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I've been dealing with this same question! Filed in mid-February and have been checking my transcript obsessively too. From everything I've read here and my own research, it seems like the 846 code really is the definitive indicator. I found a helpful explanation that the 846 code isn't just a status update - it's literally the transaction code that authorizes the Treasury to release your refund. So while your bank might show a pending deposit at roughly the same time, the 846 code is what actually triggers that process. I'm still waiting for mine to appear, but reading everyone's experiences here has helped me understand that once I see that 846 with a date, I can finally stop the constant checking and know my refund is actually on the way! The consistency in everyone's stories about seeing the 846 first is pretty convincing evidence.
Thanks for explaining that the 846 code actually authorizes the Treasury to release the refund - I didn't realize it was that specific! I'm also a mid-February filer still waiting and checking way too often. It's really helpful to hear from everyone that the 846 code is so consistent as the indicator. I keep second-guessing myself when I read about pending deposits, but the technical explanation about it being the actual authorization makes so much sense. Hopefully we both see our 846 codes soon so we can stop this obsessive checking cycle!
I'm a newer member here and this thread has been incredibly educational! I filed my return on February 15th and have definitely fallen into the same obsessive checking pattern everyone's describing. Reading through all these experiences, I'm really convinced now that the 846 code is the reliable indicator to watch for. What strikes me most is how consistent everyone's stories are - even when there might be slight timing differences between when banks show pending deposits versus when we can see transcript updates, the 846 code seems to always be the actual trigger. I'm still stuck at the 150 code myself, but at least now I know exactly what to look for and can maybe try to limit my checking to Friday mornings like some of you suggested. Thanks to everyone for sharing your real experiences and data points - it's so much more helpful than just speculation!
Welcome to the community! I'm also a February filer and completely relate to the obsessive checking - you're definitely not alone in that! What really helped me was reading through all these detailed experiences too. The consistency across everyone's stories about the 846 code being the key indicator is pretty reassuring. I've been trying to follow the Friday morning checking advice, though I'll admit I'm not always successful at limiting myself! It's nice to see newer members like us getting such helpful, data-backed responses from the community. Hopefully we'll both see our 846 codes soon and can finally break this checking cycle!
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One thing nobody has mentioned that helped me with my cattery taxes: Track your mileage for ANYTHING business related - vet visits, supply runs, cat shows, picking up new breeding stock, etc. This ends up being a surprisingly large deduction! Also, if you're using part of your home exclusively for the cattery business (like a dedicated cat room or nursery space), you can take the home office deduction. Make sure to measure the square footage accurately. And definitely keep photos of all your cats with their names, registration papers, and purchase prices organized. The one year I got audited, having detailed records with photos for each animal saved me thousands.
The mileage tracking is a great tip! Do you use any particular app to track it, or just keep a manual log? And for the home office deduction - my cattery actually takes up about 40% of my home (dedicated breeding rooms, nursery, etc.). Is there a limit to how much of your home you can claim for business use?
I use MileIQ app for tracking - it automatically logs all my drives and I just swipe right for business trips. Super easy and worth the subscription fee since it saves me hours of manual logging. For home office space, there's no specific percentage limit, but larger percentages might increase audit risk. The key is that the space must be used EXCLUSIVELY for your business. If your cattery truly uses 40% of your home exclusively for the business, you can claim it, but make sure you have good documentation - take photos of the spaces, have a floor plan with measurements, and keep records of business activities that happen in those areas. If you ever get audited, you'll need to prove that those spaces are used solely for the cattery.
Another cattery owner here! Just wanted to add that how you handle your breeding cats can have big implications for years to come. If you treat them as capital assets and depreciate them, you'll need to report gain/loss when you "retire" them from breeding. I learned this the hard way when I rehomed some of my retired breeders. Had to report the difference between their depreciated value and what I got for them. My accountant said I should have been tracking each cat's "adjusted basis" all along! Also, consider Section 179 expensing for some of your larger equipment purchases (like specialty cages, air purification systems, etc.) instead of depreciating them - might give you a bigger deduction upfront.
