Thanks for bringing this up! I'm in Minnesota and had no idea states might have different rules. Does anyone know if Minnesota has any special provisions for medical expenses? I'll look it up too, but thought someone here might know off-hand.

Minnesota does allow medical expense deductions, but they generally follow the federal rules. However, Minnesota has some specific provisions for certain care expenses that might help in your situation. If you're paying for long-term care services or have significant prescription drug costs, there are some additional state tax benefits you might qualify for. I'd definitely recommend looking at the Minnesota Department of Revenue website for details, as state tax provisions can change year to year. But in general, if you're itemizing medically on your federal return, those same deductions will carry over to your Minnesota return.

I switched from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA last year and found it much better for handling my medical expenses. It's more straightforward about categorizing different types of medical costs, and I found their interview process more thorough for catching deductions TurboTax seemed to miss. Plus it's WAY cheaper. I was paying like $120 for TurboTax Deluxe plus state, and FreeTaxUSA was only about $15 for state (federal is free). Might be worth trying if you're not locked into the TurboTax ecosystem.

I've used H&R Block's software for the past three years, and it handles medical expenses pretty well. Their interface for entering medical expenses lets you categorize everything by type (doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, etc.) which makes it easier to organize. One thing I really like is their audit risk assessment that gives you a heads-up if your medical deductions seem high compared to your income level. That helped me make sure I had all the proper documentation ready just in case.

Thanks for bringing that up! Yes, my brother has lived with me full-time for the entire year. I have legal custody and provide over half of his financial support. He's still in high school even though he turned 18, so he meets the qualifying relative tests. I confirmed all the requirements before claiming him. It's just the credit refund part that was confusing me.

Sounds like you've done your homework! Just wanted to make sure because sometimes people don't realize all the specific requirements. Since your brother lives with you full-time and you provide most of his support while having legal custody, you're definitely filing correctly as HOH with him as a dependent. The ODC is still frustrating though. I had a similar situation with my mom living with me last year. What I did was adjust my W-4 at work to withhold a bit less each paycheck throughout the year, which meant I had a small tax liability when filing. Then the ODC actually helped reduce what I owed instead of just disappearing.

So what's the point of the Other Dependent Credit if most low income people don't owe taxes anyway? Seems like it mainly benefits higher income folks.

Is there an easy way to calculate what percentage should be withheld? I always just use the IRS calculator but it's super complicated.

The simplest rule of thumb is to look at your effective tax rate from last year (total tax paid divided by total income) and make sure you're withholding at least that percentage. For most middle-class married couples, it's usually between 12-18% depending on your exact situation. The more accurate way is to use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator on their website. It takes about 15 minutes if you have your most recent pay stubs and last year's tax return handy. It will tell you exactly what to put on your W4 to get the result you want (whether that's breaking even or getting a specific refund amount).

Did your company offer to help fix it? Mine just told me it was my responsibility to check my paystubs regularly 🙄

Is there any way to tell TurboTax to be more consistent? Like maybe a setting to always include explanations or something? I'm preparing returns for multiple family members and it would be easier to explain if they all had similar structures.

Nah, not really. The tax software has to include certain forms based on specific tax situations - there's no override for that. The IRS expects specific forms for specific situations, and the software complies with those requirements. For the explanation worksheets, those are typically included based on automated triggers within the software. TurboTax might include more detailed explanations when amounts are close to thresholds or when there are multiple factors affecting a calculation.

Yes! The desktop version tends to include more supplementary worksheets and explanations. I've used both and the desktop version consistently produces longer returns with more supporting documentation. I think it's actually a feature of the desktop version since it's marketed more toward complex situations.

We're in Illinois. Do you know if there are any special requirements here? The commercial was for a regional grocery chain, and I don't think they mentioned anything about special accounts when we signed the contracts.

Illinois doesn't have a specific Coogan Law like California or New York, so you don't have the same legal requirement to set up a blocked trust account. However, it's still a good practice to save some of your children's earnings for their future. Since the commercial was for a regional grocery chain and the earnings were relatively modest ($1,200 each), you're mainly just dealing with the standard tax considerations that have been discussed in other comments. Just make sure to check those W-2s to see if any taxes were withheld, as that would be a good reason to file returns for them to get those withholdings back.

Do kids who act in commercials need an agent? And how does that work with taxes if the agent takes a percentage? Does that count as a deduction?