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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.
Thanks for this info! Would my situation qualify though? I do have contact with my parents (I live with them now), they just haven't filed taxes. Would that be considered an "extreme circumstance"?
Unfortunately, parents not filing taxes doesn't usually qualify as an extreme circumstance for FAFSA independence. Extreme circumstances typically include things like documented abuse, incarceration of parents, or complete abandonment. In your case, since you have contact with your parents and they're willing to file (just behind), your best option is probably to work with your financial aid office on a professional judgment review. They can sometimes accept alternative documentation of your parents' income (like W-2s or pay stubs) while they work on getting their tax returns filed.
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.
Does income matter too? I thought if you make over a certain amount you can't be claimed as dependent even if your parents support you?
Yes, income does matter! For 2024, if you're a qualifying child (under 24, full-time student, living with parents more than half the year), your gross income must be less than $5,050 to be claimed as a dependent. If you make more than that, your parents can't claim you even if they provide all your support. Since you mentioned you're only working very limited hours now, you'll probably be under that threshold. But it's definitely something to keep track of as you plan for the year.
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! š¤
check if ur bank info was entered correctly on the return. Had similar situation last year and turned out I typed one number wrong in my account number smh
double checked and its all correct. guess ill just keep waiting
Don't panic yet! March 13th was only about a week ago, and refunds can take up to 21 days to hit your account even after the 846 code shows. Banks sometimes hold deposits for a few extra days too, especially larger amounts. Since you've already confirmed your bank info is correct, I'd give it another week before getting worried. The IRS systems have been running slower this year with all the processing changes. Your transcript looks normal - that 846 code on 3/13 is definitely your refund being sent out. If nothing shows up by March 27th (2 weeks from issue date), then definitely call the IRS refund hotline at 1-800-829-1954. But honestly, I bet it'll show up in the next few days! š¤
Make sure you also consider depreciation recapture down the road! When you're deducting depreciation on the rental portion of your house (which you should definitely do), remember that when you eventually sell the house, you'll face depreciation recapture taxes on the portion you depreciated. For example, if you depreciate 30% of your house for rental use over several years, when you sell, you'll need to recapture that depreciation at a 25% tax rate, even if you qualify for the primary residence capital gains exclusion on the rest of the profit.
That's an important point about depreciation. Does anyone know if you can choose NOT to take depreciation to avoid this recapture issue later? I'm planning to sell my house in a few years and wondering if I should just skip claiming depreciation on the rental portion.
You technically can choose not to claim depreciation, but the IRS will still require you to recapture depreciation when you sell - whether you actually took it or not! This is called "depreciation allowed or allowable." So even if you skip claiming it to avoid the hassle, you'll still face the recapture tax but miss out on the current tax benefits. It's generally better to take the depreciation deduction while you can and plan for the recapture later, especially since you're getting tax savings now at potentially higher ordinary income rates versus the 25% recapture rate later.
Great question! I've been dealing with this exact situation for the past few years. One thing I'd add to the excellent advice already given is to be really careful about how you calculate your allocation percentage. The IRS prefers methods that reflect actual usage rather than just simple room counts. I learned this the hard way during an audit. Initially, I was using 2/3 (like you mentioned) since I rented 2 out of 3 bedrooms. But the IRS agent pointed out that this didn't account for shared spaces properly. We ended up using square footage of rented bedrooms plus a proportional share of common areas (kitchen, living room, bathrooms) based on occupancy. Also, keep detailed records of everything - not just the big expenses like mortgage interest, but smaller items too. I track cleaning supplies for common areas, repairs that benefit the rental portions, even a portion of my internet bill since my tenants use the WiFi. These smaller deductions really add up over the year. One last tip: consider getting a separate business checking account for rental-related expenses. It makes tracking so much easier come tax time, and the IRS loves clear separation between personal and business expenses.
This is incredibly helpful, thank you! I'm just getting started with this and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the record-keeping requirements. When you mention tracking cleaning supplies and internet bills - do you literally save every receipt for things like paper towels and toilet paper? And for the internet, do you just estimate what percentage your tenants use or is there a more systematic way to calculate that? I want to make sure I'm doing this right from the beginning rather than trying to reconstruct everything later.
Haley Bennett
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.
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Giovanni Rossi
ā¢Welcome to the waiting club! š I'm glad this thread has been helpful - it's definitely reassuring to know we're not dealing with this alone. The transcript checking tip seems to be the most consistent advice I'm seeing here too. From all the responses, it really does seem like the 9 weeks is more of a worst-case scenario they give you so you're not constantly calling them. Your situation sounds similar to mine (random verification, no specific reason given), so hopefully we'll both be in that 3-6 week range everyone's talking about. Good call on the IP PIN - even if it doesn't help this time around, sounds like it'll save headaches for future tax seasons. Thanks for sharing your experience too, and here's hoping our refunds come through sooner rather than later! š¤
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CosmicCruiser
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.
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