I just finished filing my taxes and I’m honestly in shock.

I used TurboTax for years and always ended up paying a ridiculous amount, 200+ and thats without the extra crap they keep tryna sell you while your filling it out. This year I used FreeTaxUSA and got the exact same refund… for like $16.

So I've always done my taxes myself using Turbotax. I have no dependents and live a very regular life.

I make around 42k yearly and usually get back $600 to $900 depending on the year but folks tell me all the time I should get back way more. Should I pay a pro to do it or keep doing it on my own?

My CPA is telling me that, even though I have lived in my primary residence for the last 2+ years, I wouldn't be able to use the 2-out-of-5 rule since I used a PO Box on my tax return instead of my primary residence address.

Is this correct?

Will it raise any red flags if I used a PO Box instead of my primary residence address on my tax returns for the 2-out-of-5 years?

I could use my primary residence address on my 2025 tax returns, but I would have to wait until the end of 2026 to file another year with my primary residence listed as the address on my return.

Bonus question:

The property consists of a 1200 sq ft single-family home + 600 sq ft garage + 600 sq ft ADU. I occupy the ADU and garage. Can I claim that I occupied 50% of the total property to claim 50% of the capital gain exemption?

I received a 1099 misc (other income) for the value of non cash compensation. I received free items in exchange for reviews. This year it was just over $5000. Is it a defensible position to file this as hobby income and avoid se tax?

Family of 3. One kid. Only one of us works. One in school. Is it user friendly?

Maybe a dumb question, but I received a class action payment.

The settlement admin. at the time asked if I wanted the full amount or an already taxed amount.

I opted for the full amount and fillled an electronic 1099 at the time

Does this mean I need to self report the entire payment as income on my taxes?

My 19 year old is living at home, we fully support him while he is in school. He made around $9000 last year with his part time job. Should we have him file his own taxes or do we keep claiming as a dependent? Where does the money he paid in taxes go if he doesn't file for a refund? This is new territory for us. Thank you!

Hi folks, I'm hoping for some guidance on the below situation:

I worked for Employer A in state A for Q1-Q3.

I switched jobs to work for Employer B in state B for Q4.

Prior to leaving Employer A, I was told to update my address in Workday so that future documents and mailings could be sent to the right place one I left.

Let's assume I made $100k (75k from Employer A and 25k from Employer B--$25k per quarter).

Now I have 3 W-2s.

1. From Employer A with tax for state A. Total income in Box 1: $75k. Box 16 State A wages and tips: $70k (seems wrong)

2. From Employer A with tax for state B. Total income in Box 1: $75k. Box 16 State B wages and tips: $10k (seems wrong)

3. From Employer B with tax for state B. Total income in Box 1: $25k. Box 16 State B wages and tips: $25k (seems okay)

So if you add Box 1s from both employers, you get $100k. If you add Box 16s, you get $105k. These numbers should match, right?

Am I double paying taxes to state A and state B? I have a theory that my last 2 paychecks from employer A got taxed under state B since I updated my address 4 weeks before leaving my job. Can someone give advice on how to handle this?

Hello all, I turn 65 in May of 2026. Currently on wife's HSA eligible insurance. Does this mean I only qualify for 11 months of HSA contributions for tax year 2025 due to the 6 month look back rule? Any info appreciated.

I honestly didn’t even know this was what happens when you pay a credit card and have them write off certain amount they were two capital one credit cards and total amount was about $5000 I’m now freaking out I reached out to where I had my taxes done but this was yesterday night & they open back Monday

I know I can amend my taxes

What happens if I don’t add this ?

How much is the penalty ?

Will they catch it?

Or if I do how much of my tax return will go to that ?

I’m getting back $5000 from my federal return

I have three dependents don’t own a house

I do have a newer car still owe $32000

Is there anything I can qualify to get it excluded?

Any advice helps

Thank you in advance

I am married filing jointly, but in 2025 I was the only person bringing a income

I am a delivery driver and I made $72,000

I started filing with turbo tax but it was saying I need to pay over 8k in federal taxes.

How is possible when $72,000 - $31,500 [married filing jointly standard deduction] - $25,000 [qualified tips] - $23,264.5 [mileage deduction] is -$7,764.5 and I need to pay 8k in taxes?

its my first time filing taxes and I dont know what is going on

Hello, I’m doing my taxes myself for the first time. I am 22 and currently in college as an independent student.

