I'm confused. The support test is throwing me off. if my son lives with me but pays me $500/month for rent, does that count as HIM supporting himself or ME supporting him since he's living in my house thats worth way more than $500/month?

Just want to add something that might help with the support calculation confusion. I went through this exact scenario with my accountant last year when my 23-year-old was transitioning from college to work. The key insight was that even though my son earned $60k+ after graduation, he was still a full-time student for the spring semester (January through May), which satisfied the 5-month student test. This meant he qualified as a "qualifying child" rather than a "qualifying relative," so the income limit didn't apply at all. However, I still had to pass the support test. What really helped was creating a detailed spreadsheet of ALL expenses for the year - not just what he paid me, but everything: fair market rent value, groceries, utilities, phone bill, car insurance, medical expenses, clothing, etc. I had to be honest about what he paid for himself versus what I covered. The tricky part was that his student loans and any money he spent on personal items (even savings) counted as HIM providing support. But since I covered housing, food, and most other expenses for 8 months of the year, I still provided more than 50% of his total support. Bottom line: if your son was a student for 5+ months in 2024, focus on the support test calculation rather than worrying about his income. The student status changes everything!

Hey Isabella! I totally get the confusion - the 1098-T can be super misleading when you're on full financial aid. Here's the deal: you absolutely need to report those numbers even though you paid $0 out of pocket. The form isn't about what YOU paid, it's about tracking all the education money that flowed through your school. Box 1 shows what your school received for qualified expenses ($6,725) and Box 5 shows scholarships/grants they processed ($3,748). That $2,977 difference is likely covered by other aid like federal loans, work-study, or different types of grants that don't show up in Box 5. The good news? Since your scholarships are less than your qualified expenses, you probably won't owe taxes on the scholarship money AND you might qualify for education credits like the American Opportunity Credit. Just enter those exact numbers from your 1098-T and let the tax software do the heavy lifting!

Hey Isabella! I totally understand your confusion - the 1098-T form can be really misleading when you're on full aid. Here's what's happening: even though you paid $0 out of pocket, you still need to report this because the IRS uses it to track education-related money and determine tax benefits. The $6,725 in Box 1 represents qualified tuition expenses your school received, while the $3,748 in Box 5 shows scholarships/grants. That $2,977 difference was likely covered by other financial aid like federal loans or work-study that don't appear in Box 5. The good news is since your scholarships ($3,748) are less than qualified expenses ($6,725), your scholarship money likely won't be taxable income, and you might even qualify for education credits like the American Opportunity Credit (worth up to $2,500!). Just enter those exact numbers from your 1098-T into your tax software - it will handle all the calculations for you. Don't overthink it - you're doing everything right! 📚

If anyone is still following this thread, I just wanted to add that I had a similar issue with TaxAct (not FreeTaxUSA) and RIC foreign income. The solution for me was to make sure I entered the correct country codes for each foreign tax paid rather than using "various" as the country. Once I did that, e-filing worked fine. Maybe try that approach in FreeTaxUSA too? Sometimes these tax software issues have simple workarounds if you get the right guidance.

I just went through this exact same nightmare with FreeTaxUSA and RIC foreign income from my mutual fund investments. After reading through all these suggestions, I want to share what finally worked for me. The key was getting the Form 1116 allocations exactly right. I had foreign income from three different countries through my Vanguard international fund, and FreeTaxUSA kept rejecting my e-file because I was lumping everything together. Here's what I had to do: 1. Separate each country's foreign taxes paid into individual entries rather than using "Various" or combining them 2. Make sure the passive income category was selected correctly for each foreign source 3. Double-check that the foreign tax credit amounts matched exactly with what was on my 1099-DIV The whole process was incredibly frustrating because FreeTaxUSA's error messages were completely unhelpful - they just said "foreign income not supported for e-filing" without explaining what specifically was wrong. But once I got the allocations right, it went through immediately. For anyone still struggling with this, don't give up on FreeTaxUSA if you've already entered everything. The software CAN handle RIC foreign income for e-filing, it's just very picky about how you enter the information.

I work in tax preparation and see this issue pretty frequently during tax season. A single backslash in box 14 is definitely a payroll system error - it's essentially a null character that got printed instead of being left blank. The good news is this won't affect your federal tax return at all. Box 14 is informational only and doesn't impact your tax calculations. When filing electronically, most tax software will either ignore unrecognized codes in box 14 or let you skip that section entirely. If you're concerned about it, you can contact your former employer, but honestly it's not worth the hassle unless there are other errors on the W2. I've processed hundreds of returns with similar glitches in box 14 and have never had one rejected or flagged by the IRS. Focus on making sure boxes 1-6 have the correct wage and withholding information - that's what really matters for your return.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm a tax preparer at a small firm and we've been seeing more of these payroll system glitches lately, especially with companies that upgraded their software recently. The backslash character issue seems to be particularly common with certain payroll providers who use backslashes as escape characters in their databases. What I tell my clients is exactly what others have said here - if your wages, federal withholding, Social Security wages, and Medicare wages (boxes 1, 2, 3, and 5) all look correct and match your final paystub, then weird characters in box 14 are purely cosmetic. The IRS electronic filing system basically ignores unrecognized codes in box 14 for federal purposes. One thing I'd add is that if you're filing in a state that uses box 14 information for state tax calculations, you might want to double-check with your state's tax authority. But for most states and definitely for federal returns, this won't be an issue at all. I've never had a client's return rejected because of a stray character in box 14.

Anyone know if reporting income from a 1042-S affects your eligibility for the Foreign Tax Credit? I have both 1042-S and 1099-INT forms this year and I'm trying to figure out if I can claim FTC for both income types since some tax was withheld on the 1042-S.

I went through this exact same situation two years ago when I transitioned from F-1 student status to permanent resident. The key thing to remember is that you're absolutely on the right track - you do need to report this income on your Form 1040 even though you received a 1042-S. One thing I learned the hard way is to make sure you check if your bank has your updated residency status on file. Since you're now a resident, you should submit a new W-9 to replace any W-8BEN they have on file. This will ensure you get proper 1099-INT forms next year instead of dealing with this 1042-S situation again. Also, don't forget that if you had any tax withheld earlier in the year when you were still a non-resident (from other sources), you can claim credit for those withholdings on your 1040. The timing of your status change matters for determining what credits you're eligible for throughout the tax year.