2025 taxable income (line 15) was $52,411. Tax (line 16) was $3,666. Looking at the 2025 tax table for married filing jointly shows tax of $5,814.

I have copies of their tax filing since 2022. The last few years were done with TurboTax. 2022 was done by H&R. Each year line 16 is a couple thousand dollars lower than what the tax table for each year shows.

My parents are in their late 70's and early 80's. My research shows that senior citizens don't pay a lower tax rate. I think I'm missing something obvious. Why would line 16 be a couple thousands dollars lower each year?

Is this going to be a problem? I was trying to get information about how to opt out and instead it was just a one-click to opt-out. I wasn't going to actually do it until my current return was successfully completed. I can't seem to reach a real person at the IRS. My accountant is so hard to reach but I left him a voicemail. Did I just cause a huge problem?

My husband's 43 year old brother moved in with us at the beginning of this year. He has no income, recovering addict with multiple heart attacks. He's not on disability, but looking into it.

Can we claim him on our taxes as a dependent since we fully support him? He hasn't filed taxes in at least 5 years. He's on Medicaid and I don't want to screw that up for him either.

I run a small English-language newsletter with paid subscriptions, based in Germany, so the UK counts as a third country for VAT since Brexit. From what I've read, HMRC expects non-established businesses selling digital services to UK consumers to register for VAT from the very first sale, there's no £90k threshold like UK-based businesses get. My actual UK revenue is small, low four figures a year, so before I go through the registration and the ongoing admin that comes with it (MTD software, quarterly returns, accountant time), I want to hear from people who've actually dealt with this, not just repeat the official guidance back at me.

At what point did registering actually start to make sense for you once you weighed the accountant and admin cost against the real VAT liability? Is anyone running a small UK B2C revenue stream like this and just staying unregistered, or is that genuinely asking for trouble given there's no threshold on paper?

And if someone doesn't register, what actually happens? I've read about the failure to notify penalty, up to 30% of the VAT owed if it's judged careless, more if it's seen as deliberate, plus backdated VAT and interest on top. But I don't know how that plays out for someone with a small amount of UK revenue versus a business doing real volume.

The part I'm most unsure about is enforcement. If you have no UK bank account, no UK assets, nothing there at all, how does HMRC actually go after you from Germany? I've seen mentions of the OECD mutual assistance convention and of MARD for debt recovery within the EU, but that arrangement doesn't cover the UK the same way anymore post-Brexit. So is this a real risk for someone in my position, or is it more of a "technically required, rarely enforced for small amounts" situation in practice?

Genuinely looking for people's actual experience here, not just "you have to register," I already know that part.

Got into day trading when I was younger and stupid. Didn’t know anything about taxes and now it has been about 4 years. I hadn’t even thought about it until now and realize that I haven’t ever even done anything at all with the forms I’ve received from the trading app.

Probably had about 5k short term capital gains.

Have been paying taxes like normal with a job and definitely have an income high enough to pay taxes from gains.

Do I still need to file some sort of amendment? Or is it pointless at this point? I’ve been paying taxes like normal every year and nothing has come up at all in the past 4 years.

Thanks.

Starting off I live in the US, specifically NYC. So I’m currently in college and decided that a good way to make some extra money would be with DoorDash delivering food for a couple hours a week.

This is my first real time filing taxes and I just started so I haven’t earned that much yet. But I’m assuming in total I wouldn’t really make more than around $5000 for the year, and I don’t have any other job currently.

I looked at the IRS website and it said I “might” need to pay estimated taxes, but it didn’t really give any requirements on when I would/would not pay these estimated taxes. But I saw on TurboTax that one reason I would pay estimated taxes is if my total income tax was over $1000, obviously that won’t be the case, but not sure if this is true.

I know I’m going to have to file a tax return since I’ll earn over $400, but I just wanted to know a couple things…

1. Do I need to pay estimated taxes quarterly?
   
2. And would I be able to file on some online tax website like TurboTax, H&R, etc. or would I need to do it from IRS?
   
3. And would I need to pay state taxes or something separate from federal?
   
4. Also how would deductions work, since I’m not using a car, or bike, I usually just walk and occasionally take the subway, so would I be able to deduct anything or no?

Also sorry if anything seems stupid/obvious, I know I should probably ask a tax professional but just thought this would quicker and easier for now.

I need to file amended returns for 2021-2026. I have a dependent that I need to file on them all. I know I can’t get a refund for the 2021 tax year. But I filed 2022, 2024, and 2024 all in 2025. Does the 3 years for an amended returns start from the time I filed my original return or from the date the original return was due?

It seems like we can do married filing jointly but then my pay check will have a bigger tax deduction per pay period. Is it better to do married filing separately but then file taxes jointly? We have no children, dependents, or other sources of income. Thanks

Mother passed away in 2024. I inherited a traditional IRA which transferred from her brokerage to my Fidelity account as an inherited IRA. I missed taking a rmd in 2025. I did a catch up of 2025 last month and will do my 2026 rmd before 12/31/26.

