Did you have to schedule the Live help in advance or could you just click and get someone right away? I'm trying to finish my taxes tonight and wondering if I can get help immediately if I upgrade.

When I used it, I didn't need to schedule in advance. I just clicked the "Get expert help" button that appears throughout the TurboTax interface, and I was connected with someone within about 5-10 minutes. They do show you the current wait time before you connect, and I imagine it might be longer during peak filing times (like early April). But generally the experience was pretty seamless - once connected, the tax expert could see my screen and walk me through exactly what I needed to do.

You're definitely not alone! I've been saying this for years. TurboTax and H&R Block actually lobby against tax simplification so they can keep charging us. It's ridiculous that we have to pay to comply with laws that are mandatory.

Thanks for this insight! Do you know if the IRS typically shares information with tax authorities in other countries? Like would they notify South Korean tax authorities if they find evidence of tax evasion related to property there?

Yes, the IRS does share information with many foreign tax authorities through tax treaties and information exchange agreements. The US and South Korea have a tax treaty that includes provisions for sharing tax information. If the IRS investigates and finds evidence of tax evasion involving South Korean properties, they may very well share that information with South Korean authorities. This is especially true for larger cases where significant tax revenue is at stake. Many countries have become much more cooperative in recent years to combat international tax evasion.

Can you actually get money for reporting someone??? How much did you get for reporting your brother-in-law?

This is super helpful! Can you use these credits every year or only in the year you hire someone? And do the accommodations have to be specifically for that employee or can they be general accessibility improvements?

The WOTC is only available for the first year of employment (and potentially the second year for certain veterans and long-term family assistance recipients). For the Disabled Access Credit, you can claim it every year you make eligible accommodations, up to the annual limit. The accommodations don't have to be for a specific employee - they can be general accessibility improvements that help multiple employees or customers. Things like wheelchair ramps, accessible restrooms, or adaptive technology can all qualify. The Barrier Removal Deduction similarly can be claimed whenever you make qualifying improvements to remove physical barriers. It's not tied to a specific employee but rather to making your business more accessible overall.

That's disappointing but makes business sense I guess. Do you at least promote people from those entry-level positions into better roles once they're hired? Or are they just stuck in low-wage jobs?

That's really helpful! I didn't know about Form 8843 potentially affecting health insurance requirements. She does have some coverage from her home country that her parents pay for, but we weren't sure if that was relevant for US tax purposes. Do you know where specifically on Form 8962 I should look for the provisions you mentioned about income below 400% of poverty level? Her income is definitely well below that threshold.

Look at the instructions for Form 8962, specifically the "Repayment Limitation" section. There's a table that shows the maximum amount someone has to repay based on their income as a percentage of the federal poverty line. For someone making less than 200% of the poverty line (which sounds like your friend's situation), the maximum repayment amount is capped at $325 for individual filers in 2024. The Form 8843 connection is a bit complex, but essentially if she qualifies as an exempt individual for substantial presence test purposes, that status sometimes affects marketplace eligibility. Have her check with her university's international student office - they often have tax specialists who understand these specific situations for international students.

I used FreeTaxUSA for a similar situation last year and it handled the 1095-A with partial year coverage much better than TurboTax did. It asked clearer questions about why there were zeros in certain months and calculated everything correctly. The Form 8962 reconciliation worked perfectly even with the weird mid-year changes.

Thanks for the suggestion! I might give FreeTaxUSA a try instead. TurboTax kept giving me error messages when I entered zeros for some months but values for others. It seemed like it wasn't designed to handle these unusual situations that are actually pretty common for international students.

Do you use the standard SmartVault folders or did you have to set up a custom structure? I've been looking at SmartVault but wasn't sure how flexible it is.

We created a custom folder structure. The basic setup is: - Main client folder (always accessible) - Tax documents subfolder (always accessible for uploading) - Completed returns subfolder (becomes visible after payment) - 8879 forms subfolder (becomes visible after payment) You can absolutely customize it however you want. We also have different permission templates for business vs individual clients since the workflow is a bit different. The permission management is pretty granular - you can control access at the folder level and change it based on certain triggers or manual status changes.

I looked into it last year. They do have a feature that's similar but it's much more basic. You can't really "lock" the 8879 to the invoice - it just gives you a status dashboard where you can see if clients have paid and if they've signed the 8879. You still have to manually coordinate the two actions. Their client portal is also really dated compared to most modern options. Wouldn't recommend it personally.