Beware that the rules for qualifying relatives are different from qualifying children! I messed this up last year. For a qualifying relative (which is what your adult son would be), they cannot be your qualifying child or anyone else's qualifying child. The gross income test ($4,700 for 2025) is also critical - though VA benefits don't count toward this, any other income does. If he has even a part-time job that pays more than the threshold, he won't qualify regardless of how much support you provide.

This is a great question that many families with disabled veterans face. Based on what you've described, your son would likely qualify as a qualifying relative dependent if you meet the support test. Since your son is 30 and living with you due to his 100% permanent and total VA disability, you'll need to calculate whether you provide more than half of his total support. This includes not just obvious expenses like food and clothing, but also the fair market rental value of his housing, utilities, medical expenses, transportation, and any other costs you cover. The good news is that VA disability benefits are not counted toward the gross income test (which has a $4,700 limit for 2025), so that shouldn't be an issue. However, those benefits do count when determining how much he contributes to his own support versus what you provide. One important thing to consider: since your son has a permanent and total disability from the VA, you might want to check if he qualifies for the disabled adult child exception under the qualifying child rules instead. This could be more beneficial since qualifying children don't have the gross income limitation. The IRS definition of "permanently and totally disabled" might align with his VA rating. I'd recommend keeping detailed records of all expenses you pay for his support throughout the year - housing costs, food, medical expenses, utilities, transportation, etc. This documentation will be crucial for calculating the support test accurately and defending your claim if questioned.

Has anyone ever been audited on this specific issue? I'm in the same boat (S Corp with about $275k in assets) and I've been scared to take distributions beyond my salary because I'm worried about triggering an audit.

This is exactly the situation I was in last year! One thing that really helped me was understanding the difference between your stock basis and your AAA (Accumulated Adjustments Account). Even though you've paid taxes on the S Corp profits over the years, if you've taken distributions along the way, those reduce your basis. Here's what I learned: your basis starts with your initial investment ($4k in your case), then increases with your share of S Corp income each year, and decreases with distributions you've already taken. So if your S Corp made $400k in profits but you took $396k in distributions over the years, your basis would still be around $4k. The key is getting an accurate calculation of your current basis before taking any large distribution. If you take distributions above your basis, the excess gets treated as capital gains (typically 15-20% tax rate depending on your income). Not the end of the world, but you want to plan for it. I'd definitely recommend working with a CPA who specializes in S Corps to run the numbers before you make any moves. They can help you optimize the timing and amount to minimize the tax hit.

Has anyone here actually reported their GoFundMe on their taxes? I ran one last year and got about $12k, used it all for my medical bills, and honestly didn't report anything. Did I screw up??

This is a really thoughtful way to handle the excess funds, Sean! One additional consideration I'd mention is timing - if you're planning to redistribute the $9,000 before the end of this tax year, make sure to space out your donations if you're concerned about hitting the $18,000 annual exclusion limit per recipient. Also, since you mentioned tax season is coming up, keep detailed records of everything: your original GoFundMe description, all incoming donations with dates and amounts, your medical expenses, and then all outgoing transfers to other campaigns. The IRS loves documentation, and having a clear paper trail will make everything much smoother if you ever need to explain the transactions. One last tip - consider reaching out to the recipients of your donations to let them know the funds are coming from your redistributed GoFundMe rather than directly from you personally. This can help establish that you're fulfilling your original campaign promise rather than making independent personal gifts, which could support the "conduit" argument Carmen mentioned above.

The solo 401k contribution calculation errors would be my last straw. That's a pretty straightforward calculation with clear limits, and getting it wrong multiple years shows either incompetence or carelessness.

These are absolutely red flags, not normal CPA behavior. I've been through tax season with several different CPAs over the years, and what you're describing shows a fundamental lack of attention to your account. The estimated tax payment issue alone should have you looking elsewhere. When you explicitly notify your CPA about a significant revenue increase, recalculating quarterly payments should be automatic - that's Tax Planning 101. The fact that he acknowledged your email but didn't act on it is inexcusable, especially when you're facing an $82k surprise bill. The repeated solo 401k errors are particularly telling because these calculations follow straightforward IRS guidelines. Making the same mistake twice suggests he's not learning from his errors or possibly not dedicating enough time to your file. You're not being unreasonable - you deserve a CPA who is proactive, organized, and responsive to your communications. Start interviewing new candidates now, and make sure to ask them specifically how they handle mid-year revenue changes and client communications. A good CPA should have systems in place to prevent exactly what you're experiencing.

Quick practical tip - when you contact the client, ask them to also provide you with a letter acknowledging the error for your records. I keep a file of these correction letters just in case the IRS ever questions why a reported 1099 didn't show up on our corporate return. Better to have documentation ready than to explain it during an audit!

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice! I just wanted to add that timing matters here too. If your client has already filed the 1099-NEC with the IRS (the deadline was January 31st), they'll need to submit a corrected form showing $0 rather than just voiding it in their system. Also, don't panic if they can't or won't correct it immediately. As long as you're properly reporting your corporate income on Form 1120, the IRS computer matching system will eventually sort it out. The key is having documentation that you attempted to get it corrected - keep copies of your emails or letters to the client requesting the correction. One more tip: if this client regularly pays your corporation significant amounts, it might be worth having a conversation about updating their vendor files to properly classify you as a corporation to prevent this from happening again next year.