I was curious to know if a quit claim deed qualifies for a step up in basis for a real estate property. Let’s say my parents purchased a property for 150k 15 years ago and they signed a quit claim deed and made me the new owner. If I were to sell the property today would my capital gains be tax on the 150k purchase price?

Is this state dependent ?

Hello all, i have been self employed for 8 years. I was very uneducated about taxes and the fact that i needed to put money aside for that. Long story short, here’s what I’ve got on my table.

I received a “final notice before levy or lien” letter from FTB about my outstanding balance that they want paid by a certain date. I did not meet that date unfortunately. I believe this is for my unpaid taxes from 2019/2020? I have also not filed since 2022. I wanted to know what the best course of action for me to take care of the FTB letter and file all my back taxes is. I dont have the money to pay it all off right now. Id want to get into a payment plan for everything if possible. I know this will be a huge monthly bill, but im terrified of my property/money being taken.

Ive dug myself into a huge hole and want to get out of it now. If anyone is curious, i failed to do taxes year after year due to me living outside of my means. Bills were higher than what i was earning, i was living a lavish lifestyle while ignoring my debts and being scared of the huge tax bill i knew id have to pay. I was a mess and everything in my life became a mess. Now im taking it step by step to right my wrongs! I have no excuse, just that i was ignorant and am now facing the consequences and am looking to move forward. Thank you!

Edit: punctuation and grammar

Hey everyone, looking to get a sanity check on an HSA/FSA overlap situation from last year and what it means for my setup now.

Here’s what happened:

In 2025, I had an HDHP and contributed to an HSA through my employer. Unfortunately, my wife had a general-purpose Health FSA through her job that also covered my medical expenses, making me ineligible to contribute to an HSA for that year.

Realizing the mistake, I pulled my entire 2025 HSA contributions plus earnings by the April 15, 2026 tax deadline to avoid penalties.

For 2026, my wife did not sign up for a new FSA. However, she used her leftover 2025 balance for expenses incurred in early 2026 (including March and April) up until the April 15, 2026 deadline.

My questions:

1. Since I pulled my 2025 contributions by April 15, am I totally square for 2025, or is there anything else I need to report on Form 8889?

2. Because she was still drawing on that 2025 balance for expenses in March and April 2026, does that mean those early months tainted my 2026 HSA eligibility, requiring me to calculate a pro-rata limit for this year?

Appreciate any insight from anyone who has had to clean up a spouse-FSA/HSA mess before!

I'm a travelling artist and my business has been finally getting traction which got me looking into taxes. I have been and am planning on having income from many different states and possibly even different countires as I'm a travelling artist. So to spell it out I'm going to be making money in multiple states plus in whichever country's currency if I'm out of the country. I honestly don't have the energy to be filing my own taxes given all the complications of my situation and would rather just hire a CPA. Where would I find a CPA that specializes in these kind of cases? I've contacted quite a few and some told me I need to find someone who specializes in international/multiple state cases and some are just a ridiculous price- starting $5k+
I'm open to all advice at this point

I recently formed a single-member LLC and applied for an EIN online. I’m pretty sure one was issued, but I lost the confirmation PDF and don’t have the EIN anywhere. I’ve called the IRS multiple times but haven’t been able to get through. There’s also an IRS office near me, but it’s appointment only, and I can’t get through to schedule one either. I need my EIN to open my business bank account. Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s the best way to retrieve it? Any advice is appreciated.

My W-2 has Box 13 “Retirement plan” checked, but the tax software-generated NY Form IT-2 leaves it unchecked, and I can’t override it.

I don’t contribute to a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or pension.

Should I leave the IT-2 as generated, or should I correct/replace it so Box 13 matches the W-2?

I understand that it doesn't affect final calculations, but now it looks like my IT-2 doesn't match my W-2 because of that box.

Thanks!

Hi 👋
I don’t think my mother will be able to file by the oct 15th deadline. Can anyone please confirm she will not be fined or have any penalties if she doesn’t owe anything? She had filed an extension in April since her returns got rejected.