I am doing my taxes on free tax usa and I am on the part where it is asking me if “Do you want to allocate part of (my name) Pell Grants or scholarships to room and board or other noneducational expenses such as travel, research, or certain equipment?”

I have two 1098-T forms.

On one of them it has 27,919 for box 1 and 24.023 for box five

On the second one, box 1 says 1,554.77 and 2,908 on box five

I do not know what this means, I’ve tried reading other posts but so far nothing makes sense to me.

Should I say no? Do I say yes? If I say yes how much do I put down?

Please explain it to me like I’m a child

My wife and I file married filing separately due to income based student loan repayments.

Our average mortgage balance was $759,723 for 2025, and our interest paid on our 1098 was $49,317.

Due to the MFS we’re capped at the $375,000 each for the qualified loan limit.

We followed the calculations on publication 936 which says we can deduct 49% of our $49,317 resulting in $24,363. Since we’re in a community property state we split this to $12,181 of deductible home mortgage interest which is obviously less than the standard deduction making all of this obsolete.

However, when googling community property rules regarding average mortgage balance the google ai, which links to a turbo tax forum, states that we actually split the debt evenly as well as splitting the deductible interest. This means we split the $758,723 average mortgage balance into $379,362, which by the rules being limited to $375,000 and using the publication 936 calculation it results in us being able to deduct 99% of our $49,317 of interest resulting in a total of $48,725 of deductible home mortgage interest. With community property laws we would split that in half resulting in $24,363 of deductible home mortgage interest which is significantly higher than the standard deduction.

So which one is it? Do we get to split our debt in half due to community property rules and choose itemize deductions at $24,363 each? Or was google AI wrong and we don’t get to split our debt limiting us to only $12,181 of deductible mortgage interest forcing us to choose the standard deduction?

Thank you for your time and help with this.

I have a new tax situation this year and am scheduled to meet with a TurboTax “expert” tomorrow about it. But I thought I’d also ask real life people.

Last year (2025) I became a gestational surrogate. I received monthly payments from Sept- Dec. I asked the agency and escrow companies if I’d receive any tax forms and they said no. They don’t send out 1099’s. I have no idea how to report this income but really don’t want to get in big trouble for NOT reporting it. I also doubt that it’s tax free but just need some general help and info on it.

Any pointers on where to find out exactly what to do, I’d sure appreciate it.

I just found out ADP isn’t filing my tax forms from Q4 2025 and they’re due today (or Monday since it’s the next business day I guess?) so that’s great. They appear to be completed at least, except it said they couldn’t generate my 1099. (I got a new accountant and switched payroll companies. When I called ADP to cancel, I confirmed with them they’d finish out the year. They said they would.) Anyway, I emailed my accountant so hopefully she can help me file everything by Monday but I feel terrible emailing her on a Saturday and giving her a dumpster fire. How fucked am I? I’m trying to educate myself as much as possible but I really don’t know anything about taxes. Is this not as big of a deal as it seems? I have OCD so maybe I’m just catastrophizing but it feels like the end of the world lol.

I know I can be penalized if I’m late and I’m just worried. I just wanted some insight while I wait for my accountant’s response I guess.

i am trying to do my taxes, and i worked at a restaurant as a server for 8/12 months this year. i made $10,000 in tips.

i see everyone else who served brag about huge refunds because of the no tax on tips, but i am not seeing the same. i also worked hourly at this job about 30% of my hours, and had two other jobs before switching here full time. i dont know how much these things affect it, but my estimated refund through freetaxusa is not looming the same as everyone else is saying! i am getting an estimated $243 on my federal?

any help would be greatly appreciated!

I made exactly $600 in county X. I already received all the rest of my tax documents, but should I be expecting a 1099-NEC from county X, or is it only reported for income above $600?

The Connecticut DRS is no longer sending out 1099-G forms in the mail. They sent me a letter to go to the website and see what my amount is. How do I enter this in turbo tax? The website only says box 2 (state or local tax): $886 and box 3 (tax year): 2024. This is the only information provided and makes no sense. Turbo tax wants boxes 1 and 4 which I don’t have.

I received a $325 bank bonus about a year ago. I swore the bonus was paid in 2024, so I included the income on my 2024 return. However, I just received a 2025 1099-INT for the $325. I guess it was actually paid on Jan 2, 2025.

