My boyfriend had roughly 33k in debt, I was able to file the OIC paperwork without any professional help (other than very nice redditors). After a year of prep and research, it took about an additional 8 months since sending all the paperwork to the IRS to get the official acceptance 🎉 luckily he does not have any assets and is low income. Here to advocate that if you are in a similar low income situation it is possible to file yourself and get approval!

Hello,
I had my rental property painted this summer, but I was unable to obtain an invoice from the painter, who is an individual contractor. I also do not have his SSN or EIN information.
In this situation, am I required to issue a Form 1099? If so, how can I do that without having the necessary tax identification information?
Thank you.

I received IRS Letter 6174 (not 6174-A to be specific) about crypto taxes. I am confident this is just a letter sent out to all people who have had an account with Kraken because the US government made Kraken share info with the IRS about people who have an account.

I made an honest effort in reporting my crytpo transactions. I didn't have too many so it wasn't that difficult, and I think I made an accurate reporting as short and long term capital gains. I may have been off by a few pennies, its difficult when your asset is something like 4895.92909938 and not 5000 shares. I am not too concerned with this part.

However, in the crypto sphere, which I am no expert in, sometimes there are random drops of "free" crypto currency. To make a comparison, if you own bitcoin you may get a few free XYZ tokens of some random crytpocurrency, which I have received. However I never sold those, and I never reported those. Their value was always less than $50.

I also just logged in and noticed a few random transactions that were made in my account related to these random free drops. They are exchanges back in forth with Ether. I honestly don't know what this is about since I didn't do the transactions myself. But they were all essentially $0, like $0.0000004673. I wasn't even aware of these so I also didn't report those.

In your expert opinion should I go back and make an amended return for these random transactions?

Hi all, so my spouse owes taxes from 2023,2024 but he's been on an installment plan. For 2025, we filed jointly since we got married.

He for some reason thought 2025 was part of the installment plan he's been paying (which was not) and now we're trying to fix the late payment issue.

We're trying to fill out 433D and have some questions.

1. For payment info, do we only put 2025 taxes owed or do you put EVERY taxes owed from 2023,2024,2025?

2. Since he filed 2023,2024 alone & we filed 2025 together, by filing 433D together, will both parties be responsible for all the years? or does it stay separate?

Thank you.

I own a electrical contracting LLC, sole proprietor business in Washington state .When I goto file in april do I subtract everything I spent on materials and gas and permits before I enter my total, or does the IRS tax me for my gross intake for the business.

Hello,

I am new to US Taxation. My employer is deducting 401k contributions. I learnt that I can do backdoor ROTH up to $7500 on top of 401k limits. Can I deposit 7500 in Rollover IRA and convert it to backdoor ROTH? Is the backdoor ROTH available to everyone or only few eligible folks can do it?

Additional Question - My wife earns $9000 per year. Can she also contribute to her own IRA and then convert it to ROTH IRA?

Additional Information

• Location - California
• Salary > 200k Base
• Tax Status - Married filed Jointly.
• I talked to Fidelity and they said I can do it
• Using rollover IRA because I have that account with Fidelity with $5.85 balance. and as I understand I will have to pay taxes on this amount when I convert full amount to backdoor ROTH.

Anything

( i know i asked a similar question in the past but please bear with me)

I have a W-2 job with a 403(b) and a separate sole proprietorship with a Solo 401(k).

Suppose my side business earns $3,000, with $100 in business expenses. Based on the applicable IRS calculations, suppose I'm eligible to make a $539 employer profit-sharing contribution.

My specific question is about the source of the money: If I've already spent my side-business earnings on living expenses, can I contribute that $539 using personal savings accumulated from my W-2 salary or previous years' savings?

In other words, must the actual dollars contributed come directly from my business revenue, or can I use personal funds as long as I have sufficient eligible self-employment compensation to support the contribution?

I understand that the contribution limit is based on eligible compensation. I'm specifically asking whether using personal savings to fund an otherwise permissible employer contribution is allowed under IRS rules.

I moved to NY from Canada this year and looking for a CPA for my taxes. I talked to one today and he is asking for $2,200 for the US taxes and $500 to $1000 CAD ($370 to $713 USD) for the Canadian taxes. Is this a good price or should I keep looking?

So, I messed up and need advice for upcoming tax season. I opened a custodian Roth IRA for my then one-year-old son in 2022. I have since contributed $1250 in 2022 and $100 in 2023 (and no further contributions). I recently found out contributions need to come from my sons eligible income (not mine) and since he was only 1 and 2 years old when I contributed and doesn’t have any income I realize now that this is not allowed. The account is with Fidelity, so I submitted a “IRA Return of Excess Contribution Request” form for each deposit through Fidelity and am waiting to hear back. How much will this affect us at tax time and what extra steps do I need to take?

