Great point about documentation! I'd also add that you should gather any records of property taxes you paid during ownership - the IRS views paying property taxes on unused land as another indicator of investment intent rather than personal use. If you researched comparable sales in the area or tracked market values over time, those records can also help demonstrate you were treating it as an investment. One thing to be careful about though - make sure you don't have any photos or social media posts that might suggest personal use (like family gatherings on the property, even if rare). The IRS can be pretty thorough in audits, and anything that suggests recreational use could complicate your investment property classification. Sounds like you're in good shape since you mentioned barely visiting it, but worth double-checking your digital footprint just to be safe.

I've been following this discussion with interest since I'm dealing with a similar situation. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the importance of keeping records of your original purchase decision-making process. When I bought my vacant land in 2019, I saved all the research I did on the area's growth potential, zoning changes, and planned infrastructure improvements. Even though my investment didn't pan out either, having those documents really helped when I spoke with a tax professional. It clearly showed my mindset was investment-focused from day one, not recreational. I also kept records of periodic market value checks I did online over the years, which demonstrated ongoing investment monitoring rather than just buying and forgetting about it. For anyone in this situation, I'd recommend gathering not just the obvious stuff like purchase contracts and property tax records, but also any emails, web searches, or notes you made about why you thought the property would appreciate. The IRS seems to really focus on your intent and thought process, so the more you can document that investment mindset, the stronger your position will be.

I've been dealing with this exact issue as a U.S. citizen living abroad without a clear tax residency. After consulting with an international tax attorney, here's what I learned: The IRS is primarily concerned with ensuring you're not trying to avoid reporting income or claiming false treaty benefits. For Schedule OI, if you genuinely don't qualify as a tax resident anywhere, you should: 1. List your country of citizenship in the residence field 2. In the additional information section, clearly state your situation: "U.S. citizen with no current tax residency in any country due to continuous international travel" 3. Be prepared to substantiate this claim with travel records if requested The attorney emphasized that this is becoming increasingly common with remote work trends, and the IRS has guidance for handling these "stateless for tax purposes" situations. What matters most is that you can demonstrate you're not artificially avoiding tax obligations in any country. One important note: even if you're not a tax resident anywhere, you still need to comply with U.S. tax obligations as a citizen, including FBAR and FATCA reporting if applicable. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion might also apply to reduce your U.S. tax liability on foreign-sourced income.

As someone who has navigated similar digital nomad tax complexities, I wanted to add a practical perspective to this excellent discussion. The approach of listing your citizenship country and including an explanatory statement is definitely the right path, but I'd emphasize a few additional considerations: First, make sure you understand the "substantial presence test" for the countries where you spent the most time. Even if you don't think you're a tax resident somewhere, some countries have complex formulas that might surprise you. For example, Canada has a "sojourner" rule, and some European countries count partial days differently. Second, consider opening a foreign bank account in a country with good U.S. tax treaty provisions (like the UK or Canada) if you don't already have one. This can simplify future filings and provide a "financial home base" even if you don't have a physical one. Finally, I'd recommend setting up a simple tracking system (even just a spreadsheet) to log your location daily. It sounds tedious, but it's invaluable if you ever need to prove your travel pattern to tax authorities. I use a simple app that logs GPS coordinates automatically. The nomad lifestyle is becoming much more common, and tax authorities are adapting. As long as you're transparent and can document your situation, you should be fine!

I'll add one more perspective that might be helpful - as someone who works in tax preparation, I see this exact situation all the time during tax season. Your sister's case is incredibly common and straightforward. Here's what I typically tell families in your situation: at $6,200 in earned income, she's not required to file, but she almost certainly should file to get her withholdings back. Most part-time teenage workers end up getting a full refund of whatever was withheld because their income is so low. The process is actually pretty simple for her situation - she'll just need her W-2 (which she should get by January 31st), and she can use any of the free filing options mentioned above. The whole thing usually takes about 15-20 minutes for a basic W-2-only return. One last tip: if your parents use a tax preparer, many will include preparing your sister's simple return as part of their family service, sometimes at no extra charge. It's worth asking since they're already familiar with your family's tax situation and can make sure everything coordinates properly between her return and your parents' return where they claim her as a dependent.

