How much interest would be considered "substantial" enough to file separate returns? My 10-year-old has about $320 in interest from a trust fund his grandparents set up.

There's no hard and fast rule about what's "substantial" - it depends on your individual tax situation. For $320, I probably wouldn't bother with a separate return unless you're right at the threshold for some income-based benefit or credit. In my case, I had nearly $2,000 in interest for my child from a settlement, and including that on my return would have pushed me into a different income bracket for my student loan payments. Every situation is different, so you might want to calculate your return both ways if you're concerned.

FreeTaxUSA doesn't charge extra for Form 8814 specifically. Their free federal version includes almost all tax forms, unlike TurboTax which makes you upgrade for basically anything beyond a W-2. You'll still pay for state filing (~$15) but the federal part with child interest reporting should be included in the free version.

Thanks for suggesting the Taxpayer Advocate Service! Have you heard if they're also dealing with major backlogs like the regular IRS departments? I'm wondering if it's worth contacting them now or waiting until I'm physically back in the US next month.

They definitely have backlogs too, but in my experience, they're still faster than waiting for the regular IRS channels to resolve issues. If you contact them now, they might be able to start your case so that by the time you're back in the US, they'll be ready to work with you more directly. One important tip: when you contact them, be very specific about the financial hardship the delay is causing. They prioritize cases partly based on the level of hardship, so if this money is important for your relocation or getting established back in the US, definitely mention that.

'Where s My" Refund has limited historical data - it usually only shows information for the current tax year and sometimes the previous one. For older refunds, especially from streamlined filings, it probably'won t show anything helpfulnow.

That's amazing! I didn't know about this policy. Do you know if it would apply to my situation since I missed 2021 and 2022? Could I get the penalties waived for just 2021 or would it not work since I missed multiple years?

The First Time Penalty Abatement typically only applies to the first tax year in which you had an issue, so in your case, it would likely only apply to 2021. It wouldn't cover 2022 because by then, you no longer had a "clean compliance history" due to the 2021 issue. The good news is that getting the penalties waived for even one year can make a significant difference. For your 2021 tax year, this could potentially save you hundreds or even over a thousand dollars depending on your original tax amount. After you file all your returns, you can call the IRS and specifically request a "First Time Abatement" for the 2021 tax year. Just make sure you've filed all your back taxes before making the request.

I used FreeTaxUSA for my previous year returns and it worked great. They charge like $15 for prior year federal returns and their interface is easy to use. You just need to make sure you're in the right tax year when you start - they have separate sections for each year.

Oh that's something I hadn't considered at all! I bought the furniture back in October but didn't actually set it up and start using it until November. Does the "placed in service" date mean when I bought it or when I actually started using it? And what's this half-year convention thing?

The "placed in service" date is when the property is ready and available for its intended use - so that would be November when you set it up, not when you purchased it in October. The half-year convention is a simplification rule that assumes you placed assets in service halfway through the year, regardless of when you actually started using them. So for the first year of a 7-year property with straight-line depreciation, you'd take 1/14th of the cost (half of 1/7th). However, if you place more than 40% of your total assets for the year in service during the last 3 months, you have to use the mid-quarter convention instead, which is more complicated and bases your first-year depreciation on which quarter you placed the asset in service.

I use TurboTax Self-Employed and it handles depreciation pretty well. When you get to the business expenses section, there's a separate category for assets that need to be depreciated. Just follow the prompts and it'll ask for purchase date, cost, and business use percentage. It automatically applies the correct MACRS schedule for office furniture (7 years). Office furniture isn't "listed property" so you'd select "no" for that question.

What about the LLC protection itself? Does it actually do anything for you besides potential tax benefits? Like protecting personal assets if a trade somehow went catastrophically wrong?

The LLC provides some asset protection, but it's limited for trading activities. It mainly protects against business creditors, but since brokerages require personal guarantees, the protection for trading losses is minimal. The main benefit was being able to establish a separate business entity for tax purposes. For catastrophic trading scenarios, the LLC wouldn't protect me from losses on trades I authorized. Where it does help is separating my trading assets from personal assets for general liability purposes. I still maintain separate accounts, separate records, and never commingle personal and business funds, which strengthens both the liability protection and the tax treatment as a business.

Does making the mark-to-market election mean ALL your investments have to be treated that way? I have some long-term holdings I definitely don't want treated as ordinary income when I eventually sell.