Has anyone tried using a Certified Acceptance Agent instead of doing the W-7 application themselves? I'm considering this route because I don't want to mail my original passport to the IRS.

I went through this exact same confusion last year! The key thing to understand is that "effectively connected with U.S. trade or business" has a very specific meaning - it's not just about having a bank account in the US while you're here temporarily. For your situation, Exception 1(a) is almost certainly the right choice. Since your bank gave you a letter stating the account is subject to IRS information reporting, and you're just keeping savings there (not running a business), this falls under passive income reporting. Exception 1(b) would only apply if you were actually operating a business in the US and the bank account was directly related to that business activity. Just being temporarily in the US with a savings account doesn't qualify. I'd recommend going with Exception 1(a) and including your bank's letter as supporting documentation. The IRS is pretty clear that any interest-bearing account subject to their reporting requirements qualifies under this exception, regardless of how much interest you're actually earning.

I just want to point out that intentionally breaking up deposits to avoid reporting requirements (called "structuring") is actually illegal, even if the money is 100% legitimate. I've seen people mention this but want to emphasize it - depositing the full $4k at once is actually LESS suspicious than doing 4 separate $1k deposits.

I'm sorry for your loss. As others have mentioned, $4,000 is well below the $10,000 threshold for mandatory bank reporting to the IRS, so you should be fine depositing it all at once. One thing I'd add that might help ease your mind - keep a simple written record of what this money was for. Something like "Cash inheritance from Uncle [Name] - designated for funeral expenses, deposited [date] to pay credit card used for funeral costs." This isn't required for the bank, but it's good practice for your own records in case you ever need to reference it later. Also, while this cash won't trigger any IRS reporting, remember that inheritance itself generally isn't taxable income to you as the recipient - it's the estate that would handle any tax obligations. So even from a tax perspective, you're in the clear. Take care of yourself during this difficult time.

Before u switch make sure ur looking at the RIGHT prior year AGI. Its gotta be from the ACTUAL return u filed last year not what u put in turbotax this year

Check your 2023 tax return (the actual filed copy, not what's in TurboTax) for line 11 - that's your AGI from last year. The IRS is super picky about this matching exactly, down to the dollar. If you amended your 2023 return or there were any IRS adjustments after filing, you'd need to use the adjusted AGI amount instead. You can get your actual filed AGI from your tax transcript on the IRS website if you're not sure.

Just FYI for everyone here - the big social casino companies like Playtika and DoubleDown actually DO send 1099s if you win over $600 in a calendar year. I hit a jackpot in December and cashed out about $1,200 and got a tax form in January. So they're definitely reporting to the IRS for the bigger winners!

This is such a helpful thread! I've been playing social casino games for about two years and had no idea about the tax implications. I probably made around $400 last year from various apps but never thought to report it since I didn't get any tax forms. Reading through all these responses, it sounds like I need to go back and figure out exactly how much I made and report it as "Other Income" on my return. One question though - for those apps where you can only cash out to gift cards (not actual cash), does that still count as taxable income? I have probably another $200-300 in various gift cards I've redeemed from gaming apps over the year. Also, if I bought coin packages but never cashed anything out from a particular game, I assume there's no income to report from that one, right? Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this community is so much more helpful than trying to navigate the IRS website!

Has anyone tried just splitting the HSA contributions differently between spouses in OLT to get around this? Like instead of $4,250 and $900, maybe try entering it as $3,150 to the family HSA and $2,000 to the individual HSAs ($1,000 each)? OLT might be applying the catch-up contributions incorrectly when they're part of the family contribution, but might handle them correctly when entered as individual contributions.

I'm dealing with the exact same HSA calculation problem in OLT! My wife and I are both over 55 and had HDHP coverage for 8 months in 2024. OLT is completely ignoring our catch-up contributions and flagging legitimate contributions as excess. After reading through all these responses, I'm planning to try the redistribution approach first - entering our catch-up contributions as individual HSA contributions rather than family contributions to see if that tricks the software into calculating correctly. If that doesn't work, I'll definitely check out taxr.ai to get documentation of the correct calculation. It's frustrating that we have to work around these software bugs during tax season, but at least there seem to be several viable solutions here. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences!