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If I could give 10 stars I would If I could give 10 stars I would Such an amazing service so needed during the times when EDD almost never picks up Claimyr gets me on the phone with EDD every time without fail faster. A much needed service without Claimyr I would have never received the payment I needed to support me during my postpartum recovery. Thank you so much Claimyr!
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Was a bit nervous or untrusting at first, but my calls went thru. First time the wait was a bit long but their customer chat line on their page was helpful and put me at ease that I would receive my call. Today my call dropped because of EDD and Claimyr heard my concern on the same chat and another call was made within the hour.
An incredibly helpful service
An incredibly helpful service! Got me connected to a CA EDD agent without major hassle (outside of EDD's agents dropping calls ā which Claimyr has free protection for). If you need to file a new claim and can't do it online, pay the $ to Claimyr to get the process started. Absolutely worth it!
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Used this service a couple times now. Before I'd call 200 times in less than a weak frustrated as can be. But using claimyr with a couple hours of waiting i was on the line with an representative or on hold. Dropped a couple times but each reconnected not long after and was mission accomplished, thanks to Claimyr.
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I tried for weeks to get thru to EDD PFL program with no luck. I gave this a try thinking it may be a scam. OMG! It worked and They got thru within an hour and my claim is going to finally get paid!! I upgraded to the $60 call. Best $60 spent!
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Dmitry Popov
I've been doing my taxes with a combo of gig work and regular W-2 for years. Here's my take: If your side hustle stuff is pretty straightforward (like driving or selling things online), TurboTax Self-Employed will do the job fine. Just track your income from TikTok Shop in a spreadsheet if you don't get a 1099. BUT if you have more complicated situations - like home office deductions, inventory, depreciation, etc. - paying a CPA for the first year can be worth it. They'll set you up with a good system and you can probably do it yourself after that. Whatever you do, DON'T use the free or basic versions of tax software. They'll let you start the process and then hit you with "you need to upgrade" once you get to the self-employment forms.
Ava Garcia
ā¢Any recommendations for tracking apps? I have like 5 different side hustles and keeping track of everything is a nightmare.
Dmitry Popov
ā¢I've had good results with QuickBooks Self-Employed for tracking throughout the year. It connects to your bank accounts and credit cards, then automatically categorizes expenses. You can also use it to track mileage if you drive for any gigs. It's about $15/month but honestly saves me hours of headaches at tax time. If you want something free, a simple Google Sheet works too - just be disciplined about entering your income and expenses regularly. The key is separating business vs. personal spending, which gets messy fast if you're not tracking consistently.
StarSailor}
Don't forget about quarterly estimated tax payments if you're making decent money from your side gigs! I learned this the hard way last year and got hit with a penalty because I didn't know I needed to pay throughout the year.
Miguel Silva
ā¢How much do you need to make before you have to do the quarterly payments? I make maybe $800-1000 a month from my side gig.
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In my experience working with clients who have similar issues, it's important to consider a few other factors beyond just the statutes of limitations: 1. If you receive a CP2000 notice from the IRS about the unreported income (which can happen if they received a 1099 for that cash payment), you'll need to respond even if you're past the normal 3-year period. 2. Some states have different statutes of limitations than the federal government, so you might still have state tax implications. 3. The peace of mind of having everything properly filed might be worth more than the hassle of amending. That said, in your specific scenario with such a small amount and being well past the 3-year mark, I'd personally lean toward not amending unless you receive a notice.
Thanks for this additional perspective! I never received any CP2000 notices or any communications from the IRS about this, so I'm guessing they don't have any records of this cash income (it was truly a small cash side gig). As for state taxes, I live in a state with no income tax so thankfully that's not an issue for me. I think I'll follow the consensus advice here and not worry about amending the return at this point. The amount is tiny, I've already overpaid, and it sounds like the assessment period has passed anyway. Really appreciate everyone's input!
You're in a good position then without state income tax concerns and no CP2000 notice. At this point, the administrative burden of filing an amendment likely outweighs any benefit, especially since you've already overpaid. The IRS generally focuses their resources on cases where additional tax is owed rather than situations like yours. Glad you've found clarity on how to proceed! Sometimes the best action is simply moving forward and applying what you've learned to future tax years.
Just want to add one more thing that nobody has mentioned - if that unreported cash income was from self-employment work (like a side gig), technically there's no minimum threshold for reporting it, and the statute of limitations can be different than for regular income. But honestly with the amount being so small (under $10 in taxes owed) and you already overpaid by much more than that, I've never heard of the IRS pursuing something like this. The cost of processing an amended return would be more than what they'd collect!
Olivia Kay
ā¢I think this is a good point. Wasn't there a special rule for self-employment tax though? Like you don't owe SE tax if the amount is under $400 for the year or something?
