I've been volunteering at our local animal rescue for about six months now, and this thread has been incredibly helpful! I was always hesitant to claim the mileage because I wasn't 100% sure it was legitimate, but after reading everyone's experiences and the clarification about "providing services," I'm confident my situation qualifies. I do dog walking, help with adoption events, and assist with basic medical care - definitely providing services rather than just dropping off donations. The rescue is about 18 miles from my house, and I volunteer there twice a week, so that's going to be a significant deduction I've been missing out on. One question for those who've been tracking this longer: do you include miles for special trips, like if the rescue asks me to transport an animal to a vet appointment? That seems like it would definitely count as providing services, but I want to make sure I'm not overstepping. Also, Giovanni's point about the 14¢ rate being stuck since the 1990s is wild - with gas prices and car maintenance costs today, that rate seems pretty outdated compared to the business mileage rate!

This has been such an informative thread! I'm a tax preparer and see this confusion come up with clients all the time. Let me add a few practical tips that might help everyone: 1. **Documentation is key** - The IRS doesn't require any specific form for tracking charitable miles, but consistency matters. Whether you use a smartphone app, spreadsheet, or paper log, just make sure you're recording the same information each time. 2. **Multiple stops rule** - If you make personal stops during your volunteer trip, only count the direct miles between your home and the charity. But if you make multiple charity-related stops (like picking up supplies then going to volunteer), you can count all those miles as long as they're part of your volunteer service. 3. **Regular vs. one-time volunteers** - The "providing services" rule applies equally whether you volunteer once a year or every week. The key is that you're donating your time and skills, not just money or goods. 4. **State considerations** - While we've been discussing federal rules, don't forget to check if your state allows charitable mileage deductions too. Some states follow federal rules, others have their own requirements. The charitable mileage deduction really is legitimate for volunteer work - it's just unfortunately not as well-known as it should be!

I'm going through the exact same thing right now! Filed my return through TurboTax on Sunday and it's been stuck on "pending" ever since. Based on what everyone's saying here, it sounds like this is totally normal - especially for weekend filings. The 48-72 hour timeframe that @Liam Sullivan mentioned makes sense, and knowing that TurboTax does their own internal review before sending to the IRS is actually reassuring. I was starting to worry something went wrong with my return, but it seems like we just need to be patient. Thanks everyone for the detailed explanations - this community is so helpful during tax season!

I'm also dealing with this same issue! Filed through TurboTax on Friday evening and it's been showing "pending" since then. After reading all these responses, I'm feeling much more confident that this is just normal processing time. The explanation about TurboTax doing their own internal review before transmitting to the IRS makes total sense - I'd rather have them catch any errors upfront than deal with a rejection later. It sounds like by tomorrow or Wednesday we should see status updates. Really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences and the detailed breakdown of the e-file process. This community always comes through during stressful tax season moments!

I feel for you - this exact scenario happened to us three years running before we finally figured it out! The problem is definitely the dual-income withholding issue that others have mentioned, but I want to add one thing that helped us tremendously. After trying the IRS withholding estimator (which kept giving us confusing results), we ended up using a much simpler approach: we calculated our total tax liability as a percentage of our gross income, then made sure our combined withholding matched that percentage. In your case, you owed $29,555 on roughly $216K income, which is about 13.7%. But you were only withholding 11.3% ($24,330 / $216K). So you need to increase your combined withholding by about 2.4 percentage points, or roughly $5,200 annually - which matches almost exactly what you owed! The easiest way is to split this adjustment proportionally. Since you earn about 57% of the household income, you'd increase your withholding by about $3,000 annually (roughly $115 per paycheck if paid biweekly), and your wife would increase hers by about $2,200 annually (about $85 per paycheck). Put these amounts on line 4(c) of your respective W-4s as "extra withholding." It's much simpler than trying to figure out all the bracket calculations and multiple-job worksheets. Also, congratulations on the baby! That child tax credit will definitely help next year, but get your withholding fixed first so you're not in this situation again.

