whatever u do DO NOT IGNORE THE LEVY!!! i did that and ended up homeless for 3 months when they took my whole paycheck. call the irs ASAP and explain ur situation. they can do hardship stuff if ur gonna lose housing. installment plans aren't that bad - i pay like $175/month on what i owed and they stopped the levy when i set it up. the ppl on the phone r actually kinda nice if ur honest with them.

First, take a deep breath - you DO have options and the IRS doesn't want to make you homeless. Call them immediately at 1-800-829-1040 and explain your hardship situation. Be honest about how the levy will affect your housing and employment. Based on your income situation, you'll likely qualify for one of these solutions: 1. **Economic Hardship Release** - Request immediate levy release since you can't afford basic living expenses. They can often process this within days. 2. **Currently Not Collectible (CNC) Status** - If your necessary living expenses exceed your income, they'll temporarily stop collection actions. 3. **Installment Agreement** - Set up affordable monthly payments (could be as low as $25-50/month based on your financial situation). Before you call, gather documentation of your monthly expenses: rent, utilities, transportation, food, and medical costs. Fill out Form 433-F (Collection Information Statement) which shows your complete financial picture. The key is acting NOW - don't wait another day. The IRS agents are actually pretty reasonable when you're upfront about genuine hardship. They'd rather have you employed and housed making small payments than unemployed making no payments. You can get through this!

If you filed with earned income tax credit or child tax credit, those returns automatically get extra scrutiny and take longer to process. The IRS is trying to cut down on fraudulent claims of these credits, but in the process, they're making honest taxpayers wait forever.

I totally feel your frustration - the waiting game with the IRS is absolutely maddening, especially when you're dealing with financial stress. Based on what you've described and the transcript codes you mentioned (570 and 971 from June 22), it sounds like your return is definitely under review in their Error Resolution Department. Here's what I'd recommend doing immediately: 1. Call the Taxpayer Advocate Service at 1-877-777-4778 since you mentioned this is causing financial hardship with moving expenses and bills piling up. They can sometimes expedite cases when there's genuine hardship. 2. When you call the IRS again, specifically ask about the notice dated June 22 that shows as code 971 on your transcript. Even if you didn't receive it, they should be able to tell you what it said and potentially email or fax you a copy. 3. Since you have EITC and multiple income sources (W-2s + unemployment), your return likely got flagged for income verification. This is super common but unfortunately adds weeks to processing time. The silver lining is that once they resolve whatever they're reviewing, you should see your refund released pretty quickly. And if they've held it longer than 45 days past the filing deadline, you'll get interest added to your refund amount. Hang in there - I know it's incredibly stressful when it's your money they're sitting on!

Just a heads up - don't forget about the self-employment tax deduction! You can deduct half of your self-employment tax on your 1040. A lot of new contractors miss this. Also, track ALL your business expenses - internet, cell phone (% used for business), home office if you have a dedicated space, mileage for any client meetings, software subscriptions, etc. These can significantly reduce your taxable income.

As someone who just went through this exact situation last year, I'd recommend starting with the safe harbor rule to avoid any penalties. If you paid at least 100% of last year's total tax liability through withholdings and estimated payments (or 110% if your previous year's AGI was over $150k), you won't owe any underpayment penalties regardless of what you owe this year. For your quarterly payments, I'd suggest calculating based on your actual income each quarter rather than trying to predict the whole year upfront. Since your freelance work is unpredictable, this gives you more flexibility. Also, don't forget to factor in business deductions! As a graphic designer, you can likely deduct software subscriptions (Adobe Creative Suite, etc.), equipment, a portion of your home internet, and any other legitimate business expenses. These can significantly reduce your taxable contracting income. One more tip - keep detailed records of everything from day one. I learned this the hard way and spent way too much time at tax season trying to reconstruct my expenses from bank statements and random receipts!

Anybody know if solar panels on rental properties have the same recapture issues? I just installed a $28k system on my rental and I'm getting conflicting info about whether it's 5-year depreciation or 27.5 years like the house itself.

You're definitely not alone in feeling confused about this - depreciation recapture is one of the most misunderstood aspects of rental property investing. The key insight that helped me was realizing that even with recapture, you're essentially getting an interest-free loan from the government through the tax savings. Think about it this way: if you're in a 22% tax bracket and claim $3,636 in depreciation annually on a $100k building ($100k ÷ 27.5 years), you save about $800 in taxes each year. Over 10 years, that's $8,000 in tax savings you can invest or use to improve cash flow. When you eventually sell and face recapture at 25%, you'll pay back $9,090 (25% of $36,360 in total depreciation claimed). But you've had the use of that $8,000 for years - and if you invested those savings, they could have grown significantly. The "forced depreciation" rule others mentioned is crucial - the IRS will assume you took the depreciation whether you claimed it or not, so there's really no benefit to skipping it. You might as well take the tax savings now and deal with recapture later when you have more options (1031 exchange, installment sales, etc.).

This is a known issue with several state tax processing systems this year. Compared to the federal system, many states have significantly older infrastructure that doesn't handle date calculations properly. In most cases I've analyzed, these extreme future dates are placeholder values that appear when the system flags something but doesn't assign a proper review date. While it's concerning to see, the actual resolution typically happens within 60-90 days, not 19 months. Keep monitoring your status weekly rather than daily to avoid unnecessary stress.

I experienced something very similar last month! My state return showed "Under Review - Estimated Completion: October 2025" and I was absolutely terrified. After reading through these responses and doing some research, I called my state's taxpayer services line (took about 2 hours on hold, but worth it). The representative confirmed it was indeed a system glitch - apparently their new software update in early March caused date calculation errors for returns flagged for routine verification. She manually updated my status and I received my refund within 3 weeks. Pro tip: when you call, have your SSN, filing date, and the exact error message ready - it helps them locate and fix the issue faster. Don't panic like I did - these astronomical timeframes are almost never real!