This thread has been incredibly helpful - thank you all for sharing your experiences! I'm in a similar situation with my late grandmother's house that I inherited 4 months ago. I've been procrastinating on the appraisal thinking it was just an optional "nice to have," but after reading about the audit situations and potential tax consequences, I realize this is actually critical. The point about market conditions changing over time really resonates with me. Even in just the 4 months since my grandmother passed, I've noticed property values in her neighborhood have shifted quite a bit. I can only imagine how much harder it would be to establish accurate comparable sales if I waited years. I'm going to start looking for both an estate planning attorney and a qualified appraiser this week. The suggestion about finding attorneys who work with tax professionals sounds perfect - dealing with one coordinated team instead of trying to manage multiple separate professionals definitely appeals to me right now while I'm still processing everything. One last question for the group - for those who went through this process, roughly how long did it take from deciding to get the appraisal to having all the documentation complete? I'm trying to plan my timeline and want to make sure I'm not underestimating how long this might take.

This entire discussion has been incredibly valuable! As someone who just went through the inherited property process myself (my father passed 6 months ago), I can't stress enough how important it is to get that appraisal done sooner rather than later. One thing I'd add that hasn't been mentioned yet - make sure your appraiser includes a detailed explanation in their report about how they determined the date-of-death value, especially if you're doing a retrospective appraisal. My appraiser included a specific section explaining their methodology for establishing the value as of the inheritance date, which comparable sales they used from that time period, and how they adjusted for any market changes. This level of detail ended up being crucial when my tax preparer was documenting everything for my return. Also, keep multiple copies of that appraisal report in different places - digital and physical. It's one of those documents you hope you never need, but if you do need it years down the road (especially if there's an audit), you'll be incredibly grateful to have that professional documentation rather than trying to piece together property values from memory or incomplete records.

Glad to hear you got it resolved! This is actually a perfect example of why it's so important to keep good records throughout the year. I always recommend creating a dedicated tax folder (physical or digital) where you save copies of all contracts, invoices, and payment records as soon as you receive them. For anyone doing freelance or consulting work, make it a habit to request the payer's EIN upfront when you're negotiating the contract. You can simply say "I'll need your tax ID number for my records" - most legitimate businesses will provide it without any issues. This way you'll never run into this situation again at filing time. Also worth noting that if a business is reluctant to provide their EIN or acts sketchy about it, that could be a red flag about their legitimacy or tax compliance. Reputable businesses understand this is a normal part of the process and won't hesitate to share it.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm actually an EA (enrolled agent) and want to add a few professional insights for anyone else who might face this situation in the future. First, what you did by checking your contract was absolutely the right approach. The IRS requires that you report income from all sources, but they understand that sometimes payer information can be incomplete or missing through no fault of your own. If you ever can't locate the EIN anywhere in your records, here's the official IRS guidance: You should make reasonable efforts to obtain the missing information (which includes calling, emailing, or writing to the payer). If those efforts fail, you can file your return with "Applied For" in the TIN field, along with a brief explanation. The key is documentation - keep records of your attempts to contact the payer (emails, call logs, etc.). This protects you if the IRS ever questions the missing information later. One more tip: For future consulting work, consider using Form W-9 to collect payer information upfront. This form specifically requests their TIN and other details you'll need for tax reporting, and having it on file prevents these last-minute scrambles.

Has anyone tried printing out the 8962 form and just filling it out manually? After fighting with TurboTax for days over PTC calculations, I just downloaded the form and worksheet from IRS.gov and did it myself. Took about 30 minutes with a calculator.

I've been dealing with this exact same issue! TurboTax has been calculating my Form 8962 completely wrong, and like you, the difference is significant - over $800 in my case. What I discovered is that TurboTax seems to have problems when you have any kind of coverage gap or change during the year. In my situation, I had coverage through my employer for the first 4 months, then switched to marketplace coverage, and TurboTax kept trying to apply Premium Tax Credit calculations to months when I wasn't even enrolled in a marketplace plan. The key thing that helped me was going into Forms Mode (under Tax Tools > View Tax Forms) and manually checking each line of Form 8962 against my 1095-A. I found that TurboTax was pulling data from the wrong months and not zeroing out the months where I had employer coverage. Also, make sure you're entering your 1095-A data in the exact same format it appears on the form - don't round numbers or convert formats. TurboTax seems very sensitive to even minor formatting differences. If you're still stuck, definitely consider getting direct IRS guidance. The Premium Tax Credit rules are complex enough that even the software gets confused, but an IRS agent can walk you through the correct calculation method for your specific situation.

Hey quick question - has anyone used CreditKarma Tax (now Cash App Taxes) for a situation like this with multiple W2s from the same employer? I'm having the exact same issue but with Arizona and Texas.

I've been a tax preparer for over 15 years and this is actually a very common situation that confuses a lot of people. You absolutely need to file both W-2s, but here's the key: they represent your wages earned in two different states, not duplicate income. The reason Box 1 (federal wages) is identical on both forms is because that represents your total annual wages from that employer - it's the same number because it's your complete yearly income. The difference you're seeing in Box 16 (state wages) shows how much you earned in each specific state. When entering these into tax software, make sure you select an option that indicates "same employer, multiple states" or "transferred locations during the year." Most good tax software will recognize this and won't double-count your federal income. The $4,000 tax bill you're seeing suggests the software is treating these as income from two separate employers. If 1040.com doesn't have clear multi-state options, I'd recommend switching to TurboTax, FreeTaxUSA, or H&R Block - they all handle this situation much better. You'll likely need to file state returns for both Nevada and Oregon, but your federal return will show your income correctly (once, not twice).

As someone who's been dealing with IRS software compatibility issues for years, I can share some insight on this. The virtual machine approach mentioned by Ella is technically sound, but you should be aware that H&R Block's EULA does have some language about "authorized installations" that could potentially be interpreted to restrict VM usage, though I've never heard of them actually enforcing this for individual users. A simpler solution might be to check if your local library has computers with tax software installed - many public libraries offer free access to H&R Block, TurboTax, and other tax prep software during tax season. This could serve as your backup option without worrying about licensing or VM overhead. Also, regarding the CD backup option mentioned in the original post - I called H&R Block about this last month and was told that even if you order the CD backup, it's just a backup of whichever version you originally purchased digitally. So if you bought the Mac download version and then ordered a CD backup, you'd get a Mac CD, not both platforms. If cross-platform flexibility is really important and you want to stick with established tax software, you might consider FreeTaxUSA's downloadable version - they allow installation on multiple computers regardless of OS with a single purchase, though their interface is more basic than H&R Block's.

Having dealt with this exact same frustration with H&R Block's licensing approach, I ended up switching to FreeTaxUSA last year and it's been a game-changer. Like Madison mentioned, their downloadable version allows installation on multiple computers regardless of OS with a single purchase, which is exactly what you're looking for. I was initially worried about missing features coming from H&R Block Premium, but for my situation (W-2s, some 1099s, mortgage interest, and basic deductions), FreeTaxUSA handled everything perfectly. The interface is definitely more straightforward - less hand-holding but also less clutter. The cross-platform compatibility is seamless. I prepared my taxes on my Windows desktop, reviewed everything on my MacBook, and even made some last-minute adjustments on my Linux laptop without any issues. All three installations pull from the same data file format, so there's no compatibility headache between platforms. The price difference alone made it worth switching - I saved about $60 compared to what I was paying for H&R Block Premium, and that's not even factoring in the time and hassle I used to spend dealing with their platform restrictions. For 2025, unless you have really complex business situations, I'd definitely recommend giving FreeTaxUSA a try rather than dealing with H&R Block's antiquated licensing model.