Thanks so much for breaking this down! This makes way more sense now. I found my tax return and my AGI was actually $48,500, so my adjustments were about $7,500 and then the standard deduction took me down to the $35k taxable income. Do you know what the income limits are for those education credits? I'm hoping to qualify next year.

For 2025 (taxes you'll file in 2026), the American Opportunity Credit begins to phase out at $80,000 MAGI for single filers and $160,000 for married filing jointly. It's completely phased out at $90,000/$180,000. The Lifetime Learning Credit has the same phaseout ranges. With your AGI around $48,500, you should be well within the limits to claim either credit as long as your income doesn't increase dramatically. The American Opportunity Credit is worth up to $2,500 but can only be claimed for the first 4 years of undergraduate education. The Lifetime Learning Credit is worth up to $2,000 and can be used for any level of education, including graduate courses or professional development.

Mortgage lenders will almost always look at your gross income (before any deductions) and sometimes specifically at your AGI, not your taxable income. They want to know your actual earnings capacity, not the number after all your deductions. They'll typically ask for 2 years of tax returns and recent pay stubs to verify your income.

7 I had a similar issue and found my W-2 in my Paycor account even though my employer said they "weren't ready yet." How would the original poster know if they have access? Is there a standard login page or something?

4 Yes, Paycor has a standard employee self-service portal at secure.paycor.com where employees can log in. If your employer set it up, you would have received an email invitation at some point to create your account. Even former employees typically retain access to their documents for a period after leaving. If you never set up an account, you can try the "forgot password" option using your work email, or call Paycor's employee support line at 800-381-0053 and ask if you have an account associated with your employer. Sometimes they can help reset access if you can verify your identity.

14 I reported a former employer two years ago. Called the IRS W-2 complaint line, gave all the details, and about 2 weeks later the employer suddenly emailed W-2s to everyone with a very apologetic note. Heard through a friend still working there that they got hit with some decent fines. Definitely worth reporting!

That's really helpful - I had no idea about the December 31 rule! If you don't mind me asking, did you find that filing jointly helped mostly because of tax bracket differences or was it due to certain credits?

For us, it was a combination of factors. The biggest benefit came from the difference in tax brackets - my income "filled up" the lower brackets when combined with some of my husband's income, which kept more of our total income in lower tax brackets than if we filed separately. We also qualified for some credits that are either reduced or eliminated when filing separately, including the child and dependent care credit (which we needed for our daughter). Plus, filing separately would have meant losing some of our itemized deductions due to the percentage of AGI thresholds. When we ran both scenarios, jointly saved us about $3,200.

YES! I found TurboTax completely misleading for our S Corp situation. Switched to TaxAct which handled it better but still wasn't great at explaining the MFJ vs MFS options with business income involved.

I've had good experiences with H&R Block's premium online version for this specific situation. They have a separate business section that handles S Corps properly and explains how it flows to your personal return. Bit more expensive but worth it for the clarity.

19 Isn't there a penalty if you don't pay enough throughout the year though? How do you figure out the right amount for quarterly payments?

4 There can be a penalty if you significantly underpay throughout the year, but you can avoid this by making sure your total payments (withholding plus quarterly payments) equal at least 90% of your current year tax or 100% of your prior year tax (110% if your income is over $150,000). For figuring out the right quarterly payment amount, you'd take your expected additional tax from the side gig (including both income tax and self-employment tax which is about 15.3%) and divide by 4. For someone making $6,800 extra, the self-employment tax alone would be about $960 for the year, plus whatever income tax applies based on their tax bracket.

1 We do have tax forms and publications available, and I did offer those resources! But as anyone who's looked at IRS instructions knows, they can be pretty complicated to understand if you're not familiar with tax terminology. The patron seemed overwhelmed and was looking for someone to actually walk him through his specific situation, which is beyond our role as librarians. That's why I referred him to his employer's payroll department or his tax preparer. I was just personally curious about how this situation should be handled, especially with the newer W-4 format. The responses here have been really helpful!

Thanks for sharing your timeline! Did you check the Where's My Refund tool at all during your wait? Just wondering if it was accurate or if your money showed up before the tool updated.

I checked Where's My Refund every few days. It was pretty accurate - showed "Return Received" until Feb 15, then switched to "Refund Approved" with my expected deposit date listed as Feb 17. The money actually hit my bank account around 3am on Feb 17, exactly as predicted. The tool only updates once a day (usually overnight), so it's not worth checking multiple times daily. If you have the IRS2Go app, it'll give you the same information but it's a little more convenient than going to the website each time.

I claimed EITC and got my refund in the second wave. They legally can't issue EITC refunds before mid-February. Filed Jan 20, accepted Jan 21, approved Feb 18, DD Feb 22.