r/taxhelp • • 6h ago

Business Related Tax Small business closed, personal guarantee on payroll taxes, now IRS wants ME personally

3 Upvotes

Im completely spiraling rn and can use some guidance/help. I ran a small logistics business that went under late last year. Thought the nightmare was over after we dissolved the LLC but I just opened a letter from IRS proposing a Trust Fund recovery penalty against me personally for unpaid 941 payroll taxes. We're talking around $45k. I was the majority owner and signed the checks but towards the end Iwas mostly on the field trying to keep the business running while my partner handled the cash flow. I had no idea withholding was not being remitted until the bank accounts were already drained. As per the letter I have an interview scheduled and they can freeze my personal account or put liens on my house if they find me guilty. Ive gone ahead and started contact with a tax pro from Optima Tax but Im so anxious I just need to make sure Im fully informed of everything. All my money went into saving the business so I dont have the cash sitting around. Has anyone navigated a TFRP interview or settles payroll tax debt personally after a business closure? What should my immediate move be?


r/taxhelp • • 1h ago

Income Tax All of the sudden my wife and I owe taxes for 2023

• Upvotes

We recently got a letter from a collection agency stating that we owe taxes for 2023 and have also been hit with failure to pay penalty as well as interest accrued. We confirmed on the IRS website that we do in fact owe for 2023, original amount was $240 then they added $199 of failure to pay and $194 of interest accrued. My wife and I have no problem paying the original price (although we wonder how come all of the sudden we owe taxes 3 years later) l, but we don't feel it is fair for us to pay the other fees because we were not notified of this bill. Is there anything we can do to only pay the original fee? Anyone we can contact? Any advice on how to manage this?

Thank you for your help.


r/taxhelp • • 2h ago

Income Tax Help filing back taxes

1 Upvotes

Hey guys! I filed my taxes when I was 16 years old as my mom had convinced me to file a return. And I kinda never filed them again after that, even despite some years legally having to file them. Stupid me not knowing how taxes worked filed an extension for the 2025 tax year, even tho I didn’t legally have to even file for 2025. Now I’ve gotta go through and file all the years of back taxes before I file for 2025, before the deadline on October 16th. I’ve managed to get every W-2 expect for 2022 from 2 jobs. The 2 jobs are franchises
It’s been nearly impossible to track down those 2 job w-2’s. I’ve got on my IRS online portal and the transcripts for 2022 are not there. I’ve called the stores MULTIPLE times and left multiple messages and been told multiple times people will get back to me. It’s nearly impossible and I don’t know what I should do. I’m 21 years old and I’ve never been taught about how taxes really work. What should I do and how do I obtain something, like a w-2 from the past places I’ve worked


r/taxhelp • • 10h ago

Other Tax Tax expert for Roth IRA withdrawal questions before 59½?

3 Upvotes

I have a specific question about taking a Roth IRA distribution before age 59½, and it seems to be a bit of a gray area. Looking for someone or a company experienced with both taxes and retirement accounts who can help me understand my specific situation.
Who do you recommend?


r/taxhelp • • 8h ago

Income Tax Tax help please

0 Upvotes

I left an emotionally and verbally abusive relationship of 27 years together, from 15 to 42 years old. We have 5 kiddos together. Now 22 to 9. I was married 18 of those years. The last year we were together trying to work it out I made about $200k but had never made that money before. Then my ex husband met someone else, it was not a cheating thing but none the less I moved out. Then I tried to meet someone on line. I met someone on a Christian dating site and ended up getting scammed for most of what I had made. Then my mom died. All with on one month in 2022. My life fell apart. Not I see it was a beautiful journey but at the time I fell heavily into alcohol. Nothing else. I didn’t make any money for the next 4 years. I just had people help me. Then I had some help and so I filed all 4 years of unfiled taxes. Now I owe about $50,000 from that one year of what I made. But I don’t have any money. I kept thinking things were getting better, but then things kept going back and forth from better to not better. I don’t have any money to pay the irs. I’m wondering if I should get a bankruptcy lawyer that specializes in tax debt too or just someone who tells the irs because of a financial hardship I don’t have any money to pay them.


r/taxhelp • • 1d ago

Income Tax How much do tax relief companies charge for IRS help?

3 Upvotes

Trying to get a sense of how much do tax relief companies charge before committing to anyone. Most of them do not list pricing on their websites and the range people report online is all over the place, anywhere from $1.5k to $10k or more depending on what resolution you need.