This is really important! I've been breeding Maine Coons for 6 years and the tax implications of retiring breeding stock can be significant. Do you need to track the depreciation individually for each cat, or can you group them together as a single asset class?
You typically need to track depreciation individually for each breeding cat since they're separate assets with different acquisition dates and costs. Each cat should have its own depreciation schedule based on when you acquired it and its cost basis. When you retire a breeding cat, you'll need to know that specific cat's adjusted basis (original cost minus accumulated depreciation) to calculate any gain or loss on disposal. If you group them together, it becomes much harder to track this accurately for tax purposes. I'd recommend setting up a simple spreadsheet with columns for each cat's name/ID, acquisition date, original cost, annual depreciation, and accumulated depreciation. This makes it easy to calculate the adjusted basis when you need to retire or rehome any of them. Your accountant will thank you for having these records organized!
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Just an FYI - I use QuickBooks Self-Employed to track my business expenses and it has a feature specifically for tracking mileage and usage of vehicles/equipment. It might be helpful for logging your boat usage, especially since it timestamps everything. You can categorize each trip as business or personal.
Does it have a specific boat or watercraft category though? Last time I used QuickBooks it was pretty car-focused for the tracking features.
This is a great question and I've been in a similar situation with mixed-use business assets. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the importance of establishing the business purpose BEFORE you purchase the boat. The IRS looks more favorably on deductions when you can demonstrate that the purchase was primarily motivated by business needs rather than personal desires. I'd recommend documenting your current boat rental expenses and showing how purchasing would be more cost-effective for your business. Also consider getting quotes from multiple boat rental companies to establish a baseline of your current costs. This creates a paper trail showing legitimate business justification. For the 60/40 split, you'll want to be conservative in your estimates. It's better to slightly underestimate business use than to be aggressive and risk an audit. And definitely keep every receipt - not just for the boat itself, but for insurance, maintenance, fuel, dock fees, everything. The business portion of all these ongoing expenses will be deductible too. Have you considered whether there are any local or state tax implications as well? Some states have different rules for business asset depreciation that might affect your decision.
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Just wanted to add a helpful tip from my experience handling my grandfather's taxes last year - if you're checking transcripts on Saturday mornings, try to check between 6-8 AM ET for the most reliable results. I noticed that heavy traffic later in the morning (9-11 AM) sometimes caused the transcript system to be sluggish or temporarily unavailable. Also, while you're managing your mom's finances during her recovery, it might be worth noting that if her refund does get delayed beyond the normal processing time, the IRS will automatically pay interest on delayed refunds. It's not much, but it's something to be aware of. The Saturday update pattern has been incredibly consistent in my experience - I tracked it for about 6 months and saw updates roughly 80% of Saturday mornings when there was movement to report. Much more reliable than the random weekday checking I used to do! Sending good thoughts for your mom's quick recovery! 💙
The 6-8 AM ET timing tip is gold! I had no idea about the heavy traffic issue later in the morning - that explains why I sometimes get those frustrating "system unavailable" messages when I check around 10 AM. I'll definitely switch to earlier morning checks. And wow, I had no clue about the automatic interest on delayed refunds! That's actually really good to know, especially since I'm handling mom's finances right now and trying to plan out her budget during recovery. Even if it's not much, every little bit helps with medical expenses. Your 80% success rate on Saturday mornings is really encouraging - gives me confidence that this schedule-based approach is going to be so much better than my current random checking habit. Thanks for sharing your tracking data and all the practical tips!
