My university provides free access to Glacier Tax Prep for international students, so check if yours does too before paying for anything! The international student office usually has this info.

Just wanted to add my experience as someone who went through this exact situation last year! I was also an F1 student with CPT income and was completely overwhelmed by the whole tax process. I ended up using Sprintax and it was definitely worth it for peace of mind. The key documents you'll need are your W-2 from your CPT employer, any 1042-S forms if you had scholarships, your I-20, and your passport/visa pages. One thing I wish someone had told me earlier - make sure to check if your employer incorrectly withheld FICA taxes (Social Security/Medicare) from your CPT income. As an F1 student, you're exempt from these for your first 5 years, but many employers mess this up. If they did withhold them incorrectly, you can get that money back when you file. Also, don't forget about Form 8843 - it's required for ALL F1 students regardless of whether you had income or not. Sprintax will remind you about this, but it's something a lot of people miss. The whole process took me about 2 hours with Sprintax, and having everything explained in simple terms made it way less stressful than I expected. Good luck with your filing!

I think everyone is missing something important here - if you're living together in the same house with your partner and kids, only ONE of you can claim Head of Household. The IRS won't allow two HOH filers for the same household. So if you're all under the same roof, you need to decide which one of you will claim HOH.

This is such a common situation and the rules can be really confusing! Based on what others have shared, it sounds like you might be able to file as Head of Household even without claiming the kids as dependents, but there's an important catch that @Alejandro Castro and @Sofía Rodríguez brought up - since you and your partner live in the same house, only ONE of you can file as HOH. So even if you technically qualify for HOH status (paying more than half the household expenses and having the kids live with you), you'll need to coordinate with your partner to decide who claims it. I'd suggest running the tax calculations both ways - see what the total tax savings would be if you file HOH vs if your partner does, and go with whichever gives your household the bigger overall benefit. You might want to use one of those tax tools people mentioned or talk to a tax professional to make sure you're maximizing your combined tax benefits while staying compliant with the IRS rules.

The refund tracker in TurboTax is notorious for causing stress with these sudden jumps! I'm a tax preparer assistant and see this all the time. One thing nobody's mentioned - check your state tax calculation. Many states have different rules for HSAs than federal. Some states (like California and New Jersey) don't recognize HSA tax benefits at all, while others give additional state-level deductions for HSA participation. This could explain why both your federal AND state refunds jumped.

This happened to me too! The sudden refund jump after entering HSA info is actually pretty normal, though TurboTax could definitely explain it better. What's likely happening is that confirming your HSA eligibility is unlocking other tax benefits you qualify for. With your income level ($58k + $6.1k contract work) and two kids, you're probably hitting the sweet spot for several credits that have health coverage requirements. The biggest factor is probably the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Having qualifying health coverage through your HDHP can affect your EITC calculation, and with two children, even small changes in how your coverage is calculated can create big swings in your refund. Also, your 1099 contract work might be getting treated differently for self-employment tax purposes once TurboTax knows you have HSA-eligible coverage. Some health-related deductions become available that offset SE tax. Don't second-guess it too much - the jump from owing $400 to getting back $950 federal sounds about right for your situation once all the credits are properly calculated. Just make sure you double-check that your employer HSA contribution amount is correct since that's what triggered the recalculation.

Just a heads up about the cars - while they're not a tax issue like others said, make sure you properly transfer the titles! My brother "took" my mom's car without formally transferring the title, then got in an accident 6 months later. Since the car was still technically part of the estate, it created a legal nightmare with insurance.

Going through this as an executor myself right now, so I really feel for you! One thing that helped me was creating a simple spreadsheet tracking what income belonged to mom personally (up to date of death) versus what the estate earned afterward. For the $600 threshold on Form 1041 - that's GROSS income, not net. So even if your estate account doesn't earn interest, if there are any other income sources (like final dividend payments that came in after death, or rent from the house if anyone's living there), those count toward the $600. Also, since you mentioned the house hasn't sold yet - if you're paying property taxes, insurance, or utilities on it from estate funds, keep good records. Those are deductible expenses on the 1041 if you do end up having to file. The good news is it sounds like you've handled the beneficiary designations correctly, which is where a lot of people mess up. Just make sure you have documentation of the date-of-death values for everything, especially that house, before you sell it!

This has been such a comprehensive and helpful discussion! As someone who's also been dollar cost averaging into Bitcoin ETFs (IBIT and FBTC) through my Roth IRA throughout 2024, I was experiencing the exact same confusion about the digital assets question. After reading through all the detailed responses and research shared here, I'm now confident that the answer is "No" for Bitcoin ETF investments in retirement accounts. The key distinction that really clarified it for me is that we're purchasing shares of SEC-registered investment companies that happen to track Bitcoin's value - we're not directly acquiring, controlling, or transacting with Bitcoin itself. What I found particularly helpful was understanding that the IRS question was designed to capture direct cryptocurrency activities like mining, staking rewards, receiving crypto as payment, or trading on exchanges like Coinbase. The massive adoption of Bitcoin ETFs by traditional investors through standard brokerage accounts wasn't what the IRS had in mind when they crafted this question. I also appreciate everyone who went the extra mile to get confirmations from CPAs, IRS agents, and major brokerages like Fidelity. When multiple independent verification methods all reach the same conclusion, it really gives confidence that we're interpreting this correctly. The timing is definitely unfortunate - Bitcoin ETFs become available and popular right as we're filing taxes with this broadly-worded question. Hopefully the IRS will provide clearer guidance next year to distinguish between direct crypto activities and traditional ETF investing. Until then, this community discussion has been invaluable for navigating this confusion!

This entire discussion has been incredibly helpful! I was in the exact same situation - regularly contributing to Bitcoin ETFs in my 401k and Roth IRA throughout 2024 and completely confused about how to answer that digital assets question. After reading through all the detailed explanations and confirmations everyone shared, I'm now confident the answer is "No" for Bitcoin ETF investments in retirement accounts. The key insight that clarified it for me is that we're buying shares of SEC-registered funds, not directly acquiring or controlling Bitcoin itself. What really drove it home was understanding that the IRS question targets direct cryptocurrency activities - mining, staking, receiving crypto payments, trading on exchanges. When I invest in IBIT or FBTC through my retirement accounts, I'm just purchasing shares of investment companies through normal brokerage channels, the same as buying any other ETF. The fund managers handle all the actual Bitcoin transactions - we're just passive shareholders getting exposure to Bitcoin's price movements without any of the complexity of actually owning cryptocurrency. No wallets, no private keys, no direct control over the underlying assets. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to verify this through multiple sources - CPAs, direct IRS contact, major brokerages. When you see that level of consensus across different verification methods, it gives real confidence in the interpretation. The timing was definitely confusing with Bitcoin ETFs becoming popular right as we're filing taxes with this broadly-worded question, but this community discussion has been invaluable for clearing up the confusion!