One thing nobody's mentioned - check with your insurance company BEFORE you do this! When my brother bought a car for me in Colorado while I lived in Illinois, there was a gap where neither of our insurance policies wanted to cover it during the drive back. My insurance wouldn't cover it until it was registered in Illinois, his insurance wouldn't cover it because he wasn't the owner, and we ended up having to get expensive temporary transit insurance for the drive home. Also make sure you understand how you'll get the car from Nevada to Minnesota. Will you fly out to drive it back? Will she drive it to you? Each option has different insurance implications.

Great question about the insurance coverage! Yes, most major insurance companies are familiar with this situation and have specific solutions. You'll want to ask your agent about a "binder" or "temporary coverage" policy that covers the vehicle from the moment of purchase until you get it registered in Minnesota. Some insurers can extend your existing policy to cover a newly purchased vehicle for a limited time (usually 30 days), but you need to notify them within a certain timeframe after purchase - often within 14 days. Others will issue a separate temporary policy specifically for the transit period. The key is calling them BEFORE you purchase to set this up. Have your VIN ready when you call (the dealer should be able to provide this before finalizing the sale). Also make sure the coverage includes comprehensive and collision, not just liability, since you'll be driving an expensive new vehicle across multiple states. One more tip: if you're flying out to get the car, consider having your sister add it to her policy temporarily as a backup, just in case there are any delays or complications with your own coverage. Better to have redundant coverage than none at all!

Wait im confused. I've been selling on Etsy for years and never worried about this. I just report whatever is on my 1099k. Are you guys saying im doing it wrong??? Now im stressing that I've been doing my taxes incorrectly this whole time!

As someone who's been dealing with this exact issue across multiple platforms (eBay, Etsy, Amazon), I can confirm this timing difference is incredibly frustrating. What helped me was creating a simple reconciliation spreadsheet that tracks three columns: 1) Sale date, 2) Payment received date, and 3) Platform payout date. This way I can easily see which sales fall into different tax years based on when funds were actually available. I decided to stick with cash basis accounting to match my 1099-Ks, even though it means some December sales don't show up as income until the following year when the platforms release the funds. The key thing I learned is that consistency matters more than which method you choose. Pick either cash or accrual and stick with it year after year. I keep detailed notes in my records explaining any timing differences, which gives me peace of mind if I ever need to explain the numbers to the IRS. For what it's worth, my CPA told me that most small online sellers use cash basis specifically because it eliminates this headache. The platforms are essentially acting as your payment processor, so treating income as received when they release it makes perfect sense from an accounting standpoint.

I'm in a similar situation - just completed my ID.me verification a few days ago and got the same "up to 9 weeks" message. Reading through everyone's experiences here, it sounds like the timeline really varies depending on your specific case. From what I'm gathering, if it was just a random identity verification (which sounds like it might be your case since they didn't specify why), you're probably looking at 3-6 weeks rather than the full 9. The people mentioning longer waits seem to have had additional complications like fraud flags or manual reviews. I'm definitely going to follow the advice about checking transcripts instead of relying on Where's My Refund - seems like that's where the real information is. And I'll probably set up that IP PIN they mentioned just for future protection, even though it won't speed up this current return. Thanks for posting this - it's helpful to see I'm not alone in this waiting game! Fingers crossed we both get our refunds sooner rather than later.

I just went through the ID.me verification process last month and wanted to share my timeline to give you hope! I completed verification on September 15th and got my refund deposited on October 8th - so about 3.5 weeks total. Like others have mentioned, the transcript is definitely your friend during this waiting period. I saw movement on my transcript about 10 days after verification with some processing codes, and then the 846 refund code appeared about a week before I actually got the deposit. One thing I noticed is that the IRS seems to process verified returns in batches, so timing can depend on when your return hits their queue. Since you filed in April originally, your return is probably already in their system and just needs to go through the post-verification processing steps. The IP PIN is definitely worth getting - it's free and will save you potential headaches next year. I set mine up right after I got my refund and it was super easy. Hang in there! The 9 week timeline is their conservative estimate, but most people I know who had straightforward verification situations got their refunds in 3-6 weeks.

Another option for your FAFSA situation - if your parents absolutely cannot file their taxes in time, you can file the FAFSA as a "provisional independent student" in certain circumstances. This is rare but possible if you can document that you have no contact with your parents or there are other extreme circumstances. You'd need to work directly with your school's financial aid office and provide documentation. It's not easy to qualify for this, but worth asking about if your parents' tax situation won't be resolved soon.

Just to add some clarity on the dependent vs independent status: The key tests for dependency include whether your parents provide more than half your support, whether you're a full-time student under 24, and whether you live with them (temporarily living away for school still counts as living with them). Each tax year stands alone. So you absolutely can be independent in 2023 and dependent in 2024 if your circumstances changed. The IRS only cares about the facts for each specific tax year.

Did you claim any pandemic credits? Those are taking forever to process rn

The 846 code dated 03-13-2024 means your refund was officially issued on that date, but it can take 5-10 business days to actually hit your account depending on your bank. The 766/768 credits dated 04-15 are just IRS accounting entries - they don't affect when you get your money. Since it's been a while since 03-13, I'd definitely call your bank first to see if they received and processed a deposit from "IRS TREAS". Sometimes banks hold IRS deposits for verification or there could have been an issue with your account info. If your bank says no deposit was attempted, then call the IRS refund hotline at 1-800-829-1954. Your transcript looks normal otherwise - the processing date of 03-25 and all the codes check out for a standard EIC refund. Hang in there! 🤞