This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm dealing with a similar situation - helping my elderly aunt with her taxes while she's dealing with some health issues. Based on everyone's insights, I'm going to stop my random daily checking and switch to the Saturday morning approach around 6-8 AM ET. One question for the group: has anyone noticed if there are certain types of returns that tend to update on different days? My aunt has a pretty simple return (just Social Security and a small pension), but I'm wondering if different return types follow different update patterns within that Saturday morning cycle. Also, thank you to everyone who shared the tip about transcripts being more detailed than WMR - I had no idea they were pulling from different systems! This community is amazing for breaking down all these IRS processes that seem so mysterious when you're dealing with them alone. 🙏
Great question about different return types! From what I've observed helping friends and family over the years, simple returns like your aunt's (Social Security + pension) actually tend to process pretty smoothly and follow the standard Saturday morning update pattern. The complexity usually comes with returns that have business income, multiple W-2s, or certain credits that require additional verification. Since your aunt's return sounds straightforward, I'd expect it to follow the typical Saturday morning update cycle that everyone's been discussing. The 6-8 AM ET timing that @Ryder Greene mentioned should work perfectly for checking her status. It s'so nice to see people helping their elderly family members navigate this stuff - it can be really overwhelming when you re'dealing with health issues on top of tax anxiety. The Saturday morning routine will definitely be less stressful than daily checking! Hope your aunt is doing well with her health situation. 💙
Drew Hathaway
Has anyone here used the QSE HRA (Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement) option instead of COBRA? When I got laid off I started my own single-person LLC and set this up. It lets you reimburse yourself tax-free for health insurance premiums up to certain limits. Might be something to look into if you're self-employed now!
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Laila Prince
•I've never heard of this! Is it complicated to set up? And does it work better than just taking the self-employed health insurance deduction? I've been doing freelance work but just deducting my premiums the regular way.
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Malik Jackson
•The QSE HRA can be more tax-efficient than the standard self-employed health insurance deduction in some cases. With a QSE HRA, you can reimburse yourself up to $6,150 per year (2024 limits) for individual coverage, and it's completely tax-free - no income tax or self-employment tax on the reimbursement. Setting it up requires formal documentation and you have to follow specific rules (like offering it to all eligible employees if you have any), but for a single-person LLC it's pretty straightforward. The reimbursements are also exempt from FICA taxes, which gives you an advantage over the regular deduction method. You'll want to consult with a tax professional to make sure you set it up correctly, but it can definitely be worth it if you're paying significant premiums. @Drew Hathaway - have you found any downsides to using the QSE HRA approach?
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Connor Byrne
I went through a very similar situation last year - laid off and maintaining COBRA while doing freelance work. The key thing I learned is that the self-employed health insurance deduction can be a real lifesaver, but there are some important limitations to be aware of. First, you can only deduct up to the amount of your self-employment income. So if you paid $8,000 in COBRA premiums but only made $5,000 in freelance income, you can only deduct $5,000. Second, you cannot take this deduction for any months you were eligible for employer-sponsored coverage elsewhere (including a spouse's plan). This caught me off guard initially. For reducing self-employment tax, make sure you're tracking every legitimate business expense - office supplies, software subscriptions, business meals, mileage for client meetings, etc. Also remember that you can deduct half of your self-employment tax as an adjustment to income, which helps reduce your overall tax burden. One thing that really helped me was keeping detailed records throughout the year rather than trying to reconstruct everything at tax time. Save all your COBRA payment confirmations and any business-related receipts.
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Amara Adebayo
•This is really helpful, especially the point about only being able to deduct up to your self-employment income amount. I'm just starting to navigate this whole situation myself after being laid off recently. Quick question - when you say "eligible for employer-sponsored coverage elsewhere," does that include if your spouse has a plan available at their job but you're not actually enrolled in it? Or only if you're actually covered by it? I'm trying to figure out if I need to worry about this limitation. Also, did you find any good apps or tools for tracking all those business expenses throughout the year? I'm terrible at keeping receipts organized and I know I'm probably missing out on deductions because of it.
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Connor Rupert
•Great question about spouse coverage! The rule is about eligibility, not actual enrollment. So if your spouse has employer coverage available that you could join (even if you're not actually on it), that would disqualify you from taking the self-employed health insurance deduction for those months. It's pretty strict unfortunately. For expense tracking, I ended up using a combination of apps. I use Receipt Bank (now called Dext) to scan receipts with my phone immediately when I get them - it automatically categorizes them and stores everything in the cloud. For mileage, I use MileIQ which tracks my trips automatically using GPS. The key is to make it as automatic as possible so you don't forget. I also set up a separate business credit card for all my freelance expenses, which makes it much easier to track everything at year-end. @Connor Byrne might have other suggestions too since he seems to have this system down pat.
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