I called CA FTB to request waive penalty on late tax payment. They told me to pay the interest and penalty first, then fill out form 2917. If they approve my form 2917, they will send me a refund of the penalty.

Anyone has gone through this process? How long does it take CA FTB to send me refund after I send them form 2917? I have heard many stories about CA FTB not being responsive.

I am surprised that CA FTB seems very difficult compared to IRS...

Thanks.

Hi
We have a small business to match helpers to families. I’m looking to start a referral program for the helpers to bring on more helpers. Note- these helpers are not my employees - I am simply a matching platform. For the referrals who convert I want offer $50 gift cards to the referee not to exceed a total $1000 over a year assuming 20 helpers bring in referrals who convert. What are the tax implications of this? Thanks

My parents are in their twilight and I'm making sure their assets are in order - it's a been a puzzle.

I want to make sure I understand the tax consequences of a 401k going into the trust. My current understanding is that funds that are distributed from the 401k to beneficiaries essentially come with a tax bill that will be paid be the beneficiaries. In our case much of these funds will go to charities which will pay no taxes.

If the trust were to sell assets from the 401k and retain the income then the trust would pay taxes at higher trust rates.

Is my understanding correct?

---

Follow up note - We need to distribute funds to 5 different charities and are concerned with the difficulty in setting this up due to dealing with financial power of attorney which banks may simply deny.

I'm a musician and recently made a big call to sell an income generating asset(part of a catalog) for roughly $800k. This is on top of a pretty good year which pushes AGI pretty high. The sale went through my S-corp, and I'm a California resident. Does anyone have any tips based on business sales or similar sales? 

Background: The decision to sell was based on numbers we crunched around advice from a CPA. He originally claimed we’d be able to establish a cost basis of between 30-40% of the sale price knocking off a huge portion of the tax burden and was very exciting and a solid justification for letting go of the royalty income. He claimed just done something similar with another artist. As I questioned things that didn’t make sense, he reassured me time and time again, but ultimately dodged the questions. Red flags everywhere. But I was a year into the negotiations by this point and didn’t plan to back out. Eventually the sale went through. Im not screwed, but I will seemingly end up paying 100k more tax than accounted for which effectively ends up with little benefit selling vs keeping - other than having upfront money.

Ultimately his ideas turned out big promises that didn't hold up and we parted ways.

So Im looking for some suggestions and experience, here are a few of his original ideas and claimed that no other CPA seems to think is legit:

His first plan was "creating" or “recreating” a cost basis based on something on my prior s-corp tax returns, this number shrank from 100k as we got closer to the planning and was probably going to be zero when we got there. I have found no way for this idea to be possible because all expenses to make the asset were already claimed in prior year. 

Another one of his ideas was routing money through a C-corp "management fee" on a custom fiscal year so that we can defer tax, lowering my large AGI (overall income) for 2026, however C-corp tax and dividends that end up exceeding what I’d pay on capital gains anyway if not worse. Only benefit goes to him who is paid for setting it up and accounting for it.  

Other CPA’s & claude have asserted they have no idea what he was talking about and see no actual benefit in the C-corp. 

I've moved on and I want to go in informed and make sure nothing obvious is missed. Has anyone been through this process or found ways to save or defer beyond just paying strait capital gains at 100% of the sale price? (Besides obviously buying a bunch of equipment as a deduction) 

Notes, some ideas by claude that would make a big difference:

California PTE elective tax(salt cap its gone in a high income year so this allows you to deduct the CA tax as an expense)

Replacing my current SEP with a solo 401(k) plus a cash balance plan to soak up a large deduction this year, allows you to put a lot more tax free into retirement apparently. 
It looks like Alternative Minimum Tax will kick in this year because the exception phases out with my high income, this will mess up all the common credits and deductions, so if I could in theory defer some of the income to 2027 that would bring those back.  

I could use some feedback on a client. they have ordinary losses from a partnership that’s come from debt from their partnership “qualified nonrecourse financing”. they are 1/3 partners in their partnership in the trucking business. the losses are significant in the mid 6 figures and I have requested both their basis information and the debt agreement for their partnership. they meet the active participation test and work with the company and received a w-2 from their partnership as well. any considerations on this kind of loss? they also had a loss in prior year. I could use some help

My spouse is a 1099 worker and I am a student with rental property income. Combined we may make around $120-220k per yer depending on how business goes.

We need to start our retirement savings like yesterday.

Which retirement account would you recommend and offer tax deductions?

Hello. I'm a little confused about how to navigate this situation. I have a kid with about $1700 in unrealized long term gains, but he also has about $700 in earned income this year. Unearned will be about $35 in dividends.

