Has anyone had issues with property taxes being reported incorrectly on these 1098 forms after a loan transfer? My new servicer didn't report any of the property taxes paid through escrow, but the old one did. Trying to figure out if I need to get a corrected form.

This is exactly the situation I found myself in last year! The stress of trying to figure out which numbers to use was keeping me up at night. What really helped me was creating a simple spreadsheet where I listed every mortgage payment I made throughout the year with the dates and amounts, then compared that to what each 1098 form was reporting. I discovered that my original lender was including some fees in their interest calculation that weren't actually deductible interest, while my new servicer had the cleaner numbers. The key is to focus on what you actually paid in mortgage interest, not necessarily what the forms say if there are discrepancies. Also, don't stress too much about triggering an audit - mortgage interest reporting issues are super common and the IRS sees this all the time. As long as you're being honest about what you actually paid and can document it, you'll be fine. Keep copies of all your payment records and mortgage statements just in case you need them later!

Does anyone know if this credit phases out completely at certain income levels? My wife and I both contribute to Roth IRAs but our combined income is around $70k.

Just want to add that you should also make sure you have your Form 5498 from Vanguard when you file. This form shows your IRA contributions for the year and the IRS uses it to verify your eligibility for the Saver's Credit. Vanguard usually mails these out by May 31st for the previous tax year, but you don't need to wait for it to file your return since you know how much you contributed. Also, keep in mind that only the contributions you made during the 2024 tax year count toward the 2024 credit. So if you contributed $5,700 in 2024, that's what you'd use for Form 8880. The $3,100 you contributed back in 2022 would have been eligible for the 2022 credit if your income qualified that year. It's really great that FreeTaxUSA caught this for you - a lot of people miss out on this credit simply because they don't know it exists!

I'd recommend filing a report with your state's Department of Labor too. If they're reporting wages they didn't pay you, that's a serious issue. The DOL might light a fire under the company to fix this faster than you can on your own.

This is definitely a frustrating situation, but you have several good options to resolve it. Based on what you've described, it sounds like a clear payroll error since you have documentation that you stopped working in November. Here's what I'd recommend doing immediately: 1. **Document everything** - Keep all your communication attempts with the company, your final paystub from November, and any employment termination paperwork you have. 2. **Don't wait indefinitely** - You can file your taxes on time using Form 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2) if the company won't respond. Since you know you didn't work during that period, you can accurately report zero income for those dates. 3. **Try the certified letter approach** mentioned earlier, but also consider escalating to their corporate office if it's a larger company. 4. **Contact the IRS directly** - Call their business and specialty tax line at 800-829-4933 to report the incorrect W-2. They can guide you through the process and may contact the employer on your behalf. The key thing is not to let this delay your tax filing. You have legitimate recourse options, and the IRS deals with these situations regularly. If you end up needing to file an amended return later, that's totally manageable - it's better than missing the deadline while waiting for an unresponsive employer.

Just a heads-up based on personal experience: be VERY careful with your record keeping if you're doing Roth corrections or backdoor contributions. I messed up my basis tracking over multiple years and got hit with a CP2000 notice claiming I owed taxes on conversions that should have been tax-free. It took me months to untangle everything because I didn't have proper documentation for which contributions had been withdrawn as excess vs. which ones were converted properly. Make sure you keep ALL your 5498 and 1099-R forms indefinitely!

Based on your description, it sounds like you handled the excess contribution removal correctly by withdrawing before the filing deadline, which should have avoided the 6% penalty. However, there are a couple of areas that need attention: Your basis calculation is indeed incorrect. Since you withdrew the entire 2023 contribution of $1,500, that amount should NOT be included in your ongoing basis. Your basis should only reflect contributions that remain in the account - so for 2024, it should just be $7,000 (assuming you're eligible for the 2024 contribution). You should have received a 1099-R for the 2024 withdrawal showing the $1,530 distribution. The $1,500 principal portion isn't taxable since it was a return of excess contributions, but the $30 in earnings should be reported as taxable income on your 2024 return. If you're under 59½, those earnings are also subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty. Make sure your IRA provider coded the 1099-R correctly - it should show code P or JP in box 7 to indicate "return of excess contributions." This helps the IRS understand the nature of the distribution. For 2024, double-check that your income still qualifies you for the $7,000 Roth contribution. If you're over the limit again, you'll want to address this before the filing deadline to avoid repeating the same issue. You likely don't need to amend your 2023 return if you properly reported the excess on Form 5329, but you should verify that your 2024 return correctly reports the earnings portion of the withdrawal as taxable income.

As someone who went through this exact situation last year, I want to share what worked for me. I was overthinking it initially, but here's the simple approach I settled on: I tracked my phone usage for just one typical work week - Monday through Sunday. Each evening, I spent 2 minutes estimating what percentage of that day's phone time was business-related. I included calls, texts, emails, GPS for business travel, and any work-related app usage. My daily percentages ranged from about 20% (weekend days) to 65% (busy workdays), and when I averaged it out, I got 42%. I decided to round down to 40% to be conservative, and that's what I've been claiming. The key insight for me was realizing that I don't need scientific precision - I just need a reasonable method I can explain. I keep a simple note in my tax folder that says "Phone deduction: 40% based on one-week usage tracking in March 2024, averaged 42% but rounded down to be conservative." This approach gave me confidence in my deduction without making it a huge project. The one week of tracking was enough to establish a pattern, and being slightly conservative means I'm not worried about defending it if questioned.

I've been handling this issue for my freelance graphic design business, and I found a middle-ground approach that works well. Instead of detailed daily tracking, I used my phone's built-in screen time analytics to get objective data about my usage patterns. Most smartphones show weekly breakdowns of app usage time. I looked at my email apps, work messaging (Slack, Teams), business-related browsing, and calling apps during typical work weeks versus personal time. This gave me hard data showing roughly 55% of my phone time was work-related. What I really like about this method is that it's based on actual phone data rather than my potentially biased estimates of usage. The phone is already tracking everything automatically, so it's just a matter of categorizing the apps as business vs personal and doing some simple math. I've been claiming 50% (rounded down from my 55% calculation) for two years now and feel very confident about it. The documentation is just screenshots of my screen time analytics with my calculations, plus a brief note explaining my methodology. Takes maybe 15 minutes once a year to update, and it's all based on objective data the phone collected automatically.