Something important no one mentioned yet - the tax implications might be different depending on how much you make from the server. If the income is substantial and regular, it's definitely business income and you need Schedule C. But if it's small and irregular, it might qualify as hobby income. The main difference: with a hobby, you can only deduct expenses up to the amount of income (so you can't claim a loss), while with a business you can deduct losses against other income. But either way, ALL income is taxable regardless of what PayPal reports.

Just be aware that if you don't report this income and somehow get audited, you'll face penalties and interest on top of the taxes you should have paid. The fact that PayPal doesn't report "friends and family" transfers doesn't protect you - it's still your legal obligation to report ALL income. I learned this the hard way with my Discord server donations. Started small but grew to about $400/month. Never reported it because "PayPal doesn't report it" - ended up with a nasty surprise when I got flagged for an audit for unrelated reasons and they found the unreported income.

Just a heads up that the Swiss-US tax treaty has specific provisions for dividend withholding that you should be aware of. The standard withholding rate from Switzerland is 35%, but under the treaty, US partnerships can often get this reduced to 15%. If you've had the full 35% withheld, your partners might be getting more foreign tax credits than they're actually entitled to. The IRS can disallow "excess" foreign tax credits if you could have taken steps to reduce the foreign tax but chose not to. Make sure you're applying the treaty rate correctly.

I've been dealing with similar foreign dividend reporting issues for our partnership. One thing that really helped me was creating a detailed spreadsheet to track all the foreign dividends by country, date, and tax withheld. This made it much easier to complete the K-2/K-3 forms accurately. For Swiss dividends specifically, make sure you're checking whether your ETFs qualify for the reduced treaty withholding rate. Some Swiss ETFs are structured in ways that don't qualify for the full treaty benefits, which affects how much foreign tax credit your partners can actually claim. Also, double-check that your brokerage statements are correctly identifying which portions of the dividends are qualified vs ordinary. I found some discrepancies in our statements that would have caused issues with our K-2 reporting. The foreign tax needs to be allocated proportionally between qualified and ordinary dividends, so getting this right is critical for your partners' Form 1116 calculations. ProSeries should handle the K-2/K-3 generation once you input the data correctly, but the key is making sure all your source data is properly categorized before you start entering it into the software.

Could you guys clarify something about the tax treaty between US and South Korea? I heard there's a "saving clause" that basically negates a lot of the benefits for US citizens. Is that true?

I went through almost the exact same situation when I was working in Seoul! The stress about potential border issues is real, but I can confirm you won't have problems entering the US. CBP doesn't check tax compliance during entry. That said, you definitely need to get compliant ASAP. I was about 5 years behind on filing when I finally dealt with it. The key things that helped me: 1. Used the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures - no penalties if your non-filing wasn't willful (sounds like your case) 2. Filed 3 years of back tax returns using Form 2555 for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion 3. Filed 6 years of FBARs for my Korean bank accounts Since you've been paying Korean taxes, you'll likely owe little to nothing to the US thanks to the FEIE. The exclusion amount for 2024 is around $120,000, so unless you're earning significantly more than that, you should be covered. Don't put this off though - the longer you wait, the more complicated it gets. Start gathering your Korean tax documents and employment records now. You'll need them to prove your foreign residence and income for the exclusion.

Last year my Robinhood 1099 wasn't available until February 24th! Sometimes they're super late especially if you had any "special" transactions like reorganizations or mergers. I wouldn't worry too much yet.

Don't panic yet! I had the same issue last year and it turned out my 1099-B wasn't available until late February. Since you mentioned you made stock trades and had dividend income, you should definitely receive tax documents from Robinhood. A few things to double-check while you wait: 1. Make sure you're logged into the correct Robinhood account 2. Check that electronic delivery is enabled in your account settings under "Documents" 3. Verify your email and mailing address are current in case they need to send notifications The February 15th deadline is when they're supposed to have them ready, but in practice many brokers (especially Robinhood) often take until the end of February. If you're anxious to file your taxes, you could try pulling your monthly statements and calculating your gains/losses manually, but I'd recommend waiting for the official forms to avoid any discrepancies. If you still don't see anything by March 1st, that's when I'd start reaching out to their customer support for answers.

Don't forget state implications too! Federal gift tax is one thing, but depending on your state, there might be property transfer taxes or reassessment triggers when you add someone to a deed. In California, for example, transfers between spouses are excluded from reassessment, but you still need to file the proper exclusion forms with your county.

Has anyone considered the step-up in basis implications here? If the house appreciates and you both own it, when one spouse dies, the surviving spouse might only get a step-up in basis on half the property value. Whereas if only one spouse owns it, the entire property could get a step-up when that spouse dies. Just something to think about for long-term planning.