LLC vs S-Corp doesnt matter for medicaid its all about your AGI. Go with LLC since your income isnt high enough for S corp to make sense. S corps are a pain with the extra paperwork and payroll requirements!!! An accountant will charge you like $1200+ just for s-corp tax returns. Make sure your tracking all your business expenses properly to lower your AGI. Home office, internet, phone, mileage, insurance, equipment. Every $1000 in legit deductions could be the difference in qualifying or not.

As someone who went through this exact situation two years ago, I can confirm what others have said - your business structure won't help with Medicaid eligibility at your income level. I was making around $30k with my freelance writing business and spent way too much time researching S-Corps thinking it would somehow help with healthcare costs. The reality is that at $28k annually, you're likely well within the Medicaid income limits for expanded states (usually around 138% of federal poverty level, which is about $20,120 for a single person in 2024). Your Modified Adjusted Gross Income is what matters, and that includes your net self-employment income regardless of business structure. My advice: stick with sole proprietorship or form a simple LLC for liability protection if needed. Focus your energy on properly tracking deductible business expenses - that's what will actually lower your MAGI. Things like your home office percentage, business use of your phone/internet, professional development courses, and business equipment can all reduce your taxable income. I wasted months overthinking the business structure when I should have just applied for Medicaid sooner. The application process was much simpler than I expected, and I qualified easily with similar income to yours.

That's really frustrating about your 2020 return not showing up in your online account! I had a similar issue where older Free File returns weren't appearing in my TurboTax account. Since you've already tried the online account route, I'd definitely recommend going with the IRS tax transcript option that Amara mentioned earlier. You can get it instantly online at irs.gov/transcripts and it will have all your 2020 tax information including itemized deductions if you filed Schedule A. The format is a bit different from your original return but all the numbers and details are there. I've used tax transcripts for exactly this purpose - comparing previous year deductions when preparing current returns - and they work perfectly. Plus it's free and comes directly from the IRS so you know it's accurate. Much better than having to pay TurboTax just to see your own tax data!

I went through this exact same frustration last year! TurboTax's proprietary file format is such a pain when you just want to reference your own tax information. Here's what ended up working for me: I called the IRS directly and requested both my tax return transcript AND my wage and income transcript for 2020. The return transcript has all your deduction details, while the wage/income transcript shows your W-2s, 1099s, etc. Together they give you a complete picture of your 2020 filing. You can actually get these online instantly at irs.gov/transcripts if you can verify your identity through their system. If not, you can request them by mail (takes 5-10 business days) or call the transcript line at 1-800-908-9946. The format is different from your original return but honestly it's more comprehensive in some ways - shows every single line item and calculation. I actually prefer it now for year-to-year comparisons because everything is clearly labeled and easy to find. Don't give TurboTax another dime just to see your own data! The IRS transcript route is free and comes straight from the source.

Just to add another perspective - my tax accountant told me that payments to family members for caregiving can sometimes be treated as "gifts" if they're under the annual gift tax exclusion amount (currently $18,000 per recipient per year) and aren't formally structured as payment for services. But the key distinction is whether you're treating this as a business arrangement or a gift. In your case, since you're explicitly paying for services that enable your business activities and doing so regularly, it sounds like the 1099-NEC approach is correct. Either way, document everything! Keep records of all payments, what they were for, and any related expenses. If you ever get audited, having a clear paper trail will make things much easier.

Has anyone considered if the sister could be classified as a household employee instead? If so, you'd need to use Schedule H and possibly W-2 forms instead of 1099s. The IRS has this weird distinction where household workers (including some caregivers) are treated as employees rather than independent contractors.

Has anyone used the free IRS File Free option with just a 1098-T? Is it straightforward or should I just pay for TurboTax to make sure I get all the education credits right?

One important thing to keep in mind - even if you decide not to file because you have no income requirement, you should still keep all your education-related receipts and documents! If your parents are claiming you as a dependent, they'll need your 1098-T and any additional qualified education expenses (like required textbooks, lab fees, etc.) to maximize their education credits on their return. The credits can be worth up to $2,500 with the American Opportunity Credit, so make sure someone in your family is claiming them. Also, if you're not sure about your dependency status, have an honest conversation with your parents about it - sometimes students qualify to file independently even when parents assume they can claim them.

I went through ID verification about 6 months ago and it took exactly 8 weeks to get my refund. The 9-week timeline they give you is pretty realistic, though some people do get lucky and see it sooner. The most frustrating part is the complete lack of updates during the wait - your transcript might not change for weeks at a time. My advice is to set a reminder to check your transcript once a week rather than obsessing over it daily (learned that the hard way). The good news is that once you've done the in-person verification, that's usually the biggest hurdle. Just try to be patient and maybe start planning for that money to arrive closer to the 9-week mark so you're not disappointed if it takes the full time.

I'm going through this exact same situation right now - just did my ID verification last week and got the same 9-week timeline. Reading through everyone's experiences here is both reassuring and nerve-wracking! It sounds like there's a pretty wide range of actual wait times. I'm going to try setting up that IRS account to check my transcript like others mentioned, and maybe look into that taxr.ai thing since trying to decode all those IRS codes myself sounds like a nightmare. Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences - it really helps to know I'm not alone in this frustrating process!