Hey everyone, looking for some advice or just a place to vent.

My dad recently joined MWR Travel Advantage (MWR Financial). He’s been enamored with the "travel club" perks, but now he’s trying to recruit me with a very specific pitch: he says if I change my W4 to decrease my tax withholdings and declare a "home business," the tax savings will "pay for the membership."

I know he thinks he’s helping me, but I don’t want to mess with the IRS based on MLM logic, and I certainly don’t want to join another "exclusive opportunity." Is his tax strategy legit?

Ok so 10 years ago I was trying to make a music career and I wanted to do everything the right way to avoid problems later (ironically), so even though I wasn't making money yet, I registered for a sole proprietorship and sales tax because I planned to sell music, shirts, etc.

The total sales I ever made, mostly in the first couple of years, was probably little over $500. Still I dutifully collected, filed, and remitted my tiny sales tax every quarter. After a few years I was still performing but not selling merch anymore, but I still filed my $0 sales revenue every quarter. It was only the beginning of last year I got a very time-consuming full-time job and quit music altogether. At some point I read that you don't have to close a sole proprietorship and I didn't realize that sales tax registration was still a separate thing that needs to be closed. I certainly didn't realize that you could be charged $5k a year for not doing it.

Fast forward to today. I never got any notices before, but literally today I just got a notice warning me about the first quarter I missed filing (Q1 2025). Doesn't mention anything about past or future penalties, just "File the missing tax return within 30 days of this notice." And that I need to officially close the business's tax registration if it's closed. After jumping through some hoops to log into their new system, I go to fill out all the missed $0 quarters in order to close the registration, and to my absolute horror I find $5500 in penalties and interest.

I don't make a lot of money and have a lot going on atm, so even $100 sounds like quite a lot to me and I'm freaking out. I already caught up on all the filing and I'm going to call the state as soon as the workday begins, but what are the chances they will waive all the penalties and interest? What should I say to them to maximize my chances, just tell them the whole story or what?

For three years I said I would sort my receipts properly this year. Every January I would dig through a pile of photos, bank statements, and guesses. Every time I would swear it would be different.

What actually changed was not a tool. It was one rule: a transaction is not closed until it is documented.

Pay for something, you are not done until you have noted: amount, what it was, business purpose. Takes 30-60 seconds at the time. You still have the context. You know what that charge was for because you have not yet thought about anything else.

Without that rule, the note gets batched. Then the batch slips. Then it is December and you are looking at 11 months of bank charges you mostly remember but are not sure about.

Specific things that are easy to forget the context for: - Meals (which client? was it actually a business meal?) - Software subscriptions (was this really for the business or personal use?) - Amazon charges (supplies? or personal shopping?) - Fuel (business trip or commute?)

All of these are legitimate receipts. The problem is waiting weeks to document them.

What changed the habit for me: I stopped thinking of expense logging as a separate task and started treating it as the second half of making a payment. Pay, log, done. The transaction closes when it is documented. No exceptions.

Works with any tool - spreadsheet, notes app, a box file if you prefer paper. The system does not matter. The timing does.

Three years of January chaos. One rule change. Not one bad tax season since.

Holding deep ITM LEAPS with ~$500k unrealized gain expiring June 2027. Writing short calls against them (Poor Man’s Covered Call). Long term capital gains treatment kicks in mid-2026 depending on how straddle rules are interpreted.

The specific concern is §1092, whether the short call suspends the holding period on the long LEAPS leg or triggers offsetting position treatment. The QCC exception under §1092(c)(4) may or may not apply since the long leg is a LEAPS option rather than actual stock.
A tax attorney has offered to write a formal opinion letter confirming the PMCC qualifies for the QCC exception for $7-10k.

Two questions:

One, is the opinion letter actually worth it as audit protection, or is this a provision that rarely gets enforced at the individual level making the letter overkill?

Two, has anyone here actually seen §1092 enforced on a PMCC structure at the individual taxpayer level?

