Another option nobody's mentioned is checking if your local community college offers tax assistance. The one near me has accounting students (supervised by their professors who are CPAs) who do free tax reviews. They can't file for you, but they'll go over your return and answer specific questions. Might be worth looking into if you're trying to save money. Just call the business/accounting department and ask if they have a VITA or tax assistance program.

If your questions are specifically about depreciation under $1000, you might not need paid help at all. Look up "de minimis safe harbor election" - basically, the IRS allows you to immediately expense (not depreciate) business property that costs less than $2,500 per item. You just need to have an accounting policy in place (even if it's just written down for yourself) and elect this on your tax return. Could save you a lot of hassle with depreciation schedules.

For future reference, whenever you make IRS payments, always keep confirmation numbers and screenshots of the payments. I had a similar issue last year where my online account and paper notice showed different amounts. When I finally got through to an IRS rep, having those confirmation numbers ready made the process much smoother. The agent was able to trace the payments immediately and confirm they were applied correctly.

This is why I always mail a check instead of using Direct Pay. When you mail a check, the postmark date is considered your payment date even if it takes them weeks to process it. With electronic payments, there can be weird delays in how they apply them.

One piece of practical advice: if you're a student filing taxes for the first time, I HIGHLY recommend using tax software instead of trying to fill out the actual 1040 form manually. The software asks you simple questions about your situation and fills in the right lines automatically. Most students qualify for free filing through IRS Free File or programs like FreeTaxUSA. They handle education credits and the specific situations students face. Even with just a W-2, trying to figure out which lines are relevant on a paper 1040 is unnecessarily stressful.

Don't overthink it! For most students, the 1040 is actually super simple. You'll probably only need to fill out: - Your personal info at the top - Line 1 for W-2 wages - Skip most of the other income lines (they'll be zero) - Take the standard deduction on line 12 - Maybe education credits if they apply - Calculate your refund Everything else can be left blank if it doesn't apply to you! Just put zeros or leave blank.

For your multiple W-2 situation, I'd recommend setting up a spreadsheet to track your income and projected taxes throughout the year. I have 5 W-2 jobs and this helps me stay on top of things. You can input your pay from each job and calculate roughly what your total tax liability will be, then adjust your W-4s accordingly. Don't forget to account for the standard deduction ($13,850 for single filers in 2024).

For your LLC question - I have one LLC that covers my freelance writing, photography, and occasional consulting work. It's totally fine to have different income streams under one LLC. You'll just file one Schedule C but you can list multiple "business codes" if they're truly different categories. Makes bookkeeping way simpler than having multiple entities!

Everyone's giving great answers about the technical side, but here's a practical tip from someone who's been self-employed for years: set aside 25-30% of your gig income in a separate savings account with every payment you receive. That way when quarterly payments come due (or annual if you qualify for that), you've already got the money set aside. I learned this the hard way after my first year doing freelance work and having to scramble to find money for a big tax bill. Now I automatically transfer 30% of every payment into my "tax savings" and it's made everything so much less stressful.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - the first year or two you have self-employment income, you can often get the underpayment penalty waived by filing Form 2210 and checking the box in Part II that says you had no tax liability last year. There's also a waiver for "unusual circumstances" if this is your first time dealing with self-employment tax. Not guaranteed, but the IRS can be surprisingly reasonable about this stuff if it's your first time making this mistake. Just make sure you start doing quarterly payments (or increase your W2 withholding) going forward.