One mistake I made last year - I only reported my net winnings from betting (winnings minus losses) instead of reporting the full 1099 amount as income and then deducting losses separately. Got a letter from the IRS a few months later! The system flags discrepancies between reported 1099 income and what you put on your return. Make sure you report the FULL 1099 amount on Schedule 1 as income, then deduct eligible losses on Schedule A if itemizing.

This is exactly the situation I found myself in last year! Here's what I learned from my tax preparer: You absolutely must report the full 1099 amounts from PrizePicks and Underdog as income - there's no way around that. The IRS gets copies of those 1099s and will expect to see that income on your return. For your losses from other sportsbooks, you can deduct them on Schedule A, but only up to the amount of your gambling winnings. So if you had $5,000 in 1099 winnings but $8,000 in total losses, you can only deduct $5,000 of those losses. The key decision is whether itemizing (to claim those losses) gives you a bigger deduction than taking the standard deduction. For 2023, the standard deduction was $13,850 for single filers. So unless your gambling losses plus other itemizable deductions (like mortgage interest, state taxes, charitable donations) exceed that amount, you're better off taking the standard deduction and just paying tax on the full 1099 income. Keep every record you can - screenshots, bank statements, anything that shows your betting activity. Even if you don't itemize this year, you might need those records later.

3 Does anyone know if the March 2 deadline applies to the 1095-B form too? My insurance is through my wife's employer but we get a B form instead of C for some reason.

Thanks for all this helpful info everyone! I'm a newcomer here but dealing with the same 1095-C issue. My employer's HR department has been giving me the runaround about when the form will be available, and I was getting really stressed about filing my taxes. Reading through this thread has been super reassuring - especially learning that the March 2nd deadline hasn't passed yet and that I can actually file without waiting for the form. I had no idea the federal penalty for not having coverage was eliminated, so I was worried about getting all the health insurance details perfect. I think I'm going to go ahead and file this weekend since I know I had employer coverage all year. Really appreciate this community sharing their experiences - saved me a lot of unnecessary worry and probably weeks of waiting for my refund!

idk if this helps but when I had this problem it was bc my birth certificate had my middle name spelled different than my ss card

Another thing to check - make sure you're using the exact same name format that appears on your W-2 forms. Sometimes employers use your old name on tax documents even after you've updated your info with them. If your W-2 shows your maiden name but you filed with your married name, that could cause the mismatch. You might need to file with your maiden name this year and update everything for next year's filing.

One thing no one's mentioned yet - are you making estimated quarterly tax payments? If not, some of that high "tax" might actually be penalties for underpayment throughout the year. The IRS expects self-employed people to pay taxes quarterly, not just at tax time. The first year I was self-employed I had NO idea about this and got hit with a bunch of penalties!

Looking at your numbers, that 40.5% rate is definitely combining your income tax and self-employment tax together. Here's what's likely happening: Your actual federal income tax on $23,285 should only be around 10-12% (roughly $2,300-2,800). The big shock is the self-employment tax - that's an additional 15.3% on your net business earnings of about $49,572, which comes to roughly $7,500. Combined, that gets you to your $9,430 total. The "blended rate" your software is showing includes both taxes, which is why it looks so scary high. This is totally normal for self-employed folks - we pay both the employee AND employer portions of Social Security/Medicare taxes. A few things that might help reduce this for next year: - Max out business deductions (home office, mileage, equipment, etc.) - Consider a SEP-IRA or Solo 401k to reduce taxable income - Make sure you're taking the QBI deduction if eligible - Start making quarterly estimated payments to avoid penalties The math checks out unfortunately - self-employment tax is just brutal when you're not used to it!

23 Have you checked if anything changed with your state taxes too? Sometimes people focus on federal refunds but miss big changes in their state return. My federal refund was similar to last year but my state refund dropped by like 80% because my state changed their standard deduction amounts.

Hey Josef! I totally get the confusion - tax refunds can be really counterintuitive when you're starting out. The key thing to remember is that your refund isn't based on how much you earned, but on how much was overpaid in taxes throughout the year. A few quick things to check: Did you claim the same number of allowances/dependents on your W-4 both years? Even small changes there can dramatically affect withholding. Also, with your income increase, you might have moved into a higher tax bracket for part of your income, which means you owe more in taxes overall. The good news is that a smaller refund often means you actually kept more of your money throughout the year in your paychecks! You can verify this by comparing your take-home pay from last year to this year. If you prefer getting a bigger refund, you can adjust your W-4 to have more taxes withheld next year.