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If I could give 10 stars I would
If I could give 10 stars I would If I could give 10 stars I would Such an amazing service so needed during the times when EDD almost never picks up Claimyr gets me on the phone with EDD every time without fail faster. A much needed service without Claimyr I would have never received the payment I needed to support me during my postpartum recovery. Thank you so much Claimyr!
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Really made a difference, save me time and energy from going to a local office for making the call.
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Was a bit nervous or untrusting at first, but my calls went thru. First time the wait was a bit long but their customer chat line on their page was helpful and put me at ease that I would receive my call. Today my call dropped because of EDD and Claimyr heard my concern on the same chat and another call was made within the hour.
An incredibly helpful service
An incredibly helpful service! Got me connected to a CA EDD agent without major hassle (outside of EDD's agents dropping calls ā which Claimyr has free protection for). If you need to file a new claim and can't do it online, pay the $ to Claimyr to get the process started. Absolutely worth it!
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Used this service a couple times now. Before I'd call 200 times in less than a weak frustrated as can be. But using claimyr with a couple hours of waiting i was on the line with an representative or on hold. Dropped a couple times but each reconnected not long after and was mission accomplished, thanks to Claimyr.
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I tried for weeks to get thru to EDD PFL program with no luck. I gave this a try thinking it may be a scam. OMG! It worked and They got thru within an hour and my claim is going to finally get paid!! I upgraded to the $60 call. Best $60 spent!
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Remember that LLC rules vary by state too! I'm in California where they charge an $800 annual franchise tax for LLCs regardless of whether you make money. Totally sucked my first year when I only made $15k but still had to pay that $800. Check your state's fees before deciding!
Emma Wilson
ā¢Dude, Texas has none of that garbage. No state income tax and LLC filing is like $300 one time. So many California business owners moving here for that reason.
QuantumLeap
Quick note about liability protection - an LLC only works if you actually treat it as separate from yourself. That means separate business bank accounts, not mixing personal and business expenses, proper contracts in LLC's name, etc. I've seen people get their "corporate veil pierced" in court because they treated their LLC like a personal piggy bank. The protection isn't automatic!
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Oliver Weber
Just to add a slightly different perspective - make sure you're considering the potential returns on that money too. If your investment is returning 8% but your loan interest is 6%, it might make sense to keep the loan and not pay it off early since you're net positive. But if the market turns and your investments start losing value while you're still paying (or accumulating) interest, that leverage works against you. I've been burned by this before when I had too much margin during a market downturn.
Ava Martinez
ā¢That's a really good point! My investment return has been about 11% annually while my loan interest is around 7%, so I've been ahead so far. But you're right about the risk - a market downturn could flip this equation quickly. Are there any strategies you use now to protect against that kind of scenario?
Oliver Weber
ā¢I maintain a much lower margin percentage now - never more than 20% of my total portfolio value. This gives me enough cushion to withstand even a severe market correction without facing a margin call. I also set up automatic alerts to notify me when my margin utilization crosses certain thresholds. This helps me stay proactive rather than reactive. And I keep a portion of my portfolio in less volatile investments that can provide stability during market turbulence - this has saved me several times when tech stocks took a nosedive.
Has anyone actually used Schedule A for investment interest deductions recently? With the standard deduction being so high now ($13,850 for singles in 2023), it seems like most people wouldn't itemize anyway, making this whole discussion moot for many investors.
NebulaNinja
ā¢Investment interest expense doesn't go on Schedule A anymore - it goes on Form 4952 and then the deductible amount transfers to Schedule A. But your point about the standard deduction is valid. For me, between state/local taxes, mortgage interest, and charitable contributions, I'm already itemizing, so investment interest deductions are definitely worthwhile. But if you're not already over the standard deduction threshold, you're right that this strategy might not matter much.
Thanks for the Form 4952 clarification - shows how long it's been since I've done this! I wasn't aware of the form change. You make a good point about already itemizing for other reasons. I forget that in high-tax states or with large mortgages, many people easily exceed the standard deduction. I'm in a no-income-tax state with a paid-off house, so I rarely have enough deductions to itemize anymore.
