That's a great point I hadn't considered! Do you know where I would look to find out about California-specific educator tax benefits? Is that something I would find on the California tax agency website or would my school district HR department know about it?

You'll want to check the California Franchise Tax Board website - that's California's tax agency. They have a section on credits and deductions that should list any educator-specific benefits. Just search for "California teacher tax credits" or "California educator deductions" on their site. Your school district HR department might know about it too, but in my experience, they're often more familiar with retirement benefits than specific tax deductions. Still, it doesn't hurt to ask them! Sometimes they have informational handouts about tax benefits for educators that they distribute around tax season.

You can definitely claim educator expenses through TurboTax or any other tax software. It's on Schedule 1, Line 11 of Form 1040. The great thing about educator expenses is they're an "above-the-line" deduction, which means you can claim them even if you take the standard deduction (which most people do these days since it's pretty high). TurboTax will specifically ask you if you're an educator and guide you through the process of claiming these expenses. Just have your receipts ready to enter the total amount.

Oh that's fantastic to know! I was worried I'd have to itemize everything and lose out on the standard deduction, which wouldn't have been worth it. I'll definitely use TurboTax this year and make sure to have all my receipts organized. Thanks for explaining it's "above-the-line" - I wasn't familiar with that term before but it makes sense now. Definitely claiming my classroom expenses this time around!

What about fee structures? I've heard some charge hourly while others charge by form or complexity. Is one model better than another for retirement tax planning?

For retirement tax planning, I strongly prefer hourly fee structures over per-form pricing. With per-form pricing, the focus stays on tax preparation rather than strategic planning. When you pay hourly, you can use that time for scenario planning and multi-year strategies. The most cost-effective approach I've found is paying for 2-3 hours of dedicated planning time each year, then a separate fee for the actual tax preparation. Expect $150-300/hour for the planning portion with a qualified EA or CPA specializing in retirement. The planning session will likely save you far more than it costs if your situation includes inherited IRAs and military benefits.

This is solid advice. Would you recommend meeting with someone before the end of this tax year or waiting until I'm ready to file?

16 Do you use a specific software for keeping separate books for multiple LLCs? I've been using QuickBooks but it gets expensive with multiple companies.

7 I use Stessa for my rental properties - it's specifically designed for real estate and allows you to track multiple properties and entities. It's much more affordable than having separate QuickBooks accounts for each LLC. For non-real estate businesses, I've heard good things about Xero which has better multi-entity functionality at a lower price point than QuickBooks. The key is making sure you have clean, separate financial statements for each LLC that clearly show income, expenses, assets and liabilities, regardless of which software you use.

1 That's a really good point! Does anyone know about Texas requirements for multiple LLCs? We're paying the franchise tax for our parent LLC, but I'm not sure if we need to file anything for the property LLCs too.

Do these free tax prep services handle back taxes from previous years? I thought they only did current year returns during tax season.

You're right that many VITA and TCE sites focus primarily on current year returns during the regular tax season. However, some locations do offer assistance with prior year returns, though this varies by site. You'd need to call specific locations to ask about their services for back tax returns. If free services aren't available for prior years in your area, consider a low-cost tax professional instead of the major chains - often local enrolled agents or CPAs will handle back taxes for much less than the big tax preparation companies, especially for straightforward returns.

I got one of those last year. It's scary but doesn't mean they're immediately coming for your stuff. You usually have 30 days to respond, and if you call them and show you're trying to fix the situation by filing and setting up payments, they'll often put a hold on collection activities.

Thanks for the detailed breakdown on the depreciation schedule! I definitely had the wrong percentages in mind. Do these figures account for bonus depreciation too or is that something separate?

The percentages I listed are just for regular MACRS depreciation without any bonus depreciation factored in. Bonus depreciation is separate and would actually allow you to deduct a significant portion upfront, similar to Section 179 but with different rules. For 2024, bonus depreciation is at 60% (it's been phasing down from 100%). So you could potentially deduct 60% of the cost in year 1 through bonus depreciation, and then apply the regular MACRS percentages to the remaining 40%. This is another option if Section 179 doesn't work for some reason.

There's no minimum cost to use Section 179, but your business needs to have enough income to offset the deduction. For something small like $800, you can definitely use Section 179 to write it off completely in year 1. Honestly, for that amount, even if you depreciated it over 5 years, the difference isn't huge, but might as well take the full deduction now if you can.