Quick tip that helped me with a similar situation... If you're using free filing options, when you get to the part where they try to upsell you to a paid version for the 1099, just close the window and try FreeTaxUSA instead. Their free version handles "Other Income" no problem. I reported my medical study payment ($1500) that way last year with no issues!

I had almost the exact same situation last year! Got a 1099-MISC for participating in a clinical research study ($800). The key thing to remember is that this isn't self-employment income since it was a one-time payment for your participation, not an ongoing business. You definitely don't need to upgrade to premium tax software. I used the free version of FreeTaxUSA and reported it on Schedule 1 as "Other Income" (line 8z). The income gets added to your total taxable income but you won't owe the additional 15.3% self-employment tax that actual business owners pay. Just make sure to keep that 1099-MISC form in your records since the IRS has a copy too. The good news is this won't affect any of your other tax benefits like the standard deduction - it just gets taxed at your regular income tax rate.

The advance is basically a contract. Your required to file with them to get the loan paid back properly. Its in the fine print noone reads lol

Yeah unfortunately that's how these refund advance loans work - they create a binding agreement that ties you to their filing service. The advance is essentially a short-term loan against your expected refund, and Jackson Hewitt needs to be the one processing your return to ensure the loan gets repaid directly from your refund. If you file elsewhere, you'd have to manually repay the advance which defeats the whole purpose. Lesson learned for next year - if you want flexibility in choosing your tax prep service, skip the advance and just wait for your actual refund!

Have you considered talking to your county's agricultural extension office? Many have free or low-cost consultations with people who understand farm taxes. I got better advice from them than from my regular tax guy who had no idea about the specifics of Schedule F and cattle reporting. They had actual examples from other small dairy operations in our county.

I went through a similar situation with my small sheep farm last year! The confusion around Schedule F and cash method reporting for livestock is so real. One thing that really helped me was reaching out to SCORE (score.org) - they have retired business executives who volunteer to help small business owners, and several in my area had farm experience. I got paired with someone who had run a dairy operation for 30 years and he walked me through Schedule F line by line. He confirmed what others have said here - with cash method, you report cattle sales on Lines 1a/1b when you receive payment, and cattle purchases go on Line 32 as "Livestock purchases" when you pay for them. No need to track inventory counts on the tax form itself. For your reusable milk containers, he suggested treating them as supplies on Line 14 since they're relatively low cost and you're a small operation. The IRS isn't going to scrutinize a micro dairy over $800 worth of containers. The biggest takeaway was that cash method is meant to be simpler - don't let software force you into unnecessary complexity. Sometimes the "help" features in tax software are geared toward larger operations and can overcomplicate things for small farms like ours.

I'm dealing with a very similar situation right now! I was on an F-1 visa doing OPT in 2022 and my employer withheld about $2,800 in FICA taxes that I shouldn't have paid as a non-resident alien. After reading through all these responses, I'm getting confused about which service or approach to try first. It sounds like there are multiple ways to tackle this - calling the IRS directly (possibly through Claimyr to get through faster), using a service like taxr.ai to prepare the forms correctly, or just doing it myself with certified mail to the right address. For those who successfully got their refunds - what would you recommend as the best first step? Should I start by calling the IRS to confirm the correct mailing address, or go straight to resubmitting with all the documentation mentioned here? Also, has anyone had success getting their refund for 2022 tax year specifically? I want to make sure I'm still within the time limits before I invest too much effort into this process. Thanks for all the detailed advice in this thread - it's been incredibly helpful to see others who went through the same frustrating experience!

I'm also dealing with a FICA refund situation and wanted to share what I learned from my tax attorney. One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that you should check if your employer actually remitted those FICA taxes to the IRS or if they're still holding them. Some employers, especially smaller companies, don't immediately send withheld taxes to the IRS - they might remit quarterly. If your employer still has the money, you can potentially get it back directly from them, which is much faster than going through the IRS refund process. You can request a "wage and income transcript" from the IRS for the tax year in question (Form 4506-T) to see exactly what was reported. This will show you whether the employer actually sent the FICA taxes to the IRS or not. If the taxes were indeed sent to the IRS, then you're on the right track with Forms 843 and 8316. But if they weren't, you might be able to resolve this directly with your former employer, which could save you months of waiting. Also, make sure you understand the difference between being exempt from FICA as a non-resident alien versus being in the US on a treaty-exempt visa. The process and required documentation can be slightly different depending on your specific visa type and country of origin.

I'm new to this community but dealing with a very similar situation - LLC incorrectly classified as corporation on our EIN application. Reading through everyone's experiences here has been incredibly helpful and gives me hope that this can be resolved! One additional resource I wanted to mention that helped me understand the process better is IRS Publication 3402, which specifically covers tax issues for LLCs. It has a section on entity classification elections that explains exactly when Form 8832 is needed and what documentation supports late election relief. The publication also clarifies something I was confused about - you can request retroactive classification even if you've been operating under the wrong classification for several months, as long as you can demonstrate consistent conduct with your intended classification and qualify for late relief under Rev. Proc. 2009-41. What really struck me from reading everyone's stories is how important the "reasonable cause" statement is. It's not just about explaining the mistake, but showing a pattern of consistent partnership behavior from day one. I'm putting together my own submission now and plan to include our operating agreement, partnership-style profit distributions, and joint decision-making records. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - it's made this whole process much less intimidating knowing that others have successfully navigated the same challenge!

I'm new to this community and currently dealing with the exact same EIN classification nightmare! My business partner and I formed an LLC last year but somehow ended up with corporate classification on our EIN. We discovered the mistake when our accountant was preparing our tax documents. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly reassuring - it's clear this is a much more common issue than I initially thought. The detailed guidance about Form 8832 and the late election relief process has given me a solid roadmap for fixing this. I'm particularly grateful for the emphasis on documenting consistent partnership behavior. We've been operating as a true partnership from day one - equal profit sharing, joint decision making, partnership-style draws rather than corporate salaries. Now I understand how important it is to compile all that evidence to support our Form 8832 submission. The timeline document approach mentioned by @Aisha Khan is brilliant. I'm going to create a chronological record of all our partnership activities from formation through today. Combined with our operating agreement, bank records showing 50/50 distributions, and vendor contracts that reference our partnership structure, this should make a compelling case for retroactive classification. One question for those who have successfully gone through this process - did any of you include a cover letter with your Form 8832 submission, or is the reasonable cause statement on the form itself sufficient? I want to make sure I'm providing all necessary documentation without overwhelming the reviewer. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences. This thread has transformed what felt like an impossible situation into a manageable process with clear next steps!