I claimed the credit last year for a similar setup, and it went through fine. I included a statement from my electrician certifying the installation met local code requirements, plus his license number. No issues with the IRS. The important thing is being able to document you followed local requirements. If you didn't need a permit, get something in writing stating that. Could be from your electrician, local building department, or even a printout of the relevant code section.

Thanks, that's reassuring. I have the invoice from my electrician that states "installation complies with local electrical code" and includes his license number. I'll reach out to him for a more specific statement about the permit exemption just to be safe.

You can claim 30% of the costs for both the charger and installation up to a max credit of $1,000. So with your $1,800 total, your credit would be $540 (30% of $1,800). And yes, if your town doesn't require a permit, you don't need one for the credit - but document that exemption!

Thanks for mentioning this! I had no idea this was even a thing. Do you know if there's any minimum income requirement to qualify for this deduction?

There's no minimum income requirement to qualify for the Qualified Business Income deduction, which is great news for situations like yours. As long as you have positive net income on your Schedule C (after all your deductions), you can generally claim this deduction. The calculation gets more complex if your total taxable income exceeds certain thresholds (around $170,050 for single filers in 2023), but for most interns with stipends, you'll likely qualify for the straightforward 20% deduction on your net business income. Just make sure your tax software includes this calculation - some free versions don't handle it well.

Second this! Also consider opening a SEP IRA if you can afford it - great way to reduce your taxable income and save for retirement at the same time.

Does it matter if the losses are short term or long term when you're offsetting gains? Like can I use long term losses to offset short term gains?

Great question! The IRS has specific rules about how losses and gains offset each other. First, short-term losses are used to offset short-term gains, and long-term losses are used to offset long-term gains. If you have excess in either category, then you can use them to offset the other type. For example, if you have $10k in short-term losses but only $5k in short-term gains, you'd first offset those short-term gains completely. Then you'd have $5k in short-term losses remaining, which could be used to offset long-term gains. If you still have excess losses after offsetting all gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 against other income, and carry forward any remaining losses to future years.

This doesn't answer OP's question at all. They're clearly asking about taxable accounts where capital gains matter. Not everyone can fit all their investments into tax advantaged accounts especially at higher income levels where contribution limits are an issue.

I don't think she has much unearned income, maybe like $20 in her savings account. But that's good to know for the future. At what point would I need to include her unearned income on MY return instead of hers?

With just $20 in interest, you definitely don't need to worry about it for this year. That's well below any reporting threshold. For your question about when unearned income goes on your return versus hers - you have options when a dependent has significant unearned income. If your dependent has unearned income over $2,300 (for 2024), you can either have them file their own return reporting it OR you can include it on your return using Form 8814. Many parents choose to include it on their return to simplify things, but sometimes it's more tax-advantageous to have them file separately. It depends on both your tax situation and theirs.

I used FreeTaxUSA for my daughter's return last year and it was great! Completely free for federal and only $15 for state. Super straightforward for dependent returns, especially if they just have W-2 income. Highly recommend.

What CRM do you use that works well with Liberty's systems? I'm looking at purchasing a franchise but want to make sure I can maintain relationships with my existing client base from my previous tax practice.

I use Zoho CRM which has worked well for us. Liberty doesn't have any specific integration with it, but they don't need to - I just export client data from their system at the end of each day and import it into Zoho for marketing and relationship management. They're fine with this approach as long as all actual tax work happens in their system. I was able to import my previous client base into Zoho before I even opened my franchise, which helped tremendously with my first-year numbers. Just make sure you're transparent with your franchise rep about what you're doing and get written approval to be safe.

That's good to know! What scanner model did you end up using? We're still using the recommended ones and they're terrible with multi-page documents.