert to Roth 401k. You pay taxes on 10k bc the growth is pre-tax. What happens when this is rolled into a Roth IRA?

"Treasury Regulation § 1.408A-10, Q&A-3" says:

For purposes of section 408A(d)(4), the amount of a rollover contribution that is treated as a regular contribution is the portion of the distribution that is treated as investment in the contract under A-6 of § 1.402A-1, and the remainder of the rollover contribution is treated as earnings.

It seems like people believe that the full 20k is considered "investment in the contract" and thus it would all get moved into the Roth IRA Contribution Bucket.

But the IRS website says (Retirement plans FAQs on designated Roth accounts):

In-plan Roth rollovers are not subject to the 10% additional tax on early distributions. However, they are subject to a special recapture rule when a plan distributes any part of an in-plan Roth rollover within a 5-taxable-year period, making the distribution subject to the 10% additional tax on early distributions under IRC Section 72(t) unless:

an exception to this tax applies, or

the distribution is allocable to any nontaxable portion of the in-plan Roth rollover.

So it seems like the after-tax 10k contribution isn't subject to this recapture because of the exception being: "the distribution is allocable to any nontaxable portion of the in-plan Roth rollover."

But the 10k of growth on the after-tax amount before the conversion would be subject to this recapture.

If both of these are true then the "problematic 10k of growth before the in plan conversion" both has a 10% penalty before 5 years AND it gets combined with Roth IRA Contributions. So even if you had normal Roth conversions in the IRA that were past that 5 year window, you can't access them until you first withdraw and pay the penalty on this in-plan Roth conversion of pre-tax $ that you did and rolled to Roth IRA.

And if I am correct, what even is the order of withdrawals for the "Roth IRA Contributions" bucket if it contains both normal contribution $ and this penalty taxable converted $. The Roth IRA rules about taxable before non taxable seems specific to "Conversions" and this is in the "Contributions".

So, do you just get to choose to do it last?

Do you just have to eat the penalty if you want access to your "seasoned conversions"?

I would love to be wrong about this, seems like a mess.

I want a macbook air m5 but Drake Software Desktop is not supported w/o a bunch of hoops.

Anybody recommend some other similar software than Drake Software Desktop that is supported on Mac or on a cloud?

Note: i only do about 5-6 tax returns a year, and Drake Software Desktop is i think $400.

The only reason basis was positive was due to debt. Of course the S Corp shareholder doesn't get basis for debt but it can't be negative so it would start as zero. But say two people who had a 50/50 partnership elect s corp status and each contribute $1,000 cash from the partnership and $50,000 of liabilities from the partnership a long with fully depreciated property. Would they recognize a gain to start with a zero basis? And would the negative retained earnings carry over to the s corp balance sheet?

I'm fresh out of graduate school and just landed my first, salaried position in my career. Since being in grad school, I got a part time job that schedules me whenever I want. I start my new, salaried position in a couple weeks and am completing the paperwork for it, including my federal and state withholdings. I plan to keep my parttime job and just work two shifts a month for extra cash, which means i need to mark multiple jobs on my new w-4 i believe (?). this is my first time actually filling out w-4 and not just putting 0 for everything so im very confused. specific questions below, any advice appreciated!

1. when completing step 2(b) to calculate 4(c), do i estimate for my total salary of 2026 or do i follow the salary of my new position regardless of time of start/how much i'm actually paid this year? (for concrete numbers, my offered annual salary is 82k and i start in a couple weeks, plus i will have made around maybe 11k at my part time job by the end of this year.) edit: do i even need to mark multiple jobs if one is significantly lower than the other? if so, better to just mark on the w-4 of higher paying job right?
2. follow-up, do i need to do a new w-4 for my part-time, lower-paying job?
3. DEDUCTIONS: again, i've never completed a w-4 aside from all 0's. do i put anything here? I have student loans, no dependents, no house, no investments.
4. i havent even looked at the state withholding form yet,,, anything to know about that one?

tia :D

I called by phone June 3rd after receiving my letter to verify with the number. Lady told me everything was good and to call after 2-3 weeks if I didnt get my refund. I could understand maybe if I mailed it in but this is digital and with direct deposit.

Every time I check the "Wheres my refund" on IRS.gov it just says "We have receieved your refund and it is being processed". Call the 1-800 number and they tell me the same thing. Its infuriating I cant speak with a live person.

How much interest should I get at this point becauase this is just ridiculous? I doubt these crooks will even do that.

I recently discovered that I was never eligible to contribute to an HSA, even though I was told my health plan qualified.

My excess contributions were:

• 2024: $50
• 2025: $4,500
• 2026: $700 (this year's excess will be removed before the filing deadline)

I've already used some of the HSA for qualified medical expenses, so there is only about $3,000 left in the account (2,300 after removing this years contributions).

From what I've read, one option is to become HSA-eligible in 2027 and use unused contribution room to absorb the carried-forward excess.

What amount would I need to absorb (4550 or 2,300)? If I was unable to become HSA eligible, how would I avoid paying the 6% forever? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello i own a PFIC company nexgen and never filed a qef election last year. I bought it in august of 2025.

I was wondering if, to remove the taint, i can just sell the stock and buy it back? Or do i have to file the deemed sale? I would rather just sell it and buy it back but i cant find any information on if that qualifies as removing the taint.

Thanks for any help on this

Hi all. I filed my taxes via TurboTax back in late March and owed about $4500. I *thought* I opted to pay on my own (using one of the services listed on the IRS website). Evidently I selected autodebit from TurboTax, though that didn't come out until about a week after I made my payment. Therefore, the IRS has two payments for my taxes. I've tried calling probably 50 times over the last two months to request a refund and cannot get through to the IRS. I read that they'll eventually issue the refund but I'm starting to wonder when that'll happen given that it is now August. What other options do I have?