I'm a little confused by some of the advice here. Does anyone know if interest paid at closing counts as mortgage interest that should be on the 1098? We bought in August and paid like $2200 in interest at closing (for the partial month), but that didn't show up on our 1098 either.

I went through this exact same situation two years ago with Wells Fargo. They left off three months of payments on my 1098 and kept promising to send a corrected version that never came. Here's what I learned: You absolutely can and should file with the correct mortgage interest amount based on your own payment records. The IRS expects you to report accurate information, not necessarily what matches your 1098. Keep all your loan statements, payment confirmations, and documentation of your attempts to get the corrected form. I filed with the correct amount (about $800 more than what was on the incorrect 1098) and never had any issues. The IRS never questioned it, and even if they had, I had all the documentation to prove I paid that interest. Don't let your mortgage company's incompetence delay your refund or cause you to miss out on legitimate deductions. File with confidence using your actual payment records - that's exactly what the IRS wants you to do.

FYI - I'm a financial aid counselor (not a tax advisor), and I see confusion about this ALL THE TIME. Here's what students at our university are told: 1) The "room and board" component of our Cost of Attendance is the MAXIMUM amount that can be withdrawn tax-free from a 529 for living expenses. 2) For students living at home, you can still use this allowance BUT you should document: - Student's enrollment status (at least half-time) - The official Cost of Attendance figures from the school - Reasonable expenses that benefit the student (portion of rent/mortgage, utilities, food) 3) You DON'T need a formal rental agreement between parent and child, but some families create one for extra documentation. Most importantly: Keep good records! The burden of proof is on you if questioned.

As someone who went through this exact situation with my daughter two years ago, I can confirm that you absolutely CAN use 529 funds for living expenses even when your student lives at home. The key is understanding that the IRS allows withdrawals up to the school's published "cost of attendance" for off-campus housing, regardless of your actual out-of-pocket costs. Here's what worked for me: 1) I downloaded my daughter's school's official Cost of Attendance document which showed $13,200 for off-campus room and board 2) I kept records showing she was enrolled full-time each semester 3) I documented household expenses that reasonably supported her (groceries, utilities, her portion of mortgage interest) 4) I withdrew exactly the amount listed in the school's off-campus allowance The beautiful thing is you don't need to create artificial rent payments or formal agreements. The IRS recognizes that housing a college student at home involves real costs. Just make sure you have the school's official cost figures and can show reasonable household expenses if ever questioned. One tip: Don't overthink the documentation. Keep it simple but thorough - enrollment verification, the school's published allowance, and basic household expense records. That's really all you need.

Whats the income limits for the child tax credit anyway? I heard somewhere that if u make too much you might not qualify?

This is such a common confusion for new parents! I went through the exact same thing when my daughter was born. The key thing to remember is that tax CREDITS are way better than tax DEDUCTIONS because they reduce your actual tax bill dollar-for-dollar. So if you calculated that you owe $3,000 in federal taxes, the $2,000 Child Tax Credit would bring that down to $1,000. If you had $4,000 withheld from your paychecks throughout the year, you'd get a $3,000 refund ($4,000 withheld minus $1,000 you actually owe). The confusing part is that tax software often shows this as "adding" money to your refund, but what it's really doing is reducing what you owe, which has the same effect. Welcome to parenthood and the wonderful world of tax benefits that come with it!

Has anyone noticed that UKG Pro is super slow right now too? I'm guessing everyone is trying to download their W2s at the same time which is crashing their servers. Might be worth trying again late at night when fewer people are using it.

For those still having trouble, another tip that worked for me - try logging out of UKG Pro completely and logging back in. Sometimes after major updates like this, your session gets stuck with the old interface layout. After I logged back in fresh, the new menu structure appeared properly and I could see the "Tax Documents" section under the Pay tab that Tyler mentioned earlier. Also make sure you're not using a cached version of the site - try clearing your browser cache or using an incognito/private browsing window. The combination of these two steps finally got me access to my W2!

Has anyone considered the potential impact on FAFSA and financial aid if the loan is to help with education? When I loaned my nephew money for college, we learned that having a formal loan agreement actually helped him because funds from loans aren't counted as income for financial aid calculations, while gifts are.

This is such a helpful thread! I'm dealing with a similar situation - considering a $22,000 loan to my daughter for her small business startup. Reading through all these responses, it sounds like the key points are: 1. Charge at least the AFR rate to avoid imputed interest issues 2. Document everything properly with a promissory note 3. Consider the gift strategy to offset interest payments 4. Make sure it's legally enforceable in your state One question I have that I don't think was fully addressed - if the loan is for business purposes, does that change any of the tax implications? I'm wondering if there are different rules when the family member is using the money for business investment versus personal expenses like home purchases or education. Also, for those who used the various services mentioned (taxr.ai, claimyr), did you find the cost was worth it compared to just consulting with a local tax professional? I'm trying to weigh whether to handle this myself with online tools or bite the bullet and pay for professional advice.