Something no one's mentioned yet - make sure you're taking advantage of all your photography business deductions to lower your taxable income in the first place! Equipment, studio space (even home office), software subscriptions, website costs, travel to shoots, professional development courses, etc. The less profit you show, the less you'll owe in quarterly payments.

One thing that helped me when I was starting out - consider making your quarterly payments slightly higher than the minimum required if your cash flow allows it. I know it sounds counterintuitive when money is tight, but hear me out. If your business grows throughout the year (which hopefully it will!), you'll avoid underpayment penalties and won't get hit with a massive tax bill in April. Plus, any overpayment gets refunded or can be applied to next year's taxes. I learned this the hard way when my freelance income doubled mid-year and I suddenly owed way more than expected. The safe harbor rule (paying 100% of last year's tax or 110% if your AGI was over $150k) can be a lifesaver for new businesses with unpredictable income.

Does anyone know if we have to file Form 8843 electronically or if it has to be mailed in? I've been using TurboTax for my regular returns but I'm not sure if they support attachments for the statement required for line 12.

I just went through this process myself as a 6th year F-1 student. After reading all the helpful advice here, I wanted to add that when drafting your statement, it's important to be very specific about your ties to your home country rather than just making general statements. For example, instead of just saying "I have family back home," I wrote something like "My parents and two siblings reside in [home country], where I maintain close relationships and visit annually during academic breaks." I also mentioned specific details like maintaining a bank account there, owning property jointly with family members, and having professional licensing that's only valid in my home country. The key is demonstrating that your life is genuinely centered in your home country despite your temporary presence in the US for education. I also made sure to mention my specific graduation timeline and concrete post-graduation plans (job offer, research position, etc.) to show that my stay in the US has a definite end date. My return was accepted without issues, so being detailed and specific in the statement definitely seems to work well.

Has anyone considered the Section 481(a) adjustment approach? This might be a way to correct the cumulative effect of the error without having to amend all those old returns.

I went through this exact same situation about 5 years ago with my manufacturing business. The good news is that this is more fixable than you might think, but you need to act strategically. First, definitely amend the open years (typically 2021-2023) to claim the amortization expenses you should have taken. This will generate refunds and establish a clear paper trail showing you're correcting the error. For the older years beyond the amendment window, create a detailed "tax benefit not received" file. Include copies of all original returns showing Form 4562 with the amortization alongside the Schedule C that didn't include it. When you eventually sell, this documentation will support adjusting your depreciation recapture calculations. One critical point - make sure your accountant understands this issue going forward. Many tax software programs require manual entry to transfer amortization from Form 4562 to Schedule C. It's not automatic in most systems, which is why this happens so frequently. Also consider having a tax professional review your other business assets for similar issues. If goodwill amortization wasn't flowing through properly, there might be other depreciation items with the same problem. Better to catch everything now rather than discover more issues later.

This is a really common confusion that trips up a lot of people! The key thing to understand is that traditional IRAs (including rollover IRAs) don't track individual investments - they're treated as one big bucket where ALL withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income regardless of performance. When you withdraw from a traditional IRA, you can't claim capital losses like you would in a regular taxable account. That's actually one of the trade-offs of the tax-deferred treatment. The IRS doesn't care if specific stocks lost value - they just see it as you taking money out of a tax-deferred account. If you truly made after-tax contributions and never filed Form 8606, you definitely want to look into that. You might be able to file amended returns to establish your basis properly. As others mentioned, without that documentation, the IRS assumes everything is fully taxable. Also double-check whether those original contributions were actually after-tax or if you took deductions for them in previous years. Sometimes people forget they deducted IRA contributions on their tax returns, which would make them pre-tax money.

One thing that might help clarify your situation is to request an IRA basis statement from your custodian (the company holding your IRA). They should have records of any after-tax contributions that were properly reported when the money was rolled over or contributed. Also, if you're dealing with a rollover IRA from a previous employer's 401k, check if you have any old 401k statements that show after-tax contributions. Sometimes the 1099-R form from when you did the rollover will indicate if any portion was after-tax money (it would be coded differently). The frustrating reality is that the IRS puts the burden on taxpayers to track and document their after-tax contributions. Without proper Form 8606 filings, you're essentially losing the tax benefit of that after-tax money. But don't give up - many people have successfully filed amended returns to recover this basis, especially if they can document the original after-tax contributions through old pay stubs or 401k statements.

This has been such an informative thread! As someone who recently started working two part-time jobs while in graduate school, I had no idea about these FICA complexities. Reading through all the explanations, it's clear that the system essentially creates a windfall for Social Security from excess employer contributions that never get refunded. What strikes me most is how this affects different types of workers differently. Traditional full-time employees with one job never encounter this issue, while people juggling multiple part-time positions (often out of economic necessity) end up costing their employers extra money through no fault of anyone involved. It's an interesting example of how tax policy designed for one era doesn't always adapt well to changing work patterns. The point about seasonal workers and gig economy participants is especially relevant - these are often people already dealing with income volatility, and now their employers are also paying extra FICA taxes that can't be recovered. Makes me wonder if this contributes to some employers' reluctance to hire part-time workers when they know those workers likely have other jobs too. Thanks to everyone who shared their expertise here. This is exactly the kind of nuanced tax information that's hard to find elsewhere!

This entire discussion has been incredibly enlightening! As a small business owner who recently started hiring more part-time employees, I had no idea about these FICA complexities. What really concerns me after reading through all these responses is the practical impact on hiring decisions. When I know that a potential employee likely works other jobs (which is common in my industry), I'm essentially signing up to pay excess FICA contributions that I'll never get back. For a small business operating on tight margins, this can add up to thousands of dollars annually in what amounts to an involuntary contribution to the Social Security Trust Fund. The points about seasonal workers and gig economy participants are particularly relevant to my business. I often hire people for short-term projects who I know have other income sources, and now I realize each of us employers is probably paying the full employer portion even though collectively we're way over the wage base limit for those individuals. It seems like this issue has gotten worse as the workforce has become more flexible and people increasingly need multiple income streams. The tax system hasn't adapted to modern work patterns, and businesses are bearing the cost of that mismatch. I wonder if small business associations have ever lobbied for changes to this system, or if we're all just supposed to accept it as a cost of doing business in today's economy.