Dont waste your money on those fancy services! The IRS has free fillable forms on their website that you can download. Just google "irs fillable w2" and "irs fillable 1099". Print them out, fill them in, and mail them. Saves you $50+ for something that takes 30 minutes.

I've been in this exact situation before and completely understand the panic! Since you're dealing with last-minute filing, I'd strongly recommend going with an established IRS-authorized e-file provider rather than trying to handle paper forms at this point. For your size business (4 W-2s + 1 1099), I've had good results with both TaxAct Business and FreeTaxUSA Business. They're legitimate, reasonably priced (usually under $100 for your volume), and handle both federal and state filing in most cases. The key is making sure whatever service you choose can do electronic filing directly to the IRS - this is much faster than mail and gives you confirmation of receipt. One thing to keep in mind: if you haven't already provided copies to your employees and contractor, that January 31st deadline has already passed, so you'll want to get those physical copies to them ASAP regardless of which electronic filing service you use. Most services will let you print employee copies immediately after you complete the forms. Don't beat yourself up too much - we've all been there with timing issues. The important thing is getting it done correctly now. Good luck!

Did you claim any pandemic credits? Those are taking forever to process rn

The 846 code dated 03-13-2024 means your refund was officially issued on that date, but it can take 5-10 business days to actually hit your account depending on your bank. The 766/768 credits dated 04-15 are just IRS accounting entries - they don't affect when you get your money. Since it's been a while since 03-13, I'd definitely call your bank first to see if they received and processed a deposit from "IRS TREAS". Sometimes banks hold IRS deposits for verification or there could have been an issue with your account info. If your bank says no deposit was attempted, then call the IRS refund hotline at 1-800-829-1954. Your transcript looks normal otherwise - the processing date of 03-25 and all the codes check out for a standard EIC refund. Hang in there! 🤞

If you filed your 2019 taxes electronically through H&R Block, you could try requesting your tax transcript directly from the IRS instead of dealing with H&R Block customer service. Go to IRS.gov and search for "Get Transcript Online" - you can download most tax records immediately.

I went through this exact same nightmare with H&R Block earlier this year! What finally worked for me was filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I know it sounds dramatic, but within 48 hours of filing the complaint, I got a call from H&R Block's executive customer service team who immediately helped me access my missing returns. The regular customer service line is absolutely useless - I spent probably 6 hours total on hold over multiple days. But once I escalated it through the BBB, they took it seriously. The executive team member was able to access my archived returns right away and emailed them to me as PDFs within an hour of our call. It's ridiculous that it takes a formal complaint to get basic customer service, but if you're desperate and need those documents quickly, this route actually works. The BBB complaint is free to file online and you'll get a response much faster than waiting for their regular support.

Has anyone here actually calculated the exact difference between donating directly to charity vs using a DAF? I'm trying to figure out if the extra complexity is worth it for my situation.

One thing to keep in mind with your specific situation is the timing of when you execute this strategy. Since you're planning to donate $130k worth of appreciated stock to a DAF, you'll want to make sure you have enough AGI to use the full deduction in the current tax year. With your combined income of $650k, you should be able to deduct up to 30% of AGI for appreciated stock donations to a DAF, which would be around $195k - so you're well within the limits for the $130k donation. However, I'd recommend getting the DAF set up and making the stock donation BEFORE you sell the other $130k portion. This way you can see exactly how the deduction impacts your tax liability before triggering the capital gains on the sale. Also worth noting that different brokerages have different processes for transferring appreciated securities to DAFs - some are more streamlined than others. Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard all make it relatively easy if you're already their customer, but it can take a few days to process the transfer. The strategy definitely works, but the exact tax savings will depend on your state taxes and whether you're subject to the 3.8% net investment income tax on the capital gains portion.

anybody else's transcript looking weird on WMR? mine hasn't updated in weeks

Just wanted to add that if you're dealing with this H&R Block issue, make sure to check your state's tax website directly for updates too. Sometimes they post notices about these system glitches before H&R Block even acknowledges them. Also keep your bank account info handy - some states are asking people to re-submit direct deposit details through their portal to fix the problem faster than waiting for paper checks.