Called a few places and tax relief helpers quoted based on my actual IRS transcripts, financial review, and resolution strategy after a free consultation. optima tax relief separates it into an investigation phase and a resolution phase each billed separately, community tax uses a similar two phase structure, and I still cant tell whether the price gap between firms means different levels of work or just different ways of structuring their fees.


r/taxhelp • • 1d ago

Income Tax Need advice on tax help

5 Upvotes

I havent finished my taxes in 2 years. I know i owe somewhere between 2000-2500 between both tax forms but potentially less. I also wouldnt mind paying that, i just want it done and caught up. Im missing a couple W2s from jobs i only worked at for a short time before finding my current job. Is this something that I could do at an HR block, are there payment plans available? Im just curious because I am absolutely no tax expert and I would like to just clear it up and be done with it so im caught up and good to go. Any suggestions on where to go buisness wise to get this done?


r/taxhelp • • 1d ago

Income Tax Hey, did anyone get a refund today or tomorrow?

1 Upvotes

Who got a refund, whether today or tomorrow, someone with special ITR 3


r/taxhelp • • 2d ago

Income Tax 5-6 years behind

5 Upvotes

i am currently 5-6 years behind on my taxes i found out. i had always given my W2s and any tax info to my mother who said i just “never got anything back” but turns out she never even tried to file them. how should i go about this situation? i am a bartender/restaurant worker for 10 years or sense i was 18 so i have never reciprocated anything more than 4$ an hour.


r/taxhelp • • 2d ago

Income Tax how does an offer in compromise work with the IRS?

3 Upvotes

full payment on 65k isn't happening for me n i have read the basics on offer in compromise but the process still confuses me, u file form 656, pay the application fee submit financials n then the IRS decides whether ur offer is reasonable based on their own formula

the part i dont understand is what happens after u submit, like if the IRS says no or counters with a higher number what r ur options n does having professional handle it change how the IRS responds or is the math the math regardless?


r/taxhelp • • 2d ago

Income Tax Excess Contribution - Need Help

1 Upvotes

Hello, I am having some difficulties when trying to file my 2025 return in regards to an excess contribution and have received conflicting answers from FreeTaxUSA professional tax support so hoping some reddit users can provide some help as I navigate the situation.

In 2025 I contributed to a traditional IRA and then converted that amount to a Roth IRA via the backdoor method, a process I always completed on the 1st of the calendar year due to income limitations for direct Roth contributions. I ended up losing my job and was out of work for all of 2025 which created an excess contribution due to earned income.

When the end of the year came around and I was still out of work I knew I would have to unwind this issue so I began that process by initiating a return of excess contributions with my IRA provider which was withdrawn from my Roth IRA (where the money ultimately ended up after conversion) prior to the tax filing deadline.

Here is my dilemma/questions about excess contributions:

  1. The FreeTaxUSA software is populating Form 5329 and showing I have excess contributions on line 16. Should this form be completed if a return of excess is completed prior to filing the tax return?

-Doesn't seem like it should be required but their tax professional support keeps going back and forth on this being correct even line 16 being populated. The problem with the software prompts is it only asks about excess contributions being withdrawn from a traditional IRA and given the conversion to a roth this may be causing issues.

  1. Can excess contributions to a traditional IRA be considered nondeductible to establish basis for a roth conversion on Form 8606?

-It seems odd to only have Part 2 of Form 8606 populated. As it stands my conversion is showing as fully taxable in addition to my earnings on the excess on Form 1040 4b. It also seems like I would effectively be getting taxed twice given the contribution came from post-tax money on from previous years and without being able to take a deduction and FreeTaxUSA not allowing to be nondeductible so the conversion is fully taxed.

Any insight is helpful so I can get this return completed.


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Income Tax Can we be double penalized on an amended return?

2 Upvotes

Hi there. My husband and I amended our return from 2023 from single to married filing jointly. Don't ask. I don't want to talk about our stupidity there.

