Is there a specific threshold for when card selling becomes a business vs hobby? Like a certain number of sales or dollar amount? I'm trying to figure out which category I fall into.

There's no specific dollar threshold that automatically makes it a business versus a hobby. The IRS looks at several factors including whether you depend on the income, how much time you spend on it, if you maintain proper records, and if you operate in a businesslike manner. Generally, if you're consistently profitable for 3 out of 5 years and treat the activity seriously (keeping records, having a separate bank account, etc.), the IRS is more likely to consider it a business. If you're just occasionally selling cards from your personal collection without much organization, it's more likely to be a hobby.

I strongly advise against this interpretation. "Gross payouts" in the platform's language likely refers to the total value of your sales, not specifically withdrawals. Most platforms report the total sales value whether you withdraw or not. Even if you did find a platform that only reports when you withdraw, you're still legally obligated to report all income on your tax return. The 1099 is just an information form - not receiving one doesn't mean you don't owe tax on the income.

Can you do this if your employer contributes to your HSA? Mine puts in $1500/year but I've never added my own money. Also, do you need to keep the physical receipts or are digital copies ok?

Yes, you can absolutely add your own contributions on top of what your employer provides! For 2025, the contribution limit is $4,150 for individuals and $8,300 for families (including employer contributions). So if your employer adds $1,500, you can still contribute up to $2,650 for individual coverage or $6,800 for family coverage. This is a great way to reduce your taxable income. Digital copies of receipts are perfectly fine as long as they clearly show the date, amount, service provider, and type of medical expense. I recommend keeping them in multiple places (cloud storage, external hard drive) since we're talking about potentially decades of storage. The IRS doesn't specify a format, but you need to be able to produce them if audited.

This is super important! I'd add that tracking basis for crypto is an absolute nightmare if you don't stay on top of it from the beginning. I learned this the hard way after trading different coins across multiple exchanges.

Omg this is so important! We learned this the hard way last year. Saved $600 on taxes by filing jointly but my wife's student loan payment went up $175/month. Do the math before you decide!

You're absolutely right about doing the full calculation. A lot of people miss this part of the equation. The student loan impact can completely change what looks like a good decision based solely on taxes. In our case, filing separately costs us about $800 more in taxes each year, but saves my wife nearly $2,400 annually on her income-based student loan payments. That's a net benefit of $1,600 by filing separately, even though it looks worse on paper tax-wise.

This is a really good point. If your spouse is tutoring in people's homes on a regular schedule and they control when and how the work is done, they might qualify as a household employee. This means the family should be paying half of the Social Security and Medicare taxes instead of your spouse covering it all through self-employment tax.

Do you have any recommendations for tracking business expenses throughout the year? I'm always scrambling at tax time trying to remember what was business vs personal, especially for things like my cell phone bill.

I use QuickBooks Self-Employed which automatically categorizes expenses from my linked accounts and lets me swipe left/right on transactions to mark them as business or personal. Saved me tons of time versus my old spreadsheet method. For mixed-use items like cell phones, I set calendar reminders to check my usage every quarter and document the business percentage. Most tax pros will tell you it's better to track consistently throughout the year than try to estimate everything at tax time. I also take photos of all receipts with the app so I don't have to keep paper copies.

I ran the numbers on this last year. The excise tax is 10%, so on $4,000 that's $400. But if you don't correct it, that excess contribution keeps getting hit with the 10% EVERY YEAR until you fix it. It compounds into a huge problem over time.

19 For actual income or deduction changes, you would need to file an amended return using Form 1040-X. Unlike the 1095-C situation, missing investment income absolutely needs to be reported through an amendment. You can prepare an amended return through most tax software, though some charge extra for this service. File it as soon as you can to minimize any potential interest or penalties. If you owe additional tax, pay it when you file the amendment to stop further interest from accruing.

11 I used eztaxreturn for an amendment last year. It's doable but not as streamlined as their regular filing process. You have to essentially recreate your return and then identify what changed. They charge an additional fee too (I think it was around $30 when I did it). But in this case, since the 1095-C doesn't change anything tax-wise, you shouldn't need to amend at all.