Has anyone considered that exclusive use is sometimes not easy to prove? I use a room that's technically a bedroom as my home office, but it has absolutely nothing in it except office furniture and equipment. Would an IRS agent look at the room layout and decide it's not exclusive use just because it could be a bedroom?

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the importance of tracking your actual work hours between locations. Since you mentioned going to the firm office every 2-3 weeks, you should document the time spent at each location throughout the year. The IRS uses this as a key factor in determining your "principal place of business." Keep a simple log showing dates, hours worked from home vs. firm office, and types of activities performed at each location. This becomes crucial evidence if you're ever audited. Since you're working 40+ hours weekly from home and only visiting the firm office occasionally, your documentation should clearly support that your home office is indeed your principal place of business. Also, make sure you're not mixing any personal activities in that dedicated room - no personal computer use, no storing personal items, etc. The exclusive use test is where many people trip up during audits.

As a heads up - even if you get this form sorted out, check your first couple of paychecks carefully to make sure they're withholding the right amount. I had a similar confusion with my forms, thought I fixed it, but they still messed up my withholding. Better to catch it early in the year than be surprised at tax time!

This is such a common issue for new employees! I went through the exact same confusion when I started my first job. The key thing to remember is that you can always update your W-4 later if you realize the withholding isn't right. One thing that helped me was using the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator (it's free on the IRS website). You can input your salary and filing status, and it'll tell you exactly how to fill out your W-4 to get the right amount withheld. It's way more reliable than trying to guess with those confusing company forms. Also, don't stress too much about getting it perfect right away - most people end up adjusting their withholding at least once during their first year as they figure out how everything works. The important thing is that you're being proactive about it!

Make sure to also look into whether you need to file an FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) if you have signature authority over any of your wife's Canadian accounts, even if you're not an account holder. The thresholds are pretty low ($10,000 combined across all foreign accounts at any point in the year). My husband is Canadian and I'm American (living in the US), and I had to file an FBAR because I was added to his Canadian checking account even though I never used it. The penalties for not filing are insanely high compared to other tax mistakes. Also, for future reference, once you move to Canada you'll want to check out if you qualify for Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or Foreign Tax Credits to avoid double taxation. The US-Canada tax treaty also has some specific provisions that might help you. Good luck with the move! The immigration paperwork is a pain but worth it in the end.

I went through this exact same situation two years ago when I married my Australian spouse! The ITIN process can definitely feel overwhelming, but here's what worked for me: You're absolutely right that you need to get your wife an ITIN. What I found helpful was submitting the W-7 application well before tax season - you can do this by including a letter explaining that you need the ITIN for tax filing purposes as a married person. This way you're not waiting months for your refund to process. For the W-7 application, your wife will need to provide certified copies of her passport and possibly other identity documents. Since she's Canadian, the Canadian consulate or embassy can certify these documents, or you can use an IRS-authorized Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA) which might be faster. One thing I wish I'd known earlier: some tax software really struggles with the NRA spouse situation. I ended up having to file a paper return the first year because the software kept erroring out when I tried to enter "NRA" instead of an SSN. Also, double-check if your income level qualifies you for any tax credits that you might lose by filing separately - sometimes the math works out better even with the complications of filing jointly and treating your spouse as a resident alien for tax purposes. The immigration process is stressful enough without tax complications! Feel free to reach out if you have more questions as you work through this.

The capital loss carryover worksheet really is one of the most confusing parts of tax prep! I went through this same struggle last year. Here's what finally helped me understand line 1 (second part): Think of it this way - the IRS lets you deduct up to $3,000 of capital losses against your regular income each year. So line 1 second part is asking: "How much of your loss can you actually use THIS year?" If your total net loss from Schedule D line 16 is $5,000, you can only use $3,000 of it this year. So you'd put $3,000 in line 1 second part. The remaining $2,000 gets carried forward to next year. If your total loss was only $1,500, then you'd put $1,500 in line 1 second part because that's less than the $3,000 limit. The key is understanding that this worksheet is separating your "usable now" losses from your "save for later" losses. Once that clicked for me, the rest of the worksheet made much more sense!

I've been dealing with capital loss carryovers for the past few years and wanted to share a tip that really helped me understand this confusing worksheet. The key insight is that line 1 has TWO different purposes: - First part: Shows your TOTAL net capital loss from Schedule D line 16 - Second part: Shows how much you can ACTUALLY DEDUCT this year (capped at $3,000) Think of it like a bucket with a small drain. You pour all your losses into the bucket (first part of line 1), but you can only drain out $3,000 per year through the small hole (second part of line 1). Whatever doesn't fit through the drain stays in the bucket for next year. So if you lost $8,000 total: - Line 1 first part: $8,000 (your total loss) - Line 1 second part: $3,000 (what you can use this year) - Carryover to next year: $5,000 The worksheet then helps you track that $5,000 carryover so you can use it in future years. Once I visualized it this way, the whole form became much clearer!

Does anyone know if the same rules apply for backdoor Roth contributions? I've filled out Form 8606 for nondeductible traditional IRA contributions in TaxSlayer, but I already converted them to Roth a few weeks later. Do I need to wait until next year to report the conversion or do I report both the contribution and conversion on this year's taxes?

Just wanted to add that when you do your Roth conversion later this year, make sure you understand the pro-rata rule if you have any other traditional IRA balances with pre-tax money. The IRS looks at ALL your traditional IRAs combined when calculating how much of your conversion is taxable. For example, if you have $7,000 in nondeductible contributions but also have $14,000 in a rollover IRA from an old 401k, only 1/3 of your conversion would be tax-free ($7,000 out of $21,000 total). This trips up a lot of people doing backdoor Roths. You might want to consider rolling any pre-tax IRA money back into a current 401k before converting to keep things clean.