Something nobody's mentioning - if you regularly drive far distances specifically to run these errands, you might actually be able to deduct mileage! Not as a business expense, but you could potentially classify it as charitable miles if you're helping elderly or disabled folks. Worth looking into.

This is a great question that comes up more often than you'd think! You're handling this correctly from a tax perspective. Since you're acting as an agent for your family and friends - essentially just facilitating their purchases without any markup or service fee - the money they give you isn't considered taxable income to you. The key factors that make this not taxable are: 1) You're not charging any fees or keeping any profit, 2) You return exact change, and 3) You're acting as their purchasing agent rather than selling goods or services. The credit card rewards you earn are also not taxable since they're considered rebates on your purchases. Just keep good records of these transactions (receipts showing you spent what they gave you) in case there are ever any questions. But you're definitely not required to report this money as income on your tax return.

Just to add to what everyone's saying - even if you only worked 3 weeks, if you received ANY pay, it counts as taxable income for 2024. The IRS matches up employer reports with your tax return, so they'll definitely notice if something's missing. Better to report everything upfront than deal with notices later. If you haven't received the W-2 by early February, you can file Form 4852 as a substitute, but try contacting your old employer first.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice! I'm definitely going to wait for the W-2 from my short-term job and report all income. Better safe than sorry with the IRS. Really appreciate all the responses - this community is awesome for getting real answers about tax stuff 👍

You might want to double check your state tax withholding too! I fixed my federal but completely forgot about state taxes and got hit with a separate penalty from my state tax agency. Some states are really aggressive about the underpayment penalties.

Don't panic - this is actually pretty common with new jobs! The most likely culprit is how you filled out your W-4. Even small mistakes can result in zero federal withholding. Here's what I'd recommend doing immediately: 1. Contact your HR/payroll department and ask to see the W-4 you submitted. Look specifically at line 4(c) - if you accidentally put a large number there thinking it was for dependents, that could explain the zero withholding. 2. Use the IRS Withholding Calculator on their website (it's free) to figure out exactly what your W-4 should look like based on your income and filing status. 3. Submit a corrected W-4 ASAP. Your employer is required to implement changes by the next payroll period. Since you're catching this early in the year, you should be fine on penalties as long as you fix it soon. The IRS generally doesn't penalize you if you pay at least 90% of your current year tax liability or 100% of last year's (110% if your prior year AGI was over $150k). If you're still worried about owing too much, you can always specify additional withholding on line 4(c) of your new W-4 to be extra safe. Better to get a refund than owe a big chunk in April!

I just wanted to share another potential solution that worked for me after trying several of the methods mentioned here. I was having the same registration issues and while waiting to hear back from my local VITA coordinator, I tried accessing the registration page through the IRS's main Volunteer page instead of going directly to the Link & Learn portal. From the main IRS.gov homepage, I searched for "volunteer income tax assistance" and clicked on the official VITA page. From there, there's a "Become a Volunteer" section that has a different registration link than what's usually shared in emails or other resources. This alternate path took me to a working registration form where I was able to create my account successfully. It might be worth trying this route before going through third-party services or waiting for coordinator callbacks. The training materials look current from what I can see so far, though I'm still working through the basic modules. Hope this helps someone else who's stuck!

Thank you everyone for all these helpful suggestions! As someone who's been trying to register for VITA training for over a month now, this thread has been incredibly valuable. I've tried the standard registration link multiple times with no success, so I'm going to work through these solutions systematically. First, I'll try @Demi Lagos's suggestion about going through the main IRS volunteer page since that seems like the most straightforward approach. If that doesn't work, I'll reach out to my local VITA site coordinator using the locator tool that @Ethan Brown mentioned. It's really reassuring to know that this is a widespread issue and not just something wrong with my setup. The fact that so many people have found workarounds gives me hope that I'll be able to get registered soon. I'm determined to get certified before the 2025 tax season starts - our community really needs more volunteers to help with free tax preparation. I'll report back once I successfully get through the registration process to let others know which method worked for me. Thanks again for creating such a helpful resource thread!

This is exactly why I always recommend keeping detailed records of all your pay stubs throughout the year! When errors like this happen, having your actual paystubs makes it so much easier to prove what income you really received and in what categories. Since you've identified that it's likely your performance bonus and holiday shift pay that got miscoded, gather those specific pay stubs before you contact HR. Show them exactly which payments got incorrectly categorized as tips instead of regular wages. This documentation will help them process the W2-c correction much faster and ensure they don't accidentally drop that income entirely when fixing the error. Also, once you get the corrected W2, definitely double-check that your total Box 1 wages increased by the same $2,600 that gets removed from Box 7. The income shouldn't disappear - it should just move to the correct box!

Definitely keep both digital AND physical copies if possible! I learned this the hard way when my company switched payroll systems mid-year and I lost access to the old portal. Now I download and save PDF copies to my personal Google Drive immediately when each pay stub is available, plus I print out the important ones (like bonuses, overtime periods, or anything unusual). For your current situation, if you still have access to your company portal, go download those specific pay stubs from when you received the performance bonus and holiday pay right now before you contact HR. Having that documentation will make the W2 correction process so much smoother. Most HR departments appreciate when you come to them with the specific dates and amounts rather than just saying "something's wrong with my W2." Also, create a simple spreadsheet tracking your year-to-date totals from each pay stub - it takes 5 minutes per paycheck but saves hours when tax issues like this come up!