People are missing an important point here - depending on your income levels, filing incorrectly might have BENEFITED you tax-wise. "Single" filing status often gives better tax treatment than "married filing separately" which has the worst tax treatment of all filing statuses. If your income was significantly higher than your husband's, you might have actually paid LESS tax by filing single. The IRS is much more likely to come after people who underpaid, not those who overpaid. Of course, you should still fix it, but I wouldn't panic until you know if you actually owe anything. Get a good tax pro to run the numbers both ways before you do anything.

I'm an enrolled agent and see this more often than you'd think. Quick clarification on some earlier comments: the IRS has 3 years to assess additional tax in most cases, but 6 years if you omit more than 25% of your income, and unlimited time if there's fraud. For your situation, it sounds like the open years would be 2021-2023. For the Roth IRA issue, you have until October 15 of the year following the contribution to correct excess contributions without the 6% penalty. Beyond that deadline, you'll face the penalty until corrected. The most important advice: DO NOT contact the IRS directly until you have a plan. Get a qualified professional (EA or CPA) to review everything and develop a strategy. Sometimes a Qualified Amended Return can help reduce penalties. And definitely get a new accountant! The fact that your husband's returns showed MFS while yours showed Single is a major error that should never have happened.

Watch out if you're using TurboTax to file! I had this exact situation last year and TurboTax incorrectly tried to make me pay taxes on the ENTIRE distribution, not just the earnings. Had to manually override it by entering the taxable amount exactly as shown on the 1099-R instead of letting TurboTax calculate it.

This is such a common source of confusion! I went through something similar last year and want to add a few practical tips that helped me: 1. Double-check your 1099-R box 2a (taxable amount) - it should only show the earnings portion, not your full contribution amount. If it shows the full amount, your brokerage may have made an error. 2. Keep detailed records of the timeline - the fact that you requested the return of excess contributions before your extended filing deadline (you filed in July 2023) is crucial for confirming this gets reported on your 2023 return. 3. If you're using tax software and it's giving you trouble with the PJ code, try entering it as "other retirement distributions" rather than letting it auto-categorize. This often bypasses the software's incorrect assumptions about Roth distributions. The key thing to remember is that since you corrected the excess contribution before filing your 2022 return, it's treated as if the contribution never happened for 2022 tax purposes. That's why everything gets reported in 2023 - the year the actual distribution occurred. Also worth noting: save all your documentation about this transaction. The IRS sometimes sends automated notices about retirement distributions, and having your paperwork organized will save you headaches if you need to respond to any correspondence.

One thing nobody mentioned - some states have different record retention requirements than the IRS! In California, for example, the statute of limitations is 4 years instead of 3. Make sure you check your state tax agency guidelines too before you start shredding everything.

Am I the only one who keeps everything forever? lol. My dad got audited once for a return from 5 years prior and ever since I've been paranoid. I have tax docs going back to 2005 in my basement. Probably overkill but whatever helps me sleep at night!!

I'm also cycle 05 and going through the exact same anxiety! Last year I learned the hard way that checking multiple times a day is just torture. The transcripts really do only update overnight, usually Thursday nights for us 05ers. One thing that helped me was understanding that a blank transcript doesn't mean nothing is happening - it actually means they've accepted your return and it's actively being processed. When it's truly stuck, you don't see the 2024 transcript at all. For the timing, I've found that if there's going to be an update, it usually shows up by 6-7 AM Eastern on Friday mornings. After that, you're probably waiting until the next week. Given that you mentioned needing this refund for unexpected expenses, I totally get why you're checking obsessively. Maybe try checking Friday morning, and if nothing changes, set a phone reminder for the following Friday instead of checking daily. Your mental health will thank you, and you'll get the same result either way! Hang in there - cycle 05 typically processes pretty reliably once it gets going! 🤞

Just wanted to chime in as another cycle 05 filer who's been through this exact situation! The waiting is absolutely brutal, especially when you have financial pressures like your home renovation overruns. From my experience over the past few years, here's what I've learned: • Transcripts update once daily during overnight batch processing (usually Thursday night/Friday morning for cycle 05) • The blank transcript is actually a GOOD sign - it means your return is in the system and being processed • Checking multiple times daily will only increase your anxiety without providing new information • Updates typically appear between 3-6 AM Eastern, so if you don't see anything by 8 AM Friday, you're likely waiting until the next Thursday One thing that saved my sanity was switching from transcript obsessing to just checking the WMR tool once on Friday mornings. Sometimes it shows status changes before the transcript updates. I know it's hard when you need that money, but try to remember that cycle 05 is actually one of the more reliable processing cycles. Your refund WILL come - the IRS just processes millions of returns and it takes time. Hang in there! 💪

Think of tax refund direct deposits like planes arriving at an airport. Your state tax department is the departing airport (they release the funds), the ACH system is the flight path (the money in transit), and Credit Karma is the arriving airport (they receive and process the deposit). Just like flights can arrive early or on time depending on conditions, your deposit timing varies. I track this stuff obsessively. My Arizona refund last year had a DDD of 3/10 but hit my Credit Karma account on 3/9 at 10:23am. My sister's Michigan refund with the same DDD didn't arrive until exactly on 3/10. The year before, my Arizona refund was exactly on DDD. The key factor seems to be when your state actually initiates the ACH transfer - some do it 2-3 days before DDD, others just 1 day before. As for fees - in 15+ refunds across family members using Credit Karma, we've never seen a single fee or deduction.

Thanks for starting this thread - really helpful timing as I'm in a similar situation! I'm expecting my Texas state refund with a DDD of 3/10 to my Credit Karma account. This will be my second year using them for state refunds. Last year (2023), my Texas refund had a DDD of 2/28 and actually showed up on 2/27 around 2:15 PM. No fees whatsoever - the full amount I was expecting based on the state's website appeared in my account. One thing I noticed is that Credit Karma sends a push notification pretty quickly when the deposit hits, but sometimes their email notification can be delayed by several hours. So if you have the app, that's probably your best bet for knowing right away when it arrives. Also, unlike some banks that might show "pending" deposits, Credit Karma made the funds immediately available once they appeared in my account balance. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how everyone else's deposits go this season!