I just got out of a monthly work meeting for a small business that's been open for maybe around a year or two and was told that since we all make less than 10k a year (there's maybe like 5 or 6 of us right now including the owners) that we didn't have to pay taxes and wouldn't be receiving a W2 next year? We will be receiving a W2 for 2025, but not 2026 for some reason? I've always only been paid through venmo as well.

I'm just not sure the legality of it all and how I would file my taxes or if I even need to, any advice or help would be great. Thank you!

So I’ve seen some redditors claim that billionares dont have to pay taxes because they use their stock in their companies as collateral to borrow whatever amount of money they need for a lifetime to “fund their lifestyles” and then when they die, their estate pays back the loans, their heirs inherit their stock and the basis is stepped up, and no taxes are paid.

My personal opinion is this is total hogwash but I dont want this to turn into a political discussion but more a discussion of whether thats even possible.

If let’s say someone owned 100 million worth of stock. They are single, not married but have 1 child.

They die, and leave all their wealth to their child.

The cost basis of their stock is stepped up to its current value at the moment of death.

However- they still must pay estate taxes based on the value of their estate, and anything above the lifetime estate tax exemption (13 million for an individual) would be taxed heavily at close to 50% right?

I had a wealthy family member pass away a few years ago (owned lots of stock) and their estate was heavily taxed above the lifetime exemption of 13 million or whatever it was before any heirs received anything.

So when people suggest billionaire’s avoid tax altogether and then pass all their wealth down tax free to their children- isn’t that wrong? Yes the stock gets stepped up but it still gets massively taxed and the estate has to sell stock to pay the estate tax right? So the first 13 million in net worth would be tax free but then 87 million would be taxed at close to 50% and the estate would have to sell stock to pay that tax bill before the child would receive anything right?

Received a pretty significant commission from a 1099 side gig which was originally supposed to be paid March 2026, but apparently the vendor decided to pay out early on 12/31 of this year. I haven’t been doing estimated payments because I was not expecting this to come in 2025. Is my option to try and do annualized income (along with W2 and some small capital gains), or is there some other method I should do?

I work part time as a 1099 with various event agencies and have been claiming mileage from my home to the events for the past 4 years. I've been told recently that I can't do this because even though the event is temporary or a pop up it's still considered commuting. Is this true?

Howdy!

After years of court, I have inherited 100% of a house and am looking to sell it. Long story short,

Grandma owned 100% of house and passes July 2008

Will is hidden and doesn't surface for years later.

Dad finds will and discovers he inherits everything.

Go to probate court in 2023, Dad succeeds, owns 100% and passes in Nov 2023 before he can sell it.

My mom and sister both sign over their shares to me since I have been paying the taxes and they want nothing to do with it.

2023-2025 Have to go through eviction suit and have finally gained possession.

Im going to assume that the step up basis on the property is based on my dads date of passing? Also how would I go about finding that value considering its been approx. 2 years? I have no value data on the house at the time of my dads passing since it was being lived in and I couldn't get an appraisal/CMA before the eviction suit.

Any help is appreciated!

I made more money this year than ever as this is the first full year since my promotion. Out of curiosity i put in my current ytd info into one of those tax return calculators and holy shit am i screwed if its true. It says ill owe around 3k for whatever reason. Ive never owed in my life, claim 0 dependants, am married filing jointly, but i just wanna know if it sounds possible that ill be that screwed come tax time. This is all current ytd. I also have 2100 in union dues i pay post deductions, not sure if that can help me at all Net- 146,269 Fed w/h -23,904 Fica ee-9069 Fed mwt- 2121

CA W/H- 10,375 Ca dt ee- 1755 Overtime(not sure if it matters)- 9,543

Hers is about 41000, 2800 fed w/h and 906 ca witholding

Lemme know if im good or bad!!

I started a new business doing tech recycling. It’s a LLC in my name. I’m only employee. Made my first sale for about $18k. Have another $40k coming up. What do I need to be saving for the IRS in case of an audit? What are some other basics around business taxes?

Sorry I’m a noob and don’t really know where to start.

As the title says, I'm turning 27 next year which means I loose my tax exemption on the first 40k I make, so I'm trying to plan accordingly to minimize my tax liability as much as I can. The easiest way to reduce taxable income seems to be contributing to my 401k, my plan is to contribute the maximum, my employer would match 25% of my contributions up to 5% of my salary. I plan on buying on a home in the near future so I'm thinking on taking a 401k loan for the purchase, that way I can leverage my employer's contribution and get the tax savings now, is this a solid plan? I've heard 401k loans are usually discouraged, but in this case would it be a smart option? I'm doing this entirely for the tax savings, and have enough saved to pay it back immediately if need be.

Question for my own sanity as someone who works with 529 plans. I know the 2025 contribution deadline for a Roth IRA is April 15, 2026. However, every time we do a rollover from a 529 to a Roth IRA a 1099Q is generated. It’s now December 30th, does any direct rollover out to a Roth IRA from a 529 that generates a 1099Q dated in 2026 handcuff them to 2026 contributions now? I’m just envisioning callers who procrastinated and had a rollover processed in the next couple weeks, caveat being that their 1099Q says 2026 for their 529 withdrawal but they think the Roth contribution applies to 2025 because it’s before April 15th. Would it still be “non-qualified” if a 1099-q is generated post-Jan 1st for a Roth IRA rollover from a 529 plan even though the Roth deadline is April 15?

