For anyone else struggling with Form 1041 and trust taxation in general, I highly recommend using a professional tax software rather than the consumer versions. I tried using TurboTax for my grandmother's trust and it kept giving errors that didn't make sense. I switched to UltraTax which has much better fiduciary return support, especially for dealing with the DNI vs accounting income issues.

I went through this exact same nightmare last year with my uncle's trust! The DNI vs accounting income situation is confusing but here's what I learned after making several mistakes: The key thing to understand is that your beneficiaries will be taxed on the full $19,000 distribution because it's less than your total DNI of $36,500 ($14,500 income + $22,000 capital gains). Even though only $14,500 was "accounting income," the IRS considers the entire distribution taxable to the beneficiaries up to the DNI amount. For the K-1s, you'll need to allocate the income types proportionally. Since your distribution of $19,000 exceeds the $14,500 accounting income, the first $14,500 gets allocated as ordinary income (dividends/interest), and the remaining $4,500 gets allocated as capital gains to the beneficiaries. The trust will then pay tax on the remaining $17,500 in capital gains that weren't distributed. Make sure you complete Schedule B carefully - that's where the income distribution deduction gets calculated and it's critical for getting this right. One thing that tripped me up initially: the trust document language matters a lot here. Some trusts treat capital gains as principal (corpus) while others treat them as income for distribution purposes. Double-check what your grandmother's trust says about this.

Is it just me or does anyone else lowkey panic whenever they get any kind of letter from the IRS? 😅

I just went through this process last month! The online verification at ID.me was actually pretty straightforward - took about 20 minutes. Just make sure you have good lighting for the photo verification part. One thing that caught me off guard was they asked questions about accounts I had years ago that I barely remembered. If you can't verify online, don't stress - the in-person appointment isn't as scary as it sounds. Good luck! 🍀

Don't forget that you might need to file Form 8863 for education credits! I made this mistake my first year of grad school and missed out on credits I could have claimed.

I've been through this exact situation with my 1098-T having blank boxes! One thing that really helped me was keeping detailed records of all my payments throughout the year. I created a simple spreadsheet with dates, amounts, and what each payment was for (tuition, fees, books, etc.). For your situation, definitely contact your school's financial aid office or bursar like others suggested. They can provide a detailed account statement showing exactly what you paid and when. This documentation will be crucial if you ever get audited. Also, just a heads up - since you're in grad school, you'll likely only be eligible for the Lifetime Learning Credit (up to $2,000) rather than the American Opportunity Credit. The LLC has different rules but can still provide significant savings. Make sure to keep receipts for those required course materials and lab fees too. The IRS considers these qualified expenses if they're required for enrollment, but you'll want documentation to back up your claims.

would it be illegal if i just submitted my travel expenses to both jobs? like if i traveled somewhere and did work for both my w2 employer and my self employed gig while there???

This is exactly the kind of tax law change that catches people off guard! The elimination of employee business expense deductions really shifted the burden back to employers to have proper reimbursement systems in place. One thing I'd suggest for the future - if your employer's reimbursement process is tedious, try to work with HR or accounting to streamline it. Many companies don't realize how much their employees are eating these costs rather than dealing with paperwork. Sometimes a simple conversation about the process can lead to improvements that benefit everyone. Also, keep detailed records of all your business travel expenses even if you don't submit them for reimbursement. Tax laws change, and if the TCJA provisions sunset in 2025 as scheduled, we might see the return of employee business expense deductions. Having good documentation from prior years could be valuable. For now though, Harper's advice is spot on - always try to get reimbursed when possible, and if you have any self-employment income, make sure you're maximizing those legitimate business deductions on Schedule C.

Something nobody's mentioned yet - if you itemize deductions and plan to claim charitable contributions, make sure you're actually going to exceed the standard deduction threshold. For 2025, that's $13,850 for single filers and $27,700 for married filing jointly. Many people go through all the trouble of tracking donations only to find out they're still better off taking the standard deduction anyway. Unless your total itemized deductions (including mortgage interest, state/local taxes up to $10k, and charitable donations) exceed those amounts, all this tracking won't actually benefit you tax-wise.

I just want to add that if you're making donations specifically for tax purposes, consider "bunching" your donations. This means making larger donations every other year instead of the same amount annually. For example, instead of donating $5,000 each year, donate $10,000 every other year. This might put you over the standard deduction threshold in donating years, allowing you to itemize and actually get tax benefits.