What are the actual rules for being claimed as a dependent? I moved out halfway through last year (July 2024) but my parents paid for my health insurance all year. Can they still claim me even though I'm financially independent now?

For your situation, it depends on several factors. The main tests for a qualifying child dependent are relationship, age, residency, support, and whether you file a joint return. For the age test, if you're under 19, or under 24 and a full-time student for at least 5 months of the year, you could qualify. The residency test requires living with your parents for more than half the year, but temporary absences for education count as time lived with them. The most important factor is usually the support test - if you provided more than half of your own support (rent, food, clothing, medical, etc.), then your parents cannot claim you, regardless of health insurance.

I've used both and prefer FreeTaxUSA. Credit Karma (now called Cash App Taxes) is completely free for federal AND state, while FreeTaxUSA charges for state filing. But I found FreeTaxUSA's interface more intuitive and their explanations clearer. Also had better luck with their customer service when I had a question. If you only have W-2 and student loan interest, either will work fine honestly. Just pick one and go with it!

Are there any downsides to paying taxes with a credit card? I've always been told to avoid it but never understood why.

The main downside is the processing fee - it's about 2% of your total payment. So on a $2700 tax bill, you'd pay around $54 extra just for using a card. The IRS doesn't charge this fee directly, but they use payment processors who do. The other potential issue is falling into credit card debt. If you put taxes on a card and can't pay it off fairly quickly, you could end up paying way more in credit card interest than you would with an IRS payment plan (which typically has a lower interest rate). However, if you have a card with a 0% intro period and you're confident you can pay it off during that time, it can be a reasonable strategy.

Yes! I did this last year and it worked great. Just attached Form 9465 to my return, proposed a monthly payment I could afford, and got approval in about 3 weeks. Much easier than dealing with their website or phone system.

Do you need any background to volunteer? I'm interested but literally know nothing about taxes beyond my simple W2 job.

No background needed at all! They start from scratch with the training. I knew basically nothing when I started - just filled out 1040EZ forms for my own simple returns. They provide all the training materials and have experienced volunteers who mentor you. They have different certification levels, so you can start with the basics and work your way up as you learn more. Even the basic certification teaches you WAY more than most people know about taxes. And when you encounter something you don't understand, there's always a more experienced volunteer to help explain it.

Waste of money. Those courses just teach basic deductions that are readily available in IRS publications or any tax prep software. They make it sound like secret knowledge but it's really not.

That's interesting! So if the bonds had only been in my name without the "OR my mom" part, I could have qualified for the exclusion myself? Do you happen to know if there's any way to change the registration on existing bonds to make them solely in my name?

That's not quite right - I think I confused things. Even if the bonds are solely in your name, you still need to have been 24 or older when they were issued to qualify for the Form 8815 exclusion yourself. What I meant was that my grandmother had them in her name only (she was over 24), then used them for my education expenses. As for changing registration, you can reissue savings bonds in some circumstances, but changing ownership to qualify for tax benefits would likely be considered tax avoidance by the IRS. The registration needs to reflect the original intent of purchase. You're better off having your mom claim the exclusion if she paid for your education, as the other commenters suggested.

Do those income limits apply to the person who cashed the bonds or the person claiming the exclusion? Like if the mom is claiming the exclusion but the student cashed the bonds, whose income matters?

The income limits apply to the person claiming the exclusion on their tax return. So if your mom is claiming the exclusion (because she meets the age requirement and paid for your education), then it's her income that matters for the phase-out limits. In this situation, it doesn't matter who physically cashed the bonds. What matters is who's claiming the tax benefit. The IRS looks at the modified adjusted gross income on the tax return where Form 8815 is being filed.

Do you just calculate 25% of what you think you'll owe for the year and pay that each quarter? Or is there some special form you need to fill out? This might be a good solution for me.

It's a bit more nuanced than just 25% each quarter. You can use Form 1040-ES which has a worksheet to help you estimate what you'll owe. Alternatively, you can base it on what you owed last year (which is the "safe harbor" approach to avoid underpayment penalties). The payments aren't perfectly even either - they're based on income during specific periods. The IRS website has a direct pay option that makes it pretty easy once you know your amount. Just select "estimated tax" as the payment reason. It's definitely worth doing if you have significant untaxed income!

I switched to FreeTaxUSA last year and it was WAY cheaper than TurboTax. Handled my W-2 and 1099 income just fine. Federal filing is free and state was like $15. The interface isn't as pretty but it gets the job done.