That's interesting! I do have a 2-year lease here and a Singapore employment pass. Would that help establish bona fide residence? The physical presence test seems more straightforward but I'm wondering if bona fide residence might be better long-term since I do plan to visit home occasionally.

Yes, your 2-year lease and Singapore employment pass are excellent proof for the Bona Fide Residence test! Other helpful documentation would include local bank accounts, driver's license (if you have one), utility bills in your name, and evidence of community involvement. You're right that physical presence is more straightforward for your first year, but bona fide residence gives you more flexibility for visits home in future years. The key is demonstrating that Singapore is truly your tax home and center of life. Once established, you can generally maintain bona fide residence status even with more substantial visits to the US, as long as your trips are temporary and you clearly intend to return to Singapore.

This is so true. I'm from California and even after moving to Germany for work, they kept considering me a CA resident because I kept my driver's license and had some investment property there. Had to pay state taxes on top of everything else until I officially "moved" to Florida first (on paper) before heading overseas again.

Oh that's really good to know! I actually do have an old 401k that I rolled into a Traditional IRA last year. So if I did conversion instead of recharacterization, I'd have to convert some of that old 401k money too and pay taxes on it?

Yes, that's exactly the issue. With the pro-rata rule, you can't cherry-pick which dollars to convert. If you have $9,500 in non-deductible contributions and, say, $40,000 in pre-tax money from your old 401k rollover (all in Traditional IRAs), then any conversion would be proportionally taxable. If you converted $9,500, about 19% would be considered non-taxable (your non-deductible portion) and 81% would be taxable. The IRS looks at all your Traditional IRAs as one big bucket for this calculation. Recharacterization bypasses this completely since it's treated as if you never contributed to the Traditional IRA in the first place.

I did a recharacterization with Fidelity last year. Had to call - couldn't find any way to do it online. The phone rep was actually really helpful and processed it while I was on the call. Had to confirm I understood the tax implications but it was pretty straightforward once I got through to someone.

That's really helpful! I hadn't thought about breaking it down hourly like that. My daughter is there from 7:30am-5:30pm most days, with regular program hours being 9am-3pm, so that's 4 extra hours daily that are clearly for childcare purposes. Summer is about 8 weeks when she's there full-time. Does this sound like a reasonable approach?

That approach sounds perfect for your situation. With regular program hours of 9am-3pm and your daughter attending 7:30am-5:30pm, you've got 4 hours of extended care each day that clearly qualifies for the credit. For the summer period (8 weeks), you can count all hours as qualified childcare expenses since regular school wouldn't be in session. The IRS recognizes that summer programs serve a dual purpose of education and allowing parents to work, so the full cost during that period typically qualifies regardless of content.

Actually, the Child and Dependent Care Credit maximum was temporarily increased a couple years ago but has reverted back to the lower amounts for 2025 filing. Always check the current year's limits because Congress keeps changing these numbers.

Did you have to file any special forms when you got them to stop requiring repayment? I'm worried if I just stop paying the $500 installments it'll trigger some kind of automatic collection process. Did they give you any pushback or was it fairly straightforward once you showed them the correct closing date?

I had to file a Form 843 (Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement) along with a detailed letter explaining the situation. I attached copies of my closing documents clearly showing the 2009 date, plus copies of my original tax returns where I made the mistake. The IRS did initially send some automated notices when I stopped making the payments. That's why it's important to be proactive rather than just stopping. They eventually processed my claim and sent a letter confirming I was no longer responsible for the remaining payments. It took about 5 months total from submission to resolution.

That's why I always tell people to triple-check dates on major tax credits! The government loves to create these weird cutoff periods that can cost you thousands. I had a client who missed the solar tax credit by ONE DAY because of installation timing. Brutal.

Do you know if there's any regulation about how much extra they can charge for credit? My local station is charging almost a dollar more per gallon for credit vs cash which seems WAY more than the actual processing fee would be.

The regulations vary by state, but generally there's no strict limit on the price difference. However, in most states, they do need to clearly post both prices. Some states like California have regulations requiring that credit card surcharges can't exceed the actual cost to the merchant, but enforcement is spotty. The large difference you're seeing (nearly a dollar) is definitely more than just covering the processing fee. It's likely they're using the cash discount to encourage a payment method that has other benefits for them - faster settlement, no chargebacks, and possibly some unreported cash transactions. It's a way to improve their overall margins in a business with typically very thin profit margins.

Is it true that gas stations make almost no money on the actual gas and make all their profit on the convenience store stuff? I've heard that's why they try so hard to get people inside the store.