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7 I've had good experience with Credit Karma Tax (now Cash App Taxes). Completely free for federal AND state, and handles W-2s easily. I've used it for 3 years now. TurboTax definitely tries to upsell you constantly. They're owned by Intuit which also owns Credit Karma, but somehow the Cash App version has stayed completely free.
11 Does Cash App Taxes handle 1099 income? I tried using Credit Karma last year but it seemed confused by my freelance income situation.
7 Yes, Cash App Taxes handles basic 1099 income pretty well now. They've improved it a lot since the Credit Karma days. For simple freelance situations, it works fine. However, if you have more complicated self-employment situations with lots of business deductions or inventory, you might want something more robust. For your situation with just one W-2 and one 1099, it should work perfectly and stay completely free. The interface is cleaner now too compared to when it was Credit Karma Tax.
5 Don't forget about the IRS Free File program! If your adjusted gross income is under $73,000, you can use brand-name software for free. The link is on the IRS website. The companies can't upsell you through this program like they can if you go directly to their websites. TaxSlayer and FreeTaxUSA both participate and are good options for simple returns. H&R Block and TurboTax used to be in the program but dropped out (suspicious, right?).
14 The IRS free file is what I use every year! It's buried on the IRS website though. Make sure you go through the IRS site directly (irs.gov/freefile) and not directly to TaxSlayer or other sites, otherwise you might not get the truly free version.
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Mei Zhang
To answer your original question more directly - you have a couple options: 1) Stop paying sales tax to your wholesalers by getting a resale certificate as others mentioned 2) If you want to effectively "discount" items to nonprofits, you can actually record this as a charitable contribution in some cases IF (big if) you're selling to a 501(c)(3) and explicitly documenting it as a donation. But this only works if you're genuinely donating part of the value, not just forgoing sales tax collection. The sales tax issue and donation issue are separate things. Fix your resale certificate situation first!
Thanks for the direct answer! I'll definitely get that resale certificate squared away first. For the charitable contribution part - if I explicitly note on the invoice that I'm offering a 5% charitable discount to the nonprofit, can I then claim that 5% as a charitable contribution? Or does it have to be a completely separate transaction?
Mei Zhang
ā¢You can document the discount as a charitable contribution on the same transaction, but you need to explicitly state it as a "charitable discount" or "donation" on the invoice. Keep in mind you're not donating the item - you're donating a portion of its value through the discount. The important thing is clear documentation. Your invoice should show the regular price, then the charitable discount amount as a separate line item (not just a generic "discount"), and note the nonprofit's tax ID number. This creates the paper trail you need. And remember, this has nothing to do with sales tax - it's completely separate.
Another tip - check with your state about "direct pay" permits. Some states allow certain tax-exempt organizations to have these, and it shifts the responsibility for handling the sales tax exemption to them rather than to you as the seller. Makes your bookkeeping way easier!
Direct pay permits saved my sanity! I run a supply company and dealing with all the different exemption certificates was a nightmare. Now about 80% of my tax-exempt customers use direct pay and I don't have to worry about their documentation. Definitely worth asking your customers about.
GalacticGuru
Have you considered doing it yourself with tax software? I have two rental properties and some basic investments, and I use TurboTax Premier. It costs me about $150 including state filing, and it walks you through everything step-by-step. The rental property section is actually pretty comprehensive. For crypto, you can import transactions directly from most exchanges or use a service like CoinTracker to generate the tax forms and then import them to TurboTax. Might save you $800+ if you're comfortable with it.
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Amina Diallo
ā¢I've tried using tax software in previous years but always worried I was missing deductions. How confident are you that you're not leaving money on the table compared to what a CPA might find? Also, how much time do you typically spend doing it yourself?
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GalacticGuru
ā¢I spend about 4-5 hours total, spread over a weekend. The first year took longer (maybe 8 hours), but now I just update the same information each year, which is much faster. As for confidence in not missing deductions, the software asks you a ton of questions designed to catch all potential deductions. I also read tax articles throughout the year and make notes of anything that might apply to me. I did have a CPA do my taxes one year as a comparison, and they found one additional deduction worth about $200, but charged me $800, so I actually came out ahead doing it myself.
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Freya Pedersen
That price isn't out of line for what you described. I pay $1200 for similar situation - personal plus 2 rental properties and some stock transactions. I shopped around and found prices from $800-1500 for similar services. What I suggest is asking exactly what you're getting for that fee. Some questions to ask: - Does it include unlimited questions throughout the year? - Will they represent you in case of audit? - Do they provide mid-year tax planning? - Will they help with estimated tax payments?
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Omar Fawaz
ā¢This is super helpful! I never thought to ask about those additional services. My CPA charges $900 but includes audit protection and quarterly check-ins, which now seems like a pretty good deal.
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