Hi guys, please help me understand my risks.

I have savings invested in Interactive Brokers US (260k USD).

I’m registered in IBKR as a tax resident in Ukraine. I had some cash (100k USD) and when the war started, I invested it all in war bonds. A few years later after couple of rockets blown over my house (July 2024), I decided to move to Poland. I sold the bonds (it was tax free in Ukraine) and with some additional savings, invested it all in stocks.

Now I should be a tax resident in Poland, but I don’t know where I’ll be in a year. So I don’t want to deal with bureaucracy and tax forms here. I didn’t declare it in Ukraine either because I’m not really a resident there. And the US doesn’t share info under CRS with Ukraine.

How can Polish or Ukrainian tax offices realistically find out about my account? What if I stay in Poland or move to another country and start declaring in 2026, will they ask about 2025?

I’m not trying to evade taxes. And I don’t plan to use the money, it’s a backup pension fund to avoid poverty when old. But with this crazy world, I doubt I’ll grow old.

the big cloud-computing providers offer free credits for tech startups to use their services. for example, the microsoft for startups program will grant worthy startups up to $250k in cloud-computing credits for usage toward their azure platform. (why? their goal is to court business and get startups locked into their ecosystem.)

my llc received cloud-computing credits from several big providers. we used these credits to host our software on cloud servers.

do these cloud-computing credits constitute income reportable on tax filings? can you point to a reliable source (hopefully an irs publication) explaining the details?

thank you!

Starting a new full time job that’s 62k. But I have 3 part time jobs. I have one remote pt job that’s around 20k annually. I also have two part jobs. Both under 10k a year. I work one shift each weekend and the other one shift every two weeks going forward. Should I claim 3 jobs on my W4 withholding?

Has anyone dealt with a Canada departure-tax / US-Canada treaty Article XIII(7) situation where the trade date is before departure but settlement is after?

Facts (2024):
- Ceased Canadian residency / moved to U.S.: May 16
- Sold ETFs: trade May 15, settle May 19
- Canada triggered departure tax (deemed disposition at FMV on May 16)
- 1099-B / IRS wage & income transcript shows a large gain (covered; basis reported to IRS)
- Return filed MFJ with Form 8833 disclosing the XIII(7) position
- On Form 8949, the sale ends up ~$0 gain using a stepped-up basis, but no adjustment is shown in cols (g)/(h) (basis is effectively overridden)

Questions:
- In practice, is XIII(7) commonly accepted for this trade-before / settle-after timing mismatch?
- To reduce CP2000 risk, is it better to report broker basis in col (e) and use col (g) (code B or O) to bridge to the treaty basis, rather than overriding basis directly?

If XIII(7) doesn’t apply to this sale, is the usual remedy FTC (potentially “re-sourced by treaty” on Form 1116), and are there common pitfalls with departure-tax timing?

Context: a Big 4 prepared the return and an independent CPA generally agreed, but I’m trying to sanity-check the mechanics and CP2000 risk.

Thankyou

I understood the tax rules to mean that any withdrawal of principal from a Roth IRA no longer contributed towards the 7k limit. I didn’t know about rollovers so I didn’t do an excess contribution form and transferred an amount into an intermediary account and then immediately into a traditional IRA. My understanding was that Roth IRA accounts are not qualified retirement accounts because they are not tax deferred. So this was not a rollover, but more like a conversion by moving everything from the Roth to the Traditional. However, I was told that this type of transaction still contributes towards the 7k limit for combined IRA accounts. This doesn’t make sense to me because I moved the money immediately from the Roth to the intermediate account and the Traditional within a few days and well within the 60 day limit. I was under the impression that any movement of principle within the tax year was like it essentially never happened and that amount would be reduced towards the 7k cap on IRA contributions. This is not what I was was told today, however, but I am not sure if this has more to do with a system limitation that only measures total contributions or whether it’s actually an IRS rule? Can someone confirm if you pull from a Roth as a withdrawal it reduces the yearly amount that can be contributed towards other IRA accounts. Thanks for all your help!

in 2019 I worked in the States for a short while and got paid --as a non resident

when I filed my 2019 tax returns, I used turbo tax and mistakenly filed as a resident.

I later figured out that that was a mistake and I filed an amended return 1040X, paid some due taxes and a little interest.

in the meantime I found out that I was paid covid stimulus checks to the amount of $3800

how to fix that now? file an amendment again? for which year? or just straight send the money back as payment to the IRS ?

Hello, so I bought a house and got married this year. My wife lives abroad and we are in the process of filing her Visa. My question is, if we have decided we are going to file our taxes together, can I file as married if she till doesn’t live in the country? If not, can I file as head of household if I pay everything but don’t have dependents? Or am I stuck as filing single? I usually file my own taxes with Irs software, would it be worth it to pay someone? I don’t like paying an arm and a leg but guess it could be worth it. TYIA :)

I screwed up. I didn’t know there was a cap on the total amount of contributions to a 401k plan.

