Thank you for pointing this out! I would have definitely just selected "single" since that's what my partner always did. What's the actual difference in money between HOH and single? Is it worth the extra paperwork?

The difference is substantial! For 2025, the standard deduction for HOH is $21,900 versus just $14,600 for single filers. That's $7,300 more of your income that won't be taxed at all. Plus the tax brackets are more favorable for HOH. There's no extra paperwork involved - you just select "Head of Household" instead of "Single" on your filing status. The tax software will ask you a few verification questions to confirm you qualify, but it takes maybe 2 extra minutes. From your description, you definitely qualify since you support your children and maintain the household. This could easily save you over $1,000 in taxes, so absolutely worth doing!

Exactly this! I'm a single mom with similar income and got back over $5,800 last year just from EITC and Child Tax Credit combined. It was literally life-changing money for us. Paid off some bills and fixed our car.

Thanks for mentioning the FSA! My employer does offer this but I wasn't sure how it worked with the other child credits. If I put money in the dependent care FSA, does that mean I can't claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit at all? Our childcare costs will be around $12,000 this year so it's significantly more than the $5,000 FSA limit.

You can actually use both the FSA and the Child and Dependent Care Credit, but not for the same expenses. Since your childcare costs will be around $12,000, you could put $5,000 in your FSA and then claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit for the remaining $7,000 of expenses. However, there's a $3,000 limit per child for the Child and Dependent Care Credit, so you'd only be able to claim $3,000 of that remaining $7,000 for the credit. Still, using both the FSA and the credit will maximize your tax advantages for those childcare expenses.

This! My daughter was born December 29th last year and we still got the full $2,000 Child Tax Credit. Felt like a bonus for the timing lol. But yes, waiting for that SSN card took forever. If anyone's in a rush, you can actually go to your local Social Security office with the birth certificate and get a print-out with the number before the card arrives.

That's a great tip about getting the print-out! I wish I had known that. The hospital told us it would take 2-3 weeks for the card to arrive but it took over 2 months for us. We filed our taxes late because of it and almost missed some bills waiting for that refund.

Do you know if having a TA position would trigger needing a 1042-S? My department gave me a TA position but I only received a W-2.

For a TA position, it depends on how your university classifies the payment. If you're being paid as an employee for services provided, then a W-2 is the correct form. If part of your compensation is classified as a scholarship/fellowship, or if you're claiming tax treaty benefits on that income, then you would also receive a 1042-S for that portion. Some universities split TA compensation - the portion for actual teaching is reported on a W-2, while any tuition remission or stipend might be on a 1042-S. I'd recommend checking with your department's administrative office or the international student office to confirm whether they should have issued both forms or if the W-2 covers everything in your case.

You probably needed to indicate in Sprintax that you didn't receive any scholarship/fellowship or treaty benefits. There should be an option to specify that you don't have a 1042-S. I had the same issue and just had to select "No" when it asked if I received any scholarships or fellowship grants.

Is getting an EIN difficult? I'm concerned about making things more complicated. Does it change how you file taxes?

Getting an EIN is actually super easy - it takes about 5 minutes online through the IRS website. You get the number immediately. It doesn't complicate your taxes at all. You'll still file the same Schedule C with your personal return. It just means you can use your EIN instead of your SSN on W-9 forms and invoices, which helps protect your identity when dealing with multiple clients. Many banks also prefer seeing an EIN when you're opening a business checking account.

I've been using it for about 3 years now. It's definitely worth it for me. The mileage tracker alone saves me hundreds in deductions I would've missed, and it automatically categorizes transactions from your bank account. The quarterly tax calculator and payment reminders are super helpful too.

Thanks for the info! The mileage tracker sounds especially useful since I do a lot of driving between client sites. Do you find the automatic categorization is actually accurate or do you spend a lot of time fixing its guesses?

I hadn't thought about the Head of Household status actually! Since we both contribute to household expenses, I guess we'd need to figure out who pays more than half. Would things like mortgage/rent, utilities, and groceries all count toward this calculation?

Yes, the costs that count toward "keeping up a home" include rent or mortgage, property taxes, homeowners/renters insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance, and groceries. Things that DON'T count include clothing, education, medical expenses, vacations, life insurance, or transportation. So basically it's the actual cost of the physical home and food. You'd need to calculate the total eligible expenses for the year, then determine if one of you pays more than 50% of that total. If so, and that same person is also claiming your son as a dependent, they would qualify for Head of Household filing status.

I think that only works if the tax benefits are roughly equal for both parents. In my case, my income is way higher than my partner's, so I get a much bigger tax benefit from claiming our kid. We calculated it out and I save about $2,300 by claiming him while she would only save about $1,100, so I claim him and then just give her half the difference.

Good point about comparing the actual tax benefit! We never actually calculated out the difference - we just assumed it would be similar. Maybe we should run the numbers for this year and see if our alternating approach still makes sense or if we should do something more like what you described.