Hi freaking out a bit. Will my taxes be timely if they are dropped off at 8:30 at a fed ex in Walgreens and paid for today? Person I was using is not doing them. I cannot get to the post office in time. I have foreign forms so it cannot be late. Thank you

What a hassle. It is too late for me to get a second opinion today. I submitted all my info to my accountant on April 8. They said they need an extension...be done in a couple of weeks; I said no problem. I started bugging him at the end of August and here we are and he finally has my filing complete today.

The problem: I have issues with his interpretation on capital gains tax but all tax experts are busy with their clients on this October 15.

My tax preparer says I owe $70 K in taxes; I thought the figure would be closer to $30 K. If this had happened a month ago I could've paid for a second opinion and if I found an accountant who said my interpretation is right, I could've paid my tax preparer for his time and chose that other accountant do my taxes.

Any opinions on whether my case represents a significant dereliction of duty?

= = = = Capital gains tax question

Would be great if some expert would comment. My dad bought a condo in 1992 for $100,000 in Hawaii. He wanted me to inherit it and put it in trust.

Dad got married to wife 2. My stepmother started making issues with him changing his trust so my dad agreed to hold property with me as joint tenant. He signed this deed in 2016 -- property valuation $231,000. I knew this would cause me a tax liability, as opposed to transfer by trust.

Dad dies April 2025. I sell property in June 2025 for $445,000. I believed I would inherit his half of the condo and not pay inheritance tax. I believed that from the $445,000 we would subtract the $231,000, leaving an increase in value of $214,000. I believed this would be split 50-50, i.e., that I will pay property gains capital gains tax on $107,000.

My tax preparer says my capital gain is $345,000 --- $445,000 - the $100,000 that my dad paid for the property in 1992.

Thanks for anyone rendering an opinion.

I've had the same accountant for more than 10 years (they're in a small family office) and we have a good relationship, but I'm kinda frustrated right now.

As soon as I got my W2 this year in Jan I sent it to them and they ack receipt. Like 99% of my income comes from my W2 and it has been like that for a few years.

On April 15 they tell me they're extending the return. I ask about making a payment but they said they need to calculate and didn't know it then. I ask again after the 15th, a few times between april and july, but they never tell me an amount I owe. I was distracted with work and forgot about it.

They sent me the return to file this week and I obviously owe penalties and interest. I reminded them that I had been asking since April about making a payment and they didn't tell me. I think these payments could have been avoided.

Am I wrong for pressing them about it? It feels like they forgot, but they sure haven't forgotten about sending me the bill for these services

Has anyone seen or is familiar with any recent changes in the way govt is using AI for audits for this year or 2025. Are they using it on every file or it’s a small percentage of people. If I use AI for filing let’s say muse and Claude. Will it make me more susceptible for audits. Please share your thoughts. Is govt using Palantir or some other AI software if they are using any. Are we going to see more number of audits from now on given AI is so easy to implement.

What are some things which are getting flagged the most.

I was 21 at the end of 2025, a full-time California college student, preparing my first federal and California returns. I have about $15,000 of taxable scholarships and $9,500 of earned income. FreeTaxUSA says I need Form 8615 and asks for parent tax information. My mother died; my father and stepmother live in Italy and file Italian, not U.S., returns. My father had a U.S. green card and SSN issued in the 1990s; I don’t know whether his green-card status formally ended. I also stayed rent-free with my uncle for eight months. How do I determine whether Form 8615 applies, and how is it completed if neither parent filed a U.S. return? Is there a way to file accurately if I cannot get that information by tonight’s extended deadline?

I am about to graduate with a BS in Accounting from Western Governors University. I haven't worked in Tax at all. I am CPA eligible and will take my first test in December. I didn't volunteer for VITA. I just decided on tax a couple months ago. I have done taxes for a friend for a few years as a favor and find taxes the most easy to understand area of accounting.

I did have a job that involved lower level accounting duties such as making construction job estimates and entering invoices into QuickBooks. I also hosted showroom tours for prospective customers and other tasks. And I have a volunteer job to send thank you letters to non profit donors and fixed their email templates to properly populate the data needed for the emails.

I would like to avoid working for something like HR Block because it won't be relevant to the kind of taxes I would do after a year.

Given all of the above, what would you suggest I do to get into working business areas of accounting?

Can anyone tell me what to do? I am filing tonight and just got rejected for not having my IP PIN. didn't know I had one, but no big - I'll just go to IRS.gov and request one. Except -

The Identity Protection PIN service is unavailable at this time

Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) information cannot be updated. Please try again later.

Someone please tell me what to do so I can file tonight and not miss the deadline.

Both on the taxpros side and individual side. Payment history not available, transcripts not available.

