I went through this exact situation about 6 months ago and can confirm everything Tony said is spot on! I had HSAs with Fidelity and HSA Bank and wanted to consolidate everything into Fidelity. The trustee-to-trustee transfer was definitely the way to go. Here's what I learned from my experience: 1. Call both banks first to get their specific forms - don't rely on what you find online as some banks have multiple versions 2. HSA Bank charged me $25 for the outgoing transfer, but Fidelity didn't charge anything for receiving it 3. The whole process took about 10 business days from when I submitted the forms 4. I didn't have to report anything on my taxes - it was completely invisible to the IRS One tip: when you call, specifically ask for the "HSA trustee-to-trustee transfer" forms. Some customer service reps will try to steer you toward a rollover because it's easier for them, but the direct transfer is much cleaner for you. Also, make sure you don't close the old account until you confirm the money has fully transferred and settled in the new account. I kept my HSA Bank account open for an extra month just to be safe. Good luck with your transfer - it's really not as scary as it seems once you know the right process!

Just wanted to add another data point for anyone considering this - I completed an HSA trustee-to-trustee transfer last month between Chase and Lively, and it went perfectly smoothly following the advice in this thread. A couple of additional tips from my experience: 1. When you call for the forms, ask specifically about any minimum balance requirements. Chase required me to maintain a $25 minimum balance during the transfer process, which I didn't know about initially. 2. If you have automatic contributions set up (like payroll deductions), pause them until after the transfer completes. I forgot to do this and ended up with a small contribution hitting the old account right as the transfer was processing, which delayed things by a few days. 3. Both banks sent me confirmation emails when they received the forms and again when the transfer was initiated. Keep these for your records - they're helpful if you need to follow up. The whole process took 8 business days for me, no fees from either side, and absolutely nothing to report on taxes. Definitely worth doing it the right way rather than risking the penalties that Nina experienced! Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences here - this thread probably saved me from making a costly mistake.

This thread has been incredibly enlightening! As a newcomer to the US tax system, I'm amazed by the level of detail everyone has shared. Filed my Illinois return on February 14th and received my refund on March 8th - exactly 22 days. E-filed with direct deposit, had W-2 income plus some small freelance payments on 1099-MISC. The mytax.illinois.gov portal showed "being processed" for 19 days, then switched to "refund approved" and the deposit appeared 2 business days later. What struck me most was how the Illinois system feels more "black box" compared to what I expected from government services - you really do just have to trust the process and wait. But seeing everyone's data points clustering around that 20-25 day range regardless of income complexity is actually quite reassuring. The predictability is there, even if the transparency isn't. Coming from a different tax system, I initially found the limited status updates frustrating, but now I see it might actually reduce anxiety compared to obsessively checking for micro-updates. Thanks Jordan for starting this data collection - it's exactly what newcomers need to understand these state-specific processing patterns!

This has been such an informative thread! As a newcomer to the US tax system, I'm really grateful for all the detailed data everyone has shared. I filed my Illinois return on March 3rd and just received my refund yesterday (March 26th) - so 23 days total. E-filed with direct deposit, had W-2 income plus some investment income from a 1099-INT. The mytax.illinois.gov portal showed "being processed" for about 20 days, then switched to "refund approved" on Monday and the deposit hit my account Wednesday morning. What's fascinating is how this falls right into that 20-25 day pattern everyone has identified, regardless of having the additional 1099-INT income. Coming from a different country's tax system, I was initially frustrated by the limited status updates compared to what I expected from government digital services. But seeing this consistent processing timeline across everyone's experiences - from simple W-2 returns to those with rental income, freelance payments, and investments - is actually quite reassuring. The predictability is definitely there, even if the transparency isn't what we might expect. Jordan, your data collection has been incredibly valuable for understanding these state-specific processing patterns. It's exactly the kind of practical information newcomers need to set proper expectations and realize that "being processed" for 3 weeks doesn't mean something's wrong!

I went through a similar situation two years ago with a rental property for my daughter's college expenses. One strategy that worked well for me was a partial gift/partial sale approach. I gifted her the maximum annual exclusion amount ($18,000 for 2025) as her share of the property equity, then sold her the remainder at fair market value with seller financing at a low interest rate. This kept her in a lower tax bracket for the capital gains while still getting me the cash flow I needed for tuition payments. The key was structuring the sale price and payment schedule to minimize the tax impact on both sides. I'd definitely recommend running the numbers on this approach compared to an outright sale, especially since you mentioned the property has appreciated significantly. Also worth noting that this strategy helped preserve some of her financial aid eligibility since the property transfer was structured as a purchase rather than a windfall.

There's another angle worth exploring that hasn't been mentioned yet - if you're over 65 and this is your first time selling investment property, you might want to look into opportunity zone investments. If you reinvest the capital gains from your rental property sale into a qualified opportunity zone fund within 180 days, you can defer the capital gains tax until 2026 (or until you sell the opportunity zone investment, whichever comes first). While this doesn't eliminate the depreciation recapture, it could give you more flexibility with the timing of when you pay the capital gains portion. The challenge is finding a suitable opportunity zone investment and making sure you'll have the liquidity when the deferral period ends, but it could be worth exploring given the $95k appreciation you mentioned. You'd still get the cash from the sale to pay for college expenses while deferring a significant portion of the tax burden.

Am I the only one who thinks it's fundamentally unfair that IRD gets taxed twice? Like if someone dies with a big 401k, the estate pays estate tax on the full value, then the beneficiary pays income tax when they withdraw? Even with the 691c deduction it doesn't fully offset. The govt basically gets a windfall just bc someone died. SMH.

The confusion about IRD and double taxation is completely understandable - I went through the same thing when my father passed last year. What really helped me was understanding that the "double taxation" issue primarily affects larger estates that actually pay estate tax (over the $12.92 million exemption). For most people, like with your grandmother's $2,500 in post-death investment income, there likely won't be any estate tax at all. The estate reports the income on Form 1041, takes a distribution deduction when it passes to you, and you pay income tax on it via the K-1. So it's really just one layer of taxation - at your personal rate. The real IRD "double tax" scenario comes into play with things like large retirement accounts where the account value was subject to estate tax AND the withdrawals are subject to income tax. But even then, the 691(c) deduction helps offset some of that burden. One thing to watch for with your grandmother's investments - make sure to distinguish between dividends that were declared before her death (classic IRD) versus those declared after. The reporting is slightly different even though both end up on the 1041.

Does anyone know if capital loss carryovers from previous years are also split between short-term and long-term for tax calculation purposes? I've got about $12k in carryover losses from last year's crypto crash.

The confusion about where the different tax rates get applied is totally understandable! I went through the same thing when I first started dealing with capital gains. What really helped me was understanding that Form 1040 is essentially just the "summary" document - it shows your total income from all sources, including the combined capital gains from Schedule D. But the actual tax calculation happens in the background using those worksheets that others mentioned. Think of it this way: Schedule D does all the heavy lifting of separating your short-term vs long-term gains and calculating the net amounts. Then, when it comes time to actually compute your tax liability, the IRS tax calculation process (whether done by software or manually using the worksheets) knows to apply ordinary income rates to any short-term gains and the preferential rates (0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your income level) to long-term gains. If you're doing your taxes manually, you'd use the "Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet" in the Form 1040 instructions if you have net long-term capital gains. But if you're using tax software, it handles all of this automatically behind the scenes - you just need to make sure you're entering your transactions with the correct dates so it can properly classify them as short-term or long-term.