Thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't aware of the $250 requirement. None of my individual donations were over $250 (I did about $145 twice a month), so maybe they're not technically required to provide a statement in my case? But I might take your advice about just asking them to email it to have both records. That seems like the path of least resistance.

You're right that the $250 requirement is per individual donation, not the annual total. If all your individual donations were under $250, they're not legally required to provide a statement, though many churches do it as a courtesy for all donors. Email is definitely the easiest option if they continue to contact you. Just a quick "please email it to this address" response should suffice without getting into any explanations about why you're not attending anymore. The Tithe.ly records are still perfectly valid for your taxes either way.

That could potentially be an issue. The IRS wants to know the specific organization that received your donation. If the parent denomination and your local church are separate legal entities with different EINs, you should use the correct one on your tax return. Contact Tithe.ly support about this - they may be able to correct your statement. If not, you might need to get the statement from your church after all, or at least confirm which entity actually received your donations and which EIN to use.

This is exactly the kind of real-world experience I was hoping to hear about. Do you mind sharing roughly what income level you were at when you triggered these various thresholds? I'm trying to gauge how similar your situation might be to mine.

Before the property sales, my AGI was around $225,000 (married filing jointly). The three property sales added about $780,000 in total to my income that year, with approximately $320,000 of that being depreciation recapture. The rest was capital gains. This pushed my total income for the year to just over $1 million, which triggered numerous thresholds. The NIIT kicks in at much lower income levels (around $250,000 for married filing jointly), so you'd likely hit that with even one property sale of significant value. The AMT was the real surprise though - it effectively eliminated many of the deductions I normally claimed. If I could do it over, I would have worked with my CPA to project the exact tax impact before making all the sales in the same year. Timing really is everything with these large transactions.

I did a 1031 exchange last year and while it was definitely paperwork-intensive, it saved me from a huge tax bill. The key is having a good qualified intermediary who keeps you compliant with all the strict timeframes (45 days to identify potential replacement properties, 180 days to close). The main downside is you're somewhat rushed to find a replacement property, which can lead to making compromised investment decisions. Also, you need to get a property of equal or greater value to fully defer the taxes. But if you're planning to stay in real estate anyway, it can be a great strategy.

That's a really good point! I went back and looked at the exact message again. It specifically said I didn't need to report this distribution "until next tax season" - which would mean the 2026 filing season for 2025 taxes. That seems wrong since my form is clearly marked 2024. I'm going to go through the TurboTax questions again and see if I made an error somewhere. I definitely want this reported on my 2024 return since I've already paid a lot in taxes this year.

That's exactly what I suspected. TurboTax is saying to file it "next tax season" which would indeed be wrong for a 2024 form. When you go back through, pay special attention to any questions about rollover periods or special distribution types. Sometimes a single wrong answer can send TurboTax down an incorrect path. Also check Box 7 on your 1099-R - the distribution code there is crucial for determining how it's taxed. Codes like "1" mean a normal taxable distribution, while others may have special rules.

Yes, there's a huge difference! Traditional 401k withdrawals are generally fully taxable (you'll get a 1099-R with code "1" or "7" in Box 7). But for Roth IRAs, it depends on whether you're withdrawing contributions or earnings and how long you've had the account. If you're withdrawing contributions from a Roth IRA, those come out tax-free because you already paid tax on that money. If you're withdrawing earnings before age 59½ and before the account is 5 years old, those might be both taxable and subject to penalties.

Thanks for explaining! I think that's part of my confusion. My Roth IRA withdrawal was just taking out some of my original contributions (not any earnings), so I wasn't sure why I got a 1099-R for it if it's not taxable.

Wait, how did you get 0% on the royalties? I'm in Canada and got hit with 15% withholding on my book royalties from a US publisher. Is this something different about the France treaty?

Yes, it's a specific provision in the US-France tax treaty that exempts royalties from taxation in the source country. Article 12 of the treaty states that royalties are taxable only in the resident country (France in my case). Canada's treaty with the US is different - it reduces the withholding rate to 10% for most royalties (Article XII of the US-Canada treaty), but doesn't eliminate it completely like the French treaty does. Each treaty is unique, which is why it's important to check the specific provisions for your country.

That's super helpful! What about pension distributions from a 401k plan if you previously worked in the US but are now a non-resident? Would those also fall into this category?

So do you just call a random CPA office and ask for a consultation? Do they offer that as a service or do you need to be an existing client?

Most CPAs are happy to do consultations - it's easy money for them with limited paperwork. I just called a few local offices and asked specifically for a tax planning consultation rather than tax preparation. I explained my situation and that I wanted advice but planned to file myself. Some do require you to be clients, but plenty of smaller firms or solo practitioners are happy to do one-off consultations, especially during their non-busy season (May-December).

FreeTaxUSA is actually really good! I've compared results between it and TurboTax for 3 years now and always get the same refund amount. TurboTax just has a prettier interface but charges 5x more. If you have investments or self-employment, make sure you're using their deluxe version though.