I used H&R Block last year with an HSA and they also required an upgrade to their Deluxe version which was around $55 for federal. Not as bad as TaxAct apparently, but still an upsell from their basic/free version.

Thanks for letting me know about the H&R Block pricing. $55 is still better than $110 but more than I want to pay just for one extra form. Might try FreeTaxUSA or one of the other options mentioned here since my tax situation is pretty simple besides the HSA.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I'm going to try FreeTaxUSA since so many of you recommended it. Can't believe these companies get away with charging $50+ just to file a simple HSA form. Will report back if I run into any other issues!

Thanks for mentioning the non-refundable aspect - that's really important! My AGI is around $65k so sounds like I'm okay on the income limits. Do you happen to know if I can claim this credit if I already used some tuition reimbursement from my employer? My company covered about $500 of the $1,800 course.

You're definitely under the income limits at $65k, so no problem there! For the employer reimbursement, you can only claim the Lifetime Learning credit on expenses you actually paid yourself, not expenses reimbursed by your employer. So in your case, you could only claim the credit on $1,300 of your tuition ($1,800 minus the $500 your employer paid). Make sure you reduce your qualified expenses by the amount of tax-free educational assistance you received.

Good point! Not all states offer education credits though. I'm in Florida and we don't have state income tax at all. Does anyone know which states specifically offer education credits similar to the Lifetime Learning credit?

Is the $600 limit per person or per return? Like if I'm married filing jointly, do we get $1,200 total or still just $600?

The limit is per tax return for single filers, but for married filing jointly, it's per person. So for 2021 (which had the $300 per person limit), a married couple filing jointly could claim up to $600 total on line 10-B if taking the standard deduction. The exact limits have changed over the years as this was a temporary provision, so always check the current year's instructions. The most important thing is that this special deduction on line 10-B is ONLY for people taking the standard deduction. If you itemize, you'll include all charitable contributions on Schedule A instead.

TurboTax is correct - you can't do both. It's either all on Schedule A (if you're itemizing) OR up to $600 on line 10-B (if taking the standard deduction). Your accountant friend might be confusing this with some other deduction rules.

11 Did you have to do the worksheet thing every time you got paid? Or is it just once when you fill out the W4?

4 You only need to do the worksheet once when you initially fill out the W4. The calculations help you determine an extra amount to have withheld from each paycheck, which you'll put on line 4(c) of the form. Your employer then automatically withholds that additional amount along with your regular withholding from each paycheck. When your situation changes (like when your wife starts working in April), you'll want to complete a new W4 with new calculations. But day-to-day or paycheck-to-paycheck, there's nothing additional you need to do once the form is submitted to your employer.

13 For real! I've been doing my taxes for 20 years and the new W4 confused the heck out of me the first time I saw it. What happened to just putting "0" or "1" for allowances? That was way more straightforward.

Thanks for bringing up Section 731(a)! The distribution amount is actually less than their basis, so I think we're ok there. But can you explain more about these "hot assets" you mentioned? I'm not familiar with Section 751 in this context.

Section 751 "hot assets" refer to unrealized receivables and substantially appreciated inventory. When a partnership distributes cash or property, you need to determine if any portion is attributable to these hot assets. The significance is that distributions attributable to hot assets are treated as ordinary income rather than capital gain, even if the distribution exceeds basis. This prevents converting what would be ordinary income into capital gain. In a partnership-to-partnership scenario, this analysis needs to be done at both partnership levels, which gets complex quickly.

Carried interest typically applies to investment fund managers, not regular partnerships investing in other partnerships. Unless OP's client is a fund manager receiving carried interest as compensation, it's probably not relevant here.