This is actually what I ended up doing last year. Had a property with $43k in suspended passive losses that I couldn't use. Sold the property (even at a small additional loss) and was able to deduct ALL the accumulated passive losses against my W-2 income. Saved me about $12k in taxes. Sometimes cutting your losses is the smartest financial move.

This is a great point that I hadn't considered! Does the spouse need to be actively involved in ALL the properties to qualify, or just meet the general real estate professional requirements? Also, do both spouses need to be on the title, or can one spouse's professional status cover properties owned solely by the other spouse?

The spouse needs to meet the real estate professional requirements (750+ hours annually in real estate activities AND more than half their working time in real estate), but they don't need to be involved in every single property you own. Once they qualify as a real estate professional, that status can apply to rental properties owned by either spouse or jointly owned properties when filing a joint return. However, there's an important caveat - the non-real-estate-professional spouse still needs to "materially participate" in each specific rental activity to avoid passive treatment. This usually means being significantly involved in management decisions for that particular property. So while your spouse's professional status opens the door, you can't be completely hands-off and still get active treatment. For properties owned solely by the non-professional spouse, the professional spouse would need to be involved enough in that property's management to establish material participation for the couple as a unit.

19 This is great advice! I just looked at my Schwab account and was able to pull transaction history from 2014. Does anyone know if Vanguard keeps records this far back?

5 Vanguard typically maintains transaction records for at least 10 years in their online system. You can access them by going to your account, then "Transaction history" and adjusting the date range to go back further. For records older than that, you might need to contact their customer service directly as they often have more comprehensive records in their internal systems. As a general practice for the future, it's always good to download year-end statements and trade confirmations as PDFs and save them in your own personal records. This has saved me countless times when preparing tax returns years later.

23 Wait really? Is that why some of my Vanguard fund sales have blank dates? I've been stressing about this for no reason??

Yes, exactly! If you were using the average cost method for your mutual fund shares (which is pretty common, especially with automatic dividend reinvestment), the broker often leaves the acquisition date blank because they're calculating your basis using an average of all your purchase dates rather than specific lot identification. You can usually check what cost basis method your fund uses by looking at your account settings or calling the fund company. This would explain why some of your 1099-B forms have dates and others don't - it depends on the specific fund and the method being used.

It actually depends on whether you're selling these items at a profit and how frequently you're selling. The IRS generally considers if you're engaged in an activity with the intent to make a profit - if you're regularly selling items to make money (not just occasionally clearing out personal belongings), they'd likely see this as a business requiring Schedule C. Since you've sold over $5,000 worth, you'll probably receive a 1099-K from eBay anyway (the threshold is now $5,000 for 2025 tax year), which means the IRS will be expecting to see this income reported somewhere on your return.

Thank you so much for this explanation. I've been selling pretty consistently throughout the year, about 3-4 items per week, and definitely making a profit on most pieces. I think based on what you're saying this would count as a business activity, especially since I'm going to get a 1099-K. I'll go ahead and prepare Schedule C. Really appreciate the help!

Omg thank you for mentioning this! I had no idea about the self-employment tax. Is that on top of regular income tax? Do I need to be making quarterly payments or something? This is getting complicated fast...

Yes, self-employment tax is in addition to regular income tax! It's basically the Social Security and Medicare taxes that would normally be split between you and an employer, but since you're self-employed, you pay both halves (15.3% total - 12.4% for Social Security + 2.9% for Medicare). If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes for the year, you're supposed to make quarterly estimated payments to avoid penalties. The deadlines are usually January 15, April 15, June 15, and September 15. Since this is your first year, you might be okay for this year, but definitely plan ahead for next year. You can use Form 1040-ES to calculate your quarterly payments. The good news is you can deduct half of your self-employment tax as an adjustment to income, so it's not quite as bad as it initially seems!

This is incredibly helpful advice! As someone new to navigating taxes after a major life change, I really appreciate you breaking down all the different components beyond just the Child Tax Credit. The Head of Household status tip is something I hadn't fully considered - that could make a real difference in the overall tax picture. It's reassuring to hear from someone who went through this transition successfully. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience!

Yes! This is super important and caught me by surprise when I was handling one of these. The loan portion essentially gets treated as ordinary income rather than capital gain in many cases. Did you use tax software to handle this or did you work with a professional?