Another thing to consider - if your LLC was taxed as an S-Corp (which some single member LLCs elect to be), then the reporting would be different. You'd need to report those items on your Form 1120-S instead of Schedule C. Did you make any special tax elections for your LLC?

Make sure you're keeping track of all the business assets when you close down too. If you kept any equipment or inventory for personal use, you might need to report that as a distribution to yourself.

Wait I'm confused about something basic. When you say "disregarded entity" does that mean you're dissolving the LLC? Or just changing how it's taxed? We have an LLC for liability protection but I don't want to lose that if we change the tax status.

Just wanted to add my experience here - my wife and I went through this exact same situation last year. We initially filed as a multi-member LLC but realized we wanted the simplicity of disregarded entity treatment for our small consulting business. Since we're in a non-community property state (Ohio), we ended up filing Form 8832 to elect disregarded entity status. The process was actually pretty straightforward once we understood what we needed to do. We kept our original EIN and just changed the tax classification. One thing I wish someone had told us earlier - make sure you file Form 8832 by the deadline if you want the election to be effective for the current tax year. We almost missed it and would have had to wait until the following year for the change to take effect. The simplified tax filing has been worth it for us. Instead of dealing with Form 1065 and K-1s, we just file Schedule C with our joint return. Much less paperwork and complexity for a small business like ours.

I purchased a landscaping business last year and made a huge mistake on the tax side. I didn't specify the allocation in the purchase agreement, thinking my accountant would handle it later. Big mistake! The seller allocated almost everything to goodwill (15-year amortization) while I wanted more allocated to equipment (which I could've depreciated faster or even expensed under Section 179). We ended up having to renegotiate after the fact and file amended returns, which was a huge headache and cost me extra in accounting fees. Make sure you have the allocation clearly defined in your purchase agreement with as much as possible allocated to assets with shorter depreciation schedules!

One thing I'd strongly recommend is getting a purchase price allocation study done by a qualified professional before you finalize the deal. When I acquired my retail business two years ago, I thought I could handle the allocation myself, but it turned out to be much more complex than expected. The study I had done identified several categories I hadn't considered - like separating out customer relationships, non-compete agreements, and even software licenses that could be depreciated on different schedules. The professional was able to justify allocating about 40% of my purchase price to assets with 5-7 year depreciation lives instead of the 15-year goodwill treatment. For your $1.3M purchase, this could mean tens of thousands in additional deductions in the early years. The study cost me about $8,000 but saved me way more than that in accelerated depreciation. Make sure whoever does it has experience with IRS audits of business acquisitions - you want defensible allocations that will hold up if questioned. Also, definitely go with the asset purchase if you can. The step-up in basis alone makes it worth negotiating for, even if the seller wants a slightly higher price to compensate for their higher tax burden.

According to Internal Revenue Manual 21.4.1.3, the IRS Master File processing occurs weekly, not daily. Transcripts are a reflection of that Master File data. The cycle code (05 in your case) indicates which processing week your return falls into. Per IRM 3.12.3-2, cycle 05 accounts are processed on Thursdays. This is why most people observe transcript updates happening overnight between Thursday and Friday for cycle 05 taxpayers.

I totally understand the anxiety - waiting for a refund when you have unexpected expenses is so stressful! 😰 As others have mentioned, transcripts typically only update once daily during overnight processing. For cycle 05, that's usually Thursday nights into Friday mornings. The blank transcript actually means your return is in the system and being processed, which is a good sign! It's not stuck in limbo. I'd recommend checking Friday morning and then maybe not again until the following Friday if nothing shows up. One thing that helped me last year was setting up direct deposit alerts with my bank so I'd know immediately when the refund hit, rather than obsessively checking the transcript. Sometimes the money shows up before the transcript even reflects the deposit date! Hang in there - you should see movement soon! 💪

Former tax preparer here - just want to add that when reporting the vehicle sale on Schedule D, make sure you're using the correct holding period. Since the estate received a stepped-up basis to the FMV at date of death, the holding period starts fresh from the date of death. So if the estate sold the vehicle less than a year after the date of death, it would be a short-term capital loss. If held longer than a year before selling, it would be a long-term capital loss. This can matter for offsetting other capital gains the estate might have.

Has anyone dealt with selling a classic/collectible car from an estate? My grandmother had a 1965 Mustang that's worth significantly more now than when she passed. We're planning to sell it but I'm confused if there are different rules for collector cars vs regular vehicles on Form 1041.