Anybody know if there's a limit to how much you can deduct for church donations? I heard somewhere it was capped at like 60% of your income or something?

I've been following this thread and wanted to add some practical advice about the withholding issue that several people mentioned. If you're consistently owing taxes each year, the church donation question might be secondary to fixing your W-4. The IRS updated the W-4 form a few years ago, and many people are still using outdated allowance calculations. If you're married, have multiple jobs, or your spouse works, the new form has a more complex calculation that actually works better for determining proper withholding. You can use the IRS withholding calculator on their website (irs.gov) to figure out exactly how much should be withheld from each paycheck. This usually solves the "owing every year" problem more effectively than trying to find enough deductions to itemize. Church donations are great for supporting your community, but as others have said, they likely won't provide tax benefits unless you're already close to itemizing. Focus on fixing your withholding first, then consider charitable giving as a separate decision rather than a tax strategy.

Don't forget that if you get the subscription software like the ERP system you mentioned, that's considered a regular business expense and gets deducted each year as you pay for it. Only the permanent software license needs the Section 179 vs. Schedule C decision. Also, if you're using a tax preparation software like TurboTax or H&R Block, they'll walk you through both options and usually recommend the simplest approach automatically. That's what I do for my pet portrait business and it's worked fine for years.

One thing I'd add is to make sure you keep the software license agreement or terms of service documentation along with your receipt. The IRS likes to see that you actually own or have the right to use the software for business purposes, especially for expensive programs like Wilcom. Also, since you mentioned you have current client projects, I'd suggest documenting a few examples of how you use the software for actual business work - maybe save some digitized designs with client names and dates. This creates a clear business purpose trail that's helpful if you ever need to justify the deduction. For timing, as long as you purchase and start using the software before December 31st, you can claim it for the current tax year regardless of which method you choose. The "placed in service" date is what matters, not when you paid for it.

For RSUs specifically, make sure you understand that they're typically taxed TWICE: 1. When they VEST (this is included in your W-2 as ordinary income) 2. When you SELL the shares (capital gains/losses on any change in value since vesting) The most common mistake people make is not realizing that the vesting value is already on their W-2, then reporting the full sale amount as capital gains. This results in paying tax twice on the same income!

Just wanted to add my experience as someone who went through this exact situation last year. TurboTax Premier absolutely can handle W-2 + 1099-NEC + RSUs, but there are a few things I wish I'd known beforehand: For the 1099-NEC, you'll enter it under "Business Income" and TurboTax will create a Schedule C-EZ for you (since it's under $5,000). Don't forget you can deduct business expenses like mileage and a portion of home office costs if you worked from home for that contract work. For RSUs, the Fidelity import usually works well, but ALWAYS verify the cost basis is correct. I caught an error where TurboTax had imported some of my shares with a $0 cost basis instead of the vesting date value, which would have caused me to overpay by hundreds of dollars. One tip: Keep your Fidelity year-end tax documents handy when doing the import. Sometimes TurboTax asks for clarification on certain transactions, and having those documents ready saves time. Given your situation seems straightforward (no complex deductions or multiple business entities), Premier should work great and save you the cost of a tax professional. Just take your time with the stock transactions and double-check everything before filing!

Did you have any life changes last year? Getting married, buying a house, etc? Those things can impact your taxes a lot. Also, have you looked into adjusting your W4 for this year already? You should do that ASAP so you don't have the same problem next year.

This is exactly why I always recommend new employees start with "0" allowances (or the equivalent on the new W4 form) when they're unsure about their tax situation. It's better to get a refund than owe thousands! The jump from lower-paying jobs to corporate salaries can be shocking tax-wise because you're often moving into higher tax brackets where every dollar is taxed at 22% or even 24% instead of 12%. Your withholding calculations that worked fine at $40k/year can be completely wrong at $80k+. For this year, definitely look into setting up a payment plan with the IRS if you can't pay the full amount by the deadline. They're usually pretty reasonable about monthly payments. And absolutely update your W4 immediately - even if you're partway through the year, fixing it now will help reduce how much you might owe next April.

I've been through this exact scenario with Chase! The "disappearing transaction" issue is usually related to how their system handles failed ACH payments. When a payment gets reversed due to insufficient funds, Chase sometimes removes it from your regular transaction view entirely instead of showing it as a separate reversal entry. Here's what worked for me: Log into your Chase account and look for a "Pending Transactions" or "Account Activity" section that might show more detailed transaction history. Sometimes these reversed payments show up there even when they're not in your main transaction list. Also, check if you received any email notifications from Chase about the failed payment - they usually send automated emails when ACH payments are returned, even if the transaction disappears from your online view. The good news is that since you have the overdraft fee as proof that money was initially withdrawn, you have documentation that you attempted to make the payment on time. The IRS typically doesn't penalize taxpayers for legitimate payment processing failures as long as you can demonstrate you made a good faith effort to pay by the deadline. I'd recommend calling Chase first to get the technical details about what happened to the transaction, then use that information when you contact the IRS to explain the situation.

I just want to add another perspective here - I've been dealing with tax payments for years and this kind of "vanishing transaction" issue has become more common since banks upgraded their fraud detection systems post-2020. What likely happened is that your payment triggered multiple red flags: the overdraft situation, the large amount going to a government entity, and possibly the timing if it was close to the tax deadline when fraud attempts spike. Chase's system probably auto-reversed it as a protective measure. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet - make sure to document everything with screenshots and dates. Even though the transaction disappeared from your online view, take a screenshot of your current account history showing the overdraft fee but missing payment. This creates a timeline that proves the payment was attempted. Also, when you call Chase, ask them to email you a summary of what they find about the transaction. Having that in writing will be invaluable if you need to dispute anything with the IRS later. Banks are usually willing to provide written confirmation of payment processing issues when you explain it's for tax purposes. The silver lining is that this happened early enough in the year that you have time to sort it out before any serious penalties would kick in. Most people don't discover these issues until they're already facing collection notices.