Did your in-laws ever get any of their money back? My parents already paid the $1,500 deposit and I'm trying to figure out if they can cancel and get that refunded.

Unfortunately no. The contract had tons of fine print saying the deposit was "non-refundable" for "services already rendered," which apparently included the initial consultation and some paperwork they filed. They threatened to send my in-laws to collections when they tried to cancel, so they ended up just walking away from the money. If your parents haven't signed anything binding yet, tell them to stop immediately. If they have, they should review the contract carefully for cancellation terms and possibly consult with a consumer protection attorney. Some states have cooling-off periods for certain contracts.

Don't most of those free file programs only work for the current tax year? I tried using one for an older return and it wouldn't let me.

You're right that most free services focus on current year returns, but some tax software lets you buy previous year versions. TurboTax, H&R Block, and TaxAct all sell prior year software. For truly free options, the IRS still provides prior year forms on their website that can be filled out manually. It's more work, but if someone has relatively simple returns, it's doable. There are also Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs that help eligible taxpayers with current and some prior year returns for free.

Depends on your state. I'm in California and it's the opposite - got federal in 2 weeks but still waiting on state after 30 days. Their system is swamped this year.

Interesting to hear the different experiences. I'm in Michigan and they've been super fast with processing state returns this year. I wonder if the federal delay has something to do with the type of credits claimed. I did have both education credits and child tax credits on mine which might be slowing things down.

Usually when that happens the deposit will hit your account on Friday (the business day before). That happened with mine - said Sunday but showed up Friday morning. Check both days just to be safe!

This is exactly what I'm worried about. Did they go after his spouse too? My main concern is whether they can touch my income since the debt was from before we were married.

They didn't go after his spouse directly because they filed separately, but since you've already filed jointly, that ship has unfortunately sailed. When you file jointly, you essentially take on responsibility for each other's tax debts in the eyes of the IRS. They absolutely can garnish your wages even though the debt originated before marriage. The joint return creates what they call "joint and several liability." My friend's situation got even worse because they also put a tax lien on their house which made it impossible to refinance or sell without paying the debt. The collection agency has most of the same powers as the IRS itself, so definitely don't ignore this thinking it'll just go away. The 10-year statute of limitations is your best friend here if you can verify when it started and if anything has happened to extend it.

Innocent Spouse Relief probably won't work here because they already filed jointly after marriage. That usually only works if the spouse didn't know about the tax issue when they signed the joint return. The IRS takes the position that filing jointly means accepting responsibility for past tax debts.

Wow this is incredibly helpful! We should be under the $118,000 threshold as a family of four, but it's going to be close. So there's actually a cap on how much we would have to repay if we stay under that amount? Do you know roughly what that cap would be?

For a family of four with income between 300-400% of the Federal Poverty Level (roughly $88,500-$118,000), the repayment is capped at $2,800 for the 2025 tax year. If your income is between 200-300% FPL, the cap drops to $1,400. The exact cap amounts adjust slightly each year, but these are the approximate figures for 2025. So even if you received $7,000 in subsidies that you weren't entitled to, you would only have to repay up to the cap amount if you stay under 400% FPL. But if you go even $1 over the 400% threshold, you'd have to repay the entire excess subsidy with no cap.

This is a really good point - I'm in Massachusetts and we have ConnectorCare which has its own subsidy structure that works alongside the federal ACA subsidies. When I had an income change, I had to update both systems and the reconciliation process was different for each. What's the California program called?

Do we still need to wait if we've only got standard index funds like VTSAX? I thought those were pretty straightforward.

Index funds like VTSAX are definitely more straightforward and usually come out earlier. If you only have those types of funds, you should have received your 1099s by now. Standard index funds don't typically have the dividend reclassification issues that cause delays. The main delays happen with more complex investments. If you haven't received your forms yet with just index funds, I'd definitely reach out to Vanguard because that's unusual and might indicate a problem with your account settings or document delivery preferences.

The IRS actually does have deadlines - most 1099s are supposed to be furnished by January 31st, but there are exceptions for investment-related forms. 1099-B and consolidated 1099s have a February 15th deadline, which can be extended to March 15th in some cases. The problem is the penalties for missing these deadlines aren't strong enough to force companies to prioritize getting them out on time.