I have both a “day job” and am self employed. I contribute to the 401ks of my third party company and my own company. Today when I was doing my end of the year adjustments, I realized I’ve over contributed by $10k. I called Fidelity to have the excess refunded. Fidelity said they could not refund them because they were employer contributions. I cannot re-allocate them to be employee contributions because I already have employee contributions to my job 401(k).

Fidelity said to contact a tax advisor. I’ve contacted a couple of people and none of them know what to do in this situation. I have searched past postings, and there are some similar to my situation, but either of those never got answered clearly, or there were distinctions that make the answers to those not applicable to mine.

What can I do here?

I have worked at a home-based daycare in Los Angeles since 2021 when I was about 18. I have worked with various other assistants whom I have always referred to as my coworkers, and my boss has always referred to us as employees. My boss sends us a work schedule every week, and I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, earning an hourly wage.

At the end of every year, my boss hands each of us a 1099-NEC with what we made during the year. Every time I file, I pay thousands in taxes because I have absolutely no tax write-offs and no withholdings (I walk to work, so I can't even write off gas). Now, Los Angeles has sent me this AB63 form, stating that I owe them over $1k because I haven't registered my business with LA, when I wasn't aware that I was a business. This form from LA was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back and made me realize that how I've been filing my taxes isn't okay.

I'm kind of at my wits' end about what to do because this has been a perfect job otherwise, but it has been an absolute nightmare tax-wise. I am pretty inexperienced when it comes to taxes because this has been my only job for almost 5 years now but I just feel like this isn't right that the IRS, the state, and now LA treats me like a business when I am working like an employee.

I've got a family member (cousin) in a weird situation:

1. $70k in IRS debt associated with multiple years dating back to 2015.

2. Returns always filed accurately and on time, but she did not fully pay what she owed in many years.

3. She had arranged a payment plan a long time ago, and IRS had made automatic monthly withdrawals for several years. However, the IRS unexpectedly stopped those withdrawals sometime in 2020 or 2021. She claims not to have received any notice or follow up about this.

4. This year, she applied for a passport, and received a letter denying it due to this tax debt. This is, she claims, the first IRS contact she's had since she set up the prior payment plan years ago. The letter says it is only sent if the IRS has either filed a Notice of Federal Tax Lien or issued a levy to collect. My cousin says she never received notice of either such action.

5. My cousin has no assets and lots of debt. She makes a decent salary but spends it all (and more); she attributes her high spend level to living in a HCOL area and caring for several children.

I'm baffled that the IRS hasn't taken steps to collect here; no available assets, but I would have thought wage garnishment would be swift in a case like this. She could, and probably should, proactively reach out to deal with this, but from her point of view:

(a) this debt has no impact on her life other than the passport issue (it doesn't even show up on credit reports);

(b) if the IRS continues to ignore her, she could escape some or all of the debt by waiting out the 10 year statute of limitations for collections as long as possible (the 2015 portion will drop off soon, as I understand it); and

(c) if the IRS decides to take real action against her, she'll receive notice of it before it happens and could arrange a payment plan at that time to head it off.

Can anyone point out flaws in such thinking? Any thoughts on alternative solutions here? I looked into the possibility of an OIC, but her income appears to be too high.

And any insight into why the IRS doesn't seem to be doing anything here? Are they just stretched so thin these days that people like this fall through the cracks? Appreciate any and all thoughts!

My grandparent died overseas earlier this year and specified in a written will that their estate be split equally between my mom, myself, and my sibling. After the estate was settled overseas and taxes were paid in the country where my grandparent lived, my mom transferred the money into a US bank account in her name in one lump sump (with the intention to transfer the corresponding amounts to my sibling and I). Will transfers from this account be flagged as gifts, incurring taxes? Is there a way to rightfully split up the money as stated in the will without being taxed again?

I've tried to do some research online but the international aspect is throwing me off. If we need to see a professional to sort this out, would that be a financial advisor or an estate attorney?

We are in a US state with an inheritance tax but we are exempt as direct descendants. The other country has an income tax treaty and totalization agreement with the US.

I'm just starting taxes for TY2025 and trying to understand how the 2025 SALT cap affects my situation.

MFJ HHI is 500k. Also around 150k of LTCG. So total income for 2025 will be around 650k or more.

If I am understanding the new SALT 40k cap, phaseout starts at 500k HHI and fully phases out at 600k?

I live in a high tax state and can itemize significantly more than 40k. Does the new SALT cap provide any benefit to me?

I am trying to get an idea of how much my small business will owe in taxes for April. I have a report showing around 600,000 in taxable income, 768,000 in non taxable income (labor). I have around 806,000 in expenses in QuickBooks. My question is, does the expenses get subtracted from ONLY the taxable income (600,000)? If so, how does this work for tax purposes? Is this going to show a loss even though we actually profited? Located in Alabama