A tip from someone who's been doing survey sites for 3 years now - use a separate email address just for survey sites. It keeps all your notifications in one place and makes it easier to track which sites have paid you. Also super helpful at tax time when you're trying to figure out where all your income came from!

Great advice from everyone here! I want to add something that might help with the record-keeping aspect - if you're using PayPal to receive survey payments, they actually provide a pretty decent transaction history that you can download at tax time. This has been super helpful for me to cross-reference with my own spreadsheet. Also, regarding the self-employment tax that was mentioned - don't forget that you can deduct half of the self-employment tax you pay when calculating your adjusted gross income. It's not a huge amount, but every little bit helps when you're dealing with side hustle taxes. One more thing - if you're planning to make this a regular thing and expect to owe more than $1,000 in taxes, you might need to make quarterly estimated tax payments to avoid underpayment penalties. The IRS doesn't like waiting until April to get their money!

Did you check if your refund amount matches what you calculated when filing? Sometimes the IRS adjusts the amount which can delay things. Also, have you verified the last four digits of the account number on the Where's My Refund tool?

Welcome to the tax refund waiting game! As someone who's been through this process multiple times, I can tell you that February 24th is actually a pretty reliable date. The IRS has gotten much better at hitting their deposit dates in recent years. One thing I learned the hard way - don't obsessively check your bank account every hour like I did my first year! The deposit usually shows up early morning (around 3-6 AM) when banks do their overnight processing. If you're with a smaller bank or credit union, you might even see it a day early. The key is that once the IRS gives you that specific date, they've already sent the payment through the Treasury system. Just make sure you have the IRS2Go app downloaded so you can track any last-minute updates, and try to relax - your money is on its way!

Has anyone used TurboTax for handling home office deductions? I'm in a similar situation (small apartment, running a business) and wondering if the software makes this process any easier or if I should just hire a professional.

I'm dealing with a very similar situation - junior in college with an LLC that I'm building while in school. After reading through all these responses, I think the key takeaways are: 1) You absolutely need exclusive business use of the space (no eating/sleeping/studying in your "office area"), 2) Document everything with photos and business activity logs, 3) Keep the percentage reasonable (under 20% seems safer), and 4) Make sure you can show legitimate business intent even without profits yet. One thing I'm still curious about - if you're claiming part of your studio as business space, do you also need to adjust your security deposit and utilities proportionally as business expenses? Or is it just the rent that gets the percentage deduction? Also, since you mentioned you're heading into sophomore year, have you considered whether claiming this deduction might affect your financial aid eligibility at all? I know business income can impact FAFSA calculations, so wondering if business expenses do too.

Wouldn't this tax just get passed on to consumers anyway? If you tax Amazon more, they'll just raise prices to compensate, making things more expensive for regular people while not actually solving the monopoly problem.

This is a fascinating policy proposal that touches on some really complex economic and administrative issues. As someone who's worked with tax compliance for small businesses, I can see both the appeal and the challenges here. One practical concern I haven't seen mentioned yet is how this would affect smaller companies trying to grow. If you're a startup that innovates and naturally captures significant market share through superior products or services, this tax could actually punish success and innovation rather than just targeting anti-competitive behavior. Maybe instead of a blanket market share tax, we could focus on specific anti-competitive practices? For example, higher taxes on companies that engage in predatory pricing, exclusive dealing arrangements, or acquisitions that reduce competition. This would target the behaviors we actually want to discourage rather than penalizing market success broadly. The enforcement challenges everyone's mentioned are real too. Market definitions change constantly - just look at how streaming services have redefined the entertainment industry in the past decade. Any tax based on market share would need to be updated continuously, creating a regulatory nightmare. What if we started smaller? Maybe pilot this concept in specific industries where market boundaries are clearer and concentration is most problematic, like telecommunications or utilities?

If they're worried about the exact amount, they can also call the IRS automated system at 1-800-829-1040. I was able to get my balance without talking to a human. Just needed my SSN, filing status, and zip code from last return. It's not as helpful as talking to a person but at least gives you the current balance.

I went through this exact situation with my parents last year. The key thing to remember is that paying the original amount on the return immediately stops the bleeding - no more penalties and interest accumulating on that base amount. What I learned is that the IRS system can take 4-6 weeks to update online accounts after processing payments, which explains why the online account isn't showing a balance yet. Don't let that delay action though. Here's what worked for us: We paid the original tax amount through IRS Direct Pay, kept all confirmation records, and then waited for the penalty/interest bill. When it came about 3 weeks later, we called and successfully got first-time penalty abatement since they had a clean history. The interest still had to be paid (about $85 in our case), but eliminating the penalties saved almost $400. The most important thing is to act now rather than waiting for perfect information. Every day they delay costs more money in additional interest.