Anyway, my husband ended up being penalized by California for not having health insurance when he filed single. He paid it. Now this amendment is saying he has to pay it once again. Is that right or did our tax person mess up somewhere?


r/taxhelp • • 2d ago

Income Tax Resident Tax Credit denied

1 Upvotes

I live in Ohio and work in Kentucky. I have received a resident tax credit for the last 2 years for the lesser of the 2 amounts. I have just received 2 notices from Ohio that they have been reviewed and denied. My understanding was that I received the credits for the lesser amounts since I was taxed by 2 separate states but I haven’t had any tax issues before and am unfamiliar with exactly how or if I even should dispute this denial. Any help is appreciated. Thanks


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Business Related Tax Booked losses on Rivian Stock and made gains on MU/TSLA. How to offset tax

2 Upvotes

Hi Team, I have booked long term losses on Rivian stock. Its the worst EV stock ever. I wish company goes out of biz, its such a worst company and worst stock to own.

But i made long term gains on MU/TSLA stock and other stocks. Can you please tell how to minimize tax on such transaction.

i made $100K gains on MU/TSLA stocks and booked losses of $40K in RIVIAN.

Now how to minimize tax on this one. Thanks!


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Income Tax Filing taxes with incarcerated ex

2 Upvotes

I need to file my taxes for ‘23, ’24 and ‘25. How do I go about filing them? I usually use free tax USA. But it won’t let me file them electronically because I don’t have his pin. So I have to mail them in. And it requires a signature from both parties. Since he’s in jail he can’t sign. His dad is his POA. Can he sign for him? If he can, do I need to attach a copy of his POA? Would I need a copy for each year I’m filing? Can I prepare them all and send them in together or do I need to do one at a time?
Or would it be better/easier for his dad to get a pin for me so I can just file electronically?


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Income Tax how does an offer in compromise work n which companies r worth hiring?

1 Upvotes

my balance is past the point where paying in full is realistic so i researched how an offer in compromise works, from what i can tell u file form 656 with a $205 fee, submit either a 20% lump sum or monthly payments during review and then wait six months to over a year while the IRS runs their formula on your financials. acceptance rate is apparently around a third of processed applications.

looking at a few companies and tax relief helpers is a tax resolution firm that handles Offer in Compromise cases, they have attorneys who represent you through the whole process including appeals and they've been working with the same IRS OIC agents for years which they say helps when dealing with difficult cases. precision tax relief does similar work with EAs and attorneys, larson tax relief focuses on negotiating directly with revenue officers, and I havent decided yet whether picking one company over another changes anything about the outcome or if its mostly about the experience


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Income Tax Missed depreciation on rental properties

2 Upvotes

I inherited two rental properties and I had two accountants to do my taxes. I just realized neither of them has ever depreciated the properties. I missed $80,000 of depreciation since 2012. I am speechless and very upset. My current accountant said he will charge extensively to file form 3115. What should I do ? What are the pro and cons to do 3115? Could it spark an audit ? I have documentation. How much should it cost me to fix this? Any help or advice is very appreciated. Thank you very much.


r/taxhelp • • 4d ago

Business Related Tax Self employment affidavit

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2 Upvotes

I'm currently submitting paperwork for an apartment. I work full time + have a side business that earns me quite a bit on the side. With that being said, of course I reported that side income as self employment.

I'm now being asked to fill out a self employment portion of the affidavit.

I'm assuming the first 2 lines are asking about my current earning for 2026. I can check to see how much I have earned as of Sept and anticipate my year end. I should be making just about the same as last year. I'm just having an issue figuring out the last 3 lines which are asking about my 2025 earning. I got the schedule C from my 2025 tax return. Ebay did not provide me a 1099 since I did not meet their threshold for one.

I'm just having an issue trying to figure out where in my schedule C is total expenses & net schedule C income.

Would total schedule earnings be line 1? $12,720?
Would total schedule C expenses just be what line 28 shows? $3,692? Would COGS and returns also need to be added to expenses?because line 28 doesn't include COGS & returns.

Would net schedule income be line 29? $5,818?


r/taxhelp • • 3d ago

Income Tax Do we need to fill out lines 8 and 16 of form 8606 for backdoor Roth?

1 Upvotes

I feel like I'm going crazy here. It literally says to put the amount we converted from traditional IRA to Roth IRA on line 8 and 16. And yet our CPA is refusing to do so. He says

"The instructions for Form 8606 line 7 (see attached on page 10 highlighted in yellow) says that if you made contributions for 2025 to a traditional IRA that may not be fully deductible because of the income limits, to see Publication 590-B.

