I'm sorry you're going through this - the combination of family health crises and financial stress makes tax issues feel so much more overwhelming. Based on what others have shared here, it sounds like contacting the IRS directly might be your best first step, especially given your budget constraints. A few things that might help ease your anxiety about calling: The IRS has specific hardship provisions for situations exactly like yours. When you call, mention the family medical situations (your mom's terminal illness, your dad's passing, your brother's depression) as these are considered reasonable cause for filing delays and can help with penalty relief. For your kids' FAFSA situation, you might not need to file ALL the missing years immediately - sometimes just getting the most recent 2-3 years filed can unblock their financial aid process. You could ask the IRS agent which years are most critical to prioritize. Also, don't feel like you have to solve everything in one phone call. The IRS agents are used to complex situations and can often work with you on a timeline that makes sense for your circumstances. The fact that you're reaching out proactively (rather than waiting for them to find you) will work in your favor. You've already survived incredibly difficult personal circumstances - you can get through this too.

I want to echo what others have said about contacting the IRS directly - they really can be more helpful than you'd expect, especially when you're proactive about resolving the situation. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS). Since you're dealing with significant financial hardship AND your children's education is being affected, you might qualify for their help. TAS is an independent organization within the IRS that helps taxpayers resolve problems when normal channels aren't working. They're free and can sometimes expedite cases where there's educational or economic hardship. You can reach them at 1-877-777-4778 or apply online. Given that your kids' FAFSA is being held up, this could potentially qualify as causing "significant hardship" which is exactly what TAS is designed to help with. Also, when you do call the main IRS line, ask specifically about "reasonable cause" relief for penalties due to your family's medical circumstances. The IRS has specific guidelines that consider serious illness of immediate family members as valid reasons for filing delays, which could save you thousands in penalties. You've got this - the hardest part is making that first call, and you're already mentally preparing to do it.

Whoever designed these tax programs is evil genius level. They detect you made a retirement contribution, force Form 8880 into your return knowing most people won't qualify for the credit, then charge you for the "premium" form. Absolute scam but totally legal.

Actually, Miguel is incorrect about Form 8880 being required for all retirement contributions. You only need to file Form 8880 if you're actually claiming the Saver's Credit. If your income is above the eligibility thresholds, you don't need this form at all. The real issue is that tax software companies use this as a revenue opportunity. They detect retirement contributions and automatically assume you might qualify for the credit, then charge you for the "premium" version to include the form. But if you know you don't qualify based on your income, you can often work around this by being more specific about how you enter your retirement information. For 2024 taxes, the income limits are $36,500 for single filers and $73,000 for married filing jointly. If you're above these amounts, you can safely skip Form 8880 entirely. The key is finding tax software that doesn't automatically force it or knowing how to navigate around the upsell tactics.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet - having a negative basis of -50k when your profit/loss/capital percentages are all 16.8% suggests the partnership as a whole might have done a significant refinancing or cash-out refi and distributed proceeds to partners. That's a common way basis goes negative while capital accounts stay positive. Do you remember receiving any large distributions in the past few years? Partnership refinances often create exactly this situation - your capital account stays intact for book purposes but your basis gets reduced by the distributions.

This is actually a really common situation that trips up a lot of partnership investors. The key thing to understand is that your capital account and your outside basis serve completely different purposes and are calculated using different rules. Your capital account (the 120k on your K-1) is like your "book value" share of the partnership - it's what you'd theoretically get if the partnership liquidated everything at book value today. Your outside basis (the -50k your CPA mentioned) is your tax basis in the partnership interest, which determines things like how much loss you can deduct and what happens when you sell or receive distributions. The reason your basis went negative while your capital account stayed positive is likely due to cash distributions you received over the years that exceeded your initial investment plus your share of partnership income. When you receive distributions, they reduce your basis dollar-for-dollar but don't necessarily reduce your capital account the same way. Given that you have 63k in partnership liabilities allocated to you (6k + 57k), your actual "at-risk" basis for loss limitation purposes would be your -50k basis plus the 63k in liabilities, which gives you 13k of basis to absorb losses. This is why tracking partnership basis gets so complex - there are multiple layers of limitations and calculations. I'd strongly recommend getting a detailed basis calculation from your partnership's tax preparer (not just your personal CPA) showing how you got to -50k. You have a right to that information as a partner.

Has anyone dealt with a situation where you provided different benefits to different employees? We have some staff getting dental and some getting Aflac and I'm worried about discrimination testing.

Based on the discussion here, it sounds like you'll need to include that $120 in the employee's taxable wages. Since your company covered what would normally be the employee's responsibility for Aflac premiums without expecting repayment, the IRS treats this as additional compensation. For S-Corps, this is pretty straightforward - add it to their wages in the pay period when you covered the costs, and make sure it's included on their W-2 at year-end. You'll also need to withhold the appropriate payroll taxes on this amount. One thing to double-check is whether your Aflac deductions are currently set up as pre-tax or after-tax, as someone mentioned above. You can see this by looking at how the deduction appears on your payroll - if it reduces taxable income, it's pre-tax; if it doesn't, it's after-tax. This affects exactly how you handle the tax reporting, but either way, covering the employee's portion makes it taxable income to them. Document everything well since it was related to medical leave - you want a clear paper trail showing this was a one-time accommodation during their ankle injury recovery, not an ongoing benefit that could create precedent issues with other employees.

I went through this exact same confusion last month when filing our 1120-F! As others have mentioned, these Corporate AMT questions are really only relevant for massive corporations. Since you mentioned you're a mid-sized foreign company filing for the first time, you can almost certainly answer "No" to all three questions. Just to break it down simply: - Question 1: Were you ever a billion-dollar+ company before? (Probably no) - Question 2: Are you a billion-dollar+ company now because you were before? (Probably no) - Question 3: Do you qualify to stop being considered a billion-dollar+ company? (Not applicable if you never were one) The IRS unfortunately makes everyone answer these questions even though they only apply to a tiny fraction of filers. It's like asking everyone if they own a yacht - most people can confidently say no! Just make sure to document your reasoning in case you're ever questioned about it.

I'm dealing with the exact same issue on our 1120-F filing! Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful. It sounds like for most of us mid-sized companies, the answer is a straightforward "No" to all three questions since we're nowhere near the $1 billion threshold. What's really frustrating is that the IRS makes everyone answer these questions even when they clearly don't apply to 99% of filers. It would save so much confusion if they just added a simple explanation like "If your company has never had income over $1 billion, answer No to questions 1-3." Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - it's reassuring to know other people were just as confused by the wording of these questions!