quick question - what happens if i dont file? i worked at a restaurant for like 4 months last year but only made maybe $6000 total and they paid me mostly in cash except for the hourly minimum wage part. do i still need to file something?

@Tristan Carpenter - I went through almost the exact same situation last year! Here's what worked for me: First, don't panic about the filing deadline - you still have time. Since you worked from July to January, you definitely had income in 2023 that needs to be reported. Target is required by law to send you a W-2 by January 31st. If you haven't received it, here's what to do: 1. Check if they have your current address - sometimes W-2s get sent to old addresses 2. Call Target's corporate payroll department (not your store manager) - they have a dedicated line for former employees requesting tax documents 3. If that doesn't work, you can request a wage transcript from the IRS which will show what Target reported Even if you made less than the $13,850 filing threshold, you should still file because Target likely withheld federal taxes from your paychecks that you'd get back as a refund. I got back about $800 when I filed! The good news is that as a first-time filer with just one W-2, your return will be pretty straightforward. Most free tax software can handle this easily once you get your documents. Don't let the process intimidate you - it's much simpler than it seems, and you'll feel so much better once it's done!

This whole thread has been incredibly helpful! As someone who's been lurking here for a while but never posted, I really appreciate how thorough everyone's been with the advice. One angle I haven't seen mentioned yet is how this decision might affect your ability to contribute to retirement accounts. If one of you doesn't work (or works part-time) after having kids, being married opens up spousal IRA contributions that can be really valuable long-term. The non-working spouse can contribute up to $6,500 (or $7,500 if over 50) to an IRA even with no earned income, as long as the working spouse has enough earned income to cover both contributions. Also, from a practical standpoint - I've watched friends go through this decision-making process, and one thing that helped them was actually talking to a tax professional for an hour consultation. Yeah, it costs a couple hundred bucks upfront, but they were able to get personalized advice based on their exact situation rather than trying to piece together general advice from online calculators and forums (though those tools mentioned earlier sound really useful too!). The timing point about when you actually get legally married affecting the whole tax year is so important - I had no idea about that rule!

One more consideration that might be helpful - if you're planning to have multiple kids, the math can change significantly with each child. We stayed unmarried through our first kid because the numbers worked better that way, but when our second came along, the additional child tax credits and dependent exemptions made marriage the clear winner. Also, don't forget about childcare costs! The Child and Dependent Care Credit has different limits for married vs single filers. For 2024, the credit covers up to $3,000 in expenses for one child or $6,000 for two or more children. But the income phase-outs are different depending on your filing status, and if you're both working and need childcare, this credit can be substantial. Another practical tip: if you do decide to stay unmarried initially, make sure you have a clear written agreement about who claims which tax benefits each year. Even in the most committed relationships, having this documented prevents confusion (and potential IRS issues) down the line. The IRS has specific tiebreaker rules for when both parents could potentially claim a child, and it's better to have your own agreement than to let the IRS decide for you. The retirement account point mentioned above is spot-on too - those spousal IRA contributions can really add up over time, especially if one of you plans to stay home or work reduced hours with young kids.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! As someone who's also self-employed and was wondering about similar deductions, I really appreciate all the detailed explanations from the tax professionals here. I've been making the same mistake of thinking that anything health-related recommended by a doctor might be deductible. The distinction between "general health maintenance" vs "treatment of a specific condition with qualified medical personnel" that Natasha explained really cleared things up for me. It's also eye-opening to learn about the 7.5% AGI threshold - I had no idea medical deductions had such a high bar to clear before they even start helping. Between that and the standard deduction being so high, it sounds like most of us probably won't benefit from medical expense deductions anyway. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and expertise. This community is so much more helpful than trying to wade through confusing IRS publications on my own!

This has been such an educational thread! I'm also a freelancer (web developer) and was considering similar deductions after my doctor recommended I join a gym for stress management and back issues from sitting at a computer all day. Reading through everyone's experiences and the expert explanations really drives home how important it is to understand the actual IRS criteria rather than just assuming something "feels" deductible. The three-part test that Natasha outlined (diagnosed condition + medical professional prescription + qualified medical personnel providing treatment) makes it crystal clear why regular gym memberships don't qualify. I'm curious though - has anyone here actually successfully claimed any fitness-related medical deductions? I'd love to hear real examples of what passed IRS scrutiny, just to better understand where that line is drawn in practice. It sounds like physical therapy is clearly on the "yes" side, but I'm wondering about things like medically supervised exercise programs or specialized equipment prescribed by doctors. Either way, I'm definitely taking the advice here to heart about focusing on clear-cut business deductions instead of trying to stretch personal expenses into tax benefits. Thanks to all the tax pros who took time to educate us!

Just wanted to share my experience - I tried deducting a gym membership for my construction business 3 years ago (I argued it was necessary for physical strength to handle materials). Got audited and not only did they disallow the deduction, but it triggered them to look at everything else! Ended up having to pay back the gym deduction plus they found some other issues with my vehicle expenses. It's seriously not worth the headache for such a small deduction. There are so many legitimate deductions available to small businesses - focus on those instead. Tools, insurance, vehicle expenses (properly documented), professional services, office supplies, etc. I now work with a bookkeeper who helps me find all the legitimate deductions without wandering into risky territory.

As a tax professional, I want to emphasize what others have said - gym memberships are almost never deductible for business owners, even when there's a tangential connection to your business. The IRS is very clear that these are personal expenses. However, I'd like to suggest some legitimate alternatives that might actually save you more money: 1. **Home office deduction** - If you use part of your home exclusively for business, this can be substantial 2. **Business equipment** - Computers, software, office furniture used for your marketing consultancy 3. **Professional development** - Courses, conferences, industry publications related to marketing 4. **Business meals** - 50% of meals with clients or potential clients (properly documented) 5. **Business insurance** - Professional liability, errors & omissions insurance for your consultancy These legitimate deductions will likely save you much more than the $100/month difference between individual and family gym memberships, without any audit risk. Focus on building a solid foundation of proper business expense tracking rather than trying to justify personal expenses as business ones.

Has anyone successfully imported K-1s directly into FreeTaxUSA? I know TurboTax has that feature where you can sometimes import partnership K-1s directly if the partnership uses certain accounting software, but I can't figure out if FreeTaxUSA supports this or if manual entry is the only option.

I've been dealing with K-1s from mineral rights partnerships for the past few years in FreeTaxUSA, and I can confirm what others have said about the workflow being different from TurboTax. One tip that really helped me: before you start entering the K-1 data, have your actual form in front of you and go through it line by line to identify which boxes have entries. FreeTaxUSA's interview process jumps around more than TurboTax did. For your $178 in Box 7 royalties, make sure you're not accidentally entering it twice - I made that mistake my first year switching over. Enter it once in the portfolio income section when prompted about royalties, and FreeTaxUSA will handle putting it on the right schedule. The software is actually quite good once you get used to the flow, it's just organized differently than what we're used to from the bigger tax prep companies. Also, keep all your K-1 documentation handy because FreeTaxUSA will ask for the partnership's EIN and address multiple times throughout the process for verification purposes.