Assuming it's a wide spread issue but want to double check

My current job is landscaping/arborist and has always been under the table but the boss says he needs to take taxes out and tells us that he’s helping us out by doing a 10-99 instead of a w2 and that we will be paying less taxes due to write offs like gas, clothes etc. Keeping in mind we drive his trucks use his equipment he works us 5 days a week and around 10-12 hour days. Is what he’s telling us true? If not please explain and if any more info is needed I can provide it. Thank you all!

I have what seems to be a somewhat unique situation (maybe not, but I can't find an easy answer). My Fiancee and I have some property we are considering selling and I want to make sure I'm reading IRC 121 correctly before we take any steps.

We purchased a property in October 2017. This property was used as our primary residence from 2017 through April 2024. In April 2024, we transferred ownership of the home to our LLC and have used it as a rental since then. We have had the same tenants in the property this whole time, and they have expressed interest in purchasing the property.

My question is, if the property is transferred back into our individual names before it is sold, are we still able to claim the §121 exclusion? By my calculation, we would have owned the property for at least 24 months out of the past 5 years and would have used it as our primary residence for the same amount of time. I'm just not sure if transferring ownership to our LLC causes any problems there. Thanks!

For example, I spent about $28k last year for marketing and advertising. $10k of that was lead purchases.

Does one large combined amount for these expenses work, or would it be better to list these out individually? Idk if this would make any difference at all in audit chances or anything else.

As you can see from the title, it's a bit of a doozy.

My husband and I are moving to Japan. The company he's working for gave him a contract beginning in August. They requested that he get them the 6166 tax form so that his wages (in Japanese Yen) are not taxed in Japan... which would leave him double taxed in the U.S.

We felt this was the easier route than clawing back the taxes.

We've been checking in with the Philly office for turn around times and it seems they are about 1-2 weeks out from finishing the process.

However, the big question was about the Tick-box on form 8802 that says you must attest to being a resident of the United States until Dec 31. We asked the Philly office about going to Japan for the holidays before he "officially" started his job (which would be Jan-Feb)... They said this wouldn't pose an issue... but I don't think they are international tax attorneys and we want to be 100% sure this will not be an issue.

We're prepared to fly out Jan 1st, but there's a chance the CoE/Visa process can be completed by Mid November with the way everything is progressing.

Should we just wait or can we go to Japan before Christmas and be okay legal/tax-wise? Because we would be going to Japan under the working visa and not a tourist visa even though he technically wouldn't be working until January. (The contract explicitly states that he is NOT an employee of the company. He WILL become an employee of the company when he formally starts the job in Jan/Feb.)

Not that anyone would know, but we have the Japan side of things when it comes to taxes there and registering addresses on the immigration card. But I won't get into that ball of wax if it's not relevant to this.

Thanks!

So I filed for an extension originally due to this. I reached out to the business and my former manager a few times in March this year but didn’t receive anything back. I called the New York Department of taxation in March as well but they said they couldn’t make the company send a w2. I’m in college and don’t know much about taxes, how should I proceed with this?

I’m honestly embarrassed to even write this, but I need some advice.

I went way overboard on sweepstakes casinos this year, mostly HelloMillions and Spree. Obviously I have a gambling problem. I’m done playing, but now I’m looking at the taxes and wondering how much worse I’ve made this for myself.

Going through my statements, I’ve put around $673k through these sites and gotten roughly $493k–$534k back. I’m still matching some payouts. That’s money being recycled over and over, not $673k I had sitting around. Either way, I’ve lost a substantial amount of my savings.

I’m in Illinois, single, and make about $50k from work, plus some investment income. I have bank statements, purchase emails and redemption confirmations. What I don’t have is a detailed history of my gameplay or a diary of my sessions.

I keep reading “just use session accounting,” but how do I actually do that without those records? A purchase on Monday and a payout hitting my bank Friday doesn’t tell me what happened in between. I’m trying to get records from the companies, but I don’t know what they’ll give me.

I’ve tried working through estimates with ChatGPT, and depending on the assumptions it’s thrown out everything from around $35k to $200k in total taxes before withholding. I know that isn’t professional advice or an actual bill. I need someone qualified to tell me whether those numbers even make sense, because right now I’m spiraling over them.

Has anyone here actually dealt with this? Especially in Illinois, or with these sites and missing gameplay records? What did your CPA need, and were they able to work with what you had?

I know I need to hire someone. I just don’t know whether I need a gambling CPA, a tax attorney, or both. If anyone has a referral or can tell me what to ask before paying someone, I’d appreciate it.

And if the bill really is huge, is there a realistic way to pay it over time without wiping out everything I have left?

I know I fucked up. I’m not asking how to keep gambling or hide anything. I’m trying to figure out what to do next.