As someone who just went through this exact situation with my teenage nephew last year, I wanted to add a practical tip that really helped us: have your sister call her employer's payroll department to ask about her total federal withholdings for the year. They can usually give you that number over the phone even before the W-2 arrives, which helps you decide whether filing is worth it financially. In our case, my nephew had about $400 withheld from his $7,000 in earnings, so filing was definitely worthwhile. The whole process ended up being much less scary than we anticipated - we used the IRS Free File program and he got his refund via direct deposit in about two weeks. One thing that really put his mind at ease was learning that the IRS has a "safe harbor" approach for first-time filers who are clearly trying to comply. Your sister asking these questions shows she's acting in good faith, which is exactly what the IRS wants to see. Even if she made a minor mistake, they typically work with people rather than penalizing them when it's obvious someone is trying to do the right thing.

I'm facing the same dilemma right now and this discussion has been incredibly reassuring! Filed my original return about 8 days ago and then discovered I missed reporting some freelance income from a 1099-NEC that got buried in my paperwork. The sequential processing explanation everyone has shared makes total sense - it would be chaos for the IRS systems to try to reconcile original returns and amendments simultaneously. I'm definitely going to follow the consensus here: wait for my original return to fully process, then file the 1040-X. In the meantime, I'll pull my wage and income transcript to confirm that 1099-NEC was actually submitted to the IRS. Better to be thorough now than deal with multiple amendments later. Thanks to everyone for sharing their real-world experiences - this practical advice is worth its weight in gold during tax season!

I'm in a very similar situation and this thread has been extremely helpful! Filed my return 5 days ago and just realized I completely forgot to include some cryptocurrency transactions from a small exchange. Reading through everyone's experiences, it's clear that the IRS follows a strict sequential processing order - original return first, then any amendments. This makes perfect sense from a technical standpoint since their systems need a complete baseline before handling changes. I was initially panicking about whether to rush and file Form 1040-X immediately, but now I understand that would actually just create more delays and complications. I'm going to wait for my original return to show "processed" status in my IRS account, then pull my wage and income transcript to see exactly what crypto forms (1099-K, 1099-B, etc.) are already on file before proceeding with the amendment. The 15+ week total timeline that Paolo mentioned is definitely not ideal, but it sounds like trying to shortcut this process only makes things worse. Thanks to everyone for sharing such detailed real-world experiences - this practical guidance is invaluable!

This is exactly the kind of analysis I've been looking for! Based on my experience as a new community member here, I've been helping friends navigate their first verification processes this season. What I've observed aligns with the data showing phone verification is significantly faster. One thing I'd add to this discussion - I've noticed that the phone verification agents often have access to real-time system updates that the online ID.me portal doesn't reflect. When my neighbor called for verification, the agent was able to see that her online attempt from the previous week was still "pending" in their system, even though ID.me showed it as "completed." The agent cleared that duplicate entry and processed the verification immediately. For anyone still deciding between methods, I'd recommend calling if you're comfortable with potentially long hold times. The time investment upfront seems to pay off with much faster processing on the backend. Has anyone tried using callback services to avoid the hold times, and if so, did that affect the verification process at all?

This comprehensive analysis is incredibly valuable! As someone new to this community, I've been trying to help family members navigate their first verification experiences this season. What strikes me most about this discussion is how consistent the data points are across different contributors - phone verification consistently shows 7-12 day processing times while online verification ranges from 2-4 weeks. The 78% success rate mentioned for online verification during peak periods is particularly concerning. I'm curious about one aspect that hasn't been fully addressed: Does the time of year when you attempt verification impact these processing differences? I've noticed some people mentioning February experiences versus more recent March timelines. Are the phone verification advantages even more pronounced during peak filing season when the online systems are under heavier load? Also, for those tracking client data like @Nalani Liu, have you noticed any geographic patterns in verification requirements or processing speeds? I'm wondering if certain IRS processing centers handle verification more efficiently than others, which could influence whether someone should prioritize phone vs. online verification based on their location. The real-time system update capability that phone agents have seems to be the key differentiator here. It eliminates the batch processing delays that plague the online system integration between ID.me and IRS databases.