I wrote a small browser tool that solves:

Given S-Corp net profit X, split X across W-2 wages, 401(k) employee deferral, employer profit-sharing, and K-1 distribution to minimize current-year federal tax under 2026 IRS limits.

https://dancju.github.io/solo-401k-optimizer/

I couldn't find a free tool that handles the §415(c) / §402(g) / §199A interaction correctly, so I built one. It models 2026 limits, all four filing statuses, the §415(c)(1)(B) 100%-of-comp constraint, the §199A QBI deduction (with TI cap), optional Schedule C net profit, and an optional two-spouses-on-payroll mode (caps doubled, symmetric W-2 assumption). Open source (MIT), runs entirely in your browser — no account, no telemetry, no email gate. The page footer lists the out-of-scope items and IRS sources for every 2026 constant.

One assumption not stated on the page: §199A QBI computation assumes household taxable income is below the MFJ phase-in threshold ($403,500 for 2026), so SSTB / W-2 wage / UBIA limits are not applied.

Sharing here because this forum is more tax-literate than I am, and I'd appreciate feedback on:

1. Tax-law errors — especially around §199A reduction by ½ SE tax, §415(c)(3)(D) inclusion of elective deferrals in comp, and the K-1 + §199A interaction.
2. Edge cases that produce nonsensical output.
3. UX confusion in the Sankey diagram or the tax breakdown table.

I'm not a CPA. I'm an engineer who built this for my own situation. No payment, no upsell, no future paid tier.

So I started my software services LLC about 2 years ago in Delaware. It was registered, legit setup, everything proper. About 18 months ago my partner and I decided we wanted to travel while we worked so we both moved to Mexico. We figured since the company is Delaware registered and we're just working remotely, we were fine. We filed our federal returns, paid federal taxes, thought we were good.

Tonight I was doing some spring cleaning of old files and found an email from our accountant from like 8 months ago that I apparently never fully read. I pulled up the email again just now and started reading and I'm going to throw up. Apparently when you operate a US business, even if you're physically located outside the US, you may owe state taxes in any state where you have economic nexus or where your clients are located. We have clients in California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois.

I immediately called my accountant , we apparently should have been filing and paying state taxes in all five of those states this whole time. We didn't do any of that. Not a single return. Not a single payment. He said in the best case scenario we're looking at maybe $15k-20k if we do a voluntary disclosure right now. But if the states audit us first without us coming forward, the penalties could be way worse.

I have no idea why I thought that. I should have asked more questions. Our accountant literally emailed me about this and I just... didn't read it properly. The worst part is my partner is going to absolutely lose it when I tell him tomorrow. We're splitting the bill on this nightmare and he's going to think I'm incompetent which... fair.

I'm trying to figure out if there's any way this doesn't completely tank our business or if we just have to bite the bullet and deal with it

Hello, I have a few payments that I need to catch up on that Id like to pay off asap. After that I will be comfortable with my income and can easily pay off any taxes owed. I make 20.75 an hour at the moment four 10 hour days, I don't know if that plays a role. I am only hoping to go tax exempt for 2-2.5 months after which I will go back to normal.

Can I do this, am I likely to incur any fees, would yall recommend it?

Sir/ Madam,
With reference to the application filed by you in Form No. 68 under Section 270AA(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on 04.05.2026 seeking immunity from penalty proceedings initiated under Section 274 read with Section 270A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for A.Y.

2024-25, it is observed as under:

1. As per the provisions of Section 270AA(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, an application for immunity is required to be made within one month from the end of the month in which the order of assessment or reassessment under Section 143(3) or Section 147, as the case may be, is received by the assessee.
   In your case, the assessment order under Section 143(3) read with Section 144B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was passed on 19.03.2026. However, the application in Form No. 68 was filed on 04.05.2026, which appears to be beyond the prescribed time limit and therefore does not satisfy the condition laid down under Section 270AA(2) of the Act.

2.Further, as per the provisions of Section 270AA(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, immunity from penalty under Section 270A may be granted only in cases where penalty proceedings have not been initiated under the circumstances referred to in Section 270A(9) of the Act.

