Thanks for the perspective! Did you find that your VITA experience helped you land your first tax job? I'm hoping it will give me a leg up when I start applying.

Absolutely it helped! I highlighted my VITA experience in all my job interviews. Employers loved that I already had practical experience preparing returns and working directly with clients. Many accounting students graduate only knowing theory, but VITA gives you hands-on experience. It also gives you great stories to tell in interviews. I talked about challenging cases I handled and how I researched solutions. This demonstrated problem-solving skills that firms are looking for. Several interviewers told me my VITA experience was what set me apart from other candidates.

This is so true! I've been doing taxes professionally for 8 years and I still look stuff up constantly. The tax code changes every year anyway, so memorization isn't as valuable as knowing how to research.

Thanks for bringing this up. I haven't received any notices about a tax sale yet, just the regular past due notices. I think I'm still in the penalty/interest phase rather than the actual lien sale process. I'm hoping to get the house sold before it gets to that point.

Then you're likely still in good shape. Most counties go through multiple steps before actually putting a property up for tax sale - first notices, then liens, then more notices, and finally the tax sale process. It usually takes 3+ years of non-payment in most places before they move to sell. Just make sure to disclose the situation to your real estate agent and potential buyers. The title company will find the tax liens during their search anyway, so it's better to be upfront. As others have mentioned, the unpaid taxes will just be deducted from your proceeds at closing.

Seconding this! My county had an "economic hardship" form that reduced my penalties by 75% when I provided proof of medical bills that had caused my financial problems. Definitely worth asking about.

Can it import the already completed Sch D and 8949 forms that OP mentioned, or would they have to re-enter all their crypto transactions manually?

Unfortunately it doesn't have a direct import feature for already completed forms. You would need to manually re-enter the information from your Schedule D and Form 8949. This is actually one downside compared to some other options mentioned. If you have a lot of crypto transactions, re-entering everything could be quite time-consuming.

Learned this the hard way too. Also date everything! I wrote notes on some of my forms but didn't put dates and couldn't remember which version was final when I got audited.

Actually the threshold is supposed to be $5,000 for 2023 tax year. They delayed the $600 threshold again. But some payment processors might still be sending them at $600 because the law keeps changing.

I just went and checked all my transactions, and you're right - most were sent as Friends & Family! But there were like 6-7 transactions that people sent as Goods & Services even though they were just paying me back for stuff (I guess they didn't know the difference). So maybe that's why I got the 1099-K? Seems like I'm going to have to figure out how to explain this on my taxes since PayPal is reporting it all as business income. Ugh, what a headache over $200!

Do these Tax Topic 151 reviews usually result in reduced refunds? Or is it just a verification process and you still get your full amount if everything checks out?

It really depends on what they find during the review. If all your documentation supports your claims and everything checks out, you'll receive the full refund amount, though obviously delayed. If they determine certain deductions or credits aren't valid, they'll adjust your return and you'll receive a reduced amount. In some cases, if they find significant issues, you could even end up owing more instead of getting a refund. The vast majority of cases are just verification though, and many people do receive their full refund after providing documentation.

I waited almost 60 days last year before I got my letter. Called multiple times and kept getting told "it's in process." When the letter finally came, it was something simple they could have told me over the phone. The IRS is still dealing with backlogs from Covid even now.