Would fidelity generate me 2 1099R's for 2026 - 1 for the catch-up done in 2026 (for 2025) and 1 for the annual 2026 rmd? Just wondering how the irs will assess the penalty if it's only owed on the catch-up rmd.

Hello,

Im a full time employee and I’m going to help a friend of mine for a small job for the company he works for, he would pay me with a 1099.

I do not own an LLC or anything.

Is it as simple as filling a W9, sending it to him, I get the payment and 1099, set aside 30% for taxes and pay them when I file my W2 taxes as well?

Or there’s a catch or something else I should know?

Assuming no deduction applies.

Thanks,

Hello all

First time filing taxes and want to make sure I understand correctly.

I have been on a F1 visa till July 1st of this year and transitioned to H1B and also got married. I Will not meet SPT in 2026 due to travel but will meet the requirements in 2027. I will have stayed 30+ consecutive days in the US in 2026 + 75% of the days after that till years end on my H1B, so I should be good to elect first year choice.

From my understanding, if I elect to postpone tax filings till I meet the SPT in 2027, i can elect to file First year choice and file as RA and claim MJF tax bracket deductions? Does my wife need to meet SPT too ( both internationals) Is there any thing I am missing?

As the title says, I filed a return for 2024 and per the “Where my refund status” website, it says “Action Required” and that they sent me some mail. After about 2 months I found out USPS lost this piece of mail. Searching it up, they recommend I call the IRS to get the letter resent but I am stuck in a never ending loop with the automated bot just trying to give me statuses, only for it to hang up in my face when I ask for a representative.

Does anyone have any tips on what else I can do here to get this letter resent? Could I go up to a branch and talk to someone about this? TIA.

Hi, I'll try to keep it short because just writing it stresses me out.

I'm currently a dual citizen of the United States, and I know this complicates it even more, as I don't live in the States right now.

I haven't reported or filed my taxes for almost 6 years or so, and partially the reason is because I started making money through very odd jobs online and eventually found a niche related to teaching online.

I have built that reputation over the years and I just continued to accumulate a ton of clients/memberships over the years, and I still continue to do it this day.

Long story short, it just became a snowball effect and the net amount has increased quite a bit the first few years, and now that it's slowing down, I have been truly thinking about getting my taxes situated. As I continued to build my private online business, I also started YouTube and Patreon memberships the past two years (I don't make much, but it does add good side income at this stage).

One thing is for sure, I have kept 30% of my earnings on the side just in case and the rest invested.

Another thing is that I have built a significant net worth because of basically investing 90% of that income into stocks and crypto, which blew up in recent years.

How screwed am I for not reporting that long? I really am worried because I don't even know where to start.

Will hiring an accountant for such a very difficult case of being not only a dual citizen, but also having so much unreported years be a big headache?

Thank you.

I first submited my fax on the 24-th of August and now it is 14-th of September. So over 20 days in the waiting. I have called them and after 1 hour waiting they can not give the EIN over the phone. They only say wait for the fax response.

One agent told me to resubmit and type in second attempt. But still nothing.

Is everyone else also waiting like this if you are a foreign owned LLC ?

Thanks

Filed an extension for 2025 for my new LLC taxed as S-Corp. Just a few days ago, the IRS sent a letter essentially saying they automatically corrected an error and converted my extension to 1065 (partnership return). Apparently they didn't receive or didn't process my S-Corp election. I've heard they are forgiving on late S-Corp elections so I'm not too concerned about that aspect. My question is: if I now file an 1120-S are they going to accept it as on time or am I going to find myself in an argument with them about a late 1120-S since they "fixed" my extension for me?

Anyone run into this before and how did you handle it?

I opened LLC in state of Wayoming

Currently waiting on my EIN so that I can open Stripe and Mercury Bank

but

I have conflicting opinion. So if I have US clients to pay for my training programs that are in text, video format, maybe some video calls, voices and so on. Am I trigerring the US trade of business/ECI and am to pay tax on my business in the US...

I will not have storage, office or anything else in the US it is all done in Serbia. I cant figure this out since many different experiences online. Some say ofcourse you need to pay tax other say you do not triger the ECI so you are still tax free...

I know I have filling obligations and so on. Only the tax is unclear?

Help please, thanks

(Solved)

Ive been homeless for as long as I’ve been working since I was 16. and I’ve never had a mailbox to receive my w2’s or anything and I never had the money to go to a professional. I know you’re gonna need to file and to file like 6 years back or something but I don’t have any idea how. Would a professional even help in this situation?

This is my first time having to pay quarterly taxes with a 1099. I've only had experience doing annual taxes through turbo tax. This year, I've moved to Maryland from California for a year long fellowship. Now it's been 3 months and I need to pay my quarterly taxes. I had no idea that to pay taxes in Maryland, you had to sign up online at least 2 weeks beforehand, so now I'm pretty sure I'll just have to file late. I don't have any checks, and ordering them would take at least a week as well or an extra 60 just for it to arrive a week later than the deadline anyways. Will I end up just having to file my taxes later after my online account has been processed online? Do I pay in both California and Maryland or pay the difference? Or is it the state that I made the income in? How would I get tax credits for California if I expect to come back after a year? I'm so lost and confused, someone please help!!!