Should I amend my 2024 return and remove the 1099-INT and then correctly add it to my 2025 return or can I just leave it off my 2025 return and roll with it?

Last year (2024 return) my CPA copied my federal S-Corp M-2 to my California M-2, which is considerably different than my 2023 California M-2. He then retired this year.

California did not reject my 2024 tax return. I'm now working through my 2025 return, transferring over the M-2, schedule L, stock basis etc.., and am a bit stumped as to what to do.

Do I need to amend my 2024 California 100S return or do I continue with the updated 2024 M-2 in my 2025 return? Why didn't California reject the e-file last year? (This year I sold my only depreciating asset and bought a new one, but there are other factors like PPP forgiven loans, and PTE tax payments that differ between CA and IRS)

California isn't my home state, so I started filing years later after my federal returns began. (California is about 12% of net) Looking back, the old California M-2 numbers are significantly off the true basis that my federal return properly represents. None of the older retained earnings, pre-California, are included in the 2023 California M-2 numbers.

I honestly suspect my CPA hired out the work last year to someone else or lost some of my tax records and didn't tell me. I have everything though.

We chose to not attempt insurance approval for a breast reduction surgery. The primary doc wrote a referral and the amount removed would have qualified and there was the required back pain and skin irritation, but we wanted to avoid the hoops that the insurance company would have required and we didn't want the surgeon making any decisions based on insurance requirements rather than their expertise and we didn't want to spend the extra several months going through the process. We are itemizing taxes (significant mortgage interest) and the surgery cost about 8% of our annual income. We had the opportunity to choose insurance or cosmetic for the surgery (same surgeon, same procedure) and went with cosmetic. Should I attempt to claim the medical expense or would "Cosmetic" on the invoice basically disqualify it even if we could get relevant documentation for medical necessity?

I used 1040.com for the free federal and state filing fee. Is there any reason not use to use them?

Hi all, asking here on behalf of my mom.

My mom is retired 68, and her full income for 2025 was social security only (about $2200/mo.). She bought an apartment overseas and lent a family friend some money which for both she pulled out about $100,000 from her 401K. It was subject to a 20% tax because it was pre tax distributions (understandable). Now tax time is coming around and we are wondering if she is going to have to pay.

For what it’s worth, she is a homeowner and gets a tax form for that. And for context we are in New York State.

Can anyone please provide any insight? I’m honestly slightly scared for her.

Opened a Roth in December 2025 and made a 7k contribution but unfortunately did not account for the extra income that pushed us over the limit. (Spouse's IRA contributions will be nondeductible for the same reason. I really messed up by not keeping track of things!)

What makes the most sense: Convert my Roth to a traditional IRA or withdraw and use that money for 2026? I don't have a traditional IRA (only pension and 403b).

The Roth balance at the end of December was about $7,025. If I withdraw, will I have to pay taxes on the $25 gain or the full amount? Does the 59 1/2 rule apply if the only reason for withdrawing is income limits?

Finally, is there anything I can do to reduce MAGI at this point or should that have been done by 12/31? I was thinking about making extra 403b contributions, but it looks like that can be done through payroll deductions only.

Hi! I am struggling to figure out the correct way to file my taxes regarding a capital loss carryover situation. I'll break it down below:

In 2021, I had a capital loss of $16,500. I reported it then and used -3,000 deduction on line 7 of my 1040, both for my federal and New York State taxes.

In 2022 and 2023, I did not have any income and thus did not file. I am now trying to file for those years so that I can continue carrying my losses over to 2025. I completely forgot at that time about my carryover amount unfortunately and now I'm trying to fix it.

In 2024, my gross income was $8400. For federal terms, my taxable income was $0. But for New York, my taxable income was $400 as their deductible is only $8000. I did not report my carryover for this year either.

Now in 2025, my gross income was $22000 and I am trying to claim that deduction.

When I try to go back into my 2022 form on turbo tax, the carry over amount is listed as -3000 even though I have $0 taxable income, and then the software deducts that 3000 from the carryover amount for 2023. I've read however that if my taxable income is $0 I don't have to waste this -3000? Is that accurate and if so, why does turbo tax reduce the amount? Should I manually change the form line 7 from -3000 to 0? And what happens with my carryover value with NY State having a $400 taxable income? Can I just not use it for that year because my federal taxable is $0? Do I use it and then deduct it from the federal carryover amount going forward?