I purchased a house in Florida in 2025 intending to use it as an investment property. Unfortunately, the rental market was weak, tenant eviction issues and some failed to pay, and I had to deal with a lot of repairs and caretaking of some guests from Airbnb. I'm now living on part of the property and renting other, considering moving in fully by 2027 for 10 years and selling for the right price

let's assume the house is 400K and I earn $100K in W-2 income and incurred approximately $50K in property expenses in 2025, including mortgage, lawyer, inspection, furniture, interest, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other costs. My original goal was to maximize deductions on the property purchase through cost study and accelerated depreciation, if i recall, called cost segregation However, I don't know what's the most tax-advantageous way to deduct or depreciate the property purchase and expenses for 2025?

Would cost segregation and bonus depreciation make sense, or would the passive-loss limitations prevent any immediate benefit against my W-2 income?

Lastly, does making it my primary residence later affect sales tax?

Hi everyone, im a recent undergraduate grad who officially started work in nyc in june. my annual income would be around 40k and ive submitted my w4 with no withholdings as a single filer. i understand that when it january comes around my payroll department will send over the w2s but i feel a bit lost on what i should expect regarding the upcoming tax season and how exactly to proceed on my part. i dont really have anyone around me to guide me through the process as a first timer and im doing my research but id figure id still ask. any tips and guides would be helpful and thank u in advance!!!

I got married back in May and my wife just started at a career type job and got a w4. I am completley lost on hoe to fill hers and mine out to make sure we arent going to have to payback anything at the ned of the year but we arent putting to much away per month because extra monthly would be huge to help pay for health insurance. She makes 44k and I make 85k. Can anyone give tips on what to do here?

I’m in IL and Im deciding between using a ROBS or just liquidating part of my 401k and funding the rest for the down payment. I’m wondering if the penalty would be worth avoiding the c corp I’d need with a ROBS. I’d appreciate any insight

Hey all, I came to the US in the late 2022 yr and had no earnings given I was new to the country. I just looked at the year 2022 compliance report and it says it was filed late. I was wondering if this can be resolved by talking with the IRS as it’s not justified given I didn’t had the time to file the taxes with extention. What can be done here before I file for citizenship. I arrived in late September.

I'm trying to figure out how to handle credit card processing fees.

I'm a contractor in NJ so I charge sales tax on my invoices, but sometimes I get to exempt material costs from incurring sales tax.

When people pay by credit card, I don't want to eat the processing fee. I haven't started using it yet but I am going to use Invoice Ninja and their solution is to add a line item to my invoice for a surcharge. The goal is, after processing the raised invoice total, and remitting whatever sales tax that needs to be remitted, my bank account will be left with my original invoice subtotal before the surcharge line item was added. So at the end of the day I'll get what I want for my labor and materials.

My first question: is this surcharge legal, and is it subject to sales tax?

My next question: what do contractors normally do in these situations? Because honestly I don't trust invoice ninja is going to be able to calculate the surcharge correctly.

In 2025 I was a contractor, salary paid through 1099-NEC, only worked for one company. My 2025 1099-NEC matched my salary no problem.

Recently, I discovered I had an additional 1099-NEC form that I missed when filing 2025 taxes. It was for an amount of money I did not think I had received and I have spent weeks since finding it trying to figure out what it was for.

Today it dawned on me that from Jan-July 2025 I submitted receipts for rent and was reimbursed, because of the nature of the work I had an apartment in two cities and they reimbursed one of them.

Now, I don't really know where to go filing the amendment since it was a reimbursement with receipt, but it was submitted as 1099-NEC.

I finished out half of 2024 with the same company and the same situation, but they did not report the reimbursement in this manor in 2024, which is why I was confused when this additional 1099-NEC was discovered for 2025.

TLDR: I didn’t realize I had to file Form 3520 for a $500,000 inheritance received from abroad in my 2024 return. Since there was no tax due, I assumed there was no reporting requirement.

I want to rectify this situation and avoid the 25% ($125,000!) penalty for filing late. I’m not particularly interested in the SDOP option, which offers a lower penalty but no chance of forgiveness.

From October 2024, the IRS has ceased automatically imposing the penalty and now requires consideration of the reasonable cause statement attached to these forms when filing late.

My question is straightforward:

Can anyone here share their recent experience filing Form 3520 late, either as a CPA, lawyer, or individual, since October 2024? Did the reasonable cause excuse get accepted or rejected?

I’ve searched extensively but can only find one report - someone who reported their reasonable cause explanation was accepted. I haven’t come across any direct accounts of reasonable cause being rejected since 2024. I would think individuals who experience rejections are much more likely to post about it.

I’ll consult a professional, but I want to gather as much information as possible beforehand.

I know filing this form late has historically been serious but my sense, or at least hope is that since Oct 24, this penalty is rarely being applied if fixed proactively. So much information online is from fear mongering tax attorneys who - while not lying - make me feel certain I am doomed. I am hoping to get actual info from people not trying to sell their services - let me know if you have done this!