Anyone else think its weird that we have to verify our identity AFTER filing? Shouldn't that be a step before we submit all our personal info? 🤔

Pro tip: if you're really desperate, contact your local Taxpayer Advocate Service. They can sometimes help push things along if you're experiencing financial hardship due to the delay.

If you have your bank statement showing the payment cleared, another option is visiting your local Taxpayer Assistance Center in person. You need to make an appointment first by calling 844-545-5640. They often can pull up your records on the spot and see what happened to your payment. When I had a similar issue, the in-person IRS assistant saw that my estimated payment had been correctly received but was applied to the wrong tax year (they applied it to 2021 instead of 2022). She fixed it right there in the system while I waited!

Did you check your IRS online account to see if the payment shows up there? Sometimes the payment posts correctly to your account but doesn't get matched to the return properly. Go to irs.gov and create/login to your online account - you can see all payments received there.

Have you considered using a tax software that specializes in expat taxes? I've been using TaxAct Premium for filing with my Canadian spouse. It walks you through all the foreign spouse questions step by step and costs way less than a CPA. The key forms you'll need to know about are: - Form 8840 (Closer Connection Exception Statement) - Form 8833 (Treaty-Based Return Position) - Form 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit) - FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR for foreign accounts) The software prompts you for all of these and explains when they're needed. Just make sure you read each section carefully.

Don't forget about FBAR requirements! My wife is Brazilian and we got hit with a $10,000 penalty for failing to report her foreign bank accounts that had over $10,000 combined. The threshold is surprisingly low. Also, make sure you understand FATCA requirements (Form 8938) which is separate from FBAR but has similar purposes. The thresholds are different though - for married filing jointly living in the US, you need to report if the total value of foreign assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $150,000 at any time during the year.

Something nobody's mentioned yet is that you should request a copy of the partnership agreement if you don't already have it. When you inherited your share, it should have come with documentation about the partnership terms. Some partnership agreements actually restrict distributions and require capital reserves to be built up to certain levels before making distributions. This could explain why you're seeing income on the K-1 but not getting much in distributions. Also, check if there's a partnership meeting you can attend. As a partner, you generally have rights to information about the business operations and financial status. You might discover they're planning major renovations or have other reasons for retaining earnings.

Check out line 19 (distributions) of your K-1 and compare it to line 2 (real estate income). If line 19 is consistently lower than line 2, that means the partnership is retaining earnings rather than distributing them. This is common but can create tax headaches. Also, make sure you're tracking your "basis" in the partnership. Your basis increases when you report income from the K-1 and decreases when you receive distributions. This tracking is SUPER important because: 1) If you ever sell your interest, your basis determines your gain/loss 2) If your basis ever goes to zero, distributions become taxable 3) Certain losses can be limited based on your basis Most tax software doesn't handle basis tracking well, so you might need to maintain a separate spreadsheet or get professional help.

For cheap filing of 1040-NR with such a small amount, go with FreeTaxUSA. They charge around $15 for the federal nonresident return. I've used them for the past three years for my 1040-NR filings with an ITIN. Just be aware that the interview process doesn't always address every nonresident situation, so you might need to double-check some entries. But for a simple return with just $410 in business income, it should be straightforward.

Just a heads up - make sure you're actually required to file. For nonresidents with just US business income, you generally need to file if you have a US trade or business regardless of the amount. If it's just passive income under $4000 though, you might not need to file at all. But since your goal is keeping the ITIN active, filing makes sense. Just wanted to clarify that point.