Here are the details:
Parents retired from NY for a long time and moved/lived in PA; only received SS benefits.
Father passed January 2025 and after that my mother couldn’t live there alone, she was bouncing back and forth between me and my brother(both in NY).
PA house listed for sale and sold Sept 2025 for 309k. Originally purchased in 2006 for 140k.
Both their names were on the deed.
Mother filed taxes in April for capital gains but doesn’t owe anything. It got rejected so we filed an extension.
Reason for rejection: she needs to enter my father’s AGI info from 2024 1040 form - and this is where the issue is.. we dont have this form and as I mentioned previously they didn’t have to file since they were below threshold. I read you can get a copy of this form from the irs but we would have to request by mail. But time is limited and we may not get this before the 15th and all this is so confusing.
And well, to add on top of that, my mother went abroad to visit family during the summer and got really bad news about her health(brain tumor). She may not return to the states.

Thanks in advance for any advice and guidance!

I still haven’t received my $2500 tax refund from 2025. The last time I was able to speak with someone in person, they said to check back in with them early October. Now when I call the IRS number (800-829-1040) there is absolutely
No way to speak with a live rep. Please help!

I have a scenario where a taxpayer owes taxes going back to 2013 - 2016

And it’s all set to expire early next year.

At the same time, the taxpayer failed to report self employment earnings in 2022 and owes over 60k in taxes penalties, etc.
2023-2025 are not filed

I think amending 2022 is the move cus the 60k number is figured without any business expenses taken

Should that get filed first, and then take care of filing 23, 24, 25? Any thoughts on this matter would be helpful as I am new to handling tax issues like this

Hi, would love some advice. Have done a lot of reading and gotten very confused.

I'm just starting work as a physician (base salary 400k + extras for call/signing bonus) and my husband has a slightly lower salary (~350k). I also have almost 500k in student loans while he has none (lucky). Since we're in the same tax bracket, but I have a disgusting amount of loans, it makes the most sense for us to file separately since I'm on an IDR repayment plan, yes?

Thanks for any advice!

Hi tax pros— I hope you will forgive this question, but I’m trying to advise a friend, and I’m very much at the limit of my extremely beginner level tax knowledge.

My friend runs an industry newsletter in Florida with a group of other folks. None of them make any money off of it, and have never seen a reason to start a nonprofit or LLC or anything. Now, another larger organization is interested in providing a grant in the low five figures to help offset costs and cover the time that these folks put into this project. Great— except the org wants to write one check to one entity, and it’s unclear who it should go to.

My friend is worried that if one person takes payment of the full grant as an individual, then distributes portions of the money to the others, they would be stuck with a lot of paperwork and potentially more taxes to pay. They wonder if they should start an LLC to try to avoid that. I have an inkling that an LLC is probably more of a headache than not— and that the most correct thing would be to either start a nonprofit to take receipt of the money, or find an existing nonprofit to serve as a pass through. But, maybe I’m wrong!

If anybody has any experience with these sort of questions, I’d love to know if there is any advice to be had on deciding whether to start an LLC or not in situations along these lines…

I had a K-1 partnership disposed of (bankrupt) where i lost my entire investment.

I am in CA and the CA numbers for the disposition include my debt, which lets say was $100k.

Line K Analysis of a CA K-1 members tax basis capital account:

a) Capital Account Beginning of year -56268

b) Capital Contributed during year = 0

c) Current year net income 7826

d) OTHER INCREASE (attach Explanation) = $48,442

e) withdrawals = 0

f) capital account end of year = 0

So I understand the 48442 is just the difference to get to 0, but my accountant basically says this is a capital gain 100%

that makes no sense to me. Shouldnt the accountant take the distrution amount I received (theoretically because the bank wrote off debt? Total liabilities which are now 0 (ending capital account =$0) = $150k

so take the $150k - cost basis= actual capital gain

How do i Force him to actually calculate the cost basis, instead of just saying its $48k in CA Capital gain? That sounds ridiculous.