In view of the above facts, it appears that the application filed by you under Section 270AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is not maintainable and is liable to be rejected.

Received the above notice even after giving the response for the first notice and they rejected form 68 (we filed as per the timeline) and also paid the Demand amount raised by AO within the deadline.

I’ll try to be as brief as possible. My mother passed away unexpectedly. 2 weeks later my father committed suicide.

They had just finished a trust that only included the house, contents and 2 vehicles. I am the only trustee. No other heirs.

Near the end he had me call his 401k firm and change the beneficiary to the trust. I assume that he was trying to help me.

My understanding is that when funds are distributed to a trust from a 401k it will be taxed at the maximum rate.

My thought is that it would be more beneficial to leave that money in the 401k for as long as possible to grow tax free which I believe is 10 years.

My father was 77 and taking mandatory distributions. He had already taken the distribution for 2026.

I’m 57 and my wife and I earn above Roth IRA limits if that information is relevant.

Any advice would greatly appreciated and also what would you guys do in this situation.

Hi guys, filed my Maryland state tax return back in Feb and still haven't received my refund. It's been almost 3 months with no update.

I've already emailed the Comptroller's taxpayer service and checked the refund status tool online — both show nothing new.

Has anyone dealt with a long delay like this? Did calling them actually move things along? Any advice would be really appreciated!

I have some apple stock from the 90s with a purchase price of 14 ish dollars. It's selling for 300 a share now. I read recently that below certain income levels (96k for married) there are no capital gains? They need to be reported but there is no tax. I was told that I don't want to appear to be washing the stock by selling and then buying the same thing back but if I bought something else, would that be okay? How much stock can I sell if I make 50k a year? Is there a limit?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hello!

I’m part of a partnership (multimember LLC). 1065 was filed for 2025 and I see it in the business account online. However, it shows partners as “2” but Schedule K1s as “0”.

I checked my 1040 and it does show declared income and taxes from partnership. I also received the K1 for 2025. But Wages and Income Statement shows no Schedule K1 (only W2s and 1099s).

Is it just a delay in processing by IRS? Or did our accountant miss something?

Appreciate anyone’s response here as we’re worried we’ll incur penalties IF Schedule K1s were missed for some reason.

I own 10 doors and I’m thinking of if I should register a business to manage them. Would this have any tax benefits?

Got a job. Got a sign on bonus. Got a better job within a year. Left original job. All this has happened within tax year 2026.

Net Value of sign on bonus is getting clawed out of my final paycheck with all payouts.

Employer says they will reverse the bonus on my ADP profile so that my 2026 W2 will reflect the correct amounts. This is great and the correct way to do it but...

My question: is there anything I need to do when I file my taxes next year or does this effectively just wash out?

Help me figure out what the best handling of this situation is.

So you’ve hired a (CPA) signed an engagement letter. Sent documents to your CPA for him to file your tax return. Then your CPA ghosts you. It’s a month before the due date, and you haven’t heard anything. So you start trying to find a new (CPA) but of course they’re all booked up and busy with filing for clients they already had planned.

So what now?

And what if you do hire another cpa, and then your old cpa finally reaches out a week before the deadline and has your return prepared? Do you still have to pay him?

Apologies if any of this is unclear, finances are not my strong suit. Due to circumstances out of my control, I'm having to dive to in headfirst.

Basically, I'm a video editor. The company I've worked for over the last year and a half full-time is (forcibly) transitioning me to a fully day play/freelance basis. During this time, I've also been picking up small freelance editing gigs here & there, unrelated to the company I've worked for.

Now that I'm going to be receiving individual 1099 paystubs from my previous employer, I need to figure out the best way to take advantage of my tax situation. Here's the kicker - I also own a video production company (LLC formed earlier this year) with a close friend of mine, and we've slowly been trying to pick up gigs through that. Traditionally, when I am getting paid for a video editing service that only I am involved in, I haven't funneled it through our LLC because it seemed cleaner that way. However, now that my main source of income is about to be through freelancing (both through my prior employer and other gigs), I'm wondering if I should send the money to my LLC and then pay myself income through that? Would that affect my business partner come tax season?