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Have you tried just manually filling out Form 8965 and attaching it to your return? I had a similar issue with TaxAct last year and ended up just downloading the form from the IRS website, filling it out by hand, and attaching it to my printed return. For 2018, you can use exemption code G for general hardship on Form 8965, Part III. You don't need an ECN - just enter the code and the months it applies to. If you're e-filing, you might need to try different tax software, but if you're mailing your return, this workaround definitely works.
Aaron Boston
ā¢Would I still use TurboTax to do the rest of my return and just attach this form separately? I'm a little worried about how that would work with e-filing. Has anyone successfully done that?
You'd still complete the rest of your return in TurboTax, but when it comes to filing, you'd need to print and mail the return instead of e-filing. Just print everything from TurboTax, then attach your manually completed Form 8965. The downside is you'd have to paper file, which means a slower refund if you're getting one. But it's better than paying a penalty you don't owe! Another option might be to check out FreeTaxUSA or another software that might have updated their systems correctly for the 2018 hardship exemption changes.
Kaitlyn Otto
Just to confirm what others have said - I was in the exact same situation for my 2018 taxes (unemployed most of the year). I ended up switching from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA which handled the hardship exemption correctly without asking for an ECN. It let me enter exemption code G directly on the equivalent of Form 8965 and calculated everything correctly. Might be worth trying if you don't want to paper file or deal with calling the IRS. Their deluxe version is also way cheaper than TurboTax if you still need to file.
Axel Far
ā¢Was it complicated to switch software mid-way through doing your taxes? Did you have to re-enter everything?
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Has anyone tried using a different tax filing service instead? I gave up on FFFF after two days of frustration and switched to FreeTaxUSA. Much more user-friendly and it caught all my errors before submission.
Ethan Scott
ā¢Does FreeTaxUSA still offer completely free federal filing? I thought they charged for state returns?
FreeTaxUSA does offer completely free federal filing for any tax situation, which is why I like it. You're right about state returns though - they do charge around $15 for those. For me it was worth paying that small amount to avoid the headaches I was having with FFFF. They also have a much better error checking system that tells you exactly what's wrong and where, rather than the vague error messages from FFFF. The interface is way more intuitive too.
Lola Perez
I had a similar issue and fixed it by signing out, clearing browser cache/cookies, and trying in a different browser (Chrome worked when Firefox didn't). Sometimes FFFF has browser compatibility issues that cause weird errors during submission. Worth trying before giving up!
Thanks for the tip! I was using Firefox and kept getting errors. Switched to Edge and it worked on the first try!
NebulaNomad
Something to check - did your benefits change at all during this transition? Sometimes when companies switch payroll systems, there are subtle changes to how pretax deductions are handled (like health insurance, 401k, HSA, etc). This can make a big difference in your taxable income and withholding. Also, if you live in a state with income tax, make sure both state and federal withholdings look correct. I've seen cases where the new system got federal right but completely messed up state withholding calculations.
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Ravi Choudhury
ā¢Thanks for the suggestion! My health insurance premium did actually increase slightly during this period, but the pretax deduction amount seems correct. I'll definitely double-check my state withholding though - I hadn't even thought to look at that separately! I'm in Minnesota, and now that you mention it, the state withholding does look a bit different on the new paystubs compared to federal. I'll compare the percentages to make sure everything adds up.
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Luca Ferrari
Has anyone suggested just talking to your payroll department directly? When my company switched from ADP to Workday last year, there were a bunch of withholding issues. Turns out they had imported some of the employee data incorrectly. When I showed them my old vs new paystubs, they fixed it immediately. Could save you a lot of trouble!
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Nia Wilson
ā¢This is good advice. I work in HR and I can tell you we WANT to know about these issues. Sometimes during system migrations, default settings get applied instead of employee-specific ones. We can't fix what we don't know about!
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