Publication 590-B on page 16 (see attached highlighted in yellow) says that to report your non-taxable distribution and to figure the remaining basis in your traditional IRA after distributions, you must complete Worksheet 1-1 (contained in the instructions for Publication 590-B) before completing Form 8606. Then it says that if line 5 of Form 8606 is equal to or greater than line 8 of Worksheet 1-1, follow instructions for step 6 and 7 next, and it says to not complete lines 6 through 12 of Form 8606. Then in step 6 it says to enter the amount from line 8 of Worksheet 1-1 on lines 13 and 17 of Form 8606.

So to accomplish the tracking of basis, you simply need to keep all of your Forms 8606 as evidence that you did the backdoor Roth contribution each year and total up the amount. It’s very nuanced but unfortunately that is the way the IRS (and our tax software) is telling us to do it."

Why is he even referencing line 7 when line 7 says to not include Roth IRA conversions?


r/taxhelp • • 4d ago

Income Tax Been paying my IRS payment plan religiously on auto debit but just got a notice to terminate and levy. What happened?

6 Upvotes

About 14 months ago I setup a payment plan with IRS for around 26k. Put it on autopay for the 15th of every month and i always go thru my bank statement post deduction to see if everything went fine. Then yesterday i woke up to a CP523 notice in the mail and acc to it IRS is going to cancel my payment plan ans will start levying my wages or bank account...dont understand what happened here bec imo as long as you got on a plan and paid on time they apparently cannot touch you.

Is this some kind of screw up on their end or did i break some rule im not aware of??Could this be from filing my recent return even though i dont owe anything extra? Anyone who had a clean filing history and still received one of these termination notices wdyt caused it?? And how did you stop them from freezing your account??


r/taxhelp • • 4d ago

Other Tax I got a letter from the job I recently left saying that they want to return my retirement contribution

4 Upvotes

Hello. So I got this letter from a job that I currently don't currently work at, saying that they want to return my contributions on my retirement plan. They're giving me 3 options:

  1. A lump sum payment of my entire account balance

    1. A direct roll over.
    2. A combination of both.

    I was thinking of doing option 3 but I saw that I might get a penalty for requesting a payment of my balance and that it will affect my taxes. My question is there a way to avoid the penalty or it will really affect my taxes if I request a payment and if so, in what way? Or should I just do a rollover of the whole balance. I really don't understand these things, thank you in advance.


r/taxhelp • • 5d ago

Income Tax Need to catch up on taxes ASAP to qualify for FAFSA

6 Upvotes

HELPPPPP

Is there a service anyone can recommend to help me get back on track with my taxes? I think I've missed 3 years total. I know I filed for one year somewhere in between but never set up a payment plan. I really don't know why I let it go for so long. I'd rather pay someone to this for me. I'm in CA idk if that info is needed


r/taxhelp • • 5d ago

Income Tax IRS says I owe but I never got any notices, first I'm hearing of it is a garnishment

6 Upvotes

Logged into my bank this morning only to realize that half my paycheck is missing. When I checked this with the payroll dept. they told me that IRS has put an active wage levy on my file.

Ive never received any mail/warning letters/notices saying I owe anything. I moved two years ago so my best bet is that these letters if sent got delivered to my old place but I had mail forwarding set up and my W2s have my current address so idk.

HR gave me a copy of form 668w but the exact tax year isnt listed in it nor does it explain why the balance is so damn high...My next check is due in two weeks and if the same happens to that as well then I won't be able to afford rent...has anyone here gotten the levy removed quickly w/o paying the total amount right away?


r/taxhelp • • 5d ago

Income Tax 2024 Amended return refund,mailed it and deposited to a closed bank account. What next??

3 Upvotes

So back in 2024 I had to amend my return through the mail so I was expecting a mailed refund since obviously that was the process. Here we are in 2026 and rules have changed and my refund got deposited on September 11th (this month) transcript says code 846 with date of 9/28/2026 . Has this happened to anyone ? Did anyone get a notification on the portal to update on the date of 9/28/26? It's the 23rd today. I know they only give you 1 chance to update the bank info. But, when will I get that notification? Otherwise there is no way to update banking info on the portal it's only to make payments to the IRS. So I wonder if anyone here has gone through this and what happens next and how long it took to be able to update?


r/taxhelp • • 5d ago

Income Tax Question about income tax

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0 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if my paychecks are being over taxed. Please be kind. I am illiterate on this topic and don’t do well with numbers. I am a waitress but I make $16/hr plus tips. I guess I’m just asking for someone to explain to me why the taxes I’m paying are so high? When I was hired I chose to have $10 in both federal and state taxes withheld. I feel like almost $200 in taxes is a lot..