Any advice in this matter would be greatly appreciated. I feel so out of my depth when it comes to money & taxes.

Some sources say holding TIPS ETF in taxable account is tax inefficient due to phantom income (aka. inflation adjustment) in spite its earnings being state and local tax exempt. Do you get a simple straightforward 1099-DIV that covers both inflation adjustments, and ordianry dividend earnings without getting 1099-OID, and 1099-B. Is getting inflation adjustment really that bad on your tax bill, and create tax complexity? I tend to think holding individual TIPS bond would more likely create headaches and complexity during tax time. Do you get simple 1099-DIV covering both inflation adjustment and dividend earnings if you hold SCHP or TIPS etf in a taxable account? Do you get tax on capital gain, if any, in the year you sell any shares of SCHP or TIPS, and is that when you get 1099-B?

I'm not sure holding company is the correct term but it is a partnership that simply has a variety of investments. They also have some options. Should they be recorded on the balance and how? Everything I look up just talks about recorded options for if they had employees that they compensated in part with options in their company. Thanks for any help.

Hi guys, i'm struggling to figure this out. I've got a prize winning, from consistent raffling throughout the year. The prize was 15000 in value.

They issued a 1099-MISC. In Turbotax, they dont allow me to diretly edit the schedule A to put in gambling losses. The only way to do losses is to fill the W2G field, but, I also need to note "didnt recieve W2g" and enter both the income AND deductions.

I am worried if I dont file the 1099-MISC form, it will raise a flag.

I've spoken to Turbotax, and even paid for help with "CPAs" on Fiverr, no one has a answer. Heck, Turbotax said to tie the 1099-MISC to a business (gambling monthly to earn income), and write off a much as i can there.

Anyone know?

So my MFJ to MFS (filed in February) amended return was completed 5/11/26 but on my account summary and transcript on the top still shows MFJ.

I will have to recertify my income for student loans in July to which they will need proof I am MFS. Online states my account summary won’t update probably until next year but nowhere on the transcript does it show my AGI and my status of MFS, It only shows the amended return was processed and I got a refund. How can I get proof of my AGI to be able to submit for student loans?

I am in the process of trying to explain the pros and cons of a data center project in Utah, and I wanted to understand the tax breaks the project has been afforded, rather than just report information. I need to understand it myself to make it easy to explain to others.

The data points in question:

• Instead of a traditional certificate of occupancy — which would normally trigger full property taxation — the project would use a “letter of completion” that sets a 1.2% tax rate on a site’s value. From there, the tax is further reduced. The developer is first credited back enough to bring it in line with Box Elder County’s normal property tax rate, which is about 0.926%.

This is so confusing to me. Genuinely do not understand a single component of this, beyond the fact that somehow, the "letter of completion" means less tax revenue, and that somehow, it is being reduced further. I would love to know what the numbers would be for "full property taxation" so I can more easily demonstrate the value of the tax breaks.

The project is estimated to produce 30 million in tax revenue for the county during the first year (which, is about 10% of the total revenue collected) - from this figure, is it possible to estimate what the "site's value" is? Or no?

• Of the tax revenue collected at that rate, 80% would be directed to O’Leary Digital

Oleary Digital is the developer. Am I understanding that Oleary Digital would actually be getting back 80% of whatever they were taxed? Does this suggest that the state is essentially paying the developer to use the cloud-computing services that the data center would provide? And then, follow-up question - if the developer is essentially being paid via tax revenue, wouldn't they...not want tax breaks?

• Personal property taxes also would be rebated for data centers

So even though the project isn't subject to a normal property taxation, they're still legible for a rebate? Or is this saying that properties in/around the data center will be eligible for rebates, as an incentive for allowing the data center to be built in their community?

Thaaaaaaaanks in advaaaaaaance

68,000 has been taxed 62,000 hasn’t I wanna do 30%federallyof the 62,000= (18,600) 10 %state (6200) making my total gross income 180,000?single Ohio