Be aware that you'll need to track these business expenses carefully throughout the year! Im a freelancer and spent hours at tax time trying to figure out which Amazon purchases were business vs personal. Now I use a separate credit card for all business stuff which makes it way easier!

Great question about timing! I went through this exact same situation when I started freelancing. The IRS generally allows you to deduct business expenses as long as they're "ordinary and necessary" for your business, even if purchased before you officially start earning income. The key is being able to demonstrate business intent. Keep documentation showing you were actively preparing to start your business - save emails with potential clients, research you did about setting up your business, any business registration paperwork, etc. This helps establish that your January purchases were legitimate business preparations, not just personal shopping. One tip: consider formally establishing your business entity (LLC, sole proprietorship registration) before making major purchases. This creates a cleaner paper trail and helps establish your business start date for the IRS. Also, if any equipment will have mixed personal/business use, be conservative with your business use percentage estimates and keep detailed logs to support your claims. The fact that you're thinking about this ahead of time shows you're taking the right approach!

A quick tip that helped me with a similar Form 8962 situation - if you don't have your original 1095-A forms, you can log into your Marketplace account and download them again. They keep them available for at least 3 years. Also, the Marketplace has a dedicated helpline that can sometimes explain how your specific forms should be handled for tax purposes.

I went through almost exactly this situation last year! The key thing to understand is that since your daughter was your dependent in 2022, you're responsible for reconciling ALL premium tax credits received for her coverage on YOUR Form 8962, even though she had her own separate Marketplace plan. You'll need both 1095-A forms - one for your coverage (November/December 2022) and one for your daughter's coverage (the full year). On Form 8962, you'll report both policies and reconcile the advance premium tax credits for both. Don't let your daughter file a separate 8962 - that would create a conflict with the IRS. For the college financial aid issue, explain to them that she was your dependent in 2022 and didn't file a separate return. They should accept documentation showing this, or ask if they'll accept your return instead since it includes her as a dependent. Many schools have procedures for exactly this situation. The IRS letter is probably automated because they see advance premium tax credits were paid but no Form 8962 was filed. Respond quickly - if you don't file the 8962, they'll disallow all the credits and you could owe back the full subsidy amount. You typically have 30-60 days to respond to these letters before they start assessing additional taxes.

I had this exact same problem last month! The trick that finally worked for me was looking for a small "More Details" or "Advanced" link on the investment entry screen. In H&R Block, after you enter the basic 1099-B information, there's usually a tiny link (easy to miss) that expands the form to show additional fields including the acquisition date. Also, if you're entering multiple sales of the same stock purchased at different times, H&R Block sometimes requires you to enter each lot separately with its own acquisition date. This might be why the error keeps appearing - the software is expecting individual entries for each purchase date rather than a single combined entry. Try scrolling all the way to the bottom of the investment entry screen and look for any "Show Additional Fields" or similar options. The acquisition date field is often hidden in these expanded sections.

I've been following this thread because I had the exact same H&R Block error message last week. What finally worked for me was a combination of the solutions mentioned here. First, I found that "More Details" link that Liam mentioned - it was hiding at the bottom of the screen and I had missed it completely. But even after finding the acquisition date field, I was still getting errors because I had some really old stocks where I honestly couldn't remember the exact purchase dates. That's when Eleanor's advice about calling the IRS became really helpful. I didn't use the Claimyr service, but I did eventually get through to an IRS agent (after waiting about 90 minutes on hold). The agent confirmed that for old stocks where you don't have exact dates, you can use January 1st of the year you know you purchased them, or if you have records showing it was held for more than a year, you can use the "date acquired not available" option that Kai mentioned. The key thing the IRS agent told me was that as long as you're correctly categorizing the gain as short-term vs long-term, the exact acquisition date isn't as critical as H&R Block makes it seem. The software is just being overly cautious about requiring that field. For anyone still stuck: try the "More Details" approach first, then use January 1st of the purchase year if you're unsure of exact dates, and don't be afraid to use the "date not available" checkbox if your stocks were clearly held long-term.

I've been dealing with this same ID.me nightmare for the past month! What finally broke me out of the loop was using a completely fresh approach: I borrowed my neighbor's tablet, connected it to the coffee shop wifi down the street, and created a brand new ID.me account with my old college email address. The key was using a phone number I'd never used with ID.me before (my work cell). The whole verification process went smoothly since their system didn't have any failed attempt flags on that combination. Took about 20 minutes total and I finally got access to my transcripts. Sometimes you just have to outsmart their security system by starting completely clean. Also learned that if you've failed too many times from the same device/network combo, you're basically blacklisted for a while. Hope this helps someone else avoid the weeks of frustration I went through!

Ugh, I feel your pain! I went through this exact same ID.me disaster about 6 months ago and it nearly drove me insane. What finally worked for me was the "nuclear option" - I had to use a completely different device (borrowed my brother's computer), connect through a different network (used my phone's mobile hotspot), and most importantly, use a phone number that I had NEVER used with ID.me before (ended up using my mom's cell phone for the verification codes). The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes once I stopped trying to fix my "flagged" setup. It's ridiculous that we have to jump through these hoops just to see our own tax information, but ID.me apparently blacklists your device/network combo after too many failed attempts. The system is totally broken but this workaround should get you unstuck. Also, make sure you're not using any browser extensions or VPN when you try - those can interfere with their verification process. Good luck!

Has anyone noticed that TurboTax seems especially glitchy with child tax credits this year? I've had similar issues where it zeroed out my credits, then they reappeared when I went back and re-entered the exact same information!

I'm glad you were able to resolve this issue! Your experience highlights a really important point about tax software - sometimes the smallest input errors can have huge impacts on your return. For future reference, one thing that might help others avoid this is to always do a final review of the "Review Your Return" or summary section before filing. Most tax software will show you a breakdown of all your credits and deductions there, which makes it easier to spot when something looks wrong (like $0 child tax credits when you clearly have qualifying children). Also, if anyone else runs into similar issues, try using the "Forms Mode" or "Detailed View" in your tax software if available. Sometimes the interview-style questions can lead to these kinds of dropdown errors, but looking at the actual tax forms can make it clearer what information is being entered where. Thanks for sharing your solution - I'm sure this will help other parents who encounter the same problem!