Your situation is frustratingly common for dual-income households at your income level. The W-4 withholding system really struggles with married couples who both have substantial earnings. Looking at your numbers, you're withholding about 11.3% of your gross income for federal taxes, but your effective tax rate is around 13.7% ($29,555 ÷ $216K). That 2.4 percentage point gap is exactly why you owe $5,225. Here's what I'd recommend: 1. **Pay the $5,225 by the deadline** - with a baby coming any day, the stress isn't worth trying to fight it 2. **Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator** specifically for married filing jointly with multiple jobs - input both your incomes together and it will give you coordinated W-4 recommendations 3. **Don't file separately** - it almost never benefits married couples at your income levels and would likely increase your total tax burden The good news is once you get your withholding fixed, you shouldn't face this surprise again. And with the baby coming, you'll get the child tax credit next year which should help offset some of your tax liability. I know it's stressful right now, but this is a very solvable problem. Many couples go through this exact scenario when they hit the income levels where the standard withholding tables break down. You didn't do anything wrong - the system just isn't designed well for modern dual-earner households.

I've been through this exact same situation with my dormant C-Corp last year! One thing that helped me was using FreeTaxUSA Business - they offer C-Corp filing for around $80-90, which isn't free but is much cheaper than most alternatives. The interface is pretty user-friendly for zero-activity returns. Also, definitely look into your state's requirements like others mentioned. I almost got hit with penalties because I focused only on the federal filing and completely forgot about my state's annual report requirements. Even though my corp had zero activity, I still owed the minimum state fees. If you're really strapped for cash, you could try calling your local SCORE chapter - they sometimes have retired tax professionals who volunteer to help small business owners with basic questions. They might not prepare the return for you, but they could walk you through the process of doing it yourself.

I went through this exact situation two years ago with my consulting C-Corp that had been completely dormant. Here's what I learned the hard way: First, you're absolutely right that you still need to file Form 1120 even with zero activity - the IRS doesn't care if your corp was sleeping, they still want their paperwork. For budget options, I ended up using FreeTaxUSA Business (around $85) after striking out on finding anything truly free. The zero-activity return was actually pretty straightforward - most sections you'll either leave blank or enter zeros, but the software guided me through which was which. One thing that caught me off guard was the depreciation schedule. Even though I had no new assets or income, I still had to report the continuing depreciation on equipment purchased in previous years when the business was active. Make sure you have those records handy if that applies to you. Also, don't forget about your state requirements! I almost missed my state's annual report filing, which would have resulted in administrative dissolution. Each state is different, but most require some form of annual filing regardless of activity level. If money is really tight, consider whether keeping the corporation active makes sense long-term. Sometimes dissolving and starting fresh later is more cost-effective than maintaining a dormant entity for years.

I'm a little late to this convo but fyi - TurboTax has a known glitch with scholarships!! When you enter the 1098-T information, it doesn't automatically connect the scholarship amounts from Box 5 with the qualified expenses. You have to manually tell it that the scholarship was used for qualified expenses by entering those details in the scholarship/grant section. I had to call their support line to figure this out after it kept saying we owed taxes on my son's full scholarship amount. Super frustrating but fixable!

Great to hear you got it sorted out! For anyone else dealing with this, I'd also recommend keeping detailed records of what qualified expenses your scholarship covered. The IRS defines qualified education expenses pretty specifically - tuition, required fees, books, and required supplies/equipment for courses. Room and board, transportation, and personal expenses don't qualify, even if they're listed on your student bill. Also, if you're claiming education tax credits like the American Opportunity Credit, you can't "double dip" - the same tuition dollars can't be both tax-free (from scholarship) AND used to claim a tax credit. One more tip: if your child has multiple scholarships or grants, you might have some flexibility in how you allocate them between qualified and non-qualified expenses to optimize your tax situation. It can get complex, so definitely worth consulting with a tax professional if the amounts are significant!