Talk to the grandma directly! Since you live together, a simple conversation might solve this. Explain that legally you have priority as the parent and that you depend on the tax benefits to support the kids. Maybe agree to use some of the refund for something that benefits the household? Keeping family peace is worth something too.

You're absolutely right to be concerned about this situation. As the custodial parent, you have the legal right to claim your children as dependents, but you need to be proactive about protecting that right. Here's what I'd recommend: 1. **File your taxes as early as possible** - The IRS processes returns in the order they receive them, so filing early gives you the best chance of claiming your children before anyone else tries. 2. **Document everything** - Keep records showing you provide more than half of your children's support (housing, food, clothing, medical care, etc.). Even though you live with grandma, if you're paying for these things, you're the primary support provider. 3. **Have a conversation with grandma** - Since you live together, try to resolve this amicably. Explain that as the parent, you have priority under IRS rules and that you need these tax benefits to continue supporting the children. 4. **Don't sign Form 8332** - This form would give the father permission to claim the children. Since they haven't lived with him since 2012, he has no legal basis to claim them anyway. If someone does file first and claims your children, you'll need to file a paper return and let the IRS sort out the duplicate claims. As the biological parent who lives with and supports the children, you should win any dispute - just make sure you have documentation ready. The key is acting quickly and having your paperwork in order. Good luck!

Has anyone here tried calling the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service instead of the main IRS number? Sometimes they can help with transcript questions without the ridiculous wait times.

I've dealt with the 922 code before and it's actually pretty common. In my case, it showed up about 18 months after I filed because my credit union had submitted a corrected 1099-INT form. The original form they sent me (and that I used for my return) had the right amount, but their initial submission to the IRS apparently had a typo. When they corrected it, the IRS system flagged it for review even though my return was actually correct all along. The $0.00 amount is definitely a good sign - it means they completed their review and determined no additional tax was owed. I never received any notices about it, and it didn't affect anything else. The code just stays on your transcript as a record that they looked into it. If you do get through to the IRS, they should be able to tell you exactly what triggered the review, but honestly if the amount is zero and you haven't gotten any official correspondence, you're probably fine to just leave it alone.

Question for anyone who's been through an audit - does the IRS ever ask to see your basis calculations during an audit of an S-Corp return? I'm wondering how detailed my documentation needs to be.

Great question about S-Corp basis tracking! As someone who went through this same confusion a few years ago, I can share what I learned from my CPA. For your specific questions: 1. Yes, use the K-1 Part III, but don't just focus on Box 1. You need to look at ALL the boxes - income items (Boxes 1-10) generally increase basis, while deductions and losses (Boxes 11-13) decrease it. Also check Box 16 carefully for distributions and other adjustments. 2. Unfortunately no - there's no single summary box. The IRS expects shareholders to maintain their own basis calculations, which is honestly one of the more frustrating aspects of S-Corp ownership. 3. Since there's no official place this appears on returns, you'll need to reconstruct from Day 1. Start with your initial investment/contribution when you formed the S-Corp, then work through each year's K-1 systematically. One critical tip: Make sure you're handling the ORDER of adjustments correctly. Income and contributions increase basis first, then losses and deductions reduce it, and finally distributions come out last. This order matters because it affects how much loss you can deduct in any given year. Given your simple structure (sole owner, no loans, minimal complexity), your calculation should be straightforward once you get the methodology down. I'd strongly recommend setting up a tracking system now so you don't have to reconstruct again in the future!

After being stuck with a blank transcript for almost 5 months and getting no help from calling, I had a breakthrough when I found taxr.ai. This tool was able to analyze my account status in a way I couldn't on my own. It showed me my return was in the review department with a specific hold code that wasn't visible on the public transcript. The most useful part was it told me exactly what to do - in my case, I needed to send in a specific form to verify some education expenses. After following the steps it recommended, my refund was processed within 3 weeks. https://taxr.ai saved me from waiting probably another 2-3 months.

I'm going through the exact same nightmare right now! Filed in February, verified identity through ID.me in April, and my transcript is still completely blank as of today. It's so frustrating because you can't even tell if there's progress being made behind the scenes. I've tried calling the IRS probably 15 times and either get disconnected or can't get through the phone tree. The "Where's My Refund" tool just says my information doesn't match their records, which makes no sense since I can log into my IRS account just fine. At this point I'm wondering if I should just assume I'm not getting my refund this year and file an amended return or something. This whole system is broken and it feels like we're just stuck waiting indefinitely with zero communication.

I verified my identity on February 23rd, 2024. My transcript showed no updates until March 15th. Refund was issued on March 22nd. The IRS representative I spoke with on March 10th confirmed my verification was approved on February 28th, but it took 15 more days to appear on my transcript. Your experience matches the typical pattern this tax season - verification approval takes 3-5 days internally, but transcript updates take 3-4 weeks, and refund issuance takes another 7-10 days after transcript updates.

I'm going through the exact same verification nightmare right now! Verified my identity on March 1st and still absolutely nothing on my transcript - it's been 8 days and counting. The "as of" date hasn't budged from February 24th. Reading through everyone's experiences here is both reassuring and terrifying at the same time. It sounds like I need to mentally prepare for potentially 6-9 weeks of this waiting game? Has anyone found any reliable way to track the progress beyond just obsessively checking the transcript daily? I'm starting to wonder if I should call now or wait a few more weeks to avoid potentially slowing things down further.