How much unrealized gain do you recommend I harvest this year to avoid federal taxes? I plan on filing a tax return for him.

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

Do I understand it right that when I hire through upwork, I don't need invoices from freelancers (upwork handles everything) nor do I need to issue 1099s to them?

Not sure if anyone can help, I know this situation is not common.

• My spouse and I are married and intend to file jointly
• Spouse and I have the same two part-time jobs
• At Job 1, spouse and I make the same amount as each other
• At Job 2, spouse and I make the same amount as each other
• Job 2 income is less than half of Job 1 income
• Job 2 has been self-employment, and is now being converted to W2.
• This is the W4 I am filling out -- Job 2, which used to be self-employment

On W4 Step 2:

• (a) I used the estimator tool, but it is confusing because:
  • It asks for Job 1 info and Job 2 info
  • Job 1 info is easy
  • Job 2 info WAS self-employment, so I need to input that in order for it to understand that I made that money this year
  • However, Job 2 is NO LONGER self-employment; I am filling out the W4 FOR Job 2, so if I input the Job 2 self-employment info on the estimator, it thinks that I have THREE jobs -- 1 (W2), 2 (self-employed), and a third (W2). But Job 2 IS Job 3.
  • I don't have a paystub from Job 2 as a W2 job because I haven't filled out the W4 yet, so I can't use that to estimate.
• (b) Multiple Jobs Worksheet only goes up to 3 jobs, can't use it for 4 jobs
• (c) There are more than two jobs total, so can't use this step

The estimator seems to be trying to keep my witholding as low as possible, which I actually don't want -- I've had employers underestimate in the past and had to pay and want to avoid that and get a tax return.

How do I fill out the W4? Should I change the W4 for Job 1 also?

Can anyone help?

What happens if you don't send the w9 form for several years? Can your account be blocked? Or something else involving the IRS?

I do gig work with certain delivery apps. Namely, doordash, ubereats, instacart, shipt. Until now, it has mostly been in Nebraska although I live right down the street from council bluffs basically so occasionally in order might stop at council bluffs or I might have a pickup and a delivery in council bluffs etc.

With me adding Amazon flex to the mix it is a bit more complicated though because the pickups for that will always be in iowa. And sometimes then the deliveries are in Nebraska and sometimes the deliveries are in iowa.

I tracked my miles by odometer readings so I log my odometer at each stop. Not necessarily factoring in how many miles until I reach the Iowa border, etc.

So how would you track this as far as Iowa earnings anf as far as Nebraska earnings? And also for expenses. Because I might end One stop in Iowa for example and then I will have some Iowa miles but then have a pickup in nebraska. Or I might have a pickup in Iowa and deliver it to nebraska. Etc I know I'm just complicated it but I literally don't know if there's an accepted way to do this

Also, maybe I will be working doordash and then my last doordash delivery is in Nebraska but then I go do some Amazon flex and then work in Iowa for a while. So with something like that, how should I count the mileage from Nebraska to iowa? When I have something like that should I just split it 50/50?

Apparently sale of a 2nd home counts towards MAGI and could put me over for the Roth IRA income limit, does this mean I need to withdraw my contribution this year and/or cannot contribute to my Roth IRA next year?

I recently applied for a job online that was listed as part-time and $20-26 hourly for a small company. I began working last week, assuming that I would complete paperwork on the first day. That didn’t happen lol. I completed around 21.5 hours. During that week, I repeatedly asked what was my exact pay, when/how I would be paid, and when paperwork was coming. I was essentially brushed off each time. It seemed very shady to me but I decided to give them the week to figure it out because it’s just 2 owners on their own, 1 of them was sick during this, and they hard launched like 2 months ago so I guess this company is new. And I really need a job.

Then, they sent over a W-9 over email saying it’s for part-time work. Don’t know if I’m crazy or stupid but.. I’ve never had a part-time job ask me for a W9. This was never previously discussed with me. I understand that I probably brought this onto myself by being an idiot and not demanding the more info earlier.

I just wanted to know if maybe I’m wrong for finding this behavior very odd. Is there a solid reason for them to ask for a W9 in this case?

I have a child who will be going to college next year year, so I'm starting to think through the mechanics of using the 529 money. For simplicity, I'll just pretend they are a freshman that started in Fall 2026.

If books are paid for using a credit card say on 12/10/26, and the credit card statement ends on 12/20/26 with payment due/made 1/20/27 (and we'd pay it off fully to avoid interest charges), do we consider the expense part of 2026 or 2027 for purposes of reimbursing out of the 529?

Maybe books are a small expense and no one really cares which period you claim in, but let's say we're talking about a tuition payment charged on credit card or for housing/rent and the meal plan so not a small amount then.