Does this advice apply if the MSA is an Archer MSA? I thought those had different rules.

Yes, this advice applies specifically to Archer MSAs, which are the type most commonly offered through employers. Archer MSAs do have their own specific rules regarding contribution limits - typically 65% of your health plan deductible for individual coverage or 75% for family coverage. Medicare MSAs work differently and have their own set of regulations. If you're dealing with a Medicare MSA, you'd need to follow those specific guidelines instead. The key point remains that you generally cannot contribute to both an MSA and HSA in the same tax year, regardless of which type of MSA you have.

Yes! Our company tried to switch last year, but enough employees spoke up about preferring HSAs. We created a simple spreadsheet showing the tax advantages and flexibility of HSAs vs MSAs and presented it to HR. They ended up keeping the HSA option and making the MSA optional. Worth a try!

1 I actually haven't thought to do that! Good idea. I'll check with HR to see if they have any kind of stipend program. $50/month would cover a good chunk of our bill.

7 Glad to help! Many companies have added these benefits since the pandemic but don't always advertise them well. Some even have separate allowances for internet, home office furniture, or general WFH expenses. Definitely worth a conversation with HR!

15 I use TurboTax Self-Employed and it walks you through the calculation. They recommend tracking hours of business use vs. total hours, or splitting it based on devices (like if 2 of 5 devices are business-only). Most people I know just use a reasonable percentage like 50% if they work full-time from home but also use internet for personal stuff.

5 Thanks! The hours method sounds complicated but the device method might work for me. I have a dedicated work computer so I could probably justify around 30-40% business use.

I've always been told box 5 > box 1 = taxable income. Are you saying that's not necessarily true? I'm now wondering if I've been overpaying my taxes all these years by reporting scholarship income that maybe wasn't actually taxable.

Does the IRS actually audit people over unreported scholarship income? I'm not trying to avoid paying what I owe, but I'm in a similar situation to OP and now worried about the past 4 years.

I've had good experiences with FreeTaxUSA for scholarship situations. It asks specific questions about how the scholarship money was used rather than just comparing box numbers. Much better than TurboTax for this specific situation, and it's way cheaper too.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely give FreeTaxUSA a try next year. It's frustrating that TurboTax couldn't handle this properly - especially since we paid for their "premium" version specifically because my son had education tax forms. Appreciate you sharing your experience!

Does that QCD strategy help if you're not taking RMDs yet? I'm only 42 but I do donate about $3,000 a year to my church.

Unfortunately, the QCD strategy only works if you're at least 70.5 years old and are withdrawing from IRAs. At 42, your charitable donations would be itemized deductions rather than AGI reducers, and they go on Schedule A rather than directly reducing line 11. However, there is a strategy that might work for you - if you have a small business or freelance income, you might be able to structure some of your charitable giving as business sponsorships, which could be business expenses that reduce your AGI. This only works if there's a legitimate business purpose though, like advertising or promotion for your business.

Yes! I did this last year. If you're self-employed and not eligible for coverage through an employer (yours or spouse's), you can deduct 100% of your premiums. For me that was about $14,000 for my family plan! It's an adjustment to income on Schedule 1, so it directly reduces AGI.

That's really interesting! I hadn't heard about the simplified option. Would I still need to meet that "exclusive use" requirement with this method? And would this simplified calculation still give a decent deduction compared to the regular method?

Yes, you absolutely still need to meet the "exclusive use" requirement even with the simplified method. The space must be used solely for your business purposes. As for which gives a better deduction, it depends on your specific situation. The simplified method is capped at $1,500 (300 sq ft × $5). If your office is small or your home expenses are low, the simplified method might be better. But if you have a larger office space or high home expenses (especially in high-cost areas), the regular method often results in a larger deduction. Some tax software can calculate both ways to show which is more beneficial for you.

The 1099-NEC itself doesn't automatically qualify you for a home office deduction. For the deduction, your home office needs to be your "principal place of business" for that specific consulting work. If you regularly work in multiple locations, you need to look at where you perform the most important parts of your business or spend the most time. If you primarily do your administrative work at home but meet clients elsewhere, your home office might still qualify. But if you're mostly working at coffee shops and just occasionally at home, you probably wouldn't qualify.