10 Does this apply even if the business didn't make any profit? My brother put me as a 10% owner in his LLC but they operated at a loss last year. Do I still need to file something?

22 Yes, you absolutely need to file even if the business operated at a loss. In fact, reporting business losses on your K-1 can potentially reduce your overall taxable income from other sources. When you receive a K-1 showing losses, those losses may be deductible against your other income (subject to certain limitations like passive activity rules and basis limitations). This could lower your overall tax burden. But regardless of profit or loss, you must report the K-1 information on your personal return because the IRS receives this information from the business entity and expects to see it reflected on your return.

8 Omg phantom income is the WORST! My husband and I got hit with a huge tax bill from his 30% ownership in an LLC that reinvested all the profits back into the business. We had to pay taxes on money we never actually received! 😡 Make sure you look at your operating agreement to see if it requires tax distributions to cover these situations.

I actually did ask HR about this last week after reading some of these comments. They said they're "looking into implementing a pretax transportation program" but don't currently have one. Apparently several other employees have been asking about it too. Did your hospital make you fill out any specific forms to set up the pretax deduction?

Yes, we had to fill out a simple form that authorized the pretax deduction. It was basically just stating that you wanted to participate in the program and acknowledging the monthly amount that would be deducted. Our HR department also mentioned that it took them about 3-4 months to implement the program after they decided to do it, so you might want to follow up periodically. The more employees who ask about it, the more likely they are to prioritize setting it up. We actually started a petition that got over 200 signatures which seemed to finally get management's attention.

This is actually great advice. I switched from driving to taking the bus to my hospital job and not only do I save on parking, but I can use the transit time to relax instead of dealing with traffic. My hospital subsidizes our transit passes too.

Does FreeTaxUSA handle more complicated situations like investment income, crypto, and self-employment without the surprise fees? I've got a mix of W-2 and 1099 income plus some stock trades.

Yes, FreeTaxUSA handles all those situations for free federal filing - W-2s, 1099s (including self-employment), investment income, crypto transactions, rental properties, etc. The only federal charge they have is if you want audit assistance ($7.99). Their business model is completely different from TurboTax. They make their money primarily on state returns ($15 each) rather than upselling you on federal features you may not need. The interface isn't quite as polished as TurboTax, but it's still very user-friendly and gets the job done correctly.

Is Cash App Taxes actually reliable though? I'm worried about using something free and then getting audited because it missed something important. I hate TurboTax's fees but at least I feel confident my taxes are done right.

What about the wash sale adjustments? Robinhood marks those with a W code, right? Do those affect whether something is reported as gross or net?

Wash sale adjustments don't affect whether proceeds are reported as gross or net - they're completely separate concepts. Wash sale adjustments (marked with code W) affect your cost basis when you sell a security at a loss and then repurchase the same or substantially identical security within 30 days before or after the sale. The gross vs. net distinction only refers to whether commissions and fees are included in the reported proceeds amount. Since Robinhood doesn't charge commissions on regular trades, there's no practical difference between gross and net for most Robinhood transactions. All their 1099-Bs are reported as net proceeds to the IRS, which is what you should select when entering the information.

That's a really good point. I'm on F1 from Brazil and my investment gains were taxed differently because of our tax treaty. Sprintax should handle this automatically but it's worth double-checking.

How did you decide on your niche? I'm still trying to figure out what area I might want to focus on. Did you just follow what interested you, or was it more about what clients you already had?

I looked at the intersection of three things: what I found intellectually interesting, what clients were in our geographical area (lots of real estate investors), and what was profitable. You don't want to choose a niche that's so narrow you can't build a client base. I started by simply taking on more real estate clients and studying that area more deeply. I joined real estate investment groups in my city to network and learn the industry language. The more I understood their business challenges, the better tax advisor I became. Over time, I naturally started attracting more similar clients as my reputation grew.

Check out the practice management CPE from Thomson Reuters. They have some excellent practical courses on workflow efficiency and client management that go beyond just tax code updates. I also really liked the case study courses from the AICPA.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely look into those Thomson Reuters courses. The workflow efficiency ones sound especially helpful since that's where I'm struggling most.