The 9 month marriage requirement isn't always needed. If the death was accidental or occurred in the line of duty as an active member of the armed forces, the 9-month requirement is waived. Also, if they have a child together, that can change the requirements too.

That's a really good point I hadn't considered fully. Do you have any specific suggestions for how to structure such an account? Did you use any particular legal document to establish those "rules" you mentioned?

We didn't have anything formal in place which was exactly the problem. If I could do it over, I'd create a simple written agreement that both parties sign stating that the account is solely for household expenses, what happens to any remaining funds if the relationship ends, and how quickly the account would be closed. Some couples I know use a "household expenses" account where they each deposit only what's needed for shared bills rather than a true joint account. This keeps the majority of your finances separate while still having a clean way to handle shared expenses. For extra protection, talk to a lawyer about creating a simple cohabitation agreement that covers the financial aspects of your relationship.

This is a really good point! I pay all our household bills through my Chase Sapphire card for the points, then my partner Venmos me his half. We're essentially getting 2-3% back on all our shared expenses this way. Definitely beats a joint checking account with no rewards.

3 What about the opposite situation? I have clients who paid me in December 2024 but want to count it as 2025 expenses for their business. Can they do that or does it have to match the year they actually sent the payment?

11 That's a different situation and generally wouldn't work. Businesses must report expenses in the year they were actually incurred/paid. If they paid you in December 2024, that's a 2024 expense for them, not a 2025 one. The IRS is pretty strict about matching the payment year with the expense year for businesses. They can't just choose to push an expense to the next year if they already paid it. This is different from the original question which was about when a payment is considered "received" by the recipient.

16 They typically don't care about a few days IF your reporting matches what's on your tax forms. The issues come when you report income in 2025 but your client reports paying you in 2024 on your 1099. That mismatch will trigger automatic flags in their system.

Most professional tax software actually keeps track of the cents behind the scenes but displays whole dollars on the forms. I'm a bookkeeper (not a CPA) and we use Drake Software which does this. The precise calculations happen with all the cents included, even though the forms print with rounded numbers.

Do you have to go in person for that kind of review? I'm not sure if there are any CPAs near me, plus I'm pretty busy with work.

No, most CPAs can do this remotely now. You just need to send them a PDF of your tax return from TurboTax, and they can review it. Many have secure upload portals on their websites. I actually did mine completely virtually - uploaded my documents, had a 20-minute Zoom call to discuss what they found, and they emailed me their recommendations. The good ones will tell you upfront if they think there's potential for significant changes before charging you for a full amended return service. Sometimes they'll even waive the review fee if they end up preparing your amended return.

This is actually a really important question. Different tax software can give wildly different results depending on how they ask questions. I tried three different ones last year (FreeTaxUSA, TurboTax, and H&R Block) and got refund estimates that varied by almost $800!