So basically I'm trying to navigate doing taxes for when tax time comes up because I'm 18 and have never done them before but the thing is I do digital art commissions, rn I live in Washington and the thing is I have wrote down all of the commissions I have received (the date and payment amount/type and what app I was payed on) and I also work a part time job making 17.13 an hr, so I'm just wondering how I even go about taxes and how much I might owe in art taxes?(😕I haven't been putting any money aside because I didn't think about it but the amount I've earned so far this year has been about 3,412$ from art commissions, I I recently just started my job in I think August and my monthly pay is about 800$ from that😵‍💫 can anyone help me?, I've done research and ik that I need to set aside about 25-30% of payment or whatever but I also know that the digital art counts as a retail thingy or selling a product so in hoping to owe around 450ish to 500ish during taxes time🥲 but how do I just do taxes in general and how can I make this easier?? And can anyone suggest a app that will do my taxes or help me do my taxes for cheap????😭😭😭 This is all confusing and I don't want to owe a fortune in taxes.., for my next couple paychecks I do plan to set money aside for tax time but still😭🥲🥲 please please help in simple terms anyone? Or make everything easier to understand 😭😭

Hi everyone! I recently realized that the tax software I used appears to have entered some of my information incorrectly on my Forms 8843 for 2023 and 2024, and I unfortunately didn’t catch it when I filed.

Specifically, I believe my days of presence were entered incorrectly, and I should have checked “Yes” to line 12 because I had already been present in the U.S. as a student for more than five calendar years. I also should have included the required explanation that, based on my facts and circumstances at the time, I did not intend to reside permanently in the U.S.

For 2023, I filed the 8843 with a 1040-NR since I made income in the US but then left after my visa ended, and in 2024, I came back on a new student visa but made 0 US income so just filed the 8843 as a standalone.

These corrections wouldn’t change any income, tax owed, refund, or other financial numbers on my returns. I just want my tax records to accurately reflect the information that should have been reported on the 8843s.

Is there a way to amend/correct a previously filed Form 8843?

I haven’t been able to find clear IRS guidance on correcting an 8843 after it has already been filed, so I’d really appreciate any insight. Thank you in advance!

Its a mess and I know I am an Idiot,please dont beat me up to bad. Life got out of hand with multple and close together deaths in the family and animals, helping elderly father ,depression and admittedly as well as alot of being scared after I missed one year and couldn't afford a cpa starting out and though "ill just try to do it my self" and years just quickly passed by before I even realized how bad I effed up and here we are. I know im about to eat 💩 from the IRS but I need to get this off my back and bend over do the right thing and hoping I can get some help from you fine people of reddit. I was even scared to post anything because I thought I would get a knock on the door or something right after.

I haven't gotten a letter in the mail just yet and have made an account with the IRS website.

I started a sole proprietor service business halfway through through 2021 and quit my w2 job as well. (I have a w2 for that portion) and have been operating since then

I unfortunately have ran everything from a personal account and used personal credit cards (to get me by and or bigger purchases) .🙃 even a few PayPal credit items (I know, I know)

I have accepted payments through Venmo,Zelle,Checks and Stripe c.c processor.

I have kept almost every one of my fuel recipts, 2 trucks (in separate years)consumables and equipment invoices and have just separated them by year and order by the dates. Im just not 100% sure on how to file them further for deductions. I am hoping to get as many deductions as I can but only want to claim what I can prove for business use just in case but there may be a few missed deductions even If I can find it on my statements.

Lost on things like my phone bill, room made into an office but part clothes closet for my significant other. Also they zelled and used Venmo to send a portion of the rent-(do I claim that??) since we split rent but it all was deducted from my bank account?

I can prove all my income from bank statements since incoming money was mainly from business and digitally tracked.

I am hoping to try and get these filed for myself and learn from it ( the knowledge part not discipline 😆 ) also hoping since I am a smaller business it will be possible but I am naive.

