I had something similar happen but it turned out I was just being paranoid. My CPA was just really disorganized and bad at communication, not actually scamming me. I think the profession attracts people who are better with numbers than with people lol. That said, trust your gut. If something feels off, get a second opinion from another tax professional. Bring your return to them and ask them to review it for accuracy. It'll cost a bit more money but give you peace of mind. And there's still time to file an amended return if they did mess anything up!

I completely understand your concerns - those communication issues alone would make me uncomfortable, regardless of whether it's an actual scam. Poor communication from a professional handling your sensitive financial information is never acceptable, busy season or not. Here's what I'd suggest doing immediately: First, request copies of all documents they used to prepare your return and a detailed explanation of their work. Any legitimate CPA should provide this without hesitation. Second, consider having another tax professional review your return - many will do a quick review for a reasonable fee to spot obvious errors or missed opportunities. Regarding the spam increase, while it could be coincidental, it's worth monitoring your credit reports closely. You can get free reports from annualcreditreport.com to check for any suspicious activity. The fact that they dismissed your questions about deductions without proper explanation is particularly concerning. A good CPA should educate their clients, not brush them off. Even if those deductions truly didn't apply, they owe you a clear explanation of why. Moving forward, I'd recommend finding a new tax preparer for next year. Look for someone who offers transparent communication, provides detailed explanations, and comes with strong references from people whose tax situations are similar to yours.

Something else to consider - if you have $1M in capital gains, the brokerage reports this to FinCEN as well as the IRS. And if you're moving large amounts from your brokerage to bank accounts, those transfers get flagged in the banking system. The $1M scenario described would almost certainly trigger multiple reporting systems beyond just normal tax compliance. I've worked in financial compliance, and there's way more visibility into large money movements than most people realize.

Former IRS agent here. One thing nobody has mentioned: willful failure to report $1M in capital gains could potentially be considered criminal tax evasion, not just a civil matter. The IRS doesn't pursue criminal charges often, but they absolutely will for clear-cut cases involving large amounts. Criminal tax evasion can include actual jail time, not just penalties.

5 Has anyone run into issues with the 4-year limit on the AOTC? My parents claimed it for me for 3 years already, and now I'm in my 4th year of college. I'm worried because I took a semester off, so technically I might need a 5th year to graduate. Will we lose out on the credit for my final year?

One thing to keep in mind is that the AOTC can only be claimed for the first four years of post-secondary education, and the student must be enrolled at least half-time in a degree program. Since you mentioned you're living at home and attending college full-time, you should be fine on the enrollment requirement. Also, make sure your mom knows that only "qualified education expenses" count toward the AOTC - this includes tuition and required fees, plus required books and supplies. Room and board, transportation, and optional expenses don't qualify, even if they're education-related. The fact that you both contributed to paying doesn't complicate things as much as you might think. The IRS treats all qualified expenses as if they were paid by the person claiming you as a dependent. So your mom can claim the full credit based on the total qualified expenses, regardless of who actually wrote the checks.

Does anyone know if you need to attach any special forms if you're claiming the Section 199A deduction? I've entered all my K-1 info in TurboTax but I'm not seeing any additional forms being generated specifically for QBID.

I went through this exact same struggle last year with my first K-1 containing Section 199A information. Here's what I learned after multiple calls to TurboTax support and eventually getting it right: The key is to NOT overthink it. When you enter your K-1 in TurboTax, make sure you're entering it in the "Business Income and Expenses" section under "Partnerships and S Corporations." Enter ALL the information from your K-1, including every single code and amount in Box 20. For your specific numbers: - The $22,450 ordinary income goes in the regular income section of the K-1 entry - The $30,275 self-employment earnings will be handled separately for SE tax purposes - The $2,190 health insurance will likely reduce your SE tax - The $11,380 W-2 wages is crucial for the QBID calculation After entering everything, TurboTax will automatically generate Form 8995 in the background and calculate your 199A deduction. You can verify this worked by going to "Tax Tools" > "View Tax Summary" and looking for the Section 199A deduction line on your Form 1040. The most common mistake is trying to manually enter the QBID somewhere else in the software. Let TurboTax do all the heavy lifting - it's actually pretty good at this once you feed it the complete K-1 information.

One trick I learned from my tax guy is to call the IRS appointment scheduling line instead (844-545-5640). They almost always pick up within 10-15 minutes. Once you get someone on that line, just tell them you're having trouble resolving an issue and need help before making an appointment. Most of the time they'll just help you right then instead of scheduling an appointment!

This is so frustrating and I completely understand your anger! The same exact thing happened to me twice last month - waited over an hour each time only to get disconnected right during verification. It's incredibly maddening when you finally get a human and then lose the connection. From my experience, those disconnections are almost always system issues rather than agents hanging up intentionally. Their phone infrastructure is ancient and gets overloaded during tax season. That doesn't make it less infuriating though! Here's what finally worked for me: I called at exactly 7:00 AM on a Wednesday and got through in about 45 minutes. When the agent picked up, I immediately said "Before we start, can you confirm this connection is stable? I've been disconnected twice during verification." Then I had all my info written down and gave it to them as quickly and clearly as possible. Also try the "Where's My Refund" tool on IRS.gov first - sometimes it'll show if there's a specific issue holding up your return without needing to call. If you do need to verify by phone, consider asking the agent at the very start to note in your account that you've attempted verification multiple times due to disconnections. That way if it happens again, the next agent will see the history. Don't give up - that $3,400 refund is yours and you'll get it! The system is broken but persistence usually wins in the end.