Good point! Also worth checking Box 16/17 for state withholding too. Lots of people forget about state taxes when considering amendments.

Thanks for the tip! I just double-checked the form and there's no withholding in Box 4 or any of the state boxes. It looks like they treated me as a pure independent contractor with no tax withholding. Since I already reported the full income amount and paid the appropriate taxes, I'm going to follow the advice here and not file an amendment. I was worried the IRS might send me some kind of automated notice about a "missing" 1099, but it sounds like their system will see I already included the income. That's a relief!

Actually depends on what the payment was for. 1099-MISC is still used for certain types of payments like rent, prizes, medical payments etc. 1099-NEC is specifically for nonemployee compensation (like independent contractor work). So it could be correct depending on what services OP provided.

Did your refund come faster or slower when you filed jointly vs separately? I've heard joint returns sometimes take longer to process.

Our refund actually came slightly faster when we filed jointly compared to previous years filing separately. We e-filed in early February and had our refund within 14 days, which was about a week faster than our experience with separate returns. I think what matters more for processing time is how early you file and whether your return has any complicated elements that might trigger extra review. In our case, a straightforward joint return with W-2 income and child tax credits was processed very efficiently.

Yes! TurboTax has a feature that lets you compare filing statuses. After you enter all your info, there's an option somewhere in the tax tools section called "Tax Scenarios" or something similar that shows the difference in refund/amount owed. I did this last year when deciding between joint and separate filing. It's not super detailed in explaining WHY one is better, but it does show you the dollar difference.

Thanks for the info! That sounds exactly like what I need. I don't need the deep explanation as long as I can see which option saves us more money. I'll look for that Tax Scenarios feature when I start our return this year.

21 Can you explain how you fixed the excess contribution? Did you have to withdraw it or pay a penalty? My company puts in $200/month which might put me over if I'm not careful.

3 I had to withdraw the excess $300 plus any earnings on that amount before I filed my taxes. My HSA administrator had a specific form for "excess contribution withdrawal." If you don't remove it before your tax filing deadline (including extensions), you'll pay a 6% tax penalty on the excess amount every year until you fix it. Your situation sounds close to the limit - $200/month is $2,400 annually, and for 2025 the individual limit is $4,150, so you should be fine if that's all that's going in. Just double-check your W-2 at the end of the year to confirm the total.

9 That's a great point! I job-hopped three times last year and ended up paying about $1,200 extra in Social Security tax. Got it all back in my refund. Most tax software should catch this automatically, but definitely worth double-checking.

How much were the penalties? I have an LLC in Illinois too and I'm not sure if I filed correctly last year.

The penalties in Illinois were $100 for late filing plus the $75 annual report fee. So $175 total for a business that made exactly $0 that year. Pretty frustrating. The most annoying part is that the state filing deadlines often don't align with federal tax deadlines. In Illinois, the annual report is due by the first day of the LLC's anniversary month (when you formed it). So if you formed your LLC in March, your report is due by March 1st each year, regardless of tax filing extensions.

Banks generally only report interest income via 1099-INT if your account earned more than $10 in interest for the year. If your account had no activity and earned no interest (or less than $10), the bank typically doesn't report anything to the IRS about that account.

But why would they need the IP-PIN specifically? Isnt that just for people who've had identity theft problems before? Most people dont even have an IP-PIN right?

You're right that traditionally IP-PINs were only issued to identity theft victims, but the IRS has expanded the program. Now anyone can voluntarily request an IP-PIN for additional security. Scammers are specifically targeting people who already have IP-PINs because those individuals have likely experienced tax identity theft before. What makes this particularly sinister is that if someone already has an IP-PIN, the IRS won't accept a tax return filed with their SSN unless it includes the correct IP-PIN. So the scammers need both pieces of information to successfully file a fraudulent return. They're getting more sophisticated by recognizing this additional security layer and finding ways to get around it.

You're right about all those red flags. I was desperate for a remote job and the pay seemed amazing so I ignored my gut feeling. They never even told me exactly what I'd be doing day-to-day! Have you or anyone you know actually fallen for one of these scams? What happened?

Unfortunately yes, a former coworker fell for a similar scam last year. They provided their SSN, bank account info for "direct deposit setup," and other personal details. Within weeks, someone had opened credit cards in their name and filed a tax return claiming their refund. It took them over 9 months to clean up their credit and get the tax situation sorted with the IRS. The worst part is these scammers are getting more sophisticated. They used to ask directly for banking info, but now they're using tax documents like the IP-PIN as an indirect way to commit the same fraud while seeming more legitimate. The more technical and specific their requests, the more people think "this must be legitimate if they know to ask for this specific tax form.