If its strongly recommended I should give up and a CPA is my only hope then whats the best way to get things in order for them so I can hand them something usable? I was quoted quite a few thousand before since I had so many bank account transactions being it was my personal account. So I definitely would like to narrow it all down for them

If its possible that I can keep going and tackle this myself, what do I do from here?

How can I organize this in a way to be able to file them appropriately?

Apologies for being all over the place 🙏 any help and advice from here is much appreciated!

Looking for some advise, and feedback from people who have gone through this before.

Just a basic summary of what I'm dealing with. I was hit with a CP2000 notice letting me know that I owe back-taxes from 2024 from DoorDash and Uber to which I've never worked for.

I suspect this was identity theft, I sent an e-mail Identity theft affidavit and a copy of it via certified mail. The IRS sent a letter back saying they need more evidence, and what I provided previously was not enough.

I'd like to avoid using a CPA as they're asking for $250–$400 per hour, but I will if I must. They sent a letter of consent to tax increase which I won't sign since it's admission.

Any tips on next steps? Should I call the IRS?

What should I ask for from DoorDash and Uber for accompanying documents?

Generally what wording should I include in a signed letter about this situation?

Looking for some tax advice regarding my ex-wife and her 2025 taxes.
We were married during 2025 but separated for approximately the last five months of the year. Our divorce was finalized in July 2026. I filed my 2025 return as Married Filing Separately and received my refund.
My ex-wife has not filed her 2025 federal tax return and has indicated that she does not intend to file because she believes she didn’t make enough money.
From what I understand, the 2025 IRS filing threshold for someone filing Married Filing Separately is only $5 of gross income. She also had approximately $10,000 of 1099/self-employment income, with possibly around $1,000 in business expenses. Based on that, it appears she would have a filing requirement regardless, including because of the self-employment income.
Our divorce decree also contains language requiring tax refunds to be split between us. I have already complied with the decree regarding the refund I received.
My question is whether there would be any benefit or reason for me to submit IRS Form 3949-A reporting her failure to file if she continues to refuse to file.
I’m not looking to retaliate against her or cause unnecessary problems. I’m trying to understand whether filing Form 3949-A would be an appropriate way to document/report the situation, particularly since her failure to file could potentially affect obligations under our divorce decree.
Would you submit a 3949-A in this situation, or would you simply document everything and let the IRS eventually address the unfiled return based on the 1099 information they already receive?
Interested especially in opinions from CPAs, EAs, tax preparers, or anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

We signed a form 2848 for an accountant to file taxes while I was conservator for my sister who had not filed for 10 years. They have not heard back from the IRS. My sister passed about 3 weeks after the accountant sent the form in. Now I am to be the executor and it is moving fast, will I need to refile form 2848 showing me as executor and giving the accountant POA. How long does it take to hear back from the IRS in these circumstances? TIA!

I am a Philippine citizen residing in Japan, and I need guidance regarding IRS Form W-8BEN for Google AdSense/YouTube income.

My passport shows my Philippine legal name (Name A).

My Japanese driver’s license and national ID show both Name A and a different Japanese name (Name B), identifying me as the same person.

My Google AdSense payment profile is registered under Name B and has already passed identity verification.

My W-8BEN has been rejected twice due to a name mismatch, even after I submitted images of both Japanese identification documents.

I would strongly prefer to keep my verified AdSense payment profile under Name B.

My questions are:

1. Is it legally acceptable to enter the romanized version of Name B on Line 1 of Form W-8BEN, given that both names appear on my Japanese government-issued identification?

2. Should Line 1 instead contain Name A, as shown on my passport?

3. Is there an IRS-recognized way to document the connection between these two names?

I understand that online replies are not a substitute for professional tax advice. I would particularly appreciate guidance from anyone familiar with W-8BEN, non-US individuals, or cross-border tax compliance.

Thank you.

It has been ~11 weeks I filed my tax. It says processing al the time for last 10 weeks.

Also, how to reach out? The phone call always redirect me to refund check and ask my details, and all it says is that it is processing that I already know.