Does anyonr know if this QBI thing is affected by taking the standard milage deduction vs. actual car expenses? I've been tracking my actual gas and maintenance costs but wondering if the standard 67 cents per mile would be better.

I've been doing food delivery for about 6 months now and just learned about QBI from this thread - wish I'd known about it sooner! For anyone else who's confused like I was, here's what I've figured out: The QBI deduction is basically a 20% discount on your business income for tax purposes. So if you made $20,000 profit from deliveries, you'd only pay income tax on $16,000 (though you still pay the full self-employment tax on the $20,000). For those Section 199A fields that keep tripping people up - if you're just a solo delivery driver using your personal car, you can safely put zero for both W-2 wages and qualified property. These only matter for bigger businesses or if you're making over $170K+ as a single filer. One tip: make sure you're tracking ALL your expenses properly (mileage, phone bill, delivery bags, etc.) because QBI is calculated on your NET profit after expenses. The lower your taxable business income, the less benefit you get from QBI, but the more you save overall from the expense deductions themselves.

I'm dealing with a similar situation with multiple healthcare staffing apps! One thing that really helped me was creating a simple monthly routine where I screenshot my earnings summary from each app right after I get paid. I store these in a dedicated folder on my phone labeled "Tax Documents 2024." Also, since you mentioned you're new to this type of work - don't forget about the home office deduction if you do any administrative work from home (like checking schedules, communicating with facilities, or managing your bookings). Even if it's just a corner of your bedroom where you handle work-related tasks, you might be able to deduct a portion of your rent/mortgage and utilities. The key thing is to be proactive about record-keeping going forward. The IRS cares more about you reporting all your income honestly than having perfect documentation, especially for legitimate gig work like healthcare staffing.

I can relate to your situation! I've been doing healthcare staffing through apps for about 3 years now and went through the same confusion my first year. Here's what I learned: First, definitely report all that income on Schedule C even without a 1099. The IRS actually expects this - they know many gig platforms don't issue forms for smaller amounts. Your payment records from the app are totally sufficient documentation. For organizing records, I create a simple spreadsheet with columns for: Date, Platform, Facility, Hours Worked, Gross Pay, and any expenses. I update it weekly while everything is fresh in my memory. This makes tax prep so much easier than scrambling at year-end. One thing that caught me off guard my first year was the self-employment tax (15.3%) on top of regular income tax. On $13,500, that's about $2,070 just for SE tax. I'd recommend setting aside 25-30% of your earnings going forward for taxes. Also, start tracking ALL work-related expenses now: mileage between facilities, parking fees, scrubs, stethoscope, any medical supplies you buy, license renewals, continuing education, even a portion of your phone bill if you use it for work communication. These deductions can significantly reduce your tax burden. Don't stress too much - this is very common in the healthcare gig economy and the IRS understands these situations!

Went through this exact thing last year! My situation was almost identical - married, filed jointly, parents wanted to claim me. The key thing that determined it for us was the support test. You need to add up ALL forms of support - not just who paid what bills. Support includes: - Fair rental value of housing (even if no rent was paid) - Food - Utilities - Clothing - Medical expenses - Education expenses - Transportation costs - Other necessities If you lived with your husband and not your parents, the housing portion alone might put you over the 50% threshold for providing your own support, especially if you paid rent or mortgage.

This is such a common situation that trips people up! Based on what you've described, it sounds like your parents likely cannot claim you as a dependent for several reasons: 1. **Joint Filing Rule**: The general rule is that married couples who file jointly cannot be claimed as dependents. The exception you mentioned only applies if BOTH you and your husband would have had zero tax liability filing separately - not just no taxes owed, but literally zero liability. 2. **Support Test**: You mentioned you "probably" provided more than half your own support. This is crucial to calculate accurately. Include housing (even if free, use fair market rental value), food, utilities, transportation, clothing, medical expenses, and education costs. If you lived independently from your parents, the housing component alone might push you over the 50% threshold. 3. **Student Exception**: While you're right that there's a residency exception for full-time students under 24, this doesn't help if you fail the support test. My advice: Calculate your actual support numbers carefully before making any decisions. Don't forget that even if your parents technically could claim you, it might not be financially beneficial given the limited tax benefits compared to education credits you might qualify for on your joint return. You might want to run both scenarios through tax software to see which approach results in the lowest total tax burden for your family overall.

Don't overthink this! Schedule C is definitely the right place for self-employment income, received 1099 or not. I've had missing 1099s for years from some clients and never had an issue. Just make sure the total you report matches or exceeds what was actually paid to you, and you'll be fine. The IRS mainly cares that you're not UNDER-reporting income.

Just went through this exact situation last tax season! You're absolutely doing the right thing by reporting the income on Schedule C regardless of the missing 1099-NEC. One thing I'd add that helped me - consider sending one final certified letter to the company requesting the 1099, keeping the receipt. This creates an official paper trail showing you made every reasonable effort to obtain proper documentation. Even if they don't respond, you'll have proof for your records. Also, make sure to separate the $68,000 in actual income from the $350 in reimbursements when reporting. The reimbursements shouldn't be included as income since they were just covering your expenses. Only report the true payment for services as self-employment income on Schedule C. The IRS matching system is pretty forgiving when you report MORE than what's on file rather than less. Even if that 1099 shows up later, you're already covered since you reported everything accurately.

Not sure if this helps, but I bought a patent last year and my tax guy told me the key thing is whether you aquired any "goodwill" along with it. Since my patent was for a completely different industry than my business operates in, it was clearly just an asset purchase and not part of aquiring any business operations. I was able to amortize it over its useful life (10 yrs in my case) instead of the 15-year 197 schedule.

Based on everything discussed here, it really sounds like your patent purchase wouldn't qualify as a Section 197 intangible. The fact that you bought it as part of a liquidation sale with no transfer of business operations, goodwill, or customer relationships is key. One thing I'd add is to make sure you have proper documentation of the patent's remaining useful life for your amortization calculation. Since you mentioned it has 12 years left, you'll want to support that with the original patent filing date and term. The IRS sometimes challenges useful life determinations, so having the USPTO records showing the exact expiration date will be helpful. Also, since you paid $87,000 for the patent "along with some other property," make sure you properly allocate the purchase price between the patent and the other assets. You can only amortize the portion specifically attributable to the patent itself.