I had no idea about state-specific education credits! Is there an easy way to find out what my state offers? I'm in Illinois if that helps.

Illinois has the Illinois Education Expense Credit which allows parents or legal guardians to take a credit of up to $750 for qualified education expenses for K-12 students attending Illinois schools. Unfortunately, it doesn't extend to college expenses, but it's worth keeping in mind if you have younger siblings. For college students specifically in Illinois, look into the Illinois Property Tax Credit if you're paying rent. Since landlords pay property tax and pass that cost to renters, you might qualify for some relief there as a renter. Also check out the Illinois Earned Income Credit which is 18% of the federal EITC if you qualify for that.

This is super helpful, thank you! I actually didn't track my mileage during the year - is it too late to claim that deduction or is there some way to reconstruct a reasonable estimate?

You can still reconstruct your mileage! The IRS allows reasonable estimates if you don't have exact records. Here's what you can do: 1. Look back at your DoorDash earnings statements to see how many deliveries you made each month 2. Estimate average miles per delivery in your area (usually 3-6 miles round trip) 3. Use Google Maps to calculate distances between common pickup/dropoff locations you remember 4. Check your phone's location history if you have it enabled - it can show your driving patterns For future reference, apps like MileIQ or even just the odometer method work great. But for this year, a reasonable reconstruction based on delivery counts and average distances should hold up. Just document your methodology in case of questions. The key is being reasonable and consistent with your estimates. Don't lowball it either - delivery driving typically involves more miles than people think when you factor in driving to hotspots, returning home, etc.

Yes, that's called a net operating loss (NOL). If your business expenses exceed your business income, you have a net loss that can offset other income sources in the same tax year. If the loss is bigger than all your income combined, you may be able to carry it backward or forward to other tax years. This is completely different from the original question though. The OP is asking about deductions offsetting tax directly, which isn't how it works. Business losses offsetting income is a separate concept.

I used claimyr.com and it was a lifesaver. They basically navigate the phone system for you and get you in line for a callback. I had tried calling directly for weeks with no luck but got through in one day with their service.

Oh wow I'm gonna try this. I'm desperate at this point. Been waiting on $4200 for nearly two months with zero updates.

Yes, you're right - it's just the Social Security portion (6.2%) for employees. Employers still pay their matching portion, and Medicare taxes continue as normal for everyone. I tried modeling it in TaxAct, but since it's just a deferral and not forgiveness, it didn't show any actual tax savings - just a timing difference of when the tax is paid.

You can download your PayPal transaction history as a report. Go to your PayPal activity page, click on "Statements" and then select "Activity export." Choose the date range you want to check and make sure to select "Commercial payments received" or a similar option (might vary depending on your account type). This will give you a CSV file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets. Just add up all the payments marked as "Payment Received" that are for goods and services. Remember personal payments (Friends & Family) don't count toward the threshold.

Great questions! For textbook sales, if you're just selling your own used textbooks occasionally, that's typically considered personal property sales, not business income - similar to having a garage sale. However, if you're regularly buying and reselling textbooks for profit, that could be considered business activity. For the group gift situation, if someone is genuinely reimbursing you for their share of something you purchased on their behalf, that should be considered personal even if it accidentally went through goods & services. The key is the intent - was it payment for something you're selling/providing, or just someone paying you back? When in doubt, I always lean toward being more conservative and reporting questionable items as income rather than risk issues later. You can also add notes in your spreadsheet about the nature of each transaction so you have documentation of your reasoning if questions ever come up. The IRS cares more about good faith efforts to comply than perfect categorization of every edge case.

Great questions! For textbook sales, if you're just selling your own used textbooks occasionally, that's typically considered personal property sales, not business income. However, if you're regularly buying and reselling textbooks for profit, it could be considered business activity. For the group gift reimbursement situation - that should definitely be categorized as personal since it's just someone paying you back money you spent on their behalf. If it accidentally went through goods & services instead of friends & family, you might want to contact PayPal to see if they can reclassify it, especially if you're close to the $600 threshold. The general rule I follow is: if I'm selling something I personally owned and used, it's usually personal property sales. If I'm buying things specifically to resell them, or providing services, that's business income. When in doubt, I err on the side of reporting it as income - better safe than sorry with the IRS! You might also want to check out some of the tools others mentioned in this thread like taxr.ai to help categorize everything properly.