Can't reach IRS? Claimyr calls for you, so you don't have to wait on hold.
Claimyr is a pay-as-you-go service. We do not charge a recurring subscription.
Using Claimyr will:
- Connect you to a human agent at the IRS
- Skip the long phone menu
- Call the correct department
- Redial until on hold
- Forward a call to your phone with reduced hold time
- Give you free callbacks if the IRS drops your call
Ask the community...
- DO post questions about your issues.
- DO answer questions and support each other.
- DO post tips & tricks to help folks.
- DO NOT post call problems here - there is a support tab at the top for that :)
Join the conversation
Join the conversation
Don't forget that to qualify for Head of Household, your child must be a "qualifying person" which generally means they need to be your child by birth, adoption, or they lived with you for more than half the year. And you need to provide more than half their support. But it sounds like with an 8 year old daughter you're all good! Just make sure you're not married filing jointly - that's an automatic disqualification for HoH status.
Jamal Brown
ā¢Thank you for mentioning that! Yes, she's my biological daughter and lives with me full-time (her mom isn't in the picture). I'm definitely not married - been single for years now. I pay for everything related to her care and our home. Sounds like I'm on the right track then? This is such a relief!
Yes, you're definitely on the right track! With your daughter living with you full-time and you providing all her support, you're a textbook case for Head of Household filing status. And don't worry too much about making small mistakes - the IRS generally focuses on major issues like unreported income or fraudulent claims. An honest mistake about a dependent's income being $0 when it should be a few dollars of interest wouldn't trigger anything serious. Just answer the questions truthfully as you go through your tax software.
StarSurfer
Make sure u keep receipts for household expenses in case u get audited! My sister got audited 2 yrs ago for her Head of Household claim and they wanted proof she paid more than half the home expenses. She had to scramble to find old utility bills, rent receipts, grocery receipts etc. Better safe than sorry!!
Ava Martinez
ā¢How far back should you keep those records? I've been filing HoH for 3 years now but haven't kept great documentation.
Join the conversation
Jamal Wilson
I think everyone is overlooking something important here. If your mother is still alive, why not just deed the property back to her and let HER sell it directly? Then she could distribute the money however she wants without you being in the middle. This would eliminate your tax liability completely since you wouldn't be the seller. I had to do something similar with my grandfather's property a few years ago - we realized the tax implications of the gift to me were bad, so we reversed it before selling.
NebulaNova
ā¢That would have been a good option, but it's too late now - I already sold the property about 6 months ago. I was just hoping there might be a way to avoid getting stuck with a big tax bill since I was basically just following my mom's instructions and didn't keep any of the profits.
Jamal Wilson
ā¢That's unfortunate timing. For future reference (or for anyone else reading this thread), always consult with a tax professional BEFORE making property transfers between family members. These transactions are complex and can have significant tax consequences. Since the sale has already happened, your best option now is probably to gather all documentation showing that you were acting on your mother's behalf. While this doesn't eliminate your tax liability, good documentation might help if there's ever an audit. Make sure you have the quitclaim deed, documentation of the original basis (purchase price plus improvements), the sales contract, and proof that you transferred the proceeds to your mother and other family members.
Mei Lin
Couldn't the OP potentially argue this was a "step transaction" where they were essentially just acting as an agent for their mother? Since the mother is still alive and OP immediately gave all the money back to her and the other family members per her instructions, maybe the IRS would consider the mother the true seller?
The step transaction doctrine actually might work against OP in this case. The IRS could view the series of transactions (mother gifts to OP, OP sells and distributes money) as an attempt to avoid proper tax treatment. Since the legal ownership was transferred to OP before the sale, OP is technically the seller for tax purposes. The subsequent distribution of funds is considered separate. This arrangement actually creates more tax complications than if the mother had sold it directly and then gifted portions of the proceeds. What might help OP's case is documenting that they were acting under a power of attorney or as a fiduciary for their mother, but that would need to have been established properly before these transactions occurred.
Join the conversation
Paolo Romano
In my experience as someone who's worked in tax prep before, I can tell you that many tax preparers at the chain locations are seasonal employees who've taken a basic tax course. They're trained to handle common scenarios but often miss specialized rules like the married filing separately Roth IRA limitation. If you're dealing with something like retirement account contribution issues, you really need either a CPA or an Enrolled Agent who specializes in that area. The difference in knowledge and expertise is huge. For fixing your previous years, I'd recommend: 1) Determine which tax years you need to address (generally the last 3 years can be amended) 2) Calculate the excess contributions for each year 3) Contact your IRA custodian about removing excess contributions 4) File Form 5329 for each year to report the excess contributions 5) Consider whether filing amended returns to change from MFS to MFJ makes sense
This is really helpful, thank you! Do you think it's better to amend the returns to married filing jointly or just remove the excess contributions? We've been filing separately because my spouse has an income-based student loan repayment plan, so filing jointly would increase those payments. But maybe the Roth IRA penalties would be worse?
Paolo Romano
ā¢Whether to amend to MFJ or remove excess contributions depends on your complete financial picture. You need to calculate both scenarios to see which costs less overall. For the student loan consideration, calculate how much the income-based payments would increase if filing jointly versus the cost of Roth IRA penalties (6% per year on excess contributions) plus any potential tax benefits lost by filing separately. Sometimes it's cheaper to pay higher student loan payments for a year than pay IRS penalties and miss out on tax credits only available to joint filers. This is definitely a situation where running the numbers both ways is essential before deciding.
Amina Diop
Has anyone actually received a penalty notice from the IRS specifically for excess Roth contributions while married filing separately? I've been doing this for 3 years not knowing about the limit, and now I'm worried but haven't received any notices.
Yes, I got hit with this exact situation last year. The IRS sent me a CP2000 notice about unreported income, and during that review, they flagged my Roth contributions while I was MFS with income over $10k. Ended up with penalties for 3 years of contributions plus interest. It was a mess to clean up, so I recommend being proactive before they find it.
Join the conversation
22 A lot of insurance agents don't fully understand the tax implications of their products. When I surrendered my policy, the agent told me "you might have to pay taxes on it" but couldn't explain how much would be taxable. Quick rule of thumb: you pay taxes on (what you get) minus (what you put in). The insurance company should send you a 1099-R form that will show the taxable amount, but it's good to understand how it's calculated so you can verify it's correct. Sometimes insurance companies make mistakes too.
10 Is there any way to reduce the tax hit? I'm thinking about surrendering a policy but worried about having to pay a lot in taxes. Can I roll it over into something else tax-free?
22 Yes, you have a couple options to potentially reduce or defer the tax impact. If your policy qualifies, you could do what's called a 1035 exchange into an annuity or another life insurance policy. This allows you to transfer the cash value without triggering immediate taxation. Another option is to see if your policy allows for partial surrenders over multiple tax years instead of taking all the money at once. This can spread the tax liability across different years and potentially keep you in a lower tax bracket. Just be aware that each partial surrender can affect your overall basis calculation in complex ways.
15 Has anyone ever dealt with surrender fees when cancelling a whole life policy? I'm in a similar situation but my policy shows I'll lose about 12% of the value to surrender charges. Wondering if those fees are tax deductible since they reduce what I actually receive.
9 Unfortunately, surrender fees typically aren't tax deductible. They're just considered a reduction in your proceeds. So if your surrender value is $5,000 but you only get $4,400 after surrender charges, you'll only pay taxes on the gain based on the $4,400 you actually receive (minus your basis).
NeonNova
Be VERY careful with tax resolution companies. I used a similar national company (not StopIRSDebt specifically) and ended up paying $3200 for them to basically fill out an installment agreement form that I could have done myself. They made big promises about reducing what I owed but in the end couldn't deliver. If you go with either option, get EVERYTHING in writing - exactly what services they're providing, what forms they'll file, and what results they're promising. Ask what happens if they can't deliver the results they promise.
0 coins
Dylan Campbell
ā¢This is so important! My brother got scammed by one of these companies that promised to settle his $40k tax debt for pennies on the dollar. Paid $4k upfront, they filed an offer in compromise that got rejected, and then they basically disappeared.
0 coins
NeonNova
ā¢Exactly! These companies often advertise based on best-case scenarios that apply to very few people. The "pennies on the dollar" settlements (Offers in Compromise) have specific qualifying criteria - you have to prove you have no ability to pay the full amount now or in the foreseeable future. Most people don't qualify. The most frustrating part is that many of these companies know you won't qualify before they take your money. They collect their fee, file paperwork they know will be rejected, then tell you "well, we tried!" while keeping your money. Always ask for their success rate with cases similar to yours, and get clear details about what specific actions they'll take for the fee they're charging.
0 coins
Sofia Hernandez
Has anyone looked into the IRS Fresh Start program? I had 4 years of unfiled returns and was able to get caught up through that. You might not need to pay someone so much money.
0 coins
Dmitry Kuznetsov
ā¢The Fresh Start program definitely helped me too. It's not actually a specific program you apply for - it's a set of policies that make it easier to settle tax debts